I recently got into a situation which I have later come to find out is a common one. So I thought how could I build something to avoid it. So the situation I faced was that I had my road bike on top of my car and I hit it into the garage and the bike got damaged and car also damaged. All has been fixed with insurance, but to avoid it from taking place again I thought of building something that I can mount to the bike and emit an sound alert.
I bought an Arduino starter kit and a TOF Sense laser range sensor (5m) - SEN0337. I am novice at it and have managed to by looking at other project ideas build something that does emit a sound depending upon the distance. It is nearly working, just got to solve something in my loop, but it provided me with enough of a proof that it could work.
What I now want to do is take it to the next level and get someone’s expert guidance and I am happy to pay for it to build it into a unit that is mountable to bike and have it be able to emit the sound to Bluetooth (or other wireless protocol) speaker that can be mounted in the car (independent of car stereo system).
Look forward to getting help from someone on this forum and look forward to connecting so we can discuss more.
4 Likes
Hi Shashank,
Welcome to the forum!!
Aweesome project, when your done I’d be keen to make one 
Ahhhh quite imfamous this senario, another catch that I’ve seen get others is drive-thru’s - the cross bar being at such a specific height will make it much harder to detect.
The easiest implementation that I can think of would be to use two Bluetooth enabled or 433MHz modules (the one with discrete outputs are really easy to use) and send a signal to something inside your cabin.
4 Likes
Hi Shashank,
I nearly did a similar thing with a fridge in the back of a ute, after driving so timidly the whole way home I almost forgot we had a brick archway over the driveway.
I’d recommend testing your sensor’s detection range with a few different materials, just to make sure you don’t get too many false positives or hard-to-detect surfaces. I wonder if a shiny drive-thru height bar would reflect your laser sensor in a different way to your house.
You could also look at having two sensor types, like a laser sensor alongside an ultrasonic sensor but it adds to the complexity quite a bit.
3 Likes
You’d probably be better off with an ultrasonic sensor as they have a wider ‘field of view’ than a TOF sensor. Ultrasonic sensors are what’s used in the parking sensors in car bumpers.
Else, it’s likely your sensor will miss an object - though perhaps the simplest solution is a long soft stick the extends out to where you can see (which is basically the idea of the dangly bars you see at car parks and drive throughs).
3 Likes
I hadn’t considered the pool noodle approach. Something to be said for keeping it simple though.
3 Likes
