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Duration
4 months
Project type
Personal Project
Responsibilities
Initial concept
Initial Prototype
PCB housing
Product photography
Project Partner
Seth Itow
LED integrated handlebars. Rechargeable, programmable, seamless.
The best part? It works.
1/1
If you commute by bicycle in the city, chances are you've gotten your bike light stolen.
It's definitely happened to me. I thought, how can I keep thieves from stealing my lights without adding extra work for me?
I taped LED strips to my handlebars and soldered them to a battery pack which was then scotch taped to my fender. As a cherry on top, I added a sandwich bag on top to protect from the Seattle rains.
In the daytime, it was difficult to tell they were lights, and no one was going to steal these.
At this point, my problem was solved and I thought that I would be done with the project. This was before I was in design school, so I wasn't necessarily trying to create a full product.
The first prototype
People stopped me on the street to ask
where they could buy those lights.
Creating custom PCBs
After hearing so many positive reactions, I decided to take this farther. I asked my friend Seth Itow, a mechanical engineering student at UW to help me make custom PCBs that we could fit inside a standard handlebar.
He created programmable and daisy chain-able boards.
Fitting the PCB in the handlebar
Once the PCB was assembled in the handlebar, it needed a way to maintain its position. To keep it aligned with the holes in the bar, I created a housing out of flexible filament that would press fit into the correct position.
Powered by a lithium ion battery
Capabilities
8+ hrs battery life
Automatic on/off capabilities
Fully programmable RGBW LEDs
Challenges
For this product to work in the real world, a few things would have to change about the design.
1) The location of the battery
Having the battery on the outer edge of the handlebar could pose a serious safety risk if the rider were to crash and hit their handlebar on the ground hard.
2) Lenses on the LEDs
Not necessary, but would help focus the light to be more effective on a path.
3) Overall robustness
Waterproofing and vibration mainly. However, stress tests on the handlebars themselves would need to be done.
If you are interested in taking this product further with me, feel free to reach out!
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