Rabbit® Helps Motorcyclists Stay Balanced
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Having not written a line of code in C in over 10 years, and having zero hardware experience, I was shocked and pleased by how quickly all the programming and implementation obstacles were overcome.
The motorcycle has become a cultural icon since its inception in 1867. Motorcycles can be used for different types of transportation, from racing to cruising around town. One popular style of motorcycle is the touring class. Designed for long distance travel, touring motorcycles sport larger engines, larger fuel tanks, beefier suspensions systems, and cargo areas for storage. The added weight can make it difficult for some riders to keep the bike upright at a complete stop. Pete G’s Chopper design has solved this problem with the LegUp® LandinGear system, featuring the Rabbit BL2030 single-board computer.
Pete Giarrusso of Pete G's Chopper Design has been working on custom motorcycles since the 1970s. He found that customers riding Harley-Davidson touring bikes in particular needed assistance to keep these heavy bikes balanced when at a complete stop. The LegUp LandinGear system is designed to automatically engage at slow speeds and help support the bike at complete stops. Riders are still responsible for maintaining balance, but the LegUp system helps to reduce the effort needed to keep the motorcycle upright.
The LegUp system is an aftermarket addition that easily adapts to 2008 and 2009 Harley-Davidson touring motorcycles. The system attaches to the bottom midsection of the bike with a heavy duty spring and electronic actuator system. The wheels tuck right under the side bags and are completely out of the way, allowing for normal operation. The sophisticated control unit, which resides in the left saddle bag, connects to the wheel system and the operator switch on the handle bars. At the heart of the control unit is the Rabbit BL2030 single-board computer.
"The BL2030 essentially controls the input switches, LED output, the vehicle speed via an interrupt on the Rabbit, relay control for the actuator, and potentiometer to track position of the LegUp LandinGear," explains Giarrusso.
After installing the LegUp system, a customer must calibrate the landing gear to properly support the bike and tuck into its optimal position. Upon calibration, the bike’s information is stored in the battery-backed extended memory of the BL2030. During normal operation, the rider must turn on the system by pressing the maintenance button for three minutes. This ensures that the rider intends to use the system. Two LED appear next the switches. The top LED glows green to indicate the wheels are up or red to indicate the wheels are down. The bottom LED indicates when it is okay to lower the wheel system. The light will turn yellow once the motorcycle travels below 10 mph, at which time the rider can decide to lower the wheel system, preferably right before the stop. The system will also allow operation below 10 mph to assist with slow turns. Once at a complete stop, the rider simply accelerates again to trigger the LegUp LandinGear to ascend and tuck back into place.
The LegUp system benefits from the robust features of the BL2030.
"We tried some other less powerful single-board computers that worked, but were not fast enough, nor 'smart' enough for this real-time application,” says Giarrusso. “Vehicle speed sensing and smoothing from very small samples was made possible by the CPU speed of the Rabbit device. The fact that all seven of our inputs/outputs were easily integrated into the board made Rabbit the perfect solution."
Rabbit’s commitment to making easy-to-use solutions solidified Giarrusso’s decision to use the BL2030.
"The initial support supplied by sales and technical staff allowed me to program this board, which was foreign to me, relatively quickly and easily. Having not written a line of code in C in over 10 years, and having zero hardware experience, I was shocked and pleased by how quickly all the programming and implementation obstacles were overcome," says Giarruso.
Inspired by innovation and looking to bring the joy of motorcycle riding to everyone, Pete Giarrusso with help of Rabbit has made LegUp LandinGear an incredible value-add to the motorcycle experience.
For more information on Chopper Design, visit: http://www.chopperdesign.com/
For more information on the LegUp system, visit: http://www.chopperdesign.com/legup/index.html
Watch the LegUp system in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YHpCNZIGPk
Learn more about the SBC BL2030: http://www.rabbit.com/products/bl2000/
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