Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Cheap, powerful rear light?

thanks uke, was hoping someone would post some at some point! Wouldn't mind seeing a comparison with a dinotte 140R if anyone has one.

Okay, here are the shots. All were taken at 1600x1200, manual, F2.8, exposure time 1/10 (deliberately underexposed to reduce overexposure from the lights), without flash. Backdrop in all cases was a white wall beside a curtained window. My P7 on high was included as a comparison. I used both Superflashes (regular and stealth models) when shooting, but eventually went with the stealth's pictures, as there was no difference between the two. Batteries in the PBSFs are several months old, but both are lightly used, and always in the flash mode. Shots of the Superflash were in steady mode. I swapped the battery from the P7 to the Ultrafire when shooting, and it was freshly charged. All pictures were downscaled to 800x600 for posting here.

The first set were taken at a distance of approximately 1 meter.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3683/p1110638.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/7486/p1110640.jpg

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/6939/p1110643.jpg

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/8748/p1110647.jpg

Respectively, they show the blank wall, the SF, the Ultrafire, and the P7.

The second set were taken at a distance of approximately 2 meters.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7576/p1110649.jpg

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4/p1110656.jpg

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/3460/p1110657.jpg

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/9200/p1110658.jpg

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/8035/p1110652.jpg

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3853/p1110655w.jpg


Respectively, they show the blank wall, the Ultrafire, the Ultrafire with the SF one foot to the left, the Ultrafire with the SF two feet to the left, the Ultrafire alone, and the P7.

Here is the gallery (http://img299.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=p1110638.jpg) view.

Overall, it was no contest. The Ultrafire is far brighter than the Superflash, even taking into account the Superflash being powered by not-new batteries. The SF still has the advantages of being smaller, lighter, having a flash mode, and an ultimately far longer battery life (due to the flash option). The Ultrafire, however, is cheaper, far brighter, and a brilliant option to fill the uncanny valley between the SF and the 140 Dinotte. If I can attach it, it will be my main tail light from now on.

Thanks a lot UKE for the beamshots. Pretty impressive to say the least.

very nice uke, much appreciated :)

No prob, lutz and daven1986. Glad you found them useful. I'll use the light this evening after class, and see how it works outdoors.

Am planning on getting one of these (as long as a better model hasn't come out by the time I purchase) and a dinotte 140R. I'll keep the dinotte on flashing and mount it a bit higher, and have this lower to create more of a red glow. Hopefully people will notice me!

No prob, lutz and daven1986. Glad you found them useful. I'll use the light this evening after class, and see how it works outdoors.

It works great outdoors. Please refer to earlier posts by myself and Unknown Cyclist. I recently dropped mine while moving on bike (holding in hand) and it still works fine. Some others have had issues with construction but my light has held up to about two months of 4x weekly commuting in the wet and the dry.

Overall, it was no contest. The Ultrafire is far brighter than the Superflash, even taking into account the Superflash being powered by not-new batteries. The SF still has the advantages of being smaller, lighter, having a flash mode, and an ultimately far longer battery life (due to the flash option). The Ultrafire, however, is cheaper, far brighter, and a brilliant option to fill the uncanny valley between the SF and the 140 Dinotte. If I can attach it, it will be my main tail light from now on.

I'm curious - what is this Ultrafire taillight? I've never heard of them. Link?

I'm curious - what is this Ultrafire taillight? I've never heard of them. Link?

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20333

It works great outdoors. Please refer to earlier posts by myself and Unknown Cyclist. I recently dropped mine while moving on bike (holding in hand) and it still works fine. Some others have had issues with construction but my light has held up to about two months of 4x weekly commuting in the wet and the dry.

Yup, it seems good outdoors. I'll need a few zipties to raise the angle of the light, though. At the moment, I've mounted it with the universal mount I use for my P7, but since it doesn't swivel on both axes, the beam angle is a bit low. I'll also need to devise another way to mount the light on my other bike, as that one's seat tube is too wide for the universal mount.


I'm curious - what is this Ultrafire taillight? I've never heard of them. Link?

It's the light the entire thread is based on. :O) http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20333

Thanks for the beam shots. This thread does need more pics. I'll post my ghetto Fred mounting job:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8094/p1000479.jpg
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3859/p1000477.jpg

My coworker drives by me every day coming and going into work. He commented the other day, after riding past me on a pitch black section of road, that the tail lights are very effective. I asked him if it seemed overpowering to him and he said not at all. I ride with the PBSFs blinking and the ultrafire on solid.

Thanks for the beam shots. This thread does need more pics. I'll post my ghetto Fred mounting job:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8094/p1000479.jpg
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3859/p1000477.jpg

My coworker drives by me every day coming and going into work. He commented the other day, after riding past me on a pitch black section of road, that the tail lights are very effective. I asked him if it seemed overpowering to him and he said not at all. I ride with the PBSFs blinking and the ultrafire on solid.


You, my friend, have the most affordable and visible setup. I run one less superflash but I may add another.

Running a white light rearward facing?

I'm not so sure that's a good idea...

Red blinking lights are better, IMO, because for most drivers they instantly communicate "bike ahead".

A steady state white light is ambiguous with respect to "what's that?".

Running a white light rearward facing?


No, its a red flashlight, as in the beamshots further up.

it's also good around the house if you happen to wake up in the midst of night.

the red is easy on the eyes compared to a white flash light. :p

when I use this on the road, I've yet to come across a driver that didn't give me a wide birth when passing :lol:

No, its a red flashlight, as in the beamshots further up.

OK...but the light shown in the pics posted by JinbaIttai appears to be a white light.

It looks like a white light but it shines red when turned on. Red LEDs are tricky like that because they don't need to shine through a red lens.

OK...but the light shown in the pics posted by JinbaIttai appears to be a white light.


Ultrafire; 10 dollars, takes 3.7V 18650, works, is bright, from hong kong, dealextreme.com, wait long time...

Trust us and anyone driving behind one of us, this thing is red!

It looks like a white light but it shines red when turned on. Red LEDs are tricky like that because they don't need to shine through a red lens.

Doh!! That makes sense...I just looked at my DiNotte 140L, and it too does not look red when it's off.

It's the light the entire thread is based on. :O) http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20333

OIC...Thanks. Seems I have a touch of Temporary Illiteracy Syndrome.

I've taken a similar approach to lower cost (lower than Dinotte, which I consider the one to beat), higher output DIY taillight.

I bought a MG-PLI from ShiningBeam.com, and added an Olight red filter ($9.75) for their M20 series. It's a close-but-not-tight fit diameter-wise. I have to wrap a single revolution of tape to the PLI flashlight's bezel OD for snug fit, then a "safety" tether to the red filter itself for retention in case it shakes lose from flashlight while riding. The resulting light is an orange/red color. I don't think a red-filtered white flashlight is ever going to be as red as a red emitter source flashlight.

Compared to my Vetta TSL-C, the PLI+filter is brighter, with a wider angle beam. It is not as red as the Vetta but still looks very much like a taillight. The Vetta, in turn, is a good deal brighter than my PBSFs.

The PLI+filter tailight arrangement appears to be visible to daytime traffic. Now that I've tried it, I think a P7/MCE flashlight with a red filter can be a practical, lower cost alternative to a Dinotte.

BTW, my PLI is a 5 mode prototype, so it flashes at 10 hz + SOS. The std PLIs are 3 mode (L M H), no flash modes. I intend to use the PLI for a headlight for the time being. With the Olight filter, I have the option of converting it to taillight duty as the need arises. A Dinotte 140L taillight would cost me another $45 from Dinotte, without batteries or charger (which I already have plenty of), so the PLI+filter is still a pretty good deal for a headlight plus taillight capability. Besides, I needed another headlight to replace my DX 16092 which died recently.

The PLI+filter tailight arrangement appears to be visible to daytime traffic. Now that I've tried it, I think a P7/MCE flashlight with a red filter can be a practical, lower cost alternative to a Dinotte.

The problem here is, that a red filter filters out all light apart from red - it doesn't change the colour of the light, so you are effectively losing about 80% of the light produced by the LED.

I red LED torch (as the one in this thread) then becomes a far more efficient choice - it's cheaper and the light produced is the colour required.

Why buy a (more expensive) P7 torch and then throttle it's output with a filter ??

The red torch discussed here will produce a lot more red light than a filtered P7, cost less to buy and have a longer runtime, in short it it's the better choice on every criteria.

How much did it cost you for your filter assembly ? more than $10 ?

There's also something else it can do, that the P7 can't - it can be a tail light at the same time as the P7 is being a headlight.

Go on...buy one, you'll like it....

:)

Yup...I considered filtering a P7 earlier, but decided against it for the reasons outlined above. Besides that, a quick test with a Red Lobster bag was unimpressive. This light, on the other hand, is good stuff. I've used a combination of the universal bike mount and a zip tie to point the light straight back. I no longer use the PBSF, though I still have one on each bike as a backup. I'm considering purchasing another Ultrafire (and experimenting with other mounts) to enable me to have a dedicated one on each bike, like my PBSF setup.They're well worth it.

A $10 red LED Ultrafire WF-501B versus a $40 P7, plus the cost and effort involved in filtering that P7 . . . I bet it ends up no brighter than the Ultrafire.

I still want to see how the Ultrafire holds up to a head to head test against the Dinotte 140.

A $10 red LED Ultrafire WF-501B versus a $40 P7, plus the cost and effort involved in filtering that P7 . . . I bet it ends up no brighter than the Ultrafire.

I've tried P7s and R2s with a few different red filters and the Ultrafire is much brighter.

There's no point it turning your front light into a rear, you don't get much light and you just have to buy another front light.....

:thumb:

It's worth noting that the energy of a photon is proportional to it's frequency (violet can have nearly twice the energy of red), so if you filter out everything but red you are losing more than 80% of the light and only keeping the lower energy part.

The redder the filter the more light it's stopping, so realistically you may only be allowing less than 10% of the light emitted by the P7 through.

Still......if it's a cold night you can warm your hands on it.....

;)

Just ordered a couple of these. I was eyeballing the Dinotte, but it's pricey (I know, at what price safety and all that). Thanks for the link. EE-geek hubby will enjoy some new toys.

I personally use a PB Superflash on my seatpack but just added one of these for a little extra added visibility.. I just wrap it around my rear triangle, just above my rear brakes.. Nathan Acid Reflex Snap Band LED Light.. I also use it for running at night, just wraps around my arm.. It uses 2 small watch batteries for the leds..

http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/16995-502_NTHAR7-43-Brands-645-Nathan/Nathan-Acid-Reflex-LED-Snap-Band.htm

I've tried P7s and R2s with a few different red filters and the Ultrafire is much brighter.

There's no point it turning your front light into a rear, you don't get much light and you just have to buy another front light.....

:thumb:

It's worth noting that the energy of a photon is proportional to it's frequency (violet can have nearly twice the energy of red), so if you filter out everything but red you are losing more than 80% of the light and only keeping the lower energy part.

The redder the filter the more light it's stopping, so realistically you may only be allowing less than 10% of the light emitted by the P7 through.

Still......if it's a cold night you can warm your hands on it.....

;)

this, and white LEDs are not white to begin with.
most use a blue LED with phosphor coatings to produce red and green which results in a visibly white light.

the higher power violet and blue lights aren't as visible from further away due to the wave length.
green, amber and yellow are quite good for being seen.

Another :thumb: for this Ultrafire. I got mine on Monday and installed it. This is blindingly bright, even in daylight. Excellent value, IMO.

How has it been holding up in wet weather for you guys?

I used mine in a flash flood a couple of weeks ago. Was pretty rad.

How has it been holding up in wet weather for you guys?

Mine has only been used in moderate rain, but no problems so far.....

I have been running mine since Feb/March of this year in rain without any problems. portland, oregon rain, so more constant that super heavy.

If you look back at my previous post, I dropped this about 5' while moving on my bike at about 10mph with no ill effect.

FYI

i really want one but i already have a pbsf and figure i should probably save my money.