I’ve been talking about it for a while, and the parts have been sitting there on my desk for months, but last night I finally did it.
I put a permanent 12v LED lighting system on my bicycle.
I realize that this puts me at the far edge of what is considered socially acceptable eccentricity, even by Austin standards. But I figure that in this crazy world, where 70,000 Americans die every year because of automobiles, that a little bit of extra nighttime visibility can’t hurt.
And neither can ground-effects. Man alive, I love me my ground-effects.
One of the things that was slowing me down was putting together a blinker circuit that would make the lights flash and thereby conserve a bit of battery power. But the amp draw of just the blue-LEDs was enough to blow out the transistors in the circuit, and rather than lay down the cash for a power-relay, I thought I would just go with the steady light for a while.
The circuit enclosure is in an old sandwich meat container and fits up underneath the seat.
Here’s the front light cluster. It’s a couple pieces of Lexan with white LEDs in between and sealed with aquarium silicone.
The back lights are much the same, but the red LEDs are an automotive cluster that I bought off ebay.
And of course those wonderful ground effects. Another purchase from a Chinese ebay retailer. Intended for use on much cooler vehicles than the one I have.
I ran one of these strips at Maker Faire off 8 AA batteries for ten hours and it was still pretty bright, so I figure that with normal use I might not have to recharge the system more than every other week.
I’ve already biked down to the Office Depot with the lights on, and nobody’s shouted any comments. I’ll let you know how the world reacts.