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drikko Flying Brick Rider
Joined: 20 Nov 2009 Posts: 1966 Location: Brisbane, OZ
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Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:07 pm Post subject: Flashy brake light |
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I bought one of the 75 led strips from Dealextreme without knowing exactly what I wanted it for:-
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11303
Also happened upon these so got 2, one for the car and one for the bike:-
http://tinyurl.com/y9fh9yn
So looking at the bike I started thinking about how I could use the led strip and the flasher. First I though I'd make a light to go under the tail light, but thought that would be ugly. I noticed the ends of the tail light did nothing, and sure enough there's big empty spaces at each end, The LED strips can be cut into 9 led lengths. Two of these fit side by side in each side of the tail light like this:-
Silasticed it all in. Here's the brake light flasher all wired in. It is incredibly small and potted in resin so is totally waterproof:-
As the original bulb is still in it has no effect on the BMU but the outer 2 ends of the the tail light flash then stay on, you can change it to how you want it to flash. I have it set up to flash quickly 4 times then stay on, then if you release and reapply the brake within 20 seconds it doesn't flash. This is so it doesn't annoy drivers behind in traffic.
What I have noticed mostly is how slow the bulb actually lights up! I reckon it takes about a quarter of a second!! Now the leds light up instantly and if the normal bulb ever does blow I have a backup stop light.
Works really well! _________________ K1100RS '97
Laverda RGS 1000 '84
Jim Young Trailer Sailer 5.7M WB
DISCLAIMER:- Anything I say may have been when I was drunk so please don't take it personally.
'Bigamy is having one wife/husband too many. Monogamy is the same.'
Oscar Wilde |
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Ted Site Admin

Joined: 03 Apr 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: Further
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Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:17 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the report, getting more light back there is definitely a good thing! How exactly did you do the wiring? _________________
Ted
KOG#1 |
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drikko Flying Brick Rider
Joined: 20 Nov 2009 Posts: 1966 Location: Brisbane, OZ
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Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 12:12 am Post subject: |
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Here you go, sorry about the quality, I don't have the right stuff to do proper circuit diagrams.
BTW because the BMU trickles a tiny bit of current into the bulb, the flasher circuit thinks the brakes are on if you have the bulb out so won't flash, so you have to do the testing and setup with the bulb in to drag the bulb positive to ground when it's off. Does that make sense!!
I hope the drawing is clear enough!
 _________________ K1100RS '97
Laverda RGS 1000 '84
Jim Young Trailer Sailer 5.7M WB
DISCLAIMER:- Anything I say may have been when I was drunk so please don't take it personally.
'Bigamy is having one wife/husband too many. Monogamy is the same.'
Oscar Wilde |
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Rafal Flying Brick Rider

Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 257 Location: Wroclaw, Poland
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 3:11 am Post subject: |
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| drikko wrote: | Here you go, sorry about the quality, I don't have the right stuff to do proper circuit diagrams.
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Hello!
The diagram is clear to read. You could try Eagle, it has freeware version:
http://cadsoft.de/freeware.htm. It's quite popular on internet projects (red and green diagrams) and has PCB module with routing embedded.
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BTW because the BMU trickles a tiny bit of current into the bulb, the flasher circuit thinks the brakes are on if you have the bulb out so won't flash, so you have to do the testing and setup with the bulb in to drag the bulb positive to ground when it's off. Does that make sense!!
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Well, it doesn't . What is BMU? But I guess, when bulb is out BMU pups up the voltage, so flasher unit engages. One can try to put a resistor ~ 12Kohms parallel to bulb, it should drain ~1mA current.
Best regards, _________________ Rafal
K1100RS is a real beast (in Marrakesh Red)
K75S is a real beauty - she has gone , but not to far .
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drikko Flying Brick Rider
Joined: 20 Nov 2009 Posts: 1966 Location: Brisbane, OZ
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:42 am Post subject: |
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Hey that's pretty cool, but it took 4 beers to work out how to use it!!
So I have it drawn as a pdf but no idea how to post it here except take a photo of it. But my printer has no ink so can't do that till tomorrow at work.
Yes the BMU is the Bulb Monitoring Unit. It was easy enough just to put the bulb in but yes a 12k resistor would certainly work. I could reach the bulb but would have had to walk to the other end of the house to find a resistor Way too lazy for that!!
Hey Ted, perhaps we should allow attaching certain files like PDF, KMZ (Google Earth locations) and others, just not picture, leave those as links.
Cheers
D _________________ K1100RS '97
Laverda RGS 1000 '84
Jim Young Trailer Sailer 5.7M WB
DISCLAIMER:- Anything I say may have been when I was drunk so please don't take it personally.
'Bigamy is having one wife/husband too many. Monogamy is the same.'
Oscar Wilde |
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Rafal Flying Brick Rider

Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 257 Location: Wroclaw, Poland
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:50 am Post subject: |
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| drikko wrote: | Hey that's pretty cool, but it took 4 beers to work out how to use it!!
So I have it drawn as a pdf but no idea how to post it here except take a photo of it. But my printer has no ink so can't do that till tomorrow at work.
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You can export a schema as an image: png or jpg. _________________ Rafal
K1100RS is a real beast (in Marrakesh Red)
K75S is a real beauty - she has gone , but not to far .
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Scott_Anderson Site Admin
Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 3122 Location: Central Iowa, USA
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 7:11 am Post subject: |
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Maybe you could send it to Drake and he could place it among his other documents in the stickies. _________________ Ride safe.
1995 K1100LT 0302044
2017 FLHTK Ultra Limited
Garmin StreetPilot 2820
Garmin Zumo 550
Garmin Zumo XT
"One who does not ask questions is ashamed to learn" Danish proverb
1997 K1100LT 0302488(R.I.P.)
1997 R1100RT ZC62149(sold) |
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drikko Flying Brick Rider
Joined: 20 Nov 2009 Posts: 1966 Location: Brisbane, OZ
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 7:11 am Post subject: |
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You mean like this?
 _________________ K1100RS '97
Laverda RGS 1000 '84
Jim Young Trailer Sailer 5.7M WB
DISCLAIMER:- Anything I say may have been when I was drunk so please don't take it personally.
'Bigamy is having one wife/husband too many. Monogamy is the same.'
Oscar Wilde |
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