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https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl General Category >> Technical >> Mango shell lighting https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl?num=1449469460 Message started by MrWizard on Dec 7th, 2015, 12:24am |
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Title: Mango shell lighting Post by MrWizard on Dec 7th, 2015, 12:24am [posted on BROL] but I figure it might be of interest here too .. As most of you know I've got a fetish for lights .. thats at least how its been described by the local members of our bike club .. Especially since I've hacked up a bunch of old light shells and stuffed them full of 5W cree LED clusters. I've built up a little reputation for having an overly bright set of lights .. I believe one BROL poster called them potentially [sic] "brighter than the sun" Unfortunately its not all nerdisms. I've got to work for a living and this time of year I'm doing at least 30-40 miles after the sun goes down .. So visibility is always something I'm thinking of .. both my own to see the tank-traps ^H^H^H^H^H^H potholes we have here but also visibility of myself to other drivers. Even though I'm driving what amounts to be a carbon fiber refrigerator it never felt visible enough with the basic lighting .. so I've made a few changes .. For the shell though its been a bit of an evolution I started out with some simple cheap RGB lights from amazon (also the same thing you can get at SuperBright LEDS and a few other places) Those were kind of cool, but a little primitive .. I built a little control system using some LED controllers and a DMX system but it still lacked something .. So after doing a lot of research I decided i'd do something with the WS2811 "Neopixels" and now I have lights .. and lights .. I didn't save much energy here as I more than tripled the LED count .. and Yegods is it bright if I want it to be .. Its also fun. I've had a grand old time designing patterns for it. WS2811 strips are basically single RGB LEDs with a small serial driver next to each one (the later versions have the driver embedded in the LED itself) you can get them 30/60 and 144 LEDs per meter I got mine here. it takes about 6m to fully wrap a mango and do something on the back to add a cluster .. so I built this with 2 4 meter strips and just chopped off the 20 LEDs or on each one to even them out. Fully lit, each strip (on white) will pull about 2A @ 5V so while you could use it as area lighting, I wouldn't recommend it. I'm using an Arduno Mega micro controller, serial GPS, OLED screen (to show the state of things) a little RF remote to control things by hand (I also have another one on the steering tiller) and a bunch of IR LED/Phototransister pairs to read the "state" of the mango by tapping into the lights .. From that I can see "on" "left" "right" and "stop" I also tied one into the horn too, so when hit the horn that can trigger a full on "strobe" effect from the lights. There is a whole series of patterns I built (you can see them in the video) some just twinkle, but as i evolve this the coolest one (in my opinion of course) is the little flare pattern. They basically crawl at the speed of the bike (as per the GPS) go slow they slow down, go fast they speed up .. you can thumb though the colors with the tiller control but I usually leave them on red .. they are quite visible and very bright. Here's images of the build http://imgur.com/a/dVgSL Here's a video walk through https://youtu.be/TAPfyhu9R4E I've got to spend time documenting a few things for the build but I'll post the source code and the entire build out on github when I'm happy with it. I did find an 8 channel ANT+ serial board but I've not put it together yet. Eventually I hope to read the speed, cadence, HR into the system and do various things with lights based on those inputs well .. Right now though, I just calculate the speed from the GPS. |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by jrob_bent on Dec 7th, 2015, 6:09am Pretty cool! The less technical, me, have to use simpler means. I use solar powered yard lights on a gimbaled hinge so they swing to level making them look like moving strobe lights. I remove everything but the light head. I learned this when I had my sailboat where a lot of drunk motor boats ran the lake at night. They could not see the anchor light on top of the mast. They never looked above the bow. But they all told me they could see my sailboat easily. I use 4, but 8-10 would be better. You don't have to use the gimbaled hinge. They can be mounted flush by drilling a hole or just stuck on the outside. I also take out the batteries that come with the light, and replace them with lithium-ion batteries. They will last for years. Of course they don't look as good as your's. |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by JimFPU on Dec 9th, 2015, 10:38am OK< this is cool as all get out, but that also appears to be a lot of equipment for an average person...seems you'd need a lot of extra gadgets to put this together. |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by MrWizard on Dec 9th, 2015, 1:44pm The write up should be done this weekend .. I've sent it to a few people to review and comment .. outside of the OLED display and the GPS, If you can solder, crimp wires, drill, and are not afraid of the command line on your computer, you can get it done. JimFPU wrote:
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by reever on Dec 9th, 2015, 3:51pm Wiz, that just blows my mind! Just outstanding!!! |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by JimFPU on Dec 10th, 2015, 4:34pm MrWizard wrote:
[/quote] Looking forward to it! |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by MrWizard on Dec 18th, 2015, 10:20am Made the news: In Dutch! http://www.ligfiets.net/news/5148/vrijdagbericht-206.html look down at look down at Bijna Kerst "Nearly Christmas?" |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by jayg on Dec 18th, 2015, 2:43pm That's an amazing lighting system, Doug. Nice narration job. How are you illuminating the front wheel covers? |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by MrWizard on Dec 19th, 2015, 2:31pm Hi Jay -- We've been missing you on the East side rides .. Not that Ferd isnt completely outnumbered nearly 3:1 now with various 'lawn chair' bikes... I wish I could cop to some fancy technical wizardry but that 'glow' was nothing more than the result of the light source I was using on the camera. jayg wrote:
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by jayg on Dec 19th, 2015, 2:53pm MrWizard wrote:
[/quote] Wish I could ride East Side, but can't trust my left knee to behave itself in cool to cold weather. Can pedal the relatively flat, looping path at WRL with my right leg, but that won't work out in the middle of nowhere on East Side. Warm weather can't get here fast enough. |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by MrWizard on Dec 19th, 2015, 8:47pm Its probably something you've already thought of, but would one of those powered thermal covers work for it? jayg wrote:
[/quote] Wish I could ride East Side, but can't trust my left knee to behave itself in cool to cold weather. Can pedal the relatively flat, looping path at WRL with my right leg, but that won't work out in the middle of nowhere on East Side. Warm weather can't get here fast enough. [/quote] |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by jayg on Dec 19th, 2015, 10:17pm MrWizard wrote:
[/quote] Wish I could ride East Side, but can't trust my left knee to behave itself in cool to cold weather. Can pedal the relatively flat, looping path at WRL with my right leg, but that won't work out in the middle of nowhere on East Side. Warm weather can't get here fast enough. [/quote] [/quote] I put on a battery-powered knee warmer, plus 2 chemical heating pads, last week, after my knee started stinging. Didn't help. Next time I'll install the warmer and pads on my knee before I start riding. |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by MrWizard on Dec 20th, 2015, 9:11am When I was in school I was on the swim team .. they used to put hot pads (those old rubber things you got at the Gibsons) on our knees and elbows for about an hour before our time in the water when it was cold to avoid cramps and stuff .. I was thinking that technique had a small chance of working similarly for you. That and making us drink too much hot coffee [smiley=puking.gif] jayg wrote:
[/quote] Wish I could ride East Side, but can't trust my left knee to behave itself in cool to cold weather. Can pedal the relatively flat, looping path at WRL with my right leg, but that won't work out in the middle of nowhere on East Side. Warm weather can't get here fast enough. [/quote] [/quote] I put on a battery-powered knee warmer, plus 2 chemical heating pads, last week, after my knee started stinging. Didn't help. Next time I'll install the warmer and pads on my knee before I start riding. [/quote] |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by jayg on Dec 20th, 2015, 10:02am MrWizard wrote:
Yeah, pre-heating might be a good idea. I'll turn on the warmer, while I'm in Barbec's eating breakfast. |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by jcsadowski on Dec 20th, 2015, 11:35am Quote:
How about some nice warm bacon? |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by jayg on Dec 20th, 2015, 4:04pm jcsadowski wrote:
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by MrWizard on Dec 20th, 2015, 6:16pm I'd just like consistent bacon .. or for that matter consistent food from that place jayg wrote:
[/quote] |
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Title: Re: Mango shell lighting Post by JimFPU on Jun 3rd, 2016, 12:42pm MrWizard wrote:
Wiz, did you ever get the write up completed and posted? Is there a link? |
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