ECE 110/120 Honors Lab Section : Bike Turn Signal and Navigation System

Created by Bycul, Dawid, last modified on Dec 13, 2019

Lingxiao Mou (ECE 120, lmou2), Carter Smith (ECE 110, carters3), Dawid Bycul (ECE 120, dbycul2)

  1. Introduction:
    1. Statement of Purpose
      1. On a campus as large and complex as the University of Illinois, it can often be difficult to navigate while riding a bike. Automobiles rarely pay attention for hand signals while turning and finding your way through campus is sometimes near impossible. To solve this, we’re proposing a handlebar-mounted system that connects via Bluetooth to Google Maps and indicates when turns need to be made. Furthermore, this system will incorporate a turn signal on the rear of the bike for the purpose of alerting automobiles about upcoming turns.
    2. Background Research
  2. Design Detail:
    1. Block Diagram
    2. System Overview
      1. The microcontroller takes direction from google map of phone and sends signal to LEDs in the front of the bike. Riders will make a turn based on which LED is shining. If the left is shining, the rider will make a left turn and vice-versa. 
      2. There are two buttons attached to the handle of bike, push either of the button will light up the corresponding LEDs at the side and back of the bike.Sensor will be blue tooth sensor between micro-controller and LEDs at the front of the bike. Logic gates will be utilized between micro-controller and LEDs at the front of the bike.

  3. Parts:

    1. Telemetry

      1. 2 Microcontrollers (Arduino Micro-Bit with Bluetooth capability)

    2. Electrical

      1. 4 - 5 W LEDs for turn signals, 4 small smaller wattage LEDs, battery bank for LEDs, voltage boost converter, USB cables for power, buck down converter, light sensor

    3. Mechanical

      1. Brackets for connecting LEDs to bike, zip ties, buttons, LED cover

  4. Possible Challenges:

    1. Integrating Google Maps with our various turn signals and turn notification devices.

    2. Communication between turn signals and forward switches 

    3. Mounting and positioning of devices and power

    4. Achieving the correct voltage for the various LEDs and microcontrollers

    5. Other miscellaneous electrical and software problems

  5. References:

Final Report: 

Attachments:

bike turn signal.PNG (image/png)
bike turn signal.PNG (image/png)
Bike Turn Signal Final Report ECE 110_120 Honors Lab - Google Docs.pdf (application/pdf)

Comments:

It may be easier to use a regular Arduino with a HC-5 type bluetooth serial device. That being said, using a bluetooth enabled arduino would also work.

You guys are off to a good start! I'd encourage you to try to get to a place where you are ready to order parts this week or next. Don't forgot to ask a TA if you have any questions!
Posted by chorn4 at Oct 03, 2019 12:02

Agreed, HC-05 serial Bluetooth breakout board will be your friend. HC-05 exposes a Bluetooth serial connection as a basic tx/rx serial signal to the Arduino. That can be easily controlled from an app.
Posted by fns2 at Oct 03, 2019 18:00