Samsung Smart Bike MCUs For Your Bike

Bikes present a wide range of opportunities to use microcontrollers to improve your riding or at least give you a new experience. This posts briefly looks at a few of those opportunities.

Samsung Smart Bike

Tonights collection of bike related MCU projects and ideas was prompted by reading "Samsung Smart Bike packs an Arduino and frickin’ laser beams," a June 12 post in Geek.com. Geeks post said:

"Samsung’s been working on a concept bike in conjunction with Maestros Academy...For the smart bike in particular, the design team wanted to help reduce the number of cyclists involved in accidents each year...Front and center (literally) on the bike is a magnetic smartphone mount. Slap on your Galaxy phone and fire up the app to control the bike’s systems. There’s onboard LED lighting for nighttime riding and a rearview camera so you can safely keep tabs on traffic as it approaches from behind — video is streamed to your bike-mounted phone. And then there’s the four bike-mounted lasers. The lasers on Samsung’s bike aren’t designed to take out incoming foes...They’re part of the bike’s safety system. Fire them up, and a virtual bike lane gets projected onto the roadway to make sure motorists give you enough room to

ride...How does the bike communicate with your phone? It’s hiding the maker’s secret weapon, an Arduino, which gets paired via Bluetooth. The Samsung app also

Laser bike lane concept

does the typical social fitness stuff. You can track your rides and share them with other smart bike users, see where other people are riding, and even keep tabs on how many people are riding the same path as you in real time."

The Samsung Smart Bike is just one type of MCU-bike project. Using MCUs on bikes can be divided into five categories:

1. MCUs improving biking experience but not connected to the bike
2. Bike-connected MCUs for independent projects
3. MCUs integrating multiple biking features
4. MCUs connected to bike and to smartphone
5. MCU-controlled e-bikes

Numerous MCU posts could be written about each of the above categories of bike-mcu combos. For tonights post well just briefly descibe each category and mention related projects or webpage links.

Flora brake light backpack

The first category, bike-related MCUs which arent bike-connected, covers items like this Arduino blinking bike patch backpack, this Flora brake light backpack or this jacket which uses an Arduino to light up an arrow or other rider-visibility features. The MCU in these projects arent actually connected to the bike or integrated into its functioning, but they do create a better riding experience.

The second category, bike-connected MCUs for independent projects covers items like the bike speedometer from Instructables or some of the Arduino-bike projects from the Intro to

Bike speedometer

Arduino Pimp My Bike series. To find a specific bike-mcu project youre interested in, just Google for  bike Arduino [or microcontroller] xxxxx, where xxxxx is the topic or type of bike feature or function in which you are interested.

MCUs integrating multiple biking features includes projects like this bike dashboard Instructables which integrates a lighting system and a speedometer. An Arduino or other MCU system can control a wide variety of sensors and outputs, so you could include front and back-illuminating LEDs or lasers, blinking LEDs for turn indication, photosensors to automatically turn on your bike lights and lots of other physical computing features that are functional, cool or both.

Bike dashboard

The fourth category, MCUs connected to the bike and a smartphone have a huge upside for innovation and benefit in the next five to ten years as smartphones add sensors and computing power and as MCUs continue to become more powerful. This category includes projects like the Samsung Smart Bike. The MCU controls and communicates with a wide variety of devices and sensors, and the smartphone can easily connect your bike with the internet and with your friends or other bikers.

MCU-controlled e-bikes represents the largest financial impact of MCUs on biking to-date. China has been a huge market for e-bikes because of the size of the population, the low cost transportation provided by e-bikes and the effort to reduce or minimize pollution caused by gas or diesel vehicle engines. Here are two e-bike overview PDFs; a Samsung application note "Electric Bike Controller System" and a Texas Instruments application report "Hardware Design Considerations for an Electric Bicycle Using a BLDC Motor."

What type of MCU-bike project would you like to work on with the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group? Come to the next meeting, tomorrow night, Thursday, August 21, at 1385 8th Street, Arcata, California, and discuss that project with the MCU group.

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Grilled Cheese Smart Box Microcontroller And A Whole Lot More

The Smart Box uses a microcontroller (mcu), and a whole lot more, to keep fresh grilled cheese sandwiches hot, moist and crisp.

Fresh, tasty, warm grilled cheese sandwich

The Smart Box is an innovation that dramatically demonstrates two sometimes overlooked non-electronics aspects of MCU-focused projects that can require as much work as the electronics, if not more work. Those two non-electronics issues are:

1. Figuring out what you need the MCU to control.
2. Figuring out all the non-electronic hardware issues for the project.

The goal of the Smart Box designers was to create an environment that could extend the highly edible lifetime of a fresh grilled cheese from seven minutes to at least thirty minutes. As Fast Magazine tells the story, the design team tried to find,

"...a way to extend the sandwichs woefully short shelf life. They discovered that each Melt had about seven minutes before going cold, leaving the cheese to congeal and making for a subpar grilled cheese-eating experience...the team looked far and wide for a food transport box that could maintain just the right temperature while striking the right balance between moisture and crispiness for 30 to 60 minutes at a time...what we realized is that if you maintained the temperature, and you had even airflow, and a way to get some of the moisture out of the product as it sat in the box, that it can hold a Melt for over 20 minutes and still meet temperature, moisture, and crispness guidelines."

Sandwich container with ridges and holes for hot air circulation

The first part of the MCU project had nothing to do with an MCU. Most products and design projects involving an MCU will start by figuring out how the product or project ought to work to achieve the projects goal. For the Smart Box, the goal was a good tasting sandwich. So the first part of that project was to determine what ambient conditions would keep the sandwich from getting cold and soggy. It was obvious the grilled cheese sandwich storage and transport unit would need heat. They would have to keep the temperature low enough so it didnt cook the sandwich more, but high enough so the cheese would be nice and soft. And the temperature would need to be uniform throughout the sandwich storage and transport unit. After experimenting with different conditions, and probably eating quite a few grilled cheese sandwiches, they found the right temperature (190 - 200 degrees F) and the right moisture to keep the sandwich tasting good.

The next step was to develop a combination of materials, shapes, heaters, fans, etc, that would maintain the necessary temperature and moisture for the sandwiches. Air flow was key, both throughout the large insulated food transport box and throughout the smaller sandwich containers that sit on the shelves inside the food transport box. The majority of this physical design and development work didnt focus much on electronics of the project, other than to keep the fan pushing air and to keep the heater warming up the air. The Fast Company article explained:

"...for any of this to work, the air had to circulate around the sandwich so that the heat surrounding it was constant, like a convection oven with size restraints...Heres how it works: It uses a hot plate made out of aluminum to keep everything warm. But since direct heat can burn its contents, its covered with a shield while an internal fan ensures proper air circulation. The whole system is sensitive, so inside are sensors that monitor the environment for precise heat and humidity levels. A microcontroller is used to make small adjustments automatically, ensuring that the grilled cheese arrives at your door or desk nice and toasty."

Once the physical design of the box was mostly figured out, the electronics wizards started working their magic. They figured out what temperature sensors to use and where to put them. The fan power and controls were designed and the rest of the MCU functions were programmed.

Im sure figuring out the sensors, controls, MCU and programming took much longer than the length of the above paragraph indicates. But for the grilled cheese Smart Box, theres little doubt in my mind that the design-build issues requiring non-electronics maker skills or physical design knowledge took more time and brainpower than the MCU-related part of the project. The Smart Box illustrates why the Humboldt makers who really enjoy MCUs also need lots of other types of knowledge or need to collaborate with others who have the non-electronics skills.

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Atmel Microcontroller Powers Kickstarter Sci Fi Hoverbike

According to a recent post titled "Hoverbikes may soon become a reality," the futuristic hoverbike featured in an in-progress Kickstarter campaign is controlled by an Atmel ATmega32U4 microcontroller (MCU).

Cyborg Buster on scale model hovercraft

The Atmel post explains that the Kickstarter campaign supporters dont get a full-size human-carrying hovercraft, but rather a 1/3 size model of the airborne motorcycle current design.

"Hoverbikes may not be ready for your daily commute just yet, but thanks UK-based Malloy Aeronautics, we’re now a step closer. Debuting just days ago on Kickstarter, the firm is producing a one-third sized version of its design to help fund the full-sized prototype. “This drone was originally built as a proof of concept for our latest full-sized Hoverbike prototype...After testing the one-third Hoverbike, we realized that it had lots of features that made it a fantastic drone, not only this — selling this scale Hoverbike to the public would allow us to raise funds to continue the development of the manned version.”...the 1.15-meter-long mini replica can carry payloads of around 1.5kg and weighs in at 2.2kg unladen. The 3DR Pixhawk flight controller allows for it to be controlled remotely, as well as follow predetermined flight paths — or the pilot themselves — automatically. The mini-hoverbike also comes equipped with a third-scaled, 3D-printed humanoid ‘pilot’ complete with a space on its head specifically-designed for a GoPro camera."

Hovercraft folds up

There are several aspects of this MCU project and Kickstarter campaign worth remarking on, some of which come from my recent immersion in the world of MCUs and others from my years of covering aviation innovations for the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The aspects of interest are:

1. The MCU controlling the scale model is a relatively low-powered 8-bit AVR unit, the ATmega32U4. It would be interesting to know what their criteria was for choosing that specific MCU.
2. Its kind of cool that the hoverbike project has spun off the Macro Micro Arduino-compatible board that can be bought for $50 from the Malloy Aeronautics hovercraft website. Thats an opportunity made possible by the open source concept of the Arduino ecosystem.
3. The hovercraft folds up for transportation.
4. I like the Cyborg Buster rider designed for and shown in pictures of the Kickstarter hovercraft. It will be 3D printed by people who want the lifelike figure, and it has a cavity in its head for a Go-Pro video camera. Creating an appealing cyborg which really has nothing to do with whether this

   

   Cyborg Buster

   is an airworthy hovercraft is an excellent marketing strategy.
5. The quadcopter design of the hovercraft is unusual in that the two front props appear to partially overlap, as do the two in the rear. Im not an aeronautical engineer or pilot, but it would be interesting to know how that impacts the aerodynamics of the craft.
6. The Kickstarter campaign page combines two stories -- one about the full-size hovercraft and one about the scale model quadcopter. Mixing the two stories like that may leave the reader somewhat unclear as to exactly what they are funding when they contribute to the campaign.
7. The radical departure from traditional aircraft paradigms mean that the hoverbike Kickstarter supporters should not expect a commercial model of the full-size flight-ready hoverbike for quite a few years. Check the history of the Terrafugia Transition and the Martin Jetpack -- youll see what I mean.

With respect to the Atmel MCU and the scale model hoverbike quadcopter, the Kickstarter website says:

"If you have never flown a multicopter before, we highly recommend purchasing a small drone to practice with first (the Hubsan X4 is great to start with).  We designed this 1/3rd scale Hoverbike to be safe and robust, however without rc experience you will be sure to fly your brand new Hoverbike into the ground on the first day and there are practical limits to how strong we can make this!...Our MAcro Micro is an Arduino Micro compatible microcontroller that is easy to program, with 3A inputs and outputs, up to 30V in, analog out, and has hundreds of uses in robotics and home projects, including stepper motor driver, LED strip light controller, servo actuator, fan speed controller, brew kit controller, electric car window conversions...We designed this tiny board to drive the multicolor LEDs on the Hoverbike, and to allow owners of our 1/3rd Hoverbikee to do more with their drone than just look passively from the sky, by switching and actuating levers, release pins, spot lights via their radio or program."

UMaine Hover

Atmel MCUs have been used in the drone ArduPilots for quite a few years, but this hoverbike Kickstarter campaign shows the expanding non-engineering use of MCUs. In this case, the MCU is really being used as a marketing tool to raise R&D money, rather than just being the brains of the quadcopter autopilot.

On a related note for those readers interested in this type of personal aircraft, here are links to two other hoverbike projects. The first is for the UMaine Hover, a senior design project for a group of University of Maine students. Heres a link to the UMaine Hover website. The second project was the Aerofex hover

Aerofex hover bike

bike from a couple years ago. The LA Times article has a video of thats worth watching of a test run on the airborne personal sportcraft. Looks like it would have fun to pilot. Aerofex apparently made it clear that they werent planning to sell the aircraft as a human-piloted craft, but were rather using it as a drone development tool.

If the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group wanted to get involved with quadcopters, Id be all for that. My recommendation, though, would be to get some flying experience with a well

Parrot AR.Drone 2.0

tested one like the Parrot AR.Drone. Ive flown that a little, and it was both fun and relatively easy to keep in the air. One of the participants in a recent meeting of the MCU group had interesting stories to tell about his adventures with drones and MCUs. If you have built or flown an MCU-controlled quadcopter, consider coming to an upcoming meeting of the MCU group. The next meeting is on August 7th. Hope to see you there!

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Arc Controller Motor Shield More Power!!

The August 21 article "Arduino Motor Shield, Arc-Controller Launched By Arc Robotics" gave me a good reason to do a little research on microcontroller (MCU) motor control and motor shields.

Arc-Controller motor shield

The article covers the Arc-Controller, a new high capacity motor shield that has a Kickstarter campaign in progress, telling us:

"Maker, developers and hobbyists that enjoy building Arduino platform based projects might be interested in a new Arduino Motor Shield called the Arc controller which has been created by Arc Robotics...“There have been a lot of amazing projects come out of the Maker revolution, however, many are limited by the capability of their motor controller. We want to change that. The Arc-Controller is a bridge to bring high Amp motor control to your projects, up to 43 amps with a heat sink. It is capable of variable speed and direction control over a single Stepper Motor or two DC motors, because when do you only need one motor. The Arc-Controller is compatible with about any Arduino, or other micro controller such as Raspberry Pi. It runs an ATMega328, and is user programmable via the Arduino IDE."

The Kickstarter campaign still has 36 days to go, but it has gotten off to a very slow start, with only $927 pledged of the $41,500 funding goal. According to the Arc-Controller Kickstarter page,

"The Arc-Controller built around two H-Bridges. Each one can supply 43 amps of continuous current, with a properly mounted heat shield. The dual H-Bridges run separately, controlling two high-end DC Motors or as one controlling a single stepper motor. Built into the H-Bridges are current and temperature fail-safes.  If they begin to get too hot, or if they exceed the maximum current levels, current limiting will take affect. They will automatically shut down until they cool off, or until conditions are safe to operate. We also have included a reverse polarity protection...There is an integrated circuit on board that gives a current reading from the H-Brides to see how much current each individual motor is using. This gives you the option to write your sketches to react under certain loads, detect shorts and over heating states...We are creating a simple library that can be used to easily send commands to the Arc Controller. These commands can configure the Arc Controller to run a stepper motor, drive two brushed DC motors, and even an integrated an XY thumb stick “Arcade Drive”. The interface library will take input from you and transmit it to any number of connected Arc Controllers...We have had lots of success with tank style robots to the point that we made it run on two wheels until you want it to act like a tank. then it will lay down and drive like a tank. We have many theoretical uses, that we are eager to try such as: home made Segways, drive-by-wire go-karts, RC lawn mowers..."

There are a fair number of existing motor controllers for Arduinos if the Arc-Controller is overkill

for your needs. Here is a sampling of whats available for Arduino:

Adafruit motor shield V2

1. Adafruit Motor Shield V2 for Arduino -- $19.95 -- "We kept the ability to drive up to 4 DC motors or 2 stepper motors, but added many improvements...Instead of a L293D darlington driver, we now have the TB6612 MOSFET driver: with 1.2A per channel and 3A peak current capability. It also has much lower voltage drops across the motor so you get more torque out of your batteries...Instead of using a latch and the Arduinos PWM pins, we have a fully-dedicated PWM driver chip onboard. This chip handles all the motor and speed controls over I2C...5 address-select pins means up to 32 stackable shields: thats 64 steppers or 128 DC motors!"
2. Pololu Dual MC33926 Motor Driver Shield for Arduino -- $29.95 -- "This shield makes it easy to control two brushed DC motors with your Arduino or Arduino-compatible board. Its dual MC33926 motor drivers operate from 5 to 28 V and can deliver a continuous 3 A per motor. These great drivers also offer current-sense feedback and accept ultrasonic PWM frequencies for quieter operation."
3. Ardumoto - Motor Driver Shield -- $24.95 -- "This is a motor shield for Arduino that will

   

   Ardumotor from SparkFun

   control two DC motors. Based on the L298 H-bridge, the Ardumoto can drive up to 2 amps per channel. The board takes its power from the same Vin line as the Arduino board, includes blue and yellow LEDs to indicate active direction, and all driver lines are diode protected from back EMF."
4. Monster Moto Shield -- $69.95 -- "This is essentially a ramped up version of our Ardumoto motor driver shield. For this monster shield we’ve replaced the L298 H-bridge with a pair of VNH2SP30 full-bridge motor drivers. We’ve also beefed up the support circuitry so this board is capable of driving a pair of high-current motors!"
5. EasyDriver Stepper Motor Driver -- $14.95 -- "The EasyDriver is a simple to use stepper motor driver, compatible with anything that can output a digital 0 to 5V pulse (or 0 to 3.3V pulse if you solder SJ2 closed on the EasyDriver). EasyDriver requires a 7V to 20V supply to power the motor and can power any voltage of stepper motor."

If you use large motors or lots of motors on your MCU projects and could really use the Arc-Controller, you may want to head over to their Kickstarter page and support their campaign. If you know of other motor shields that do pretty much the same thing, send an email to arcatabob (at) gmail {dott} com and let me know what you use or recommend, and Ill update the post with that info.

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