Arduino + Motorcycle == Motoduino!

Editor's Note: As part of my position as Editor at HeatSync Labs, I get to put on a reporter hat and take the spotlight of the Information Super Highway on our local Arizona makers, hackers, and tinkerers. If you or anyone you know is building something pretty awesome and they're within driving distance, leave a comment and I'll see if I can follow up on it. This $timeFrame's features maker is Rene Sanchez, who created an Arduino-powered GPS data display for his motorcycle.

Photo by .dh. Distributed Under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

A lot of local hackers roll on two wheels.  Sometimes that means two wheels and a motor, and this time it means two wheels, a motor, and a bunch of stuff from Adafruit.  Our own Rene Sanchez built a navigation data display to show GPS coordinates, direction, temperature, and other handy information on a glowing blue LCD display.

Clarissa Rene explains it all, in HD video, even:

The components used include these:

• Arduino Duemilanove
• Adafruit GPS logger shield kit
• USGlobalSat GPS Module
• Standard LCD 20x4
• Breadboard Power Supply
• Polycarbonate Electronics Enclosure

A lot of the electronics components were stock parts that were more or less designed to work with each other with a little programming and assembling.  The metal enclosure was welded together with bare metal and brushed to match the raw metal look of the rest of the bike.  Building that took a welder and welding skills.  A Makerbot Cupcake CNC was used to print out the power connector, enclosure for the power supply, as well as the bar clamp used to mount the display to the bike...

...and they're on Thingiverse!

• Enclosure for Adafruit Power Supply
• LCD Bar Mount
• Magnetic Connector - 3 Terminal

Thanks again to Rene Sanchez for taking the time to show us his Arduino-enhanced motorcycle, and also for sharing extruded part specs.  If you or your friends/kids/relatives/significant other[s]/parole officer/4H club/motorcycle gang want to build a similar project or anything that would require soldering, welding, or 3D printing, HeatSync Labs has tools ready for you to use.  Check out our calendar of events for our meetings, meetups, and hacknights and stop on by!