Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Old Front Light = New Rear Light?

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paulrad9
10-01-07, 11:34 AM
I've been on the fence about getting a decent rear light. I have a collection of front lights and now considering taking an old 10 watt TrailRat and converting it to rear light status.
Last night I took some transparent red MonoKote (http://www.monokote.com/) and placed it in front of the light and it did a fairly good job of creating a bright red light.

Unfortunately, MonoKote is thin and will probably melt from the heat of the light. Ideally, I'd like to use a piece of red plastic and affix that in front of the light. Sure, it sounds crude, but I think most cars use nothing but a regular 15-20 watt light with a red cover, so my approach is not much different.

Anyone do anything similar? Any suggestion on where to source red plastic?

dekindy
10-01-07, 07:42 PM
http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=338987

I thought I had seen a recent discussion on this topic. I don't know how helpful it will be, but here it is.
john bono
10-01-07, 10:27 PM
I went and purchased some red theater gel to put over my blackburn quadrant to use as a taillight. In my case it didn't work out so well. The gel I picked was too opaque, and most of the light was filtered out, making a very dim light. If you can find a store that sells theater gel, I would try going in person with your light to make certain that the gel you buy won't dim the light in the process.

diff_lock2
10-02-07, 11:12 AM
It would be more logical to use high power RED leds. Since the red leds emit ONLY red light, so they can produce more red light with much less power.


I would say that some of the new seoul and cree 350mA red leds will be very red and VERY bright. I use one 350mA luxeon which is really crap compared to the seoul and cree leds. I use 2 1800mAh AAs and it has lasted hours.


http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/diff_lock_cr-v_awd/head%20taillight/DSC_0412.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/diff_lock_cr-v_awd/head%20taillight/DSC_0411.jpg
paulrad9
10-02-07, 12:06 PM
Thanks for the suggestions. Theater gel seems to be very similar to the transparent red monokote I've been testing. I think I need to try using several layers and go from there.

diff_lock2, I have no doubt that a LED will serve my purpose. However, this is more of a science project than anything else. Ideally, I want to leverage some old equipment as opposed to buying anymore new stuff. :)