Well, we learned some things today.
1/2" rope light is barely able to fit; 3/8" is better but it retails at like $9 a foot.
1/2" rope light is not as bright as HD LED strips in a neon diffuser. I'm not an electrician but I suspect it is because it's 40 LEDs per meter as opposed to 120 LEDs per meter.
We'll ride with it for a week or two, see how it feels compared to the "neon" LED strips.
[#]bikeTooter #diy #electronics #3dprinting
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...now I'm wondering if I forgot to turn off one of the lights in the garage when I took the photo of the neon LED strips, or if my phone decided to auto balance the lighting for me...
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The sun has set. Time for a test ride.
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A three hour bike ride around Portland in mid January on a Saturday night.
Yes, I'm single, how could you tell?
I noticed the lights were showing signs of voltage drop by the time I got home, which is odd. I'll bench test the lights tomorrow and see if these LEDs are less efficient than the other rope light I used earlier.
[#]biketooter
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It's Sunday, so I'm recharging the small accessory lights on my bike and helmet.
And I discovered the charging port on my rear light is bent and won't accept a USB plug anymore. So now it's a $30 paper weight.
I might be able to tear it apart and repair or replace the charging port, but I would have to 3D print a new case for it.
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I've been going round and round with trying to decide what kind of lights to use.
"Neon" LED strips - an LED strip in a silicone diffuser - has the best look. But it's hard to find top bend, three sided diffusers, and 120 / meter strips draw a lot of power.
Rope light - LED bulbs in series in a clear PVC tube - has the best runtime. But it's nigh impossible to find in 3/8", and 1/2" is barely able to fit in between the spokes.
So I decided to take another look at boat/motorcycle lights
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The two best options I've are from Plash Lights and LED Glow.
Plash has both neon LED strips that are only .39" (10mm) thick and regular LED strips that are .49" (13mm) thick - both rated IP68 and available at various lengths.
A 6' length is almost $70.
https://plashlights.com/products/mini-led-neon-flex-rgb
LED Glow has "million color motorcycle kits" that you can buy "replacement" strips for - including a 6' length, the right size for a bike wheel.
A 6' length is about $40 - free shipping at $50
https://www.ledunderbody.com/replacement-strip-for-advanced-million-color-motorcycle-kits/
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Both would be amazing options for bicycles... provided you:
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In the interest of SCIENCE, I have bought sample lengths of the neon LED strips and regular LED strips from Plash, and the LED strips from LED Glow.
This has revealed another difference between the two that is in LED Glow's favor.
Plash does offer free shipping, and seems to favor priority mail which costs more. LED Glow offers free shipping on orders over $50.
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"I'm not going to think about the bike wheel lights project today," he lied to himself as he was thinking about how he would pack DIY kits for shipping to minimize waste.
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Waiting on shipments of various options for LED lights and thinking about doing a test of a variety of configurations for lights, including:
Somewhere in there is a happy medium between brightness, conspicuousness, and longevity.
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And that's just the options for LEDs along the rim. It's a whole other kettle of fish if you want to run the strips along the spokes, or along a chord of the wheel. Or if you wire up a radial grid of LEDs...
Keep it simple, Ryan. Keep it simple...
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I'm afraid I've been doing... math.
The battery case takes about 150g and six hours to print - closer to nine with fuzzy skin. I have a day job so I can start a print in the morning and in the evening. At that rate, a printer would go through most of a 1 kg spool every three days, with ~100 g of waste. So a single printer could turn out twelve cases per week.
Now imagine trying to scale that up. Four printers would use almost 10kg a week.
Scale is hard
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I had a revelation about the bike wheel hub battery case and how to minimize the surface area of the first layer.
And then it hit me - who says the sides have to be vertical? By tapering the side walls to sixty degrees, I could print the case on an edge, reducing the first layer from almost 4,000 mm^2 to around 600 mm^2.
I don't know if I'll go down this road - slanted prints make fillets and fuzzy skin harder - but it was a fun thought experiment.
[#]3dprinting
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Get in, loser, we're doing science.
When you hear "bike wheel light" you probably think of LEDs around the rim. This takes about six feet per wheel, and depending on what kind of LEDs you get, can cost upwards of $100.
But do you really need to encircle the entire rim? If you're using the wheel lights to be seen rather than to see, is less more?
A thread within a thread!
[#]bikeTooter
🧵
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Our control is six feet - the whole rim. We're using 1/2" cool white LED rope light with 40 bulbs per meter. Each length is shown in a photo at rest, and in a six second clip at full speed.
Mastodon won't let me mix and match, so I'll do one per post.
CW: Strobing lights.
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72", 36", 24", and 12"
All measurements are approximate, based on where the rope light can be cut.
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Full rim wheel light in motion.
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Half rim wheel light in motion
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One third rim wheel light in motion.
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One quarter rim wheel light in motion.
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One sixth rim wheel light in motion.
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For the last test I cut the rope down as short as possible - four inches.
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I noticed the bike wobbling a lot when testing the progressively shorter lengths. Despite the relatively low mass of the rope light, it's enough to affect the wheel at speed. I would have to do test rides to see if it is an issue with someone on the bike, and if a second strand would re-balance the wheel.
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The shorter lengths result in a more strobe-like effect at high speed, which has the double edges sword of being more conspicuous, but also annoying and a potential hazard if someone with sensitivity to flashing lights sees it.
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So, weighing the pros and cons of each, I'm not sold in shorter lengths being a good idea. The bright, bold double circle of full wheel lights clear identifies the bike at night. And since I seldom ride at full brightness - 25% is plenty - they have enough runtime to charge once a week.
Good enough.
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Some RGB LEDs are arriving next week, so I'll be able to test how they look and whether being able to change colors is worth the extra effort.
Then, hopefully, I can make a decision and move forward with making a few more sets to distribute for people to beta test.
Assuming anyone else in the cycling community wants to be visible and conspicuous when riding at night, without having to strap dozens of small bike lights all over their bike...
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A quick survey of the state by state laws in the shithole country I inhabit is, in general, "white front light, red rear reflector" - some states also require side reflectors.
Canada and the EU seems to have the same baseline. But I'm having trouble finding info that says you can't have side facing lights - although certain colors seem to be not allowed (blue, for instance)
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It occurs to me all of this struggle with searching for the "perfect" wheel lights stems from three things - I want them visible from both sides, I don't want them to stick out like a sore thumb when they're off, and I really, really don't want to semi-permanently attach LEDs to my wheel.
But an IP68 LED strip adhered to the rim on the street side would be more than adequate - as long as it has a black PCB.
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I had wiring issues earlier today - rope light is difficult work with - so I wasn't able to test my idea of paired short lengths of LEDs.
The aesthetic is good, and doesn't exhibit the balance issues the single short strips did. Two 16-18" lengths will cover about half of rim - persistence of vision does the rest.
And yes, more shorter strips may have the same or better results, but at the tradeoff of more wiring, more points of failure.
Video in reply
[#]bikeTooter
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Two 18" LED strips should be cheaper than one 72" strip, and have twice the runtime, without as severe a strobing effect of a single short strip.
[#]bikeTooter
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It's unfortunate that rope light is so difficult to wire and is only available in a few colors because it just works. Other LEDs you have to double up or use a diffuser to get a wider angle of view.
Give me a 150 meter spool of 3/8" orange LED rope light and I will make so many bikes visible.
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Something I've been trying to work through with this bike wheel light project is why I have complicated feelings about making and selling them.
Until I ran the numbers on what it would take for someone to make it themselves given the STL file and access to a 3D printer.
The individual component don't cost much, but the shipping charges add up. So if I make small batches it saves the buyer the time and money of sourcing all the parts themselves.
At least that's what I'm telling myself.
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A slow start to a lazy Sunday has gotten me thinking (a dangerous past time, I know)
Yesterday's test of a pair of 18" LED strips proved to be a viable option. However, rope light is difficult to source by the foot, and has limited color options when it can be found.
I've already gone through the trouble of over engineering a battery case to fit a bike wheel instead of just strapping it to the spokes. Why not do the same for an LED module instead of trying to wedge LEDs between the spokes?
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After a good breakfast and a few hours of modeling, I have an first iteration of what I'm calling Pisces LEDs for the hidden math pun.
This segment is about 3" (7.6 cm) long - I can duplicate and combine it to make longer sections, with two limiting factors - the diagonal of my 3D printer bed, and threading it between the spokes. This may end having to be hinges pieces to allow for installation.
[#]bikeTooter #3dprinting
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...and then I immediately come up with a better design.
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The scale test of the 3D printed side light was a success. I only slightly melted the model while soldering the LEDs.
It's a little dim because these are UV LEDs left over from an previous project and there's only six of them. The translucent PETG acts as a decent diffuser.
I'm curious how long of a light strip I could do this way and still be able to thread it though the spokes.
[#]bikeTooter #diy #electronics #3dprinting
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But, again, a single light module makes your bike wheel more of a rave than a safety feature.
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Also, damn these flat top LEDs are bright! At least compared to the rope light I tested yesterday. It may also be that they have a much wider angle of viewing.
https://lighthouseleds.com/led-component-lighting/clear-top-dip-leds/5mm-led-flat-top.html
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Trying to print a larger version of this arc light and having a hell of a time getting the first layer to stay down the whole time. Time to fiddle with some settings!
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I got a larger version to print mostly successfully; one end peeled up from the bed while printing.
It fits between the spokes well, and I probably could make it longer and still fit. But that would involve some joinery because this barely fits in my print volume.
Because PETG is rigid, I can only slide it up the spokes so far - and it doesn't like to stay there. I'd have to model cutouts for it to clip to the spokes.
One alternative would be to mount it on the outside of the spokes.
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Okay, that's enough testing for one day. The various motorcycle and marine LED strips I ordered will arrive tomorrow, so I can do a vibe check on those. And I found some unusual side emitting LED flex strips from a small company called Oznium that might work well - some weird hybrid between a rope light and an LED strip. So we'll give those a try, too.
https://www.oznium.com/flexible-led-strips/led-flex-strips
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A slow day at work doing my silly little tasks has given me time to reflect on this weekend's bike wheel light tests.
A single LED strip or rope light along the entire rim remains the most straight forward solution. Rope light and narrow "neon" strips can serpentine between the spokes.
Alternatively, narrow LED strips can be adhered to the rim on one or both sides of the spokes.
Multiple shorter lengths can be used, but should be done in pairs. This makes the wiring more complex, though.
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3D printing a LED module case from translucent filament is an option - either housing individual LED bulbs or short LED strips. But you're limited by what you can fit on your printer (or in a shipping box...)
The good thing about LEDs between the spokes is they're easy to remove. The bad thing about LEDs between the spokes is they're easy to remove.
LED strips adhered to the rim may wear off, or be ripped off by malicious actors.
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A 3D printed module can be designed to clip to the spokes and lock in with some screws. That still won't stop someone from taking it, but having to remove several small screws impedes opportunistic scrappers.
The aesthetic of a module is also more bold. Rope light is 3/8" or 1/2" in diameter. LED strips vary from 5mm to 10mm wide. Both manifest as a narrow strip of light. Whereas you can model a module as you please - I even considered something shaped like a disk brake.
Much to think about.
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Okay, looking at my brake, the disk option is not an option, and wouldn't be visible from both sides. So that's one less thing to worry about...
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Note to self - RGB LEDs can be obnoxious. Very obnoxious.
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And still, it can't beat the simplicity of an LED rope light. A pity they're so difficult to wire...
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The fact that every single 3D printed LED module case I've tried to print has failed due to bed adhesion issues should be a clue that I should stop trying ... or that they need more surface area on the first layer.
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text/gemini
