Spoke POV

Submitted by Richard Frankum on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 18:31
Status: 
new
Project lead: 
Richard Frankum

I'm planning to order a Spoke POV kit from Ladyada.
I'd love it if people wanted to split / substitute / combine orders.

From http://ladyada.net/make/spokepov/index.html:
Spoke POV is an easy-to-make electronic kit toy that turns your bicycle wheel into a customized display! The project includes a free schematic design, open software for uploading and editing stored bitmap images, and a high-quality kit with all the parts necessary to build your own.

Some alternatives

Submitted by Richard Frankum on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 19:11.

Some alternatives

There are some alternatives to SpokePOV. I haven't seen any I like better.

Monkeylectric's Monkey Lights are ruggedized weatherproof boards, but they aren't programmable. They have some preset patterns but you're not able to add your own picture to be shown.
Their site is at http://www.monkeylectric.com/m132s.htm
and you can read a review at http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/07/29/review-a-month-with.html

Volcanic is a self-lighted wheel setup, much more stable but no POV image, just pretty lines.
http://www.volcanicwheel.com/index.php?page=bike

"Hokey Spokes" is another store product, and multiples seem to sync with each other. I can't find their site at the moment.

This is a group that used the SpokePOV. It doesn't appear to photograph well. :)
http://glowbikes.transitlab.org/

I'm SPOKEn for... I'm

Submitted by technoramus on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 04:16.

I'm SPOKEn for...

I'm interested in participating/paying for a spoke kit

Ultimately I'd like to make my own version of the the 2000 dollar (!) Monkeylectric "video pro"
http://www.monkeylectric.com/m464q_gallery.htm

I'm still tossing up cost vs

Submitted by sonicviz on Fri, 01/15/2010 - 11:45.

I'm still tossing up cost vs amount of work to weatherproof vs # of patterns.
I'm leaning towards monkeylight atm. Will decide soon.

Q: Can I show my own images, text or videos?
A: The Monkey Light is pre-loaded with thousands of artistic and geometric visual effects. It does not show user-entered text, images or video. Our Video Pro system can show images and video, but it is much more expensive.

gotta be a way to hack it...

Submitted by MRE on Sat, 01/16/2010 - 01:05.

gotta be a way to hack it... Whats that connector for, if its not for programing your own patterns?!
It appears to not do text at all.. ????!!!

A late update

Submitted by Richard Frankum on Tue, 02/16/2010 - 14:30.

A late update
Well, I didn't get other responses about buying the kits, so I ordered my 3-Spoke kit last week.
I'm planning to make 2 with blue LEDs and 1 with green, and I'll try to get pictures of the process up as it happens.

Kits arrived a couple weeks

Submitted by Richard Frankum on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 17:23.

Kits arrived a couple weeks ago. No specs for the blue LEDs but the adafruit forum suggests for green:
>2000mcd green clear 5mm

I picked up 18000mcd greens at Akiduki a while back, will have to go back to complete it.