My favorite rear light... ever

[spinningmagnets]

Runs off of three 1.5V disposables, very common for this type of device...so, 4.5V. It might be possible to run this off of four rechargeable 1.3V NiMH = 5.2V, or also low-grade laptop 18650's = 4.1V. Some cheap LED lights do, some don't...gotta try it to see, but for $4, its a cheap experiment?

 

[The fingers]

I'm going to print the page and see if they carry them at the local HF store. 8)
(Super coupon not good for sale price items.)

 

[SloNEZ]

Nice!
I'll be stopping at HF on the way home tonight.
Thanks!

EDIT TO ADD:
Got back from The Harbor a while ago. I just stuck it on the rear of my rack with some two-sided outdoor tape.
What a great light. The viewing angle is much wider than I though it would be. Of course, the switch promptly began to work only intermittently, lol.
It might almost be TOO bright (Slo-Wife used the phrase "a little obnoxious"), but I like it.
I did wrap some Gorilla Tape around the perimeter where the halves meet to try and add a little water resistance.
iPhone pix below showing: outside near the end of civil twilight no flash; ditto with flash; inside lighted garage no flash.

Thanks again for the good tip,
- Slo

 

[docnjoj]

I need a bright rear flasher but only have 12 volts out from my converter.
otherDoc

 

[amberwolf]

I use four of tehm on the back of the SB Cruiser trike:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67833&start=100

I have "plans" to take the electronics board (round board where the switch is, whcih you could use in one of the regular flaslights if you wanted to!) out and wire the white LEDs up in pairs left and right as turn signals, with yellow or amber covers of some type over it. Then the red triangels will get paralled up for tail and brake lights.

I dont normally use flashing rear lights, but if you wanted to use them with the electronics intact, you could simply wire in any old celphone charger's output (5v, usually) to the battery terminals inside it, and the charger's ac input prongs to your traction battery. Most likely teh cahrger could easily put out enough current to run at least one or two of these.


Oh, and somewhere in the thread is how i took off the magnet and put a bolt on it to put it onto the trike in a way that can't be easily stolen or lost on bumps.

Also, the white LEDs seem to emit a faint glow even in pitch darkness with no batteries in them, so I'm convinced they're also powered by magic. :lol:

that's cuz many white leds create white light with a phosphor, like on old CRT tv's and monitors, so if it has been exposed to light it may glow a tiny bit in complete darkness for a while afterward. Or if you hit it with IR or UV light. (many white LEDs light up the phosphor from underneath with UV for normal operation).

 

[cwah]

Can you wire them in series so that you can plug then to your main battery pack?

 

[amberwolf]

Probably...but for myself I'd rather power them individually, so that if anything goes wrong in one it won't affect the others--and so I won't lose *all* the lights if one fails.


FWIW, I broke one off yesterday, catching it on something at work getting it around a corner in the store to get it to the breakroom, so Tiny could be inside and as safe as possilbe, but still in the kennel where she won't get herself into troulbe.

 

[pdarnett]

Just got one of these this week. http://www.7dayshop.com/products/7dayshop-waterproof-rechargeable-intelligent-rear-indicator-bike-light-WH2-CM-002 . Rechargeable, auto shuts off after 3 minutes of the bike standing still, comes on automatically at night and has indicators as well! Pretty good for the money!

 

[amberwolf]

auto shuts off after 3 minutes of the bike standing still,

That would be a problem in traffic. I can think of many times I've been in traffic waiting to get thru a light for a lot longer than that, and it would suck to have the thing turn off by itself without command. I'm sure there's a lot of cyclists that ride in traffic that have to wait more than 3 minutes to get thru lights at various times of day.

 

[puregsr]

I bought one of these a couple years back and used it strapped to my trike's rear rack in flashing red mode. If you make a triangle with your thumbs and index fingers, it is about that large. The red flashing triangle is a nice warning symbol for a slow moving vehicle and it is really quite bright. It also works well for a work light in a pinch with either white or solid red. Best of all, it uses very little power so I was able to use rechargeable AAAs and charge every week. I tested 40mA average on red if memory serves. I've recently hacked in a 2200mAh 18650, so this thing should run for at least 48 hours per charge. If they were just a *little* bigger they could fit 3x 18650s for super overkill. I'm considering building a few more of these, but at $3.99, the light alone is well worth it.
I'd put this up against any of the much more expensive Cateye, etc. bike lights I've used and come across, especially the ones that use coin batteries!
http://www.harborfreight.com/emergency-39-led-triangle-worklight-62158.html

Also, the white LEDs seem to emit a faint glow even in pitch darkness with no batteries in them, so I'm convinced they're also powered by magic. :lol:

How are you mounting it?

 

[The fingers]

Wifey picked one of the triangle lights for me at Harbor Frieght, along with some pepper spray. Real bright! Using it as a refrigerator magnet until I put it in my rear basket. All the junk I carry around with me should hold it facing to the rear. Or I could stick it in the middle of the back of my flouro green reflective safety vest with double-sided foam tape. I like it so much I'll probable get a few more.8)

 

[amberwolf]

How are you mounting it?

Mine were mounted with a bolt thru the hole the magnet covers up, with teh bolt head epoxied to the inside of the cover. Then the bolt thru a rightangle bracket on teh back of the trike's deck.

Worked great, until I hooked one on something and broke it off at work, the other I broke off last night when the x5304 20" wheel experiment came off the right side and let the trike's rear end crash down onto pavement, catching the light on the asphalt and ripping it off the bracket.

Plastic sheared thru so I'll have to glue or bolt a cover over the back for the next bolt to go thru.

 

[ddk]

I luvs to show off my nightrider lights.
Fashioned from led string lights, the mounted ones on this trike are rgb types. They also come in "solid" colors of red, amber, green and blue.
The lights come with 2-sided 3m tape for mounting. It won't hold up. I used clear boxing tape on the "non-waterproof" string and tiestraps in the waterproof string.
Strings of 300 leds start at about 10$ for solid and 13$ for rgb and can be cut to length as needed.
The solid run off 12V and the rgb requires an additional color-controller (about 2-15$) which runs off 12-24V.
I use a 3s or 4s LiCo section either from my motor packs, or a separate supply packed with 6ea 5A 3s cells (30A)

 

[whatever]

I came across a new type of rear light on aliexpress, uses red lasers to put two parallel red lines on the road behind the rider,
very cheap also.

 

[amberwolf]

Not new...been discussed lots on ES in various posts and threads over the last few years.

It's nowhere near as bright as that looks; it's a long overexposure to get that. There's a thread where you see other pics of it with streetlights and cars and such, and the cars are all streaks of light, and people are blurs, cuz of the exposure time, and the streetlighting looks like daylight, too. :lol:

 

[ddk]

...It's nowhere near as bright as that looks; it's a long overexposure to get that....

...whereas my shots use 'normal' exposure just slightly slower than daylight
hint: the dual headlights of the trike shining on the wall were brand new-first use ...and rated for 1200L (measured 1100+)
double hint: overdriven LEDs, like flashlights can lose 50% of their luminosity after just 10 minutes use
The shop has almost 2400L on the bench
triple hint: yep- blinded by old-age

The trike RGB lights are so bright I'd worry more about interfering with aereoplanes... alas, we haz no aereoplanes locally to speak of. :wink:
Instead I worry about attracting alien space ships


***re-installs tinfoil hat***

 

[amberwolf]

We get a lot of rain, and it survived one season like this without issue, but a more elegant approach would be wise.

I don't know a perfect way of waterproofing them, other than sealing them up either with rechargeables inside and a "dongle" connector tail thru a sealed hole to recharge them, or running the recharge port wires to something like a bolt that goes thru the housing, but is sealed, then clip your charging wires to that (there's a lot of those kinds of things made just for that purpose). Or just run wires out to a central lighting pack and seal the wire exit up.


Moutning them, well, a bolt from the inside to a nut outside, washers between (and sealant if you need to keep it dry), is a simple method that works great (as long as you don't catch it on anything/ the plastic is nto very tough and breaks easily).






Also, I have a white LED strip under the trike's "downtube" to light up the ground around it. It's not as brigth as the ones on CB2 and is warmer colored; I doubt it's truly waterproof but it's inside a sillicone housing.

 

[The fingers]

http://road.cc/content/news/155419-bike-mounted-gizmo-projects-signals-cyclist-s-back 8)
This ought to give them something to aim for.

 

[striider]

The switch is going out in this one on me:

Visibility was good, but the laser functions are useless, and it is NOT waterproof which is why the switch is going out. Going to try the HF one next, since that's a good detour within range on my way home from work.

 

[ddk]

...
The RGB LED strips are great too! I have used blue to illuminate underneath and have red for mounting to my trike's flagpole. AW was referring to the laser light as being not as good as advertised.

I knew that but didn't explicitly quote him.

...Visibility was good, but the laser functions are useless, and it is NOT waterproof which is why the switch is going out. Going to try the HF one next, since that's a good detour within range on my way home from work.

I live along the best coast, bordering on OR/CA. It rains here
lots of rain,
like, over 150" per year ('cepting recently)

What I found that works best is to create a way any water catched can quickly drain from whatever enclosure it was caught in. (iow- drill a drain hole)
-also-
packing tape seems to hold it's own exposed to elements for a really long time and is quite water resistant.

Best of luck!

 

[ebent]

I use the 8 led rear light from grin. It is a chunk of epoxy with a switch for on off and blink. It has a lifetime warranty and I think there has never been a claim. It should be a 2 lifetime warranty. It is bullet proof. Since I ride with a load of ah I avoid aa and aaa batteries. A blinking rear red light needs to ALWAYS be on. With aa's there will be down time. Not good. And it is liberating to be free of ever ready. I got a converter from thunderstruck and bought a marine bus bar that is powered with 12v. I run my headlight and my motorcycle stereo from the bus bar also.

 

[Tommy L]

Im on a Catrike 700 low to the ground. I use flags and this
Super bright LED. It a Trailer LED that is 12v. I purchased a
LED flasher and set it up that the parking light is always on and
the brake light (which is brighter) is flashing. I use one of my
LiFePO4 motorcycle start batteries to run it.


[youtube]WnicZ3DsvfY[/youtube]

 

[amberwolf]

I use the 8 led rear light from grin.

I have that, too, on the trike, but it is very small surface area despite it's brightness. I prefer larger surface area, as it makes it easier for people to see without being blinding.

But I do like the separate flasher wire on it--I use that for braking, so when I brake it triggers the flashing, but is on steady all the rest of the time.

(Then my harbor freight trailer-hitch-cover LED light is right next to it, also always on, but using a bunch of diodes to drop the voltage and reduce it's brightness, except when braking. During braking, the switch shorts the diodes and doubles it's brightness. So then I have two separate braking indicators in case someone's not paying attention to one or the other...plus me watching the mirrors during braking to be sure nobody's gonna run me over).

 

[anoNY42]

Awesome light. I used mine for about a year with rechargeable NIMH AAA cells, and it worked just fine. Only reason I got rid of it is because I no longer use a rear rack and have no where else to mount it.

 

[Badger EMotive]

I was the PM.

For those on the fence with a rack!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G44d1tLMylE

Matt