Shine on you crazy diamond

[super slim]

During the day on sunny days, when on roads I use the level 5 800 lumens, flash on/off at 0.5 sec, and on a bike path or an overcast day on the road Level 3 flash 380 lumens, on/off, and at night Level 1 110 lumens, solid on, with a triple strobe at 800 lumens. This should allow drivers at night to judge distance with a solid light.
A solid and flashing lights separated by 800 mm, would be much better as on my old trike with two front and rear lights(Basta 0.5 w) mounted on the front mudguard supports, cars ALWAYS gave me a massive gap, then would come back really close to DF riders with NO lights.

The tail light is partly obscured by the reflective triangle but this is turned red by the tail light.
I have added black reflective tape to the forks that are reflective when exposed to a light source close to the eye, i,e flash on a camera, or a car headlight and its driver, so he/she sees the triangle and two forks, and a reflective helmet.

 

[pethelman]

Hey SS,
Looks like you're having some good success with your new lights! Although I understood which pulse mode you're using at night, I did want to point out for other readers of this thread that the "triple pulse" is steady ON at level 1 (110 lumen) with a grouping of three short 120ms pulses up to **level 2 (240 lumens)** at roughly 1 second intervals. It's a nice eye catching pattern that's always on (to avoid destroying night depth perception) but not too bright. As you have no doubt experienced first hand, the full 800 lumens (from the taillight) at night is quite debilitating and literally pain inducing, which is why it should never be used at night. Generally speaking, I try not to go any higher than level 3 at dusk, and then no higher than level 2 at night. I've often thought that the taillight could double as a personal security device. If someone were approaching you at night and you wanted to stop them in their tracks, level 5 EMS strobe would definitely do it!

Really enjoying reading the forums!

 

[battleaxe0]

800 lumens is useful on a twisting trail at night, but overkill for road use even in the darkest conditions.

 

[pethelman]

Hmm... yes, I should have clarified that I was talking about the taillight (edited original post). Depending on the beam shape, 800 headlight lumens *might* not be too bad on the road, but definitely pushing it in most cases with regard to oncoming traffic. You're right about good trail use, especially if there's a good flood component to the beam. 800 pure red lumens has a MUCH higher pain factor to the eye than an 800 lumen white spectrum. The red output at 800 feels equivalent to something more like 1500 to 2000 white lumens in my experience. One thing's for sure, with the higher power lights comes a much higher level of responsibility from the user to be mindful of the setting in which they're being used. I see you're riding a '98 Rocket... I've been on a V-Rex since about that same time myself.

 

[ratz]

Stephen,

Great to see you hit the forums. We can learn a lot about lighting characteristics having you around when you have time.

Question: Would it ever be practical to wire up a "remote" button to control the lights. For a rig like Slim's if he had the "dimmer" button up at the handlebars; that would be advantageous; for a nose mount like my vendetta it would actually make that function available. Useful for both the tail and the nose light. I can dim the tail light if I get a rider on my tail; but it's far from a stable event. Doing it elegantly of course being the challenge.

 

[pethelman]

Hey Bob,
Thanks very much! Yes, I wish there were an elegant way to add this capability for the recumbent users, but sadly, there just isn't. I've built a few custom rigs with long remote buttons, essentially in parallel with the existing switch, but it's not an easy proposition. Even less so now that the new circuit board does not have through holes for a wired, external switch. One of the changes I made on the last board layout was to locate the power tact switch on the board itself. This required the rework of the lid and the fabrication of the custom silicon button, but it was definitely worth it since it eliminated a lot of soldering and hand-touch time from the assembly process, not to mention a point of failure with the old tact switch being epoxied to the lid. I really wish I had a solution for this, but at the time that I needed to go forward with the board-population, I just couldn't afford another round of design iteration and delay. The other quandary is how to elegantly handle the 4-wire bundle that now has to come out of the housing (1 pair for power, 1 pair for switch). I had re-purposed some old magicshine cables to do this in the past, but to do it right, I think would take some pretty significant re-design.

 

[super slim]

Bob, I have my front light as high as possible, and just in front of the water bottle, to gently break up the air for more aero, so I can adjust the brightness and also the aim vert.+ horiz., to get as much of the light on the ground 8 m in front of me if riding at 25 kph (15 mph), and easily adjust to approx 20 m if doing 60 kph(35 mph) (which I CAN NOW do at night with one light instead of two, flood on bike, spot on helmet).

In Sth Australia, car drivers do NOT like bright bicycle lights that are remotely as bright as car lights, AND poorly aimed, as high beam will be flashed at you, blinding me, as at 63, the speed of my eye dilation is SLOW, just like my hill climbing speed!!!

In the OLD days, before bright bicycle headlights, I tried my bright (In those days Basta 1 W Egg White headlight) mounted on the Bottom Bracket, for a better aero position, for an early start (in the dark) on the Tour Down Under Community 160 km ride, but after being flashed repeatedly by Utes (SUV, Pickup for USA readers) with 4 to 6 driving lights on their roof, while in the Torrens River Gorge, OR only 3 feet in front of me AND creating huge shadows on the sharply undulating road!!!
After 1/2 hr of this, I stopped and moved the headlight back up to the handlebar T bar, so I could aim it vertically and horizontally!!!!

With the new design shine BRIGHT headlight, mounted high in front of the water bottle, I have not had any cars flash me, nor for the Magicshine copy with a 45*10 degree filter, BUT I did with the Dinottee 400 with a spot and 45 degree diffused lens!!

I would leave the switches as they are!!!

The ONLY change I would like to see is the 45 * 10 degree diffusion lens on the tail light (clear + corrugated lens), to be used on the headlight, to replace the 30? degree diffused lense (with lemon filter)

Designshine DS500 Tail spot + 45*10 diffused


Designshine DS1300 head light (ABOVE) with spot and 30? degree diffused lens

Dinottee 400L+ headlight (BELOW) with spot + 45+ degree diffused lense and NO clear cover to assist sidelighting. Car would flash me unless it was pointed down a LOT, and only had a 20 kph safe speed range (For MY eyes) at night.

where the Magicshine copy (with a smooth main reflector) had a 30 kph speed with a clear lens cover for 10 deg spot, or 25 kph with the Orange 45*10 degree corrugated lens filter

Magicshine 808 copy with an Orange 45*10 degree corrugated diffusion filter


The taillight is definitely brighter than the headlight, as I got my brother to take photos at a fixed speed and aperture with his expensive SLR camera!

I will post these tomorrow night as I am off to give away my eldest daughter in marriage, even though I asked for $2 million in small denominations, and 2 kangaroos and 2 goats to keep the house lawns under control, from her boyfriend, when he asked for my permission to marry her! I have not seen the green cash yet!!

 

[pethelman]

Hey SS,
Wow! Big day for you tomorrow. Hope it all goes very well! A couple of goats certainly seems reasonable...
Concerning the lensing on the DS-1300, I borrowed your image here and added some information. I've played around with the elliptical lens on the headlight, and it's certainly an option to swap one out. I would leave the XPE Spot side as-is, since this is your big throw beam, but if you change the narrow frosted out for the elliptical, the end result is that you buy yourself slightly more off-angle intensity during the day. At night, at least to my eyes, the narrow frosted with the XPG is pretty close to the perfect compliment to the XPE Spot, which is why I elected to use this combo as the final default offering. The elliptical is very similar, but with just a bit less usable light where you really want it at night. To me, the extra bit of daytime performance wasn't worth the slight night time hit. But I guess the big take away is that your mileage may vary, and you certainly can change out the lenses if you like. Consult the user's manual on the removal and re-install of the lens cover, but basically if you remove the hold down screw, the lens cover does not come off (as you've notice) due to the tight compression with the main sealing o-ring. Usually when you pop off the lens cover (slowly), the o-ring stays in place, but sometimes you have to help it back into its resting groove, so it's best to do this on a nice clean table so you can see things very well. Just in general, you want to avoid getting any of the silicon o-ring grease on the inside surfaces of the lenses or especially on the domes of the LEDs themselves. When re-installing the lens cover, you just set it straight down over the lenses and then start the center screw. As you tighten the screw, it acts as a "press" and will force the lens cover back over the o-ring. The part number designator for the elliptical lens is Carclo part no. 10510.

 

[Wannabe]

Hi Stephan,
David Falgout here. I too am glad to see you here. I have been plugging the DS500 on BROL at the appropriate time. They seem interested.
I get wonderful compliments on my DS500 all the time when out for a ride. Thank you so very much for making these available!
Have you though about building something for motorcycles?

 

[battleaxe0]

I prefer my headlight on the bars - better road visibility since the spread effect increases with distance. It works OK on the front, which is the only choice on a trike other than the helmet, but it does reduce the amount of road you can light up directly in front of you.

 

[ratz]

I prefer my headlight on the bars - better road visibility since the spread effect increases with distance. It works OK on the front, which is the only choice on a trike other than the helmet, but it does reduce the amount of road you can light up directly in front of you.

I tired that for awhile but the back scatter off the legs messed up my night vision making it harder to see; so For me I get to get the light out in front of my feet.

 

[battleaxe0]

I tired that for awhile but the back scatter off the legs messed up my night vision making it harder to see; so For me I get to get the light out in front of my feet.

I'm also riding a Rocket - my feet are lower with respect to the hamster bars, so they're not as lit up. I'll let you know when I get the Silvio.

OTOH, with the light on top of the derailleur post on the front of my trike, my feet light up and make huge shadows as the pedals go round, so I know that at times I'm reducing my visibility from the side.

 

[super slim]

Bob, You should not shave your legs and use sun tan lotion, as this increases the reflection of the light.
If you have shiny legs, use a longer pair of of BLACK knicks

 

[super slim]

Here are 2 groups of photos all taken at a fixed focal number, speed, and aperture with lights approximately 3 m ( 10ft) from a lift up garage door, and looking down a road.
The Lemon filter on the Designshine DS1300 does not reduce the lighting at night.

Look at the gutter on the house at the end of the road.

DS1300 at L5 1,400 Lumens with a 17.4 V.A battery load


DS1300 at L2 410 Lumens with a 4.2 V.A battery load

 

[Wannabe]

Great Pics SS...thank you!

 

[super slim]

Here are a group of photos all taken at a fixed focal number, speed, and aperture with lights approximately 3 m ( 10ft) from a lift up garage door, and looking down a road.

The Magicshine 45 by 10 degree Orange difraction filter reduces the lighting compared to the 45 by 10 clear difraction filter.


10.3 V.A Magicshine 808 High spot

10.3 V.A Magicshine 808 Max power Spot


10.3 V.A Magicshine 808 High clear 45 by 10





10.3 V.A Magicshine 808 Max power Orange 45 by 10 filter

 

[super slim]

The Designshine DS1300 at L2 power 410 Lumens and 4.2 V.A battery power absolutely KILLS the Magicshine 808 at Medium power with 1.2 V.A (Watts) battery power drain

4.2 V.A Designshine DS1300 L2 412 Lumens Lemon filter




5.4 V.A Magicshine 808 medium power Orange 45 by 10 filter

 

[super slim]

The Designshine DS500 Tail light at L5 800 lumens and only 10.2 V.A blows away the DS1300 L5 headlight 1400 Lumens at 17.4 V.A battery drain.
So the RED leds must be a LOT more efficient!!!

10.2 V.A Designshine DS500 L5 800 Lumens, with a BIG body obscuring part of the view!



17.4 V.A Designshine DS1300 L5 1400 Lumens lemon Filter

 

[pethelman]

Hey SS,
Thanks for the breakdown on the pics. Believe it or not, the white LEDs are actually more efficient, in a technical sense (lumens per watt), but the broad color spectrum doesn't come for free. Basically it "costs" more in power to produce the full spectrum light than to produce RED at a single wavelength. The yellow filter is right in the "sweet" spot of the highest wavelength component of the white LEDs which is why it's so efficient (very little perceived loss through the filter). Just as an aside, this was not an accident. I did lots of testing with various filters, and this one won out quite handily. Believe it or not, there is so much energy coming out of the headlight, that if you put a red acrylic filter in front of it for too long at the maximum output, it will actually start to melt due to the optical loss through the material (similar to current passing through a resistor). In other words, the RED filter absorbs a LOT of the energy from the full spectrum light, whereas the yellow absorbs very little. This is why it's never a good idea to put a RED filter over a WHITE LED with regard to efficiency. There's just not a lot of 620 nm content in the white LEDs. Our eyes are also extraordinarily sensitive to the pure red wavelength (620-630 nm), which is probably the main reason why the taillight is perceived to be so intense. Cameras also have a hard time with red.

So at the end of the day, it's not so much a matter of the taillight being more "efficient," but more a matter of spectral content. Although we can talk about a Red lumen and a White lumen, the two are not directly comparable. Hopefully that make sense?

 

[Wannabe]

..........and that is why I purchased the DS500. The knowledge base and engineering is profound!