Exactly correct. These would be simplified versions of what I had shown you earlier, but would be more than capable of sending the trigger to turn your LED's to full brightness. Using the more complex items would allow you to send additional commands... ie, if you wanted turn signals to cause a reaction in the helmet
Have you seen the size of the AVR microcontrollers I had shared? The 8-pin AVRs would have more than enough horsepower to handle many simple commands and to manage more than one set of lights. The sizes shared are no bigger than a 555 timer in the same package, which you would most likely require anyway along with a couple other components. Ideally, when your LED's are dim, you will want to be driving them with PWM which will require some sort of logic whether it is built into a microcontroller, or built out of other components.
Remember though that the same parts can usually be purchased in surface mount packages which can reduce the size considerably. The advantage of a microcontroller is freedom At anytime you can change how the circuit functions by changing the program. You want the LEDs to flash twice before staying constantly lit? no problem! You want the to turn on hard, then fade back to the original brightness? again, no problem! You can even program in multiple modes, and choose which one you want to use when you turn your helmet on
As far as the LED strips are concerned... this is the consideration that needs to be made: power consumption. If you buy a pre-made light strip, you may be stuck with a strip that wastes power through current limiting resistors which will reduce your battery life considerably. Building your own may not be the easiest... but once you have some ideas on hoe bright and how many, we can work out some numbers to determine what kind of battery is required, or if we will need to modify the light strip to comply with the requirements.
Have you put any thought into how long you want the helmet to remain powered in between charges? (I would recommend rechargeable Li batteries as they are lighter, and can be built into the case you will use to hold your components... using AAs or other disposable/rechargeables will greatly affect weight and size due to their shape, and the metal casing used.)
Before you buy any equipment to test/troubleshoot or build with, it would be a great idea to plan out the circuits first so you know what parts you will be using.
Remember this is the planning stage, so you are more than welcome to plan your helmet circuit with and without a microcontroller to see what parts will be required in the end product.
This is something I would have no problem working on with you, as like I have said, I have been thinking of the same idea for my jacket. ( I have also thought of using EL Sheet or EL Wire... but they degrade pretty quickly in the sun. My thought process was more for night riding anyway though, so overall brightness was not a concern.)
I'm looking for an avr chip for my custom microcontroller, I found a bunch on spark fun however some had the same specs but just different type of pins, how do I know which one benefits my needs? I saw this one and I though I'd buy it:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9061
Not super big and decent, however I'm worried the 32k of flash isn't enough!!! Tell me or explain to me if possible, what I should search for when choosing the microprocessor for a microcontroller ? (I'm prefer AVR) and what type of pin should I search for? Or does pin not matter? I need something that needs to be able to be reprogrammable !!!