Uber simple HUD reminder thingy

[imdying]

You come across as angry, arrogant, demanding and whiney

Cry me a river... what do you bloody expect when I'm saying I can't buy one, and you keep saying I can, but you can't deliver a link to one product that does that simple task. You do not appear to be somebody who delivers, therefore a waste of time. Bogan has already proven himself, thus the difference.

[jonbuoy]

You don't really do subtle do you......




http://www.comountainrider.com/motor...r-Detector.php

http://www.1stradardetectors.com/pho...lert/index.php

http://www.helmetheadcycle.com/produ...radar-detector

http://www.1stradardetectors.com/las...mmer/index.php

http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/...otorcycle.html

I'm sure there's more, but I'm not surfing google all day. Suffice to say that there are options out there for wireless helmet notification, without changing helmet, and without BT. You might not be prepared to go for BT or a different helmet with this stuff built in, but for others that are there are even more possibilities.





Quick check of one off retail web pricing:
ATTINY13V $ 2.50 (8 pin device) smallest device that could work for this
ATTINY2313 $3.89 (20 pin device) next size device up without going crazy

Around 50% more for the extra pins only - the other functionality is essentially the same. Adding needless cost to a commercial product would need some serious justification.


Magic no, but would it be more appealing to have the instructions say that there is one signal wire, you can connect as many things as you want to that one input, and the LED goes off when any of them trip? Or have pages of instructions on what to connect where for various bikes and sensing options. Of course, it sounds like Bogan has some smarts in mind in that area, as far as multiple inputs auto sensing or similar but still, more wires = more support needed, more instructions, more to go wrong etc.


There is indeed - which is why I'm being devil's advocate in this thread and asking questions. The best solution may well be 2 different products. One thing that would be a shitter though, is to spend time and money developing something very capable (and costly) when it turns out that people actually just wanted the simple version.

I know Bogan isn't seeing it as a chore or a job to do this, hell it's interesting just thinking about on paper it let alone doing it, but if the idea is to be the most use to the most people, you have to ask the questions like features vs cost and time to get it done!


This discussion is mostly more concept than technical detail, but short answer is - drop your assumption that the bike end is powered from the bike. Now you have 2 signal wires to sense stuff.


Not sure what you mean - assembly time? The $10 cost includes assembly. I'm talking about automated assembly here, not putting them together in the garage.

Also, bear in mind that the longer it takes to develop the more you have to hike the sell price to recover the time spent on the design, the time you weren't in the market, etc. Of course those are all n/a if it's not a commercial design.


Dunno what you're on about here sorry!

In the end, part of the point of all of this is to stir up the thinking process - it started with this post asking for a simple indicator reminder light - and that's what i started thinking about - just how simple (therefore cheap, reliable, quick to develop) can it be made?

If Bogan approaches it from the feature end and I approach from the low cost end, there's got to be squillions to be made all round, surely? ;-)

10$?? To make a fully functioning unit? Maybe if you set up in China churning out 100´s a day - but for a custom made item like this you would be lucky to sell a 100 units a year.

[notme]

10$?? To make a fully functioning unit? Maybe if you set up in China churning out 100´s a day - but for a custom made item like this you would be lucky to sell a 100 units a year.

I wasn't thinking as small as 100's per day....

Bear in mind this is for the simple version too. The one off cost, me buying the parts retail, for the most complicated simple version (if that makes sense) comes out at around $25-30.

If I were to build in qty's of around 250's that would drop to the above mentioned $10 or so.

However, at the other end of the scale, the simplest simple design (again, hoping that makes sense) I can think of is a matter of $6 or $7 in one off qty, and buggerall in bulk.

It all comes down to features, cost, development time. pick any 2.

EDIT: I think I just got it - you mean "for a hand made item like this", rather than for a "custom made item like this" correct? If that's the case, you're quite right - there's no way I'd be thinking that this could be hand built (at least in NZ) for that cost.

[jonbuoy]

100´s per day? Who is going to buy them? How many do you think you could sell even wordwide per week? I think its a good idea - but I probably wouldn´t buy one myself - do I want to hack into my wiring loom and start gluing bits onto my helmet no. It is a good idea for a home built project or for someone interested in building things like this, don´t even know how you would stand with CE/crash testing if you start making add ons to helmets.

[notme]

This post is a short version of what I just PM'd Bogan:

First prototype of the simple HUD:
(The 9v battery is just for scale)



It works, it costs what I calculated it should (OK, it was 11.331% over in fact but pobody's nerfect) and it is only 24mm x 37mm x 7mm - easily fits in a helmet once in the case.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to continue this project in this form - but Bogan's project looks like it's going to be much more capable and suit a wider range of people, so keep this thread alive and keep him motivated to finish it :-)

[bogan]

Made a heap of progress on this over the weekend, got the main parts made up and tested. The transceiver chip is pretty wicked, SPI interface (though it'd run better with an interrupt too) PCB antenna the size of a fingernail, and good for around 60m, I'm running at 1.2kbps to make it easier on the micro, but they reckon its good for 256, just over 3 bucks each too. Prick of a thing to get running though.

Will look into power saving modes on it shortly...

[bogan]

Programed in some power savings, I've gone from 2.2 to 12.7 days continuous running; assuming no LEDs are on. For every LED that is on (assuming max brightness) it will use power at a 5.5x higher rate. It will run off 3 hearing aid button cells. After consulting with the comitee...



... I have decided to add some wires and see if heaps more savings can be gained

[imdying]

That life span is all good, so long as the batteries are accessible and cheap... maybe a AAA would do it?

[bogan]

That life span is all good, so long as the batteries are accessible and cheap... maybe a AAA would do it?

AAA is too big as I would need 2, maybe 3 of them. If I can get the sleep duty cycle up there enough with hardware interrupts I can probably stretch out the lifetime to hundreds of days. Which is getting into the region of doing away with the power switch on the receiver. Batteries are about 10 bucks to replace.

[NinjaNanna]

Will it flash on low battery? Hearing aid cells aren't something you can buy at the servo and being a lazy bugger I'm pretty sure I'd forget to replace the replacement batteries that should be under the seat.

[bogan]

Will it flash on low battery? Hearing aid cells aren't something you can buy at the servo and being a lazy bugger I'm pretty sure I'd forget to replace the replacement batteries that should be under the seat.

hadn't thought of that, will see what i can do

[NinjaNanna]

is the tx/rx 1 for 1 pairing? If not is the range good enough that if interfaced to a radar detector a 2nd bike bike could have a receiver as well?

[bogan]

is the tx/rx 1 for 1 pairing? If not is the range good enough that if interfaced to a radar detector a 2nd bike bike could have a receiver as well?

I'll be tuning the range to around 2m so other signals don't interfere. Could do a broadcast bike intercom or similar system in future where that sort of thing would be applicable.

[BigOne]

This looks appealing to me. The constant flashing would give the game away.

http://www.motorcycleforum.com/showthread.php?p=707085

Had an incident this weekend due to leaving my left turn signal on. Driver cut across in front of me and then started to abuse me after I slid to a stop. May have gone a bit further but I am not a shrinking violet so after a brief exchange they jumped back into the ute and left rapidly.

Pisses me off a bit as my 1982 Honda Sabre and 1978 XS 750 both had self cancelling indicators.

The above is probably the way I would go as the rear of the pods are visible on the TDM from the riding position.

why not just buy something ready made??
search KISAN SIGNAL MINDER, they make a self-cancelling turn relay for almost every bike out there.
I have one on my GSX1400, and it's very good. Kisan make a whole range of clever electronics for bikes.

[avgas]

Sorry for asking the annoying question. But I tried reading and now I am tired.

But, In once sentence. What does it do?

e.g. wire in input contacts, little thing flash in helmet when contacts close.