Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - MOnkeylectric

Playing around with it some in the garage today :D

http://www.bikerubbish.com/rubbish/august2008/test.jpg

http://www.bikerubbish.com/rubbish/august2008/test9.jpg

Nice! I have one on the way. Can't wait to play around with it. Looking forward to the odd looks from motorists.

Sweet!! I've been interested in these things since discovering them in another post on this forum. I just wish you could upload your own graphics like SpokePOV will let you http://ladyada.net/make/spokepov/. Let us know how this works for visibility on the road at night. We already know they add to the cool factor of your bike (or geek factor depending on how you look at it). :)

Yes, a high shutter speed photo for comparison would be nice.

A couple youtube vids to see it in action. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyeI5kXluBs) and here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9B7ao2-VrU).

How do these differ from Hokey Spokes? Other than more expensive? I want some and wonder which ones to get.

They use the same concept but are implemented differently. Here's (http://blog.greaterbayshell.com/2008/05/24/review-monkeylectric-m132s-led-bike-light/) a review comparing them both.

Still experimenting.....

http://www.bikerubbish.com/rubbish/sept2008/at2.jpg

forgot to add bags, photoshop helped me out here. More pics on my site

http://www.bikerubbish.com/rubbish/sept2008/at11.jpg

Got my Monkeylectric a couple days ago. It is way cool! If you mount it close to the hub you can't even tell it's there, even at 20 mph. I have a "touring" wheelset so a race wheel might feel different. I put it in my rear wheel so I could play around with it inside to figure it all out first. I calculated that for a road size wheel, 1 revolution per second corresponds to about 5 mph. 3 rev/sec = 15 mph, etc. This allows you to gauge what it will look like while you're riding at different speeds. The darker it is the better it looks of course. You can really see the persistence of vision at work. The image "burns" into your retina then slowly fades.

For daily commuting I think I'll stick to plain red and a not too flashy pattern. It can go from trance/seizure inducing to mellow with the press of a few buttons. I plan to keep it in the wheel for as long as my commute is in the dark. Not much point in running it during the day.

I didn't realize that it doesn't use a magnet to trigger, which is nice. The LEDs simply run the patterns whether the wheel is spinning or not. When you hit 5-10 mph you start to notice the patterns being spun out. I wish multiple units could synch so that a more complete image could be achieved at slower speeds, maybe version 2.0.

All in all a very cool light. Functionality and novelty for $50, not bad.

Make sure and get a buddy to drive behind you and see what it looks like, as opposed to just at right angles. I'd be curious to know.

BAH,

How many units are you using per wheel in these pictures. Looks great!

Brian

I'm really digging the monkeylectric's... Though for $65 per kick, I'll stick with 1 for starters... though I don't see the difference (besides more colors) vs going with hokeyspokes ...

I just spent a bit of time on your site going through your fleet. Impressive:thumb: And ditto your photo skills. Someday you will discover the sense that motor assist makes for cargo bikes though. Start with a Giant electric and toss an xtra cycle kit on it?
86804

And this way of bike transport seems cleaner also?
86805

Keep up the good work and enjoy the dark days ahead of us here in the PNW.....

I'm really digging the monkeylectric's... Though for $65 per kick, I'll stick with 1 for starters... though I don't see the difference (besides more colors) vs going with hokeyspokes ...

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/07/29/review-a-month-with.html
I just read this article indicating it takes two units per wheel to get the effects illustrated in the videos. One is not even close.

Can others comment, please?

Most of the bikes in the videos on the MonkeyLectric site have multiple units per wheel. The BMX bike has 4 per wheel. Video can't capture what it really looks like to your eyes though. It's hard to explain, but in some of the videos it looks like it only fills up a slice of the wheel with light when in fact it makes an entire circle of light. However, the image can't get refreshed frequently enough at the speeds a bike can go to make it look like a solid image. A 700c wheel spins at about 1 rev/sec for every 5mph you go.

I have one unit on my front wheel and it still looks really cool, even at slow speeds.

Since units do not synch up with each other, multiple units may or may not look good depending on which patterns you choose.