This is a follow up to my e-bike video, which was an element14 prize. I had hoped to get this HUD working before the e-bike video, but I was missing the HDMI cable.
View from a pedestrian bridge over the Rideau River. You can see the river is lined with parks, not houses.
The idea for this HUD was to mount a GoPro camera om the bicycle helmet to record cycling exploits, but with the camera on the helmet I cannot see what is being recorded. So I decided to mount a small HUD on the helmet just to see what the camera was capturing. Here is a video of what the mounting arrangement looks like:
The HUD works pretty well in all lighting conditions, but the helmet position can move enough to put the HUD image out of focus. This isn't a serious issue since I only need to periodically check what the camera is seeing and it is easy to adjust the helmet position slightly to see the image properly.
A more serious issue is the camera tends to overheat during long recording sessions. The solutions to this are:
- Remove the battery, and run the camera from an external power bank. The e-bike has a USB power outlet so this can work.
- put a reflective shade over the camera
- Only take short video clips. The camera has voice control, so this is feasible.
The HUD system works well enough, although it seems I am spending as much time pimping out the bike as I am riding it.
