So sorry, what a tragedy! I got backed into about 10 days ago by a lady jabbering on her cell phone. She didn't see or hear my 7,500 lbs, 7 foot tall x 13 foot long camouflage painted truck with LOUD clattering diesel as she backed out of a parking space!
I haven't personally used these but they seem to be the ultra bright ones that I mentioned above. No idea of prices or anything else, just showing some I found. Often cheaper from 3rd party vendors...
http://www.maxxima.com/online_product_catalog.php
http://www.americansuperlite.com/about_us.cfm
Hope we all get hooked up with some blazing bright LED's attached all over our rigs!
cant have to many lights, for sure, my rigs got 22 LEDs on the rear, 2 on the engine, amber lite strip,and front has ring of fire amber outside blue inside plus forktree lights and arrowhead plus frontfender tip and side lights. plus 3 amberstrips on the front body. definitly looks like a rolling christmas tree. side car has normal,? rear lites. gotta work on that lol. And yes,, its wayyyyy over the top, but sure is cool...
Hey, Lowgear, very nice rig, and then some!
How's about a night or dusk picture with the lights lit up to get the full visual effects? Like whatever angle gives the most impact, I'd really like to see it. Thanks...
Ill have to work on that, right now bikes in garage stored for the winter, along with 4 other bikes, and another bike stored in the trailer, kinda full now, Need a bigger garage. !!!! I guess I could pull the covers off get a pic that way. ya putting the brakes on the rear blinds ya. Every where we go it draws a crowd, But as I mentioned before, it basicly a show bike. But I just cant look at it sitting, gotta ride man,, gotta ride........if something gets scratched I replace it. Have pride in your ride......
lowgear - 12/13/2012 11:05 AM
Ill have to work on that, right now bikes in garage stored for the winter, along with 4 other bikes, and another bike stored in the trailer, kinda full now, Need a bigger garage. !!!! I guess I could pull the covers off get a pic that way. ya putting the brakes on the rear blinds ya. Every where we go it draws a crowd, But as I mentioned before, it basicly a show bike. But I just cant look at it sitting, gotta ride man,, gotta ride........if something gets scratched I replace it. Have pride in your ride......
You mean people store them for the winter? Winter is one reason for having a sidecar.
Ya,,,,, its stored, we have couple feet of snow last 2 days more coming. how do you drive from inside the sidecar??? I gotta see that....living in Macon Ga. you never see snow, we have the heated clothing but she wont ride in the cold were having now hasnt been over 30 degrees in the last week. But there is a freeze your buns run, on the first of the year in Coeur D Alene Idaho At least if you hit ice you wont fall down. Ha Ha....might do a bunch of ground loops woo hoo, Hang on Nelly >>>>>>> :O :O
Only 6 states to go?? you aint missing anything in those state unless you like sticker bushes.. God must of been a cowboy, he made a lotta wide open spaces. And took a nap when it came to Wyoming...yee haaahh, 10-4 over.
ok,,,,, finally got a couple pics of all the lights on my wing, didnt want to take it completely out of storage.to much stuff in there to move.but heres a couple I took.
and the brake lights are not on, that would be just a big red flash on the camera, Ha.
Merry Chrismas, You didn't need a tree, just had to roll the Wing into the living room...
A technical thread I can contribute to and pay back for the advise I've received, having started one of the first LED OEM companies (I still own 1/999 of the stock).
Although geared to the marine market, my FAQ page about LEDs, http://www.bebi-electronics.com/specs.html , has a lot of answers in it about LED lighting technology in general.
The short of it is that there is, in fact, lots of junk out there. There are only four quality LED manufacturer's in the world, Nichia (Dr. Nakamura invented the high output technology), Seoul Semi-Conductor (the first to steal Nichia's technology), Phillips LumiLED, and Cree. If the OEM light you have isn't made using LEDs manufactured from one of these four, it's junk.
I won't comment on the OEM 'SuperBriteLEDs', and most of what they've published as 'facts'. 🙂
If the light doesn't have an active current regulator to compensate for the varying voltage levels on a 12v nominal electrical system, it's junk.
Many, many lights on the market were thrown together by marketing people who haven't a clue to the technology involved. At the end of the day, an LED light is an electronic assembly, with all the goods and bads that are entailed in them (including lightning damage).
How can you tell from the outside looking at the light? Frankly, you can't. You need to query the manufacturer of the light not just for the manufacturer of the LED, but also the 'bin' within the die design (for example, a Nichia NSPW500 has three output bins, ranging from 12 to 22 cd per device, and three colour bins). The higher bins command a higher price.
There has been little real improvement in the light output per watt of energy input in the past four years, but quite a bit of improvement in the package design allowing individual devices to be run at higher drive levels without exploding. This doesn't make them any more efficient, but you need fewer devices to achieve the same results, resulting in a somewhat lower manufacturing cost.
I used to received 5-20 spam emails/day from LED mfgs in China, boasting 'for you, very cheap LED at low price'. Some of these had an advertised MTBF of 1k hours. On the flip side, they really were cheap, 1/20 the price of the quality devices.
For very high light intensity requirements, there are some 'tricks' that can be played using a switching scheme. For example, if the rated max drive level is 0.02a producing 22cd, you can overdrive them to 0.06a producing around 66cd, so long as they have a 'rest' cycle long enough that the average drive is 0.02. The tradeoff is an increase in price, using three devices instead of one, as well as the switching scheme and the current regulation scheme. I don't have a spec sheet in front of me, but I think you can drive up to five times the rated level without getting smoke, so long as you don't exceed the duty cycle.
Output is more or less linear to drive level. Longevity is more or less inverted to drive level and the operating temps of the PN junction (at -50C, they have no known lifespan. The newer case designs keep the junction temps down allowing higher drive).
Again, I do have a trivial interest remaining in the business of marine LED lighting products (we were driven out by the military government of Fiji), but I hope this helps on the technology side of things.
Michael
Thanks for the excellent info, Michael!
As you mention SuperBriteLED's inaccuracy in their published info, can you make any suggestions of where the non-engineer types can get a further education? That is, solid reliable information to guide a person into a wise decision pre-purchase? LED's are in my future but I've no desire to get hoodwinked by hype and bs in place of real genuine facts!
Thanks!
Ooopps, I see that much of what I asked for is at the page link you provided!
.
Dear Jim,
Besides that FAQ page (I say 'mine', because I wrote it! 🙂 ), you can check the web sites of the 'big four' (they have some pretty good libraries on the subject), as well as reading the actual data sheets of the mfgs. The real key to making a reliable OEM product was following the device manufacturer's recommendations! It sounds really too silly to be true, but it is!
And, no, I have zero, zip, nada intention of going into the LED manufacturing business for bikes. I do have every intent on showing my son the US in a hack, which is why I'm hanging out here.
Thanks, Michael!
I'll study up on the websites as you suggest. Hope all the best to you and your son for a wonderful tour of the U.S.A by hack! That's the kind of thing that builds lifelong memories!
