Londoner Richard Pope created this bicycle barometer to help him decide how to get to work. When he turns it on, it indicates which mode of transportation — subway or bike — is likely the best choice. (Although with climate change and all the recent flooding in the U.K., he may want to consider adding a boat option, too.) There is so much to like about this project:
- It’s made out of an old clock.
- It only has two transportation options, and neither is a car.
- It knows that biking in the rain sucks, but so does waiting endlessly on the subway platform when trains are delayed.
Here’s how it actually works, according to Pope:
The bicycle barometer takes data about the weather, the status of the tube lines I use to get to work, and whether my local station is open or shut.
It then reduces all that data down to a single value and displays it on a dial with a bike sign at one end and a tube sign at the other …
Different data points get different weightings. E.g. snow is more important than a bit of drizzle; the tube station being shut trumps everything.
In our ideal world, Pope would come over to our house and make one of these things for us. But we’ll have to settle for looking at these very detailed instructions on how to do it ourselves. OK. Here we go. Here’s what we need:
- A nanode
- A USB to Serial TTL converter
- A 5v servo like this
- A square picture frame ~ 10 cm x 10xm or similar for housing the barometer
- A piece of paper or card to print the face (see device/design/dial.svg)
- An ethernet cable
Yeah. Um. We’ll wait for it on Kickstarter.
