Electronics / LED lights...

[steveD]

You can now actually buy flashing LED's which you just have to power up and they do the rest.
We used to use them for small circuits when I was teaching.
......and yes most bikes now have hazard flashing lights. I intend to also find some adhesive red material to make a triangle which will be attached to the inside face (mounting side) of the panniers permanently which, when the panniers is removed and placed some distance behind 'problem' will light up. Or alternatively at the moment as they already have reflective material on, one on the top of the other would certainly attract attention. The problem with relying on lighting as in the flashers is that with most bikes we brake down because of a flat battery!
At least when we do brake down there is not the neccessary7 urgency to stay with the vehicle as in sit inside which in most cases is not the saferest place to be especially in poor visibility. We usually have good waterproof gear on and a handy Brolly!

[guest7]

here we go.....whole shooting match in one unit with 2 20,000! mcd units

Cooooool! I'm gonna get me one of those suckers! 

GC

[steveD]

How about these

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34161#features

Mount a pair of hese and have as remote units in a small waterproof box and result.

[guest7]

And rely on a 9v battery rather than the bike's (potentially fubar) 12v battery. Hmmmm, it has its plus points. Having said that, what would you need to step down the 12V supply to 9V?

GC

[Steve Lake]

. Having said that, what would you need to step down the 12V supply to 9V?

One of these... http://cpc.farnell.com/_/ua7809/ic-regulator-9-0v/dp/SCUA7809?Ntt=9vvoltageregulator

[Steve Lake]

Having said that, what would you need to step down the 12V supply to 9V?

GC

or this little jobby.... http://www.zen22142.zen.co.uk/Circuits/Power/9v2a.htm

[guest18]

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

Excellent  Cheers Steve.
I'll let you know how it goes once I get it... just need to see how much space there is inside my existing indicator units now and if I can remote the switch. All good stuff, sounds like it should be nice and bright too!   

[Steve Lake]

Smudge.....that circuit uses mosfets to drive the leds, so plenty of power  (max 3a i think), you could of course subistute the LED arrays with a single extra super duper bright led (40,000 mcd +) available from RS components, but cost a whopping £2.50 each
here http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=retrieveTfg&Ne=4294959627&Ntt=20000+mcd&Ntk=I18NAll&Nr=AND%28avl%3auk%2csearchDiscon_uk%3aN%29&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&N=4294955205+4294813469&Ns=stockPolicy_uk%7c1%7c%7cnew_uk%7c1&Nty=1&multiselectParam=&selectAttribute=40000mcd#breadCrumb

[guest18]

Well I just built one of these units tonight and tested it with a 9v battery... good grief these are bright when they're pointed at you  pretty reasonable from the side as well.
One of the led's appears to be snafu but as each side has a group of four I can live with that.

Hopefully going to get to Maplin tomorrow to pick up some wire and a project box to house them and I'll see how much room there is in the indicator housings  (assuming I get the bike back tomorrow  )

If anyone else is interested I'll try to do some pics of the build / finished effort at some point as well