LED Wheel Lights

Watching LED wheel lights is fun. Images unfold mysteriously in front of your eyes on the side of your ride. Very convenient and safe as there is no display screen to worry about.
 

The start: Spoke POV

To follow the phenomenon it is exciting to see not only how the LED wheel story unfolded, but also where it is heading.

Because it is just about to display hovering images on the fly. It started with an MIT student hacking some spectacular spoke light for her bike in the dorm.

I could locate Limor Ada and Ian Peterson at the time. Now between the two of them you had a LED lighted wheel in its infancy. You can even program a set of images into the controller.

Hokey Spoke

Hokey spoke of course commercialised the idea with an impressive looking web site.

Problem is, the blades that create the trick run on 3AA batteries.

But we know that even if you have them recheargeable, you do a great disservice to mother nature because it is hard to recycle those pesky batteries. (Rechargeables are better, but not the real solution either.)

In comes the real deal LED wheel

Even though they can be run from the car batteries virtually forever,
LED lighted wheels pose a new challange if you want an image that lasts. No spokes.

Spice Up your ride ...

The problem has been solved somewhat ingenuously by getting LEDs on the stick to chase with speed regulated by the controller.

Other than that, no more invention appears to be built in. But the result is still quite spectacular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb3THwZjnHY


In fact, the message or image that Pimpstar rims for Dub custom wheels display are customizable.

Beware! The video is only a promo. It shows custom changes on the fly, but this seems only a distant possibility. It is quite doable though.

(Just a matter of modding the controller and a wire-less connection between the controller driving the images and your cell phone.)

http://customwheel.com/custom_wheels/product_info.php/products_id/1687