Steve Sanfratello <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<
[email protected]>...
> On 27 Nov 2003 05:43:21 -0800, ed <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > In order to save some money ...
>
> Buy a bicycle light, off the shelf. I recommend the Cat Eye HL-EL300, similar to this link but
> with a white, translucent enclosure :
http://www.cateye.com/detail.php?products_id=91 It gets
> attention even when aimed at the road 10 feet in front of me, lights up the road a little bit, and
> has held up to some medium amounts of rain.
>
> However, if you just want to learn what it's like to build a lighting system, or to get just the
> right system for you, or you want to enhance what someone else has made incorrectly, then by all
> means go for it!
>
> But the manufacturers get quantity discounts when ordering their parts, plus they mass produce
> their lights so that gives them the advantage of economies of scale, over a homemade prototype.
>
> Prototyping is always expensive compared to the manufactured item. So it is unlikely that you
> light will be cheaper when compared to a substantially similar, manufactured light, but not
> impossible! You might find some source cheaper than them.
>
> > and build my own lighting system, does anyone know of a electronics catalog out there which
> > would carry bulbs / light shells / switches, mounting clamps etc?
>
> You can get low quantity (onesys, twosys), electronic components from Radio Shack (
>
http://www.radioshack.com ) under their "Parts, Tools & Wire" link. The also have project boxes
> that you can drill holes in to use as your enclosure. But these are rectangular shapes, nothing
> curvey and pretty like the Cat Eyes or Nightsuns.
>
> Some cities have businesses that harvest electronic parts and sell them in low quantity to the
> general public. That would depend on your town, weather or not one is available to you.
>
> I recommend you use the new bright LEDs. They are much more electrically efficient, and have a
> much longer life than halogen, but much cheaper than a HID. That HL-EL300 has a round spot beam
> with a brightness much brighter than a single 6V halogen bulb, but much dimmer than an HID bulb.
> Although that HL-EL300 uses some nice lenses to form the LEDs into a nice, round beam. But,
> figuring out how to get a nice beam is part of the fun of these homemade prototypes, isn't it?
> But these are rectangular shapes, nothing curvey and pretty like the Cat Eyes or Nightsuns.
PVC pipe and heat can help with the curvey shapes. See:
http://www.billcotton.com/bicycle_electric.htm AA NiMH seem to be advancing the fastest as
weight/Amp hours. I used Radio Shack's cell holder to make AA battery packs. 2 ten cells pack of
2000 mAh produces 4 amp hours at 1 pounds weight. The newest cells I aquired are 2250 mAh.