ot bike tail light--help needed electronics

for $200 US it should kiss my ass too.

I got front, rear, turn indicators & a white strobe on top - battery,
charger, wires & all the trimmings for less than $100.
You need to keep shopping.

If I had it to do all over again (I don't know why I don't) I would
have done it with 6V rather than 12 and used one of them Schmidt hubs
- dang, there goes my $100 budget right there...

nice
but not cool

take care
peter

In article <HHOdj.1597$Ko6.1359@trndny02>,

ilaboo said:

i need help from someone or a group of cyclest that have a electronics
background-- just some knowledge of amphenol connectors and splicing a
on/off switch--absolutely not rocket science--no circuit design
i could do it muself but i am the worst solderer on the planet

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The tricks are:

1) keep your soldering iron tip clean & pristine and well tinned
(good ol' 0000 steel wool [if you can still obtain it]), and
avoid accreting a buildup of burnt flux on the tip.

2) let the heat of the thing to be soldered, rather than the
heat of the soldering iron melt the solder

3) remember that solder flows toward the hottest spot -- which
will in most cases be the tip of your soldering iron. You
can use this fact to guide the flow of solder (that's how
"sweat soldering" works.) What you really want is for
the solder to flow to the second hottest spot. When
soldering components to circuit boards or bread boards, you
want to simultaneously heat the copper spot on the underside
of the board, and the lead to be soldered. A pencil-point tip
allows one to apply the point to the copper spot, and lean the
tapered part of the tip against the lead. This makes the
copper spot a little hotter than the lead to be soldered.
Apply the solder just above where the tapered part of the tip
touches the lead, and then it'll flow down toward the soldering
iron's tip (on the copper spot.) The whole process should take
a little less than one second, otherwise you're exploding
components like popcorn.

4) self-supporting magnifying glasses (or Optivisors[tm])
are Da Bomb.

5) soldering /guns/ are great for some kinds of metalwork,
but not so good for electronics. The guns are too heavy
to wield with the required adroitness, and have way too
much wattage. And they generally come with a chisel-point
tip, which is far too awkward for electronics soldering.

6) an 18-watt soldering pencil is lovely, even if it's
a cheap one. Unplug it for a while when it starts
getting too hot.

Quoted message said:

will be taking off the shelf items and making the ultimate kick ass tailight
the total cost of the components are about $200.00

^^^^^^^

Holy mackerel! A 3/4's decent bike could be had for that.
Is this thing nuclear powered or sumpthin'?

Besides, while taillights are important, headlights are even
more important. Is this leading up to a $500.oo headlight?

And, dynohubs are indeed kewl.

I do applaud your keenness to develop and create something,
and I wish you success.

Original ideas are very difficult, but not impossible
to come up with.

cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

Tom Keats said:

In article <HHOdj.1597$Ko6.1359@trndny02>,

ilaboo said:

...
will be taking off the shelf items and making the ultimate kick ass tailight
the total cost of the components are about $200.00

^^^^^^^

Holy mackerel! A 3/4's decent bike could be had for that.
Is this thing nuclear powered or sumpthin'?

Besides, while taillights are important, headlights are even
more important. Is this leading up to a $500.oo headlight?...

$500 is not that much for a headlight:
<http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/bigbang.asp>.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
POST FREE OR DIE!

In article <[email hidden]>,
Tom Sherman <[email hidden]> writes:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

$500 is not that much for a headlight:

Yes it is.

That $500 headlights are available is neither
here nor there.

Like Robin Trower's line says: "Ain't it funny
how a fool and his money always finds those
real good friends."

cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

Tom Keats said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
Tom Sherman <[email hidden]> writes:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

$500 is not that much for a headlight:

Yes it is.

That $500 headlights are available is neither
here nor there....

In the context of a near $1000 headlight?

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
POST FREE OR DIE!

In article <[email hidden]>,

Tom Sherman said:

Tom Keats said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
Tom Sherman <[email hidden]> writes:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

$500 is not that much for a headlight:

Yes it is.

That $500 headlights are available is neither
here nor there....

In the context of a near $1000 headlight?

Especially in that context.

What are you trying to do -- drive people away
from the idea of cycling, by suggesting that
it's so expensive?

Please give your head a shake and recover
your good senses.

Even Scharfine lighting can be cheaply & readily
accomplished with those battery-powered emergency
lights strewn throughout apartment building hallways
(where they're more appropriate than on bicycles on
the streets and roads.)

cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

Tom Keats said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Tom Sherman said:

Tom Keats said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
Tom Sherman <[email hidden]> writes:

[snip]

> $500 is not that much for a headlight:
Yes it is.

That $500 headlights are available is neither
here nor there....

In the context of a near $1000 headlight?

Especially in that context.

What are you trying to do -- drive people away
from the idea of cycling, by suggesting that
it's so expensive?

Please give your head a shake and recover
your good senses.

Even Scharfine lighting can be cheaply & readily
accomplished with those battery-powered emergency
lights strewn throughout apartment building hallways
(where they're more appropriate than on bicycles on
the streets and roads.)

When you have to explain a joke...

"Scharfine lighting" - as in "The World's Greatest Expert"?

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
POST FREE OR DIE!

here's what i wanted to do

using hex luxeon assemblies (lxhl-nb97)--this would be the inner ring--color
blue

surrounding it would be the 12 ring Hex in red
got it--red ring with blue inner ring( would really look cool)--
entire assembly would be mounted in such a way ( using rubber band type of
attachment) that it would hang and shake as the bike went along it's way--no
need for blinking or flash circuity ( i am aware of posibilities of inducing
seizures if it flasdhes at about 12 cycles per second)

cost of 6 ring is about 100.00 and the 12 i believe is 160.00
comments on this are appreciated
tia
peter

Quoted message said:

1) keep your soldering iron tip clean & pristine and well tinned

tom

i really know about the principles of soldering and i do ok especially since
i got a soldering station (xytronics 379) but never comes out like it
should--just not neat--joints never have a cold soldered joint-using
multicore solder and tip is spotless
i appreciate your help

peter

ilaboo said:

here's what i wanted to do

using hex luxeon assemblies (lxhl-nb97)--this would be the inner ring--color
blue

surrounding it would be the 12 ring Hex in red
got it--red ring with blue inner ring( would really look cool)--
entire assembly would be mounted in such a way ( using rubber band type of
attachment) that it would hang and shake as the bike went along it's way--no
need for blinking or flash circuity ( i am aware of posibilities of inducing
seizures if it flasdhes at about 12 cycles per second)

cost of 6 ring is about 100.00 and the 12 i believe is 160.00
comments on this are appreciated

1) Use of blue lights on a moving vehicle is restricted to snow plows.
2) You want to hang $160 worth of LEDs off a rubber band???
3) Most LED lamps actually cycle the LEDs at a medium hight Hz rate -
200-400 I think - to get the most apparent light out of the least
battery. The "on" cycle is often down around 10%. With no circuitry
and 18 big LEDs, you'd need a fairly large battery.

For that much weight, why not consider a pair of Tiki lamps and a
litre of kerosene?

ilaboo said:

here's what i wanted to do

using hex luxeon assemblies (lxhl-nb97)--this would be the inner ring--color
blue

surrounding it would be the 12 ring Hex in red
got it--red ring with blue inner ring( would really look cool)--
entire assembly would be mounted in such a way ( using rubber band type of
attachment) that it would hang and shake as the bike went along it's way--no
need for blinking or flash circuity ( i am aware of posibilities of inducing
seizures if it flasdhes at about 12 cycles per second)

cost of 6 ring is about 100.00 and the 12 i believe is 160.00
comments on this are appreciated
tia
peter

Since you're not planning to have them flash, you're going to be
dissipating 6 watts.

Pay very close attention to the Lumileds thermal design guide. See
"http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/ab05.pdf", especially the heat sink section.

You'll need to mount them on some sort of aluminum heat sink. Don't burn
up $260 worth of LEDs!

With flashing LEDS, the duty cycle is low enough that you don't need
additional heat sinking (besides the advantage of using much less power).

You also have the issue of the different voltage requirements of the 6
ring blue (8-12 volts) and the 12 ring (16-24 volts).

How are you getting power to this when it's hanging from a rubber band?
The battery will be very large (two 12 volt batteries or one 24 volt
battery) so you'll have to mount the battery somewhere else on the bike,
and run wires down to it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personally, I'd do this completely differently. There is no need for
such high power and expensive LEDs on a rear light, it's needlessly
expensive for no real advantage in night visibility.

Buy individual LEDs and mount them in the circular patterns on a piece
of solderable perf board, i.e.
"http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/PC-2/search/SOLDERABLE_PERF_BOARD_.html"

Buy six aqua LEDs:
"http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/LED-77/search/AQUA_HIGH-BRIGHTNESS_LED,_5MM_.html"

These are aqua, not blue, because blue may get you into legal trouble,
but they have blue as well, see:
"http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/LED-117/search/5MM_ULTRABRIGHT_BLUE_LED,_BLUE_OFF-STATE_.html"

Buy twelve red LEDs:
"http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/LED-94/search/SUPER-ULTRABRIGHT_RED_LED,_5MM_.html"

With 18 LEDs, use a 6 volt battery, and divide the 18 LEDs into nine
sets of two, with a 100 ohm 1/4W current limiting resistor for each set
of two LEDs.

You could also get flashing RED LEDs, with built in flashers, i.e.
"http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/LED-4/search/RED_FLASHER_LED,_T-1_3_4_.html"
but they won't flash in sync. Since the flashers are built in, no
circuitry is needed (other than two series 1N4001 diodes if operating
them off a 6 volt battery because the max voltage is 5V, and the diodes
will drop the 6 volts down to slightly under 5 volts). You'd connect the
flashing LEDs in parallel, not series.

The total power consumption will be around 20ma * 2V * 18=0.72W plus
some losses in the dropping resistor, but it'll be less than 1 watt.

I'd use flashing red LEDs, solid aqua LEDs, and not hang it from a
rubber band, but mount it in some sort of weatherproof enclosure.

Steve
"http://bicyclelighting.com"

Tom Keats said:

Even Scharfine lighting can be cheaply & readily
accomplished with those battery-powered emergency
lights strewn throughout apartment building hallways
(where they're more appropriate than on bicycles on
the streets and roads.)

No, those emergency lights used in buildings are not suitable for
bicycle lights. I don't know where you got the idea that I've ever
suggested using such lights.

The original poster was talking about rear lighting, and he's more
interested in doing something decorative than anything else.

The best rear light for a bicycle, in terms of visibility and longevity,
is a xenon strobe. You can get these from Nightsun, both in internally
powered and 12 volt powered versions, but they aren't cheap. See
"http://www.night-sun.com/htmldocs/stuff_civilian.html".

SMS 斯蒂文• 夏 wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Since you're not planning to have them flash, you're going to be
dissipating 6 watts.

Actually, I was mistaken. According to my calculations (using the 700mA
current rating, and the resistance ratings on the spec sheet, the 12 red
ring will be 3.5W, and the 6 blue ring will be 1.8W. So the total will
be 5.3W, not 6W.

..

For that much weight, why not consider a pair of Tiki lamps and a
litre of kerosene?

brian--you are so clever!!! why i did not think of this shocks me.

actually i once did something like this but mainly a home made smoke
stick--smoked out probably 50 people sitting in Bronx park--it was
fantastic!!--no mosquitoes for weeks after--i and my bike where like a
rocket ship!

take care
pter

Quoted message said:

Steve
"http://bicyclelighting.com"

you are right but this was the help i needed and decided it was a good idea
but there where problems

tia
peter

"SMS ???. ?" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

SMS ???. ? wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Since you're not planning to have them flash, you're going to be
dissipating 6 watts.

Actually, I was mistaken. According to my calculations (using the 700mA
current rating, and the resistance ratings on the spec sheet, the 12 red
ring will be 3.5W, and the 6 blue ring will be 1.8W. So the total will be
5.3W, not 6W.

still--it would have been kick ass light--ble light came from experience in
the south where people would use ble light in taillight and cops would chase
them--meanwhile divers where playing thunder road!!
take care
peter