Lil' Lite

The World's Funnest Bike Light!

https://nawo.tech/lil-lite/

This repo contains the firmware running on the light. For the PCB design: https://github.com/nawotech/lil-lite-board

For 3D printed case: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6635754

Note

This is a work in progress! I uploaded all the files to open source this and will provide build instructions at some point.

Required Parts

• PCBA
• 3D printed case (print in PETG for better water resistance)
• Rubber o-ring (as bike seat post strap)
• Battery -
• Clear epoxy - once PCB and battery are placed in the case- fill the front with clear expoy

Features

Selectable Pattern

Choose one of the built in patterns with the button, or create your own and upload using Arduino and the USB-C port.

Never worry about turning on or off your light again

Lil Lite has a built in light sensor and accelerometer to detect

when you start riding at night (light ON) when you park your bike (light OFF)

Easy battery level checking

Never get stuck with a dead light, any time you can see exactly how much battery your light has, including when it turns on

Charge with USB-C

The future is now, it's time your bike light got with the times :)

Easy to mount

The case fits against the range of bike seat posts, uses a standard rubber gasket which comes in sizes to fit almost any seat post!

How to use

Mounting to bike

• 2 bands are included, select the one sized best for your bike seat post
• Clip the band to one side of the light
• Place on the back of the seat post, and wrap the band around, clip the other side of the band to the other side of the light

Turning on

• Press the button to turn on
• The display will show the current battery level, then the pattern after several seconds
• The light will now turn itself on and off automatically
• After your bike is not moving for ~ 30 sec, the light will power down
• The next time you go to move the bike and it's dark out, the light will come on by itself

Charging

• When the battery gets low, take the light off your bike seat post
• Connect a USB-C charging cable to the light
• The display will show the progress of the charge, it takes ~ 4 hr to fully charge
• The display will show all lights green fading on and off slowly when it is done

Checking battery level

• Press the button when the light is running to view battery level

Changing the pattern

• Press the button when the light is running, the battery level will show
• Press again within 2 sec to cycle through patterns, keep pressing to view the next pattern
• Once you see the pattern you want, wait (don't press button) and after 3 sec the new pattern will be set

Manually turning off

• If you need to keep the light from turning on by itself, you can manually turn it off
• First, make sure the light is on and showing the pattern
• Then, press and hold the button and wait until the lights turn fully off, then release the button
• It is now off, see "turning on" on how to turn it back on again manually

Standard Patterns

• Blink red
• Bink pink
• Bouncing ball
• Grow flash red
• Red and random color flash

How to program Lil' Lite

1. Download and install Viusal Studio Code (VSCode)
2. Open VSCode, click the "extensions" icon on the left bar, looks like 4 squares with 1 square leaving
3. Search "platformIO" and install the PlatformIO extension
4. Clone the Lil Lite repo to your computer (see next steps)
5. Create a folder for git called "git" on your hard drive C:/ or home (if you haven't already)
6. Open a terminal window and cd C:/git or wherever you made the git folder
7. Enter git clone https://github.com/nawotech/lil-lite.git
8. Open VSCode, and open the "lil lite" folder
9. Plug in Lil Lite to your computer with the USB-C cable
10. Once PlatformIO loads, press the "upload" arrow on the bottom bar to flash the latest firmware