Originally Posted by Map tester
Becca, building your own generator/converter/recharger places you highly in Geekland! Do you still have to recharge at night or does the on-board recharger make a significant difference? A few more questions if you don't mind:
1. How did you make the turn flasher circuit? Do you have only LEDs on the circuit?
2. What kind of switch are you using for the brake light? I have thought about buying one of the cheap Nashbar brake light sets and just using the switch with my own lights, just wondering if I might burn the switch out if I run 12 volts through it.
Any, great setup and thanks for sharing!!
1) I bought a set of lights which said it had brakes, tail, and turn signals. There was the unit that mounts on the handlebar, and a wire going back to the taillight assembly. Once I got it, though, I was disappointed - the tail/brake lights only had four LEDs, and the turn signals only two apiece. All of that was scrunched together such that it was difficult to make out what it was from more than 20 yards back. Plus, no front turn signals. So I decided to geek it up and do it right!
I haven't seen this brake/tail/turn set sold since I bought mine just over two years ago. Sad, really, because it wasn't a bad design! It was set up to use four AA batteries in series - 6v. So using my generator/converter unit is perfect for it.
2) The switch is in a small water-resistant case that attaches to the brake cable at the caliper. The switch itself is similar to these two:
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...131&type=store
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...M-4&type=store
and is almost exactly like these I bought on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3837385191
It's 12mm square, and approximately 1mm thick. The contacts are NO (normally open).
Before I got the Night Hawk light, I used a battery pretty similar to
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...612&type=store - it supplied everything I needed for all my lights. My headlight was a CatEye HL-HD100 that I'd converted to using 10 ultra-bright white LEDs. In reality, it was little more than a see-me light. In most urban areas, I didn't need the light to see, but in some back areas it created a small... puddle of light. Too weak to call it a pool. It kept me off the curbs is about all I can say. I can also say that the generator provided all the energy I needed for the lights! But as with most generators like it, it takes extra work to make it go. I have used the generator to help the light lately because I'd forget to plug the charger into the battery, and it was 100% effective in brightening up the light. No idea if it was also charging the battery. I think so, but I've got no meter on the thing. Hmmmmmmm....