So I wanted lights on my bike, I knew I wanted headlights and functional brake lights.
I read several articles about using 12volt lead acid batteries but those are heavy and full of burney burney acid. So I bought a small headlight from amazon and a bike taillight from eBay I ordered a set of brake handles from amazon that are made for electric bikes with a switch to cut power to the motor and one of those 2x18650 battery diy power banks from AliExpress (because they don’t auto sleep under a low load like the commercial ones do).
For the lights I bought three tap lights from dollar tree and removed the switches and the small round COB leds I installed the leds on a small prototype board wiring the center one for constant on with a 200ohm resistor to lower its drain. And the other two to be triggered by the switches in the handles and then wired these to a dollar tree usb cable run up the frame to the seat under the seat I mounted the power bank and when plugged up (I remove the seat via the quick connect to take it in once a week to recharge) the center led glows and the outer two come in when either brake handle is pulled.
for the headlight I got the small retro headlight from amazon (I ordered two as I plan on making a more refined one as well, this one is a bit prototypey) inside I mounted a second switch taken from the tap light in the shell and an arduino nano on the reflector I added a 16 led ws2812 led ring wired to receive power from the arduino and programmed the arduino to run the Cylon/Knight rider Larsen scanner pattern in as close to orange as I could get (it’s hard to get orange from a three color led without a filter),
The light came with three pathetic cool white leds so I took one out cut it’s opening in the reflector to accommodate the warm cob led like I used for the brake light and wired it into the driver board for the headlight and installed it into the reflector. The lights in the headlight run in the 3aaa the light was made for but the arduino has an external battery box mounted behind the light using a 9volt battery (an arduino can run in one for ages).
My upgrade for the headlight will be modifying the arduino code to give me a choice between the Larsen scanner and white light in case I need additional light and replacing the lights internal driver and three small led with a ring shaped cob led because the cob gives off a lot of good light. And moving the controls to the handle bar and probably improving the power bank so it can power front and rear lights.
I’ll add pics shortly
I read several articles about using 12volt lead acid batteries but those are heavy and full of burney burney acid. So I bought a small headlight from amazon and a bike taillight from eBay I ordered a set of brake handles from amazon that are made for electric bikes with a switch to cut power to the motor and one of those 2x18650 battery diy power banks from AliExpress (because they don’t auto sleep under a low load like the commercial ones do).
For the lights I bought three tap lights from dollar tree and removed the switches and the small round COB leds I installed the leds on a small prototype board wiring the center one for constant on with a 200ohm resistor to lower its drain. And the other two to be triggered by the switches in the handles and then wired these to a dollar tree usb cable run up the frame to the seat under the seat I mounted the power bank and when plugged up (I remove the seat via the quick connect to take it in once a week to recharge) the center led glows and the outer two come in when either brake handle is pulled.
for the headlight I got the small retro headlight from amazon (I ordered two as I plan on making a more refined one as well, this one is a bit prototypey) inside I mounted a second switch taken from the tap light in the shell and an arduino nano on the reflector I added a 16 led ws2812 led ring wired to receive power from the arduino and programmed the arduino to run the Cylon/Knight rider Larsen scanner pattern in as close to orange as I could get (it’s hard to get orange from a three color led without a filter),
The light came with three pathetic cool white leds so I took one out cut it’s opening in the reflector to accommodate the warm cob led like I used for the brake light and wired it into the driver board for the headlight and installed it into the reflector. The lights in the headlight run in the 3aaa the light was made for but the arduino has an external battery box mounted behind the light using a 9volt battery (an arduino can run in one for ages).
My upgrade for the headlight will be modifying the arduino code to give me a choice between the Larsen scanner and white light in case I need additional light and replacing the lights internal driver and three small led with a ring shaped cob led because the cob gives off a lot of good light. And moving the controls to the handle bar and probably improving the power bank so it can power front and rear lights.
I’ll add pics shortly
