Bike Net

Inspiration

When cycling to the ARM 2016 hackathon, we experienced some of the commons problem of cycling in a group. Issuing directions is not always easy, and keeping up with the leader can be even harder - if someone falls behind, it becomes difficult to attract the group's attention to get them to wait.

What if there were devices that you could connect together to solve this problem?

What it does

The device links up to other devices nearby: you select a channel, and specify whether you want to be a leader or a follower. Leaders can press buttons to propagate directions to their followers (left, right, stop), and followers can ask the rest of the group to stop and wait for them if there is a problem.

How I built it

We've been using the BBC microbit as the foundation for this project - we wrote code in python to handle all of the logic, and we soldered switches and a battery pack to the board, as well as a transistor to operate a buzzer.

Challenges I ran into

The buzzer could not be connected directly to the output pins of the microbit due to lack of current - therefore, we used a transistor to provide enough current for the buzzer to sound, using one of the output pins to control it.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

As the hackathon progressed, we added more and more functionality. For example, if someone tries to designate themselves as leader on a channel that already has one, they simply become a guest - we decided to implement this in order to reduce confusion. The buzzer was an addition that we are very proud of - we managed to overcome the problem with our knowledge of electronics in order to still be able to implement this functionality.

What I learned

We all trained our problem-solving skills and got better at coding and digital electronics.

Built With

• bbc-microbit