Scribd
Upload
102 views7 pages

Quick and Dirty Bicycle Lighting System

This document describes how to create a quick and dirty bicycle lighting system using mostly scrap parts. It involves installing brake switches that trigger a brake/tail light, adding turn signal lights and a flasher unit to make them flash, installing one or more LED headlights, powering it with a battery, and housing the components. The system provides basic safety lighting including working brake lights and turn signals using inexpensive materials.

Uploaded by

Laird Kelly
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
102 views7 pages

Quick and Dirty Bicycle Lighting System

This document describes how to create a quick and dirty bicycle lighting system using mostly scrap parts. It involves installing brake switches that trigger a brake/tail light, adding turn signal lights and a flasher unit to make them flash, installing one or more LED headlights, powering it with a battery, and housing the components. The system provides basic safety lighting including working brake lights and turn signals using inexpensive materials.

Uploaded by

Laird Kelly
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

Food

Living

Outside

Play

Technology

Workshop

Quick-And-Dirty Bicycle Lighting System


by lairdkelly on August 13, 2013 Table of Contents Quick-And-Dirty Bicycle Lighting System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Quick-And-Dirty Bicycle Lighting System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: Brake switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Brake/Tail Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Turn signal lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: Flasher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 5: Headlight(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 6: Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 7: Connecting it together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 8: Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 9: Coming soon(?)... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 7

http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-And-Dirty-Bicycle-Lighting-System/

Intro: Quick-And-Dirty Bicycle Lighting System


Quickie lighting system with turn signals and brake light from (mostly) scrap/on hand parts

Step One: collect the needed parts MR-16 LED lights LED turn signal flasher 2x LED side marker lights LED Stop/Tail light 2x lever switches spdt-center-off toggle switch key switch wire enclosure 12v NiCd battery

http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-And-Dirty-Bicycle-Lighting-System/

Step 1: Brake switches


Mount lever switches front and rear and link to brakes so switch closes when brake operates. Wire switches in parallel. I used switches with rollers and tied braided dacron fish line to the roller and to the brake cable (with a 'taught-line hitch' at one end to allow adjustment) - switches could also be mounted so that caliper movement operates levers...

Step 2: Brake/Tail Light


Light can be either a bright red led light for brakes plus a dimmer red led tail light, or a combo brake/tail led light.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-And-Dirty-Bicycle-Lighting-System/

Step 3: Turn signal lights


Turn signal lights may be either amber led side markers (truck/trailer side markers can be found in most any auto parts store) or motorcycle turn signal lights.

Step 4: Flasher
Factory-made 'turn signal flasher relays' may work (many chinese-made units purport to work with 0.02A (20mA) led lights but really require more that 10x the load) or a scratch-built 555 based flasher will work well (don't use a battery greater than 12.5v or you will let the 'magic smoke' out of the 555 timer chip). for the prototype I re-worked a circuit board from a scrapped "mole-chaser" using a 520k timingresistor giving a flash rate of about 1.5 times a second, transistor was a 2n2222 and relay was a Radio Shack 275-0005 9v mini relay .

http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-And-Dirty-Bicycle-Lighting-System/

Step 5: Headlight(s)
One or more 3w-7w MR-16 led accent lights work well for a headlight.

Step 6: Battery
I used an old 12v 4Ah NiCad pack originally intended for a video-cam I also tried a "12v 6,800mAh" chinese battery off feebay (pack was actually a '3s2p' (3 18650 cells in series in 2 parallel strings) that would normally be rated as 10.8v 4,400mAh as the 18650 cell is typically rated at about 2,200 mAh and the 'no-load' voltage of 4.2v drops to 3.6v under a load). (board on battery in first pic is home-made flasher unit)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-And-Dirty-Bicycle-Lighting-System/

Step 7: Connecting it together


wiring is pretty straight forward: key switch turns power on and off from battery, a 'lights' switch turns on head and tail light (prototype had extra switches to turn on second and third headlight), brake switches turn on brake light...

Step 8: Housing
I put the 'works' in a plastic sandwich box I had laying around and stuffed the battery in my handlebar bag. I included a smal 0-15v meter for battery monitoring and indicator lights (led with a 470-1k resistor) in the prototype

http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-And-Dirty-Bicycle-Lighting-System/

Step 9: Coming soon(?)...


For v2.0 I plan on trying an inexpensive digital volt-meter off fleabay for battery monitoring... and may try to draw a wiring diagram in CAD... and maybe even a second i'ble 8-) (or maybe win the lotto and get a better camera to re-shoot some of the pictures so they aren't so !@#$ fuzzy *g*)

Related Instructables

Electric Bicycle Blinking LED Tail-Light with a 5V to 48V Input Voltage Range by scd
Advertisements

Simple, bright, CHEAP bicycle lighting system by sennomo

Fat & small wheel bicycle (Photos) by Eeropei

Bicycle Ziptie LED by Zyan

my DIY bicycle hanging system (video) by dudu1980

Arduino Bicycle Alarm and Lights by drew.adc

http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-And-Dirty-Bicycle-Lighting-System/

You might also like