USB charging socket idea

[Haku]

Just found a small mirror for pointing the camera at to get a flipped image on the screen, the pocket tv isn't to be used as a tv but a monitor for the camera as it has AV input - giving me an electronic rear-view mirror. One thing I'm concerned about is the brightness of the screen in daylight, might be completely washed out.

The LEDs won't drain much power from the battery, maybe 500mAh at most, certainly not enough to drastically affect ride times (the hills already do a good job of that!), though if I were using a row of Luxeon Star LEDs or halogen lights I might start getting worried about battery drain

 

[Haku]

Well that was an interesting test, camera stuck on pannier rack with mirror hooked up to a 3" screen on the handlebars worked fairly well as an electronic rear-view mirror.
A little impractical though because you have to look down to see behind you, would be more suited to a recumbent, the screen gets washed out in bright light so if it were to be a permanent installation a waterproof transreflective (= visable in direct sunlight) screen would be needed (if a waterproof one exists that is), a high quality weatherproof rear view camera that mirrors the image electronically is easy to get though.

Now to set to on re-doing the lights...

 

[Ian]

I have a home made rearlamp on my Torq consisting of 10 superbright red LED's and a flashing LED all wired in series with a 390Ω resistor to the 36V battery via the charger socket.
These are inserted in holes drilled in the standard cateye rear reflector. The result is a flashing rearlamp so bright it gets noticed from a distance in bright sunlight. Current drain is a pulsing mere 30mA.

 

[DBCohen]

A little impractical though because you have to look down to see behind you, would be more suited to a recumbent, the screen gets washed out in bright light so if it were to be a permanent installation a waterproof transreflective (= visable in direct sunlight) screen would be needed (if a waterproof one exists that is), a high quality weatherproof rear view camera that mirrors the image electronically is easy to get though.

Or you could just use a regular glass mirror...

Withdrawing my tongue slightly from my cheek , aren;t you worried about having such a set-up nicked from said bike?

 

[Ian]

Or you could just use a regular glass mirror...

I have a Cateye bar end mirror but I'm still trying to find out where to put the batteries

 

[JohnInStockie]

I have a home made rearlamp on my Torq consisting of 10 superbright red LED's and a flashing LED all wired in series with a 390Ω resistor to the 36V battery via the charger socket.
These are inserted in holes drilled in the standard cateye rear reflector. The result is a flashing rearlamp so bright it gets noticed from a distance in bright sunlight. Current drain is a pulsing mere 30mA.

Ian, that sounds like a good idea, was this easy to do? Do you have any notes on how you made the light?

John

 

[Ian]

Give me a couple of days John and I'll post some pictures and notes in a new thread. Some basic soldering is required but if you can do that it's easy enough. If you have a 24V battery then you'll have to use fewer LED's (perhaps 6 + 1 flashing with a 220Ω resistor) but the setup can be duplicated as many times as you wish. Total cost of the electronic components was under a fiver.

 

[Haku]

DBCohen, regular glass mirror? where's the fun in that?
Putting the screen+camera on the bike was just playing with technology, wanted to see how well it worked, I won't be installing a permanent setup but if I did I'd make it so the camera wasn't immediately noticable or identifiable without looking closely at the bike with the screen easily removable.

Ian, do the LEDs dim when the battery gets drained or used? like when you start up a car with the lights on and they dip because of the starter motor drain. I'm going to be using a stepdown DC-DC converter so the voltage to the LEDs remains constant no matter what the battery level is at.

edit: for those looking at making LED setups, this is very handy: LED series parallel array wizard

 

[Ian]

DBCohen, regular glass mirror? where's the fun in that?
Ian, do the LEDs dim when the battery gets drained or used?

Nothing noticeable Haku, the flashing LED incorporates a constant current source keeping the on current steady throughout the batteries voltage range. Even if they did dim I don't think it would be noticeable because of the flashing and the fact they're too bright to look at anyway