Bike Glow

I have always liked bikes, and of course my love for electronics goes without saying, so why not combine them? This project went through several versions. The first used blue and green LEDs potted into a plastic resin rod, powered by a lithium polymer battery scavenged from an old mp3 player.

I was very happy with how well this worked and the attention it drew while riding on the city's bike trails at night, but the battery could not be recharged easily and the lights were kind of bulky, not to mention the possible legal implications of blue lights on a vehicle. So i created a better version, using SMD green LEDs mounted on thin strips of copperclad, and powered by a rechargeable pack of protected lithium ion cells. I built a small charger circuit and potted it in sugru attached to the batter pack. the whole thing was conveniently mounted up under the seat, with a toggle switch to turn the system on and off.