Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Magic shine tail light

Has there been any news on the magic shine tail light I am looking at the Dinotte tail light but the price is a little high wanted to see what magic shine comes up with. have had two magic shine head lights snice sept and they have been doing great

I would buy one if they came with a y adapter for the battery

Something that bright is way overkill for a tailight.. I have found that using contrasting colors on the back will get you the most attention..

I use a Superflash and a Nathan LED Snap Band..

Another good option is to run your standard Red Tailight and use an adventure light as your contrasting light, lots of colors to choose from as well as mounting options..

http://www.botachtactical.com/novlabguar.html

Something that bright is way overkill for a tailight..

Lots of Dinotte users would disagree. I have one and I wouldn't mind an even brighter mode. Not for daily use, but in heavy fog and torrential rain, for instance. No way would I ride in heavy fog with a friggin Superflash, though I have two of them and use them for secondary lights in normal conditions.

He didn't say Dinotte, he says MS Tailight.. I'm pretty sure 500-600 lumens as a taillight is a little extreme..

He didn't say Dinotte, he says MS Tailight.. I'm pretty sure 500-600 lumens as a taillight is a little extreme..

I think he's talking about the MagicShine brand taillight that GeoMan mentioned a few months ago as being in development, not a MS headlight pointed backwards.

Has there been any news on the magic shine tail light I am looking at the Dinotte tail light but the price is a little high wanted to see what magic shine comes up with. have had two magic shine head lights snice sept and they have been doing great

On 02-23-10 in another forum, Geoman said 45-60 days.

He didn't say Dinotte, he says MS Tailight.. I'm pretty sure 500-600 lumens as a taillight is a little extreme..

Just because Magicshine makes it doesn't mean it'll be 500 lumens. It is possible for one company to make two different lighting products with different outputs.

IMO the big problem will be getting a proper controller. On a headlight you can get away with using a flashlight controller, because most people just want a light. On a taillight, you want nice bike specific flash modes. The Dinotte gets this right, and they also have the memory and the "double click on, hold for off" down right.

For DIY this isn't a big deal - I'm pretty much of a newbie with microcontroller programming but I could replicate the Dinotte controller code in an evening without any problem. The real question is getting it into production.

I think it's a far taller order to mass-produce a 500+ lumen front light at $85 retail than a measly tail-light with a few blinkie modes. Sounds nearly impossible based on the prices of current bike-specific manufacturer hi-lumen setups.

Oh wait - they did that already. =)

I think it's a far taller order to mass-produce a 500+ lumen front light at $85 retail than a measly tail-light with a few blinkie modes. Sounds nearly impossible based on the prices of current bike-specific manufacturer hi-lumen setups.

Oh wait - they did that already. =)

The Magicshine headlight uses all off-the-shelf components other than the machined aluminum shell. The O ring bracket is probably even off the shelf.

A constant-current LED driver with blink modes would have to be custom, and there are significant setup costs involved. Best bet would be if they could find someone with an existing driver that they could get custom blink modes programmed into.

The MS headlight use 4 LEDs lumped on one board. One or two of these would make an excellent taillight and should cost heck of a less. And yeah, a Y adapter for the battery. I'd buy it in a flash :D

I was actually thinking about getting a second MS head, and adding a filter or replacing the glass to make a rear light. Except the that MS strobe mode sucks.

A.

The MS headlight use 4 LEDs lumped on one board. One or two of these would make an excellent taillight and should cost heck of a less. And yeah, a Y adapter for the battery. I'd buy it in a flash :D

I was actually thinking about getting a second MS head, and adding a filter or replacing the glass to make a rear light. Except the that MS strobe mode sucks.

A.

That's a different MS light than I have. Mine uses a P7 driver, which is four emitters on one die, but not 4 LEDs on one board.

Buying a white LED and filtering it would be a colossal waste of battery. You'd be throwing away 3/4 of your light - or in other terms, getting 1/4 of the battery life you should given the light you're getting. Buy a light with a red LED, or retrofit one in yourself.

Yeah, that's what I meant perhaps: four emitters, I thought they were separate LEDs. I know that it would be wasteful, but are there red Cree LEDs out there?

Adam

Yeah, that's what I meant perhaps: four emitters, I thought they were separate LEDs. I know that it would be wasteful, but are there red Cree LEDs out there?

Adam

Here's one in a reflector, a drop in replacement for flashlights:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26345

Here's a bare emitter:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1776

That DX is an interesting place, where else can you find a butane torch, LED light, laser pointer, plant food, iPhone screen protector, Mario keychain doll and Manga themed vibrating rings and condom combo on one page?! And they use calipers to show the condom thickness and size... amazing! Eh... you could use that condom in a pinch as an iPhone screen protector though, but not vice versa :D

Good deal though on the red cree LED, I just wouldn't really know what to install it in. It seems to come in housing that is meant to fit into something.

Adam

i bought two ultrafire wf-501s on deal extreme and one drop in module with 5 different modes. one i run on solid with a diffuser lense and the other flashes sos(or strobe in thick fog/heavy rain). the whole thing was under 35 dollars, i had batteries and charger and mounts already. i would perfer different flashing modes, but its cheap and easy on/off on bike and its bloody bright from quite the distance. not like the pbsf, which is bright right infront of you but a few hunderad meters and its fairly dim. imo this current setup is a bit overboard.

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