This project has grown. See this page for more details.
I’ve been spending a huge amount of time working on the weather station and I needed to take a break. The Weather station is coming along nicely, but I’m waiting for a few more parts. I decided to work on another project.
A while back, I picked up a strip of RGBW leds in the Neopixel format. We used them to develop some code and ended up putting some Neopixel bars on the Warlocks 2017 robot as signalling devices. So I had a meter of 30 LED/m Neopixels on hand. I had an idea that I wanted to put them on my recumbent trike, but hadn’t decided how to go about it yet.
I’m not a big fan of flags on trikes, or any bicycles. I don’t buy the conventional wisdom that “You’re so low to the ground. Nobody can see you.” That’s a cop out and blames the cyclist for the motorists shortcomings. If you can’t see a low bicycle, how can you see the lines on the road, and why did you slam on the brakes and put your car in the ditch when a cat ran across the road? So, I’ve decided flags are ineffective and not worth the bother 90% of the time. Increasing your visibility by positioning in the road and with bright warning lights are more productive.
But I did have a couple of fiberglass bicycle flag poles kicking around.
So, if flags are meh, but lights are good, why not fill a flagpole with lights? Challenge accepted. Continue Reading…