Motorcyclists are paranoid about being hit by cars, as well as with reason. You’re a great deal safer when you’re encased in a metal shell, with airbags as well as seatbelts. The mass difference between a vehicle as well as a motorcycle doesn’t work out well for the biker, either. regrettably for bikers, motorcycles are likewise slimmer as well as normally less visible than cars.

A few decades ago, motorcycle makers changed over to daytime running headlights to make bikes a lot more visible. In the meantime, however, vehicles have done the same, leading lots of cyclists to concern that their exposure advantage is losing it’s impact. The solution? Blink the headlights carefully during the daytime, as well as run them usually at night.

[William Dudley] was unsatisfied with industrial versions, so he developed a custom-made headlight modulator for his motorcycle.

as well as believe it or not, he did it with a 555 timer IC as well as a light-dependent resistor (plus some transistors as well as a whole slew of miscellaneous parts). however [William]’s style is a great one, as well as he walks you with all of the options he made in building the light-sensing circuit that disables the 555.

Whether you requirement a motorcycle headlight modulator or are interested to discover exactly how this issue would be fixed in the pre-Arduino days, go inspect out [William]’s post. as well as while you’re on the nostalgic electronics trip, inspect out this nixie tube speedometer.