A quick run-down on my latest project, the “Bike Blinder”. This is really V2, as I narrowly avoided setting our convoy on fire with V1 on the way to Burning Man 2015 (http://frabjousdei.net/post/98090021571/kentucky-fried-led-project).
In addition to not being on fire, V2 has a couple of small innovations over V1. Firstly, it’s using the whole 2m of 144 LEDs/m WS2812Bs—a touch over 85W at full bore. The plan is to bike (or pram 
mount it, so lead acid batteries are feasible and being ridiculously bright is the point.
Even so, I don’t want to waste power unnecessarily—so there’s a DFRobot ball-in-a-can vibration sensor (http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=36&product_id=79) hooked up to one of the pins of the Beetle. If I don’t get a read from the sensor for 30 seconds I decide the bike isn’t moving and switch to a mode where I only show the output for one second every fifteen. This means I don’t waste electricity while I’m parked, but I can still find my bike from a distance.
There is also a hard off-switch (a big, satisfying toggle with a dust-proof cap) for when I know I’ll be parked for longer periods.
Since last year I also found out about FastLED’s Palette Knife (http://fastled.io/tools/paletteknife/). cpt-city is an AMAZING resource and I’ve found some great stuff there. Check it out, it’s easy and will really make your project stand out against others just using the built-in FastLED palettes. The patterns are pretty simple and “coarse”, as they’re designed to be reflected off the ground under the bike.
Construction is pretty simple, just stick the silicon-jacketed strips to RHS aluminium with tape and use copper braid at each end for a power bus (power is injected at both ends.) My first experiment with Sugru over the the top of that for weather-sealing and insulation (used the whole 15g I bought, and probably could have done with more.) Not sure if it was the best decision, or if I should have gone for some kind of liquid silicone I could dip the ends into or something. Protip: household power cabling is good for high-current low voltage over short distances, and is cheap and readily available (that thick wire is a bastard to solder though.) The battery/control box is some well-sealed tupperware to keep the dust out.
If anyone’s interested in the code it’s on Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/ratkins/bikeblinder2016
