Smart Bicycle Light

In fall of 2009 I worked with one other person to design and build a “smart” bike light using Pspice. We used an accelerometer and photo resistor to measure movement and darkness. The light is powered by a battery and flashes automatically any time the bike is moving in the dark. At all other times, during the day or when the bike is motionless, the light is automatically turned off.

This is the physical circuit (battery not shown). I blocked light from the photo resistor (lower board) while gently shaking the breadboard with the accelerometer (upper board) to simulate a bike at night in order to get this photo of the three LEDs flashing quickly in sequence. The next step in this project would be to move the components closer together, soldier them onto an etched circuit board and pack everything into a watertight film canister with a transparent lid to be mounted on a bike.