When I started running I made one more resolution - to stop procrastination. To never ever postpone doing something I wanted to. Usually I had a lot on my mind (mostly stuff related to work) and all this pulls me from bringing my new cool ideas to life. The end result is that I waste my time - I don't have power to do the things I had to so I just... wander around the Internet for too much time. This era has definitely ended and now I will carry out all my ideas :) I say NO to procrastination!
Project origins
During October I was usually running few hours after work which means at around 8 or 9 pm (20/21 in polish time). The place I run has some parts with lights, but some parts are covered in darkness. To avoid collisions with bikers and other people (and to be less scared of darkness) I used simple app on my phone that uses flash light to blink at some intervals. The app is called Tiny Flashlight and can be found in Google Play. The strobe mode can be found here (there is some problem with that link... I don't know why, it works for me (I have this app installed) but not for other users...).
During my night runs I was thinking how to better light myself (not literally!) - eg. use colourful lights to show the pace or the music that I'm listening. That's how it all started...
The result
After few single person brain storms done while running I decided to upgrade my current cap with lightings. I grab some led lights from older projects, convinced my wife to prepare some material and this is what I get:
As you can see from the video it is in very early pre-alpha state. I used some W2801 led stripe sewed into scrap of material. It is connected to Arduino (control, on the right) and some DC/DC inverter (power, on the left). It supposed to be letter A... at the back of the cap there are four more lights.
All in all I'm not satisfied with current version. The led stripe is difficult to strap to material, its connectors are prone to be damage by bending (like iphone... maybe it should be named iCap;) and at the moment it looks just bad. That's why I'm abandoning this version and leaving it in this unfinished state. It's not worth putting the work when you can have much better lights (they are already coming thanks to aliexpress.com!).
Somewhere in the future I will describe in details all the plans and parts for my super-duper cap!
Ohh and: Happy new year!
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