Build Your Own Motorcycle Computer

OK, come on now! You know that deep down, there is a geek-biker just screaming to get out. Um, this could be a stretch I suppose. But this how-to on building a motorcycle PC is really a cool idea. Check it out for yourself!

Welcome to the ninth installment of articles following Russ Caslis in his pursuit of constructing the first ever “Motorcycle Mod.” It has been a long and windy (and bumpy) road, and we’ve covered quite a bit. If you need to catch up on things, check out the previous installments. You can also take a peek at our slideshow , which has highlighted some sights from Russ’s progress. Let’s see what’s in store for us now.

In the last installment, I finished the wheels but had a major setback when I fried the motherboard due to an incomplete understanding of some of the header pins I tried to use. I’ve purchased a new motherboard (the wife wasn’t too happy about that), and I’m ready to make all new mistakes now…

A brighter world, one LED at a time
One feature of this mod is going to be a taillight that flashes with hard drive activity. There is simply no way this hard drive header can drive four ultra-bright LEDs (like I want), so I had to find another way. The answer, as every semi-advanced modder knows, is to use an opto-isolator.

These neat little chips actually have an integrated infra-red LED and an infra-red detector. You attach the LED pins to the hard drive header on the motherboard and supply the chip with power, and another set of pins have the voltage you supply available when the LED lights up. I assembled such a circuit as a driver for my taillight.