You are here
nobmob.com
Rob's Homemade LEDs - Hardware
It had always been a plan to mount the LEDs and optics inside Berocca tubes. Initially the thought was that the tubes could be kept separate and be fixed at various locations on the helmet. Cool as this sounds after a bit of thinking it was never going to work, and so decided it would be best to bolt LEDs on MCPCB through the bottom of the tubes and into something more solid. Aluminium angle seemed like a good choice and was freely available in various sizes - a number of designs emerged...
Rob's Homemade LEDs - Electronics
Parts purchased from Cutter Electronics... Cree XR-E LEDs, Luxdrive Buckpuck and L2 Optics... erm... optics and diffusers.
Plus an AA battery and Berocca tube for scale.
Testing Cree XR-E LEDs... on the right is a single XR-E with L2 Optic mounted. This is driven from the Luxdrive 3021 BuckPuck with about the lowest current that it can supply and still have the LED light - about 5mA! On the left is a 'standard' green LED for comparison.
This is pretty amazing given the Cree can be driven up to 700mA or with 140 times more current.
Best laid plans
Ah yes - and it all seemed so simple... the 3021 data sheet explained how one should feed somewhere between zero and five volts to it's control pin to control the light output level from the LEDs connected. I have a Petzl LED headlight which works with a single push button to cycle through four stages of off->full->dim->dimmer->off. Simple enough to replicate I soon had a J-K flip flop design made up, driving what was basically three logic controlled voltage dividers to connect to the control pin of a 3021. Prototyped on a breadboard and with a standard LED placed where the control pin should be, sure enough this changed the brightness of the LED and therefore the voltage going in, and would therefore work the 3021. Erm... well, as it happens, no!
Once the parts arrived it was sadly discovered that no amount of tinkering or experimentation could cause the 3021 to work as anticipated with the logic controlled dimmer. Back to the drawing board.
Rob's Homemade LEDs
This article is very old now, it's best to look around our forums to find some newer information.
I'd been thinking about night riding for some time, and having bought an el-cheapo set of halogen riding lights to try it out was liking it a lot. The el-cheapo lights consisted of 5W+10W beams fixed to the bars and that could be switched independently. While OK for fire trail this didn't seem adequate for technical stuff so went looking for more powerful sets.
Not happy with the pricing of available offerings, and thinking things could be built up a lot cheaper a bit of a mission followed. What you read here are the results, and on the whole, am very pleased how things worked out.
This is a fairly lengthy article, it's split into several pages:
Manly Dam Ride Friday 10th November 5:30pm
Ok,
How about a good start to the weekend and have a run around Manly Dam...if there is enough light maybe two laps....now that uncharted territory for me but i'm willing to give it a try.
Meet at the Manly Vale Public School carpark on Gibbs St in Manly Vale for a 5:30pm start.
If your coming please let me know by posting, txt or a call on the day i guess.
Hope to see some of you there.
My number is on my profile should you need it for friday.
Cheers
Sam
p.s. Weather permitting of course....if rain is about we may not ride, dont wish to ruin such a good trail....
Bikebag for sale
Going abroad? Heading over to ride WA? well I have just what you need. An on-one padded bikebag with wheelbags. Has 2 trolley wheels for easy carrying and it very ell padded. Broght my giant trance over here from the UK in it with no damage at all, not even a scratch! On-One branded (UK fame manufacturer) and very high quality. cost me about $240 new, yours for $120. post back or email me [email protected]
Stolen Bike!
Hey guys, new on here and hope to get out on the trils with you all once I've saved up somemore cash! I'm Paul, a UK XC rider came over here for some epic riding, but that's all kind of been ruined by some thieving scum taking my bike from Hyde Park last saturday. Was locked up at the macquarrie st entrance to a post and somebody took it in broad daylight. So if you see it it is a Giant Trance 4(blue) with Rockshox Reba Race forks, Hayes HFX9 hydro discs, slick tyres and crank bros eggbeaters. I know its a longshot and is probably in bits and sold by now, but this has put a real setback on my plans as I wanted to be out riding every weekend over here and some weeknights. I work as a courier in town (mailcall 137 if you see me say hi!) and will be getting a new bike ASAP or if anybody has a spare bike and would like to take me out for some local trails I wouldn't say no, sure I cold pay back the favour with a few beers!
Sphinx Walking (cough cough) Trail
We did the sphinx walking trail (oops) down the hundred or so stairs 6.5kms to halvorsens then back up the gibberagong waterholes track 5.5kms and cut to north turramurra (instead of up to grovenor st, wahroonga) A bit too much hike a bike involved and didnt realise sphinx was a no go till walkers told us halfway around. was a good day though. the track from north turramurra down to gibberagong could be worth it for a fastish tech downhill, was very cool down under the trees too on a fairly hot day. nice tight trail in some place which was fun but again a lot of hike a bike and scrambling over gaps made it a bit annoying make sure to fill your water in bobbin hd as the water on gibberagong didnt look too good for drinking!
The only damaged parts on this stand $90
The round part is the sleeve that goes inside the top part of the vertical stand that clamps down onto the horizontal arm. Only the collar is broken and this has no effect on the stand operation.
The other part is on of the jaws that clamps onto your bike. The back edge is broken. It still fits onto the stand properly and still clamps the bike properly. It has another soft plastic cover which goes over this and holds it into position whilst protecting your bike frame.
Again these are the only two broken parts and the stand works just fine.
Close Up of quick release adjustments on stand
Close up of full adjustable quick release work stand for sale $120
