SpokePOV: LED Bike Wheel Images

Spoke POV is an easy-to-make electronic kit toy that turns your bicycle wheel into a customized display! The project includes a free schematic design, open source software for uploading and editing stored bitmap images, and a high-quality kit with all the parts necessary to build your own.

Tired: A red blinker on your seatpost
Wired: Programmable full-wheel images in any color

Specifications and Features:

• Can be used with road, mountain or BMX wheels!
• 30 LEDs on each side (22 for BMX) x 256 radial pixels
• Runs on 2-3 AA batteries for 10 hours or more, assuming 3000mAh alkalines and 50% image coverage.
• Can run on rechargable NiMH AA's
• Comes with high-brightness red/yellow/green or blue LEDs
• Automatically shuts off after 3 minutes
• wxPython based software runs on any Linux or Windows or Mac with Parallel port or serial port
• Design is all through-hole parts, perfect for a first time kit builder.
• With one spoke, total persistence at 15mph. Two spokes, 10mph. Three spokes, 7mph. (Assuming a mountain bike wheel). Looks cool even if not completely persistant.
• Great for safe riding at night, provides excellent side visibility.
• Playa-tested!

Kits & PCBs available for purchase at http://www.adafruit.com/
For more information, like how to use the software to update images, visit http://www.ladyada.net/make/spokepov

& check out more cool projects at http://www.ladyada.net/

Step 1 Intro

These instruction assume you purchased the kit or at least the PCB. All parts are through-hole and this should be a very easy project, even for a beginner. Still, if you've never soldered before, this tutorial is really awesome. If you're part of the new streaming-video-generation, this set of soldering mpegs may do you right:
http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/elab/soldering.htm

Comments

[aswethinkyouare]

How do these kits hold up with impact? like if you're hopping a curb or going over a speed bump? Also, can you waterproof the boards at all? maybe use scotch guard?

[TSC]

Thats sick! awsome great job!

[tyson.ras]

What would it take for you to just build me a pair of the pac man lights and send them to me? I really serious about this.

[knex gun and grenade maker]

same here. but ill pay what you want.
(between 0.01 and 20.00 )
not like 1,000,000 $

[SniperCzar]

Anybody know a way to put this on a car wheel/legality of doing so?  I would love to put this thing on the wheels of my wip EV conversion...

[knex gun and grenade maker]

thoes cost a fourton to but the tires with this built in.
you should solder it in to your car tire to do that

[cody777]

its perfectly leagal, they even sell rims with that kind of thing built in

[abadfart]

i would love to do a small one on a sport bike and a el wire jacket for a tron look

[chucksta]

I'm pretty sure it depends on the state.

[knex gun and grenade maker]

1 how mutch does this cost
2 can it be put on a chaos freestyle bike
3 can you make and sell them ?!?!?!?!?!?

[Frank Lampard 13]

Love the chelsea fc one

[johntan]

http://www.bikeacshop.com/bike-accessories/bike-lights-and-electronics.html?p=4
try to find one if u can not diy it.

[asofia]

are these for sale?? Like would you be willing to make them and sell them? :)

I just bought a really awesome custom bicycle I designed at: www.villycustoms.com and the only thing I think could make it better and more unique than it is right now, would be this, this is great, specially for Christmas time! :)

[kkhan10]

where i can buy that all things ? an i can fix that on alloy ?

[linda chen]

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it means you can use them with confidence – even on rough roads – without worrying about rider weight restrictions.

no matter you need one basic-level model, or middle-level model, or high-end model for your market. you can find them here.

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[explosivefart]

Can you use this on car wheels?

[The Bike Monkey]

I would say that if you used thios on car wheels you are setting yourself up for a mighty big fine. Most states do not allow you to use any auxiliary lights in the colors of red, blue or white because most of the safety vehicles like police fire rescue us those colors.

[gener_i]

Can I replaced you AVR tiny to PIC MCU which is more widely available here in the Philippines,can you recomend what kind or part number of PIC can replaced you AVR MCU

[mikikekwek]

kantutan sarap saya

[sucala.paul]

In the animations above we can see how the image would look if "the observer" wold have the same speed as the bike. What happens when observer stays? In this case the spokepov will make a sort of sinusoidal motion and image may be distorted, but not sure how it looks.

[GusN]

Can you replace the LEDs with Tri-Color LEDs (with red, green, and blue) to make a Spoke POV that can display all three colors? Are there RGBY LEDs that can display all three colors? And where can I buy them?

[shaadmahmud]

hi..can i use 24 or 27 series eeprom instead of 25LC080...please help me

[iceng]

I have built seven sets of three for my kids (married) for Burning Man over the years.
Not A Single Difficulty. This is a great product !!!

A

[thier]

I'm having troubles when I try to  Burn the programming at the microcontroller and. And the instructions that I have got here  in the  web site do not report anything about the burnig process.
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF SOMEONE FROM THE SKY, COULD HELP ME AT THE BURNIG PROCESS!
My e-mail adress is:   [e-mail] or
                                        [e-mail]

Thanks by the way.

[eulaliaaaa!]

Sweeet!  I like the pac-man and ghost thingy.

[RiddleOfSphinx]

Haven't read all the comments, but if this is a repeated comment then my apologies ;) Can this be modified to work on car rims as well? I'm sure I could find a way to secure it safely, but wanted to know if it would have the same effect or if the image would be distorted due to size, RPM, etc.

[darthneo]

Have you tried to put them on your car wheels yet?

[RiddleOfSphinx]

Nope, haven't been able to buy any yet :-S

[sparr]

It would work just fine on car rims. The spokePOV firmware has been tested up to 100mph on a bike wheel (faster than the uC can't keep up)

[RiddleOfSphinx]

Hmm, I may have to try it out then, thanks :D !!

[sparr]

Small update. The software can handle faster. The battery clips cannot. You would want to more securely attach the batteries, possibly in an external battery holder at the center of the wheel, to minimize strain on the board and battery clips.

[RiddleOfSphinx]

I think that would still be do-able for me, Thanks for the update :D

[DYLEGO]

another thing is you would need 4, and they do double-sided animations...

[tinyboy]

where i can obtain the pcb

[darthneo]

check http://www.ladyada.net/make/spokepov/

[roadwarrior]

here u go:

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=6

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6

[awang8]

What is the minimum speed required by this to produce a clear image?

[darthneo]

i think i read on her site: http://www.ladyada.net/make/spokepov/ if you have 1 SpokePOV you need to be going (i think) around 14 MPH to see a clear image, i think 2 SpokePOVs you need to be going about 10 MPH and 3 8MPH (i could be wrong)

[dvnfntn]

is it waterproof

[darthneo]

You can buy some sort of spray to spray the board with that will make it somewhat water resistant, if you browse around her site you might find something http://www.ladyada.net/make/spokepov/