Rear light LED on Givi Top Box

[Lumiya]

If you're using red LED's then no need for a lens

[Severe Marmalade]

Spada do a back box with a built in High level brake light. It is branded Spada but built by Givi ( Givi's daughter owns Spada ) which begs the question
" Are parts interchangeable "?.
Here is a Spada SP42 box fitted to Dads Varadero.

http://www.xrv.org.uk/photopost/data...d_sods_004.jpg


The box was bought locally from Bike Gear and I know a company called Feridax do the light as an accessory

Spada SP29 / SP42 Brake Light - Feridax.com

If the parts are indeed interchangeable then in the words of Rhodri Owen "Sorted"
HTH?
J.

[Lutin]

If you're using red LED's then no need for a lens

Ah, but that would spoil the look!

However, I did toy with the idea of ditching the reflector altogether and just cramming a whole load of LEDs together into the rectangular space available.

Connecting them up in a combination of series and parallel, I would still be no where near 1 Amp total current. Might still do this.

Wish I had the facilities to make my own PCBs. Drawing them up is no problem as there's plenty of PCB CAD packages available - KiCAD, Eagle etc etc.

[Lutin]

Spada do a back box with a built in High level brake light. It is branded Spada but built by Givi ( Givi's daughter owns Spada ) which begs the question
" Are parts interchangeable "?.
Here is a Spada SP42 box fitted to Dads Varadero.

http://www.xrv.org.uk/photopost/data/500/medium/Odds_and_sods_004.jpg

The box was bought locally from Bike Gear and I know a company called Feridax do the light as an accessory

Spada SP29 / SP42 Brake Light - Feridax.com

If the parts are indeed interchangeable then in the words of Rhodri Owen "Sorted"
HTH?
J.

The problem with the connector having to take the 2 Amp current would still persist though, and it is this that causes all the problems.

[Severe Marmalade]

The problem with the connector having to take the 2 Amp current would still persist though, and it is this that causes all the problems.

Just take it from the brake light as is the case with dad's
J.

[Lumiya]

Wish I had the facilities to make my own PCBs. Drawing them up is no problem as there's plenty of PCB CAD packages available - KiCAD, Eagle etc etc.

www.techniks.com Although they are dear you can get the paper in other places like ebay and the chemical etch/boards either online or maplins

[rssenna]

Just remember that it's illegal to have a flashing red light on a motorcycle

Kymmy - it is illegal to have a flashing red light on a push bike as well, which begs the question why do most bike lights come with a flashing option? Certainly on a push bike I have not heard of anybody getting done by police as increasing visibility is seen as a prioity. Some police may take different view of a motorbike thou. Can still be used in constant mode.

I actually have a blue light on my push bike that has a flashing option, I only put it on constant thou as do not want to tempt getting pulled. Putting one on the front and flashing would increase visability though, don't think I would be cut up much either!

[Traveller]

Wish I had the facilities to make my own PCBs. Drawing them up is no problem as there's plenty of PCB CAD packages available - KiCAD, Eagle etc etc.

This is an interesting topic. I have used veroboard in the past to make replacement "Bulbs" out of clusters of LED's. The veroboard supports the resistors as well as the LED's. Now 12v LED bulbs are commercially available at reasonable prices there are other options to the DIY route.

As Kymmy points out, there is no need for a lens if you use a coloured LED as it is waterproof.

I have found the LED replacement heads for the Halogen downlighters to be a good cheap source of cheap 12v LED lights.

The big win with these things is the low power requirement. Kymmys idea of driving them with the inductance loops would be good too. No connectors to mess with and get crudded up.

[Lumiya]

Kymmy - it is illegal to have a flashing red light on a push bike as well, which begs the question why do most bike lights come with a flashing option? Certainly on a push bike I have not heard of anybody getting done by police as increasing visibility is seen as a prioity. Some police may take different view of a motorbike thou. Can still be used in constant mode.

I actually have a blue light on my push bike that has a flashing option, I only put it on constant thou as do not want to tempt getting pulled. Putting one on the front and flashing would increase visability though, don't think I would be cut up much either!

It's only illegal to have a red flashing light on a pushbike if it's fitted to the push bike, if it's clipped on a person then that's fine though I'm not sure if the pushbike rule got recinded in the last few years

Motor vehicles though have very different rules and lights (and reflectors) attached to the vehicles are governed under rules designed for emergency vehicles.. Red lights can only be rear facing and not flashing, any other usage is for emergency vehicle only and the same for green and blue.. which also can't be used for rear.

[Lutin]

This is an interesting topic. I have used veroboard in the past to make replacement "Bulbs" out of clusters of LED's. The veroboard supports the resistors as well as the LED's. Now 12v LED bulbs are commercially available at reasonable prices there are other options to the DIY route.

As Kymmy points out, there is no need for a lens if you use a coloured LED as it is waterproof.

I have found the LED replacement heads for the Halogen downlighters to be a good cheap source of cheap 12v LED lights.

The big win with these things is the low power requirement. Kymmys idea of driving them with the inductance loops would be good too. No connectors to mess with and get crudded up.

Oh, don't you worry - there's veroboard, LEDs, resistors and goodness knows what around here.

I used Veroboard to mount the LEDs that I have now as the original PCB did not lend itself easily to what I wanted to do - put two pairs of three LEDs in series.

The LED replacements for downlighters is an idea though, but they would all be white and some of them can be very high current - which was what I was trying to get away from in the first place. Hmmm, got me thinking again though.

As for the inductance thing, this is going to need thinking about. The problem being the variable frequency from the alternator due, of course, to varying engine speed. So, any coils need to be efficient over quite a frequency range of, say, 25 Hz (1500 rpm) to 142 Hz (8500 rpm). Possible, but would need careful coil design.