David Fisher : What is Noise Blog

I’m hoping to figure out how to build a DIY HUD system for my motorcycle helmet. It seems that one company did make some of them at one point, but no longer. It is definitely feasible to put a HUD system in a helmet and the Air Force/Navy have been doing this for some time.

Why?

I’d prefer to never have to look down at the handlebars to know some basic things about my riding. I’d ideally show:

• Speed
• Tach (RPMs)
• Gear
• Compass Direction
• High/low beam indication and left/right turn signal indicators
• Engine temperature

Factors:

Sounds difficult, but I think we’re in luck for a lot of things according to the Wikipedia, but there’s some setbacks too:

• field of vision — I need to focus the display at around 10 feet out to infinity. This part shouldn’t be too hard, but seems to require some type of lens-like area to help focus it.
• eyebox —the eyebox is generally where your head/eye must be to see the image. Luckily the area of variability inside the helmet is almost zero. My helmet is tight and my eyes don’t move around in there.
• luminance/contrast — Doing this automatically might be a little tricky, but I’m already imagining that I could automatically adjust it relatively easily with some basic logic or even an analog circuit.
• display accuracy — Since I won’t be displaying information (at least at first) about things around me, and just the status of the bike, this doesn’t matter too much.
• installation — I have to work with the bike itself. This might be a bit tricky. The electronics on the bike are for lights and ignition only. There’s no ‘logic’ on the bike and everything is manual since its from 1979.

How?

I’m honestly not sure where to start. It seems like having a semi-transparent/semi-reflective surface on a small area inside my helmet which is reflecting back a mini OLED screen would be the best. Some of the hardest stuff I think will be integration with the bike. The bike integration is one of the hardest parts probably because the bike is so old and analog.

I’ll probably have to wear a small backpack with a netbook (or at least the guts) in it, or embed it inside a saddleback or in the bike itself. The computer will connect to the bike likely via an Arduino. I’m hoping to get to the point that I can use purely an Arduino and have no laptop. The Arduino will have a lot of sensors hooked to its inputs from the bike (turn sensors, temperature and a digital compass). It will run from a small regulated split from the power on the bike itself with a battery backup.

Hoping to hack some Apple Magsafe style connectors to give me the ability to easily split away from the bike in case I move off of it or fall, because there will need to be a cable from the helmet. Also ideally I could control it via voice commands, but these rarely work well and would definitely require a netbook or OLPC in/with the bike to make it work.

Got ideas? I’ll definitely document the work and I’m open to suggestions. Comments below!

Another book that O’Reilly Media was kind enough to send me was Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting. I like making stuff, and I’m confident enough in my manhood to admit to the internet that I learned to sew, crochet, and knit a bit as a kid even if I only remember a bit of it now. I can thread a needle and I know where a bobbin on a sewing machine is.  So I figured this book would be pretty fun and useful. I love Make Magazine and Craft Magazine. This book is a pretty direct summary of techniques and projects from Craft that can get you started.

This review is going to be a bit short. This book has a lot of strong aspects. It covers techniques and materials well. I didn’t even know some of this stuff existed, and just reading about the materials and techniques alone really got me going and inspired to start making. Everything is very clearly written, and makes the entire process very non-daunting even if you’re pretty new to the DIY world. Even the explaintations of electronics were really practical and friendly. That’s hard to do. The printing is great, on high quality paper and the entire book conveys a feeling of ‘fun’ really well.

Normally a part of Make and Craft magazines that I like the most are the detailed tutorials stepping you through how to do various things in great detail. For example there’s a killer article on soldering SMT components and projects in the newest Make Magazine that’s worth buying this issue solely for that project alone. Yet, for some reason in this book the projects totally lose me. Page 76 onwards until the references in the back of the book just don’t do it for me. The technology primer section at the beginning was so dead on, and so great, but then this section fell a bit flat for me. It’s not that the projects are bad… so much as useless or at least to me. To be frank, this book is targetted at women, which I am not one of, so maybe that’s why I don’t get the projects. Reading the primer sections I was imagining all sorts of neat things to make and build from the things I was learning and then I just didn’t find them in the later sections of the book.

The LED braclet is pretty cool, and could be modified to something useful. The Rock Star Headphones are pretty well useless. The Space Invader Tote has a few neat things, but I can’t imagine any girl I know using it. The Birdie Brooch completely loses me (and this is coming from someone that wants a wearable computer like we all imagined in the 90’s so badly!) although it does step someone through etching a circuit board and using ICs a bit, which is a nice thing to show. The Photochromic Blinds are one of the best things in the book, and give a nice intro to screenprinting. The Cardboard table is neat, but not great. Then things just go down from there for me as it moves into the interactive toy section. I could see someone really enjoying them if they have kids, but not many other people… then again maybe that’s the target- a making mom!

Overall this is a good book, and well worth getting… if just for the technology primer section, and the screenprinting and PCB etching tutorials- then get a subscription to Craft Magazine and go from there. I don’t think they expected many people to actually go through and make all of this stuff, but rather take it as inspriration and/or modify it to suit their own needs. That’s great, but the projects themselves just left me feeling a bit lukewarm. My only other request is that they start releasing these books with a spine that you can easily open up and lay down (maybe spiral bound?) I find that when working on a project its hard to keep these books open. The retail price is $30, but it seems that Amazon has it for $20, or used copies for even less so its not a bad deal at all.

I have an early model soniccord amp. I thought it was Serial #1, but it turns out that I was misreading a 4, since 0004 is written on the inside. So be it.

I took it apart today a bit to see what’s inside. I found a mystery knob under the front panel (some type of filter or other knob). I’ll post some more photos when it’s all back together. I nearly pulled out my back lifting the thing. I always figured it was the chasis or speaker that made it heavy, but nope- it’s the HUGE power transformers inside. Hammond ones. Not the best, not the worst, but they are huge.

It’s a weird sounding little amp. It works for me for now. I’d like to get an Orange Tiny Terror at some point, but this again… works for now.

I was just looking around, inspired by the prior post, to find stuff on building a tube based theremin. Not because ‘tubes sound better’ but just for fun. Although, I must say that there’s a Moog Etherwave Signature Theremin signed by Bob Moog on eBay at the moment that would match my Voyager Signature Edition very well.

Anyways, I came upon this website which seems to be a portal to some great Theremin sites. For building, repairing, moding, or just understanding theremins better it looks like a great place.