Brake light idea
 

An idea floating around in my head this week.

Take a tail light with a similar form to the dinote ( for example ) incorporate a flashing circuit, and an accelerometer. Under normal usage, it has a, fairly fast flash. As you start to slow, so does the flash, When you grab a handful of brake, it comes on solid red, maybe an increase in brightness too?

Has any one tried this? What do you think of it as an idea?

B&M already makes a system:
http://www.bumm.de/docu/nojsmenu-e.htm

Flash animation explaining the system:
http://www.lecyclo.com/images/videos_flash/diwasite.swf

I don't think going from "flashing" to "steady" when stopping would be the best idea. If it's on flashing, it should stay flashing.

I have seen someone use a microswitch to increase brightness when they grab the brake

I used 4 super bright (amber), large (22 LEDS per unit) LED strobes to create turn signals and super bright (red) LED strip to make a brake light this summer. (So many younger drivers interpreted the hand signal for a right turn as a wave, I decided turn signals were a must and while I was at it I thought why not install a brake light.) I used a micro lever switch, set to normally open, zip-tied to the brake cable for controlling the light--when I depress the rear brake, the brake light is activated. Both the strobes and the strip I use for the brake signal require so little power that I use a 9V battery (1 9V for the 4 turn signals and 1 9V for the brake light). Best of all, my cost was extremely low--the micro lever switch was the most expensive component at $9.00--the rest--LED strobes, LED strip and a center-off-toggle switch (for the turn signals) cost a total of $20.

Sorry for the quality of this first picture (I took it in the middle of installing everything and didn't take the time to see that I hadn't focused the camera), but here's the brake light--I have a good, battery-powered tail light/blinker so the brake light is simply a brake light and it's right below the tail light.

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442.../372595938.jpg

You see the rear turn signals, brake light and my tail light in this shot. If I upgrade the brake light in future, it will be to get a larger LED strip.

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442.../372716656.jpg

Here's a view of the front turn signals.

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442.../372716395.jpg

this is cool but it needs to be a smaller form factor to make sense.

i honestly don't think bikes should have this stuff because cars will rely on it. anytime a car sees a bike it should immediately think "need to pay attention!"... and you should be lit up enough already that a car will already see you and already see that you're stopping, turning, signaling(sometimes i hand signal as well as point, i'm turning into THIS driveway) or whatever.

however if it were possible, i'd rather have a controllable array of super bright P7 lights or whatever, so you have two yellow lights and a red brake that may be very dim for running.

There are so many young drivers unfamiliar with hand signals, I think turn signals make sense on bikes these days. The strobes can't be missed, even in daylight. Here's a video of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvOPIW_TRZI

Where did you get them?

I got them from this HK store -- http://www.suntekstore.com/us-44-led...hts-amber.html. It was my first order with them, I wasn't sure how good they'd be (I also chose the free shipping). I was pleasantly surprised--I got my order in 14 days, everything was in great shape and working order. I won't hesitate to order from them again. They have the large strobes in red, too. http://www.suntekstore.com/tr-2x22-l...gency-red.html