Electronics / LED lights...

[guest18]

One for the electronics buffs...
After sitting on the hard shoulder of a dark motorway awaiting the AA a few weeks back I got to thinking about hazard lights, and how useful they would sometimes be on a bike!

Now I'm sure I could just create a conventional hazard light setup, and I may well do... but I remember seeing a Landrover at one point where the owner had added led's inside the indicator units (and on the side of the truck as it happens) which flashed a bit like bicycle led lights sometimes do (bright and fast and in an irregular pattern iirc), they were far more eyecatching than "normal" hazards and the bloke reckoned they drew very little current.
So... any of the resident electronics experts familiar with that sort of system? How hard would it be to create a led array like that? Or are they available off the shelf? Just a thought.... 

[Richard]

I do believe that a kit is available from Maplin.  Don't know if its any good but they had loads of interesting 'assemble your own' kits for things when I was last in one, can't remmeber if a Hazard kit was amongst them any more as they are so common now.

RIchard

[jules]

Led's on a bike,
very useful unless/until the battery dies,with most modern bikes the ignition has to be on for them to operate

[Steve H]

Smudge, what about fitting a couple of some bicycle lights to the rear, ok they would be red but the LED lights have a couple of flashing modes, which would make you stand out quite effectively and the battery life is pretty good to. No messing about with wiring either.

[Andy M]

I'd go for the Maplin kits, they drive the LED's electronically, so the power use is minimal (probably under 1A, so you battery would last 10 hours plus). All those pointless LED conversions M&P and Horrible Gherkin sell just replace the lamp element with a resistor, so you are using power to make the world a fraction warmer as well as slightly brighter and can discharge a bike battery in less time that the RAC could take to arrive.

On a quick fix solution, I got a wind-up head torch from Argos. As well as giving light to work by it can be set to flash. I was thinking that if I did end up on the hard shoulder at night, it'd get left turned on, pointed at the verge a few yards behind the bike, or pointed at the bikes reflectors and  flashing away.

Andy

[Steve Lake]

Interesting idea, might try it out myself, i would think 4 orange superbright LED's in each indicator unit linked back to a relay (only needs to be a little one, current less than 500ma for all 16 led's) and an r/c network (resistor/capacitor) to pulse the relay......oh, and a switch,whole lot shouldn't cost more than a fiver.

alternatively, get led indicators then just add a few wires and a switch so's you can run all 4 in hazard mode

[guest18]

Ok, here's the hideously expensive commercial version, the video of the CRV is pretty much what was set up in the landy I saw.
http://www.emergencyequipmentshop.co.uk/hideaway-kits-amazing-value-p-498.html?osCsid=ed05469a1faf0613d9db33a65642a94a
(Amazing value my a**e!)

I was thinking it should be wired direct to the battery like a conventional hazard circuit so that it will still operate even when the main electrical system is kaput (not that such a thing would ever happen to me...  )
The "spare" bicycle lamp trick is a good one, for a long while I used a bicycle daysack for my commute which had a clip on the back allowing me to attach a little led tail-light. nice to have if the bulb goes on the bike.

Had a look at Maplins but couldn't see anything suitable 
Given that a strobing(sp?) bicycle lamp can be had for less that £20 (shame it's only 3v otherwise I'd just butcher a couple of those!) I can't imagine the components to create such a system should be that expensive.. just need to identify what's needed, where to get it and how to connect it... any ideas Steve?   

[Richard]

Well earlier this year I rebuilt some Carbide Lamps.  If I were to place a red glass in front of one and put it on the back of the bike I guess that would work, with no pesky wiring to worry about.  Tak the glass away and voila, a white light.

I love the smell of Carbide in the morning, it smells of Luddism.

Richard

[bobby554]

Hello I replaced all my lights on my Norton Commando except the headlight with LEDs, You need to replace the flasher unit with an electronic one (ebay) and observe polarity.I did it by using instrument bulb holders (2 per indicator) and LED bulbs. stop and tail bulbs are off the shelf.All idiot lamps came From RGM Norton in Cumbria. If you really wanted to be clever you could put extra self flashing LEDs in the rear indicators running from a button cell in each indicator body and operated by an independent switch.

[bobby554]

Hi
Just had a bit of a ferkle in the shed and found that a bit of 16g plastic with some rubber grommets in make a fine bulb holder for the mini blade type LED bulbs (auto shop) or 5mm LEDs (Maplin)and if you solder the LEDs legs to feed wires you can configure the pattern/polarity to suit whatever bike you have. So for instance a disk of plastic around the primary bulb could hold 4 or 6 LEDs.in a round or rectangular indicator body.

Regards Bob.

[Steve Lake]

here's the led's
2.5 forward voltage so 5 in series in each indicator will do the trick, 4000 mcd is nice and bright (MilliCanDela)

http://cpc.farnell.com/kingbright/l-813syc-j3/led-10mm-4000mcd-yellow-clear/dp/SC08777

now all we need is a flashing unit and an on off switch

[guest7]

Given that a strobing(sp?) bicycle lamp can be had for less that £20

I've got a CatEye strobing rear light on my ped and it's astoundingly bright. If you just carried one of those with the clip attachment on it you could clip it to your numberplate in an emergency.

GC

[guest18]

Indeed, it's cateye lights I have on mine, and for my emergency baack up tail-light, but lets do the hazards properly if we can  how much neater and more convenient to have them built into the existing flashers.. and with that sort of array no cager could ever complain that they hadn't noticed you 

Like the look of the LED's Steve, keep it coming (he said in a lazy manner  ) the wiring/soldering I can do, it's the electronic theory that embarasses me! 

[guest7]

Being a bit of a luddite I hadn't realised that modern bikes now have a hazard warning setting as standard. I only found out when the two Tenere riders used their hazards to warn drivers of a dangerous obstacle in the road on the recent Llanthony run. The dangerous obstacle was Jethro on his terminally stationary siecar outfit 

GC

[Steve Lake]

here we go.....whole shooting match in one unit with 2 20,000! mcd units (which can be detached, and sited wherever you want) AND requires a 12v power supply....a tenner seems a bargain

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/level5/module.jsp?moduleId=cpc/544089.xml