Homebake

[vifferman]

I was starting to get really pissed off with tailgaters, what with having to keep one eye ahead, one on the mirror and a third eye on the speedo in case I accidentally strayed over the speed limit and was thereby guilty of attempted murder. Plus, instead of being able to just brake when I needed to, I was often having to fan the brake lever: "Back off! Keep back! Warning! I'm slowing down, you feckin eedjit!"
So, I had a look at what was available, and then asked Number Two if he could make me summat.
"Sure. Piece of piss."
A few doodads, things that looked like pills with antennas, and some lollies, and voila! (a small stringed instrument, misspelled).
This flashes the brake lights five times, then the brake light stays on till the brake's released. I might have to get him to reprogram the micro so the interval is a bit slower, but otherwise, it's great.

[imdying]

Awesome! Will he up the circuit diagram and part lists so we can all arm ourselves?

[Motu]

You will need to disable it for WoFs,and be pleasant with a well rehearsed excuse when the Cop stops you.....often.

[Colapop]

Is it like a back facing K.I.T.T (Knightrider) light? - showing my age.

[vifferman]

Awesome! Will he up the circuit diagram and part lists so we can all arm ourselves?
Sure.
There's stuff all to it - a small microprocessor, a few capacitors (three, I think), a small circuit board, the box/case, some bits of wet string, some connectors, two transistors, and a heat sink (the ugly one shown was an old Pentium heatsink, as the small one he tried first heated up to about 70 degrees.
The inputs are the ground/earth (just used the earth to the taillights), the signal from the brake switch (which triggers the micro), and there's one output which goes to the stoplight filaments.

It's probably illegal, knowing how the safety nazis work, but I'd imagine that given it's for safety reasons (which is what is supposed to be behind our road laws), and not a nuisance item, you should be able to talk your way out of a ticket.

[vifferman]

You will need to disable it for WoFs,and be pleasant with a well rehearsed excuse when the Cop stops you.....often.
Yeah, I know. I thought of that before I commissioned it. Number Two forgot to put the disabling (pass-through) switch in, but that will be easy to add. Besides, the whole thing unplugs very easily.

[KLOWN]

Sure.
There's stuff all to it - a small microprocessor, a few capacitors (three, I think), a small circuit board, the box/case, some bits of wet string, some connectors, two transistors, and a heat sink (the ugly one shown was an old Pentium heatsink, as the small one he tried first heated up to about 70 degrees.
The inputs are the ground/earth (just used the earth to the taillights), the signal from the brake switch (which triggers the micro), and there's one output which goes to the stoplight filaments.

It's probably illegal, knowing how the safety nazis work, but I'd imagine that given it's for safety reasons (which is what is supposed to be behind our road laws), and not a nuisance item, you should be able to talk your way out of a ticket.
They have a similar item in new cars these days where upon braking hard it puts the hazard(sp) lights on untill you release the brake.

[sAsLEX]

You will need to disable it for WoFs,and be pleasant with a well rehearsed excuse when the Cop stops you.....often.

You can buy similar things from repco, surely they wouldnt be selling illegal things.

Why would a cop stop him? Its an electrical contact it could bounce a few times before staying on, plus he could just be doing it with his fingers.

[Ixion]

You will need to disable it for WoFs,and be pleasant with a well rehearsed excuse when the Cop stops you.....often.

From the cop point of view, what is the difference between this and my manual dab-dab-dab-dab-brake technique of dealing with tailgaters, other than convenience and the regularity of the flash. I mean, how is a cop going to know you are not just dabbing the brake pedal?

[vifferman]

From the cop point of view, what is the difference between this and my manual dab-dab-dab-dab-brake technique of dealing with tailgaters, other than convenience and the regularity of the flash. I mean, how is a cop going to know you are not just dabbing the brake pedal?
Eggs Zachary.
Which is what I was doing until now. But it's not a good way of slowing down in a hurry - you need to be looking ahead and concentrating on braking.
Besides, do cops ticket those cyclists with the flashing LED taillights and headlights? It would also be gross hypocrisy given that car drivers seem to be able to tailgate with impunity, and this is a safety feature, not like neons or coloured lights.
There are new cars such as BMWs that come with LED brakelights that come on progressively, more LEDs the harder you brake. Not really that different, as the intent is the same: to alert the person behind you that you are braking.

[imdying]

No cop would ticket for that, and I'd take the Pepsi challenge and go to court if it came to it. I do it manually anyway, I'd put money on never being stopped. I'd also put money on my WOF guy saying 'that's a great idea' rather than 'you can't have a warrant' (even though I'm guessing he'd be well inside his rights?).

[vifferman]

No cop would ticket for that, and I'd take the Pepsi challenge and go to court if it came to it. I do it manually anyway, I'd put money on never being stopped. I'd also put money on my WOF guy saying 'that's a great idea' rather than 'you can't have a warrant' (even though I'm guessing he'd be well inside his rights?).
Depends whether your warrant guy was sensible, or a bureaucrat. I know some who fail anything they can. Mine is more pragmatic: if my bike is safe, it passes.
Anyway, the thing flashes for less than 3 seconds, and then only if I'm braking, so it's not like it's going to attract the attention of a cop unless he's tailgating.

[Ixion]

Only problem I see is that it negates the "dab effect". Dabbing produces a brake flash, which alerts dozy twit "ohhh look at priddy light , gee wonder if it means something, oh yeah, maybe he's gonna slow down, ooooohhhh he's awfully close to me isn't he, wodda bad driver, not like me", without actually slowing down much, thus giving the neanderthal brain time to react. Whereas this, whilst producing the desired flahy light will slow you down immediately, causing neanderthal to impact before his brain (for want of better word) has finished processing the flashy .

(BTW, the flashy lights are legal for treadleys and mopeds, but not for us. Go figure)

[Motu]

You can buy similar things from repco, surely they wouldnt be selling illegal things.

Why would a cop stop him? Its an electrical contact it could bounce a few times before staying on, plus he could just be doing it with his fingers.

Where do you think the Boi Racers get their noisy exhausts and illegal lighting from?

The WoF will pick it up of course,but the flashing needs to be slowed to human possible speeds to withstand a Cops withering stare.....

[oldrider]

This has been tried before,(Ulysses club members) it was very effective but the law had it "outlawed" and they had to be removed.
The reason for their (The law) reaction still confounds me. Cheers John.

[skelstar]

Was thinking that if your tech used FETs instead of transistors he wouldnt have to have those massive heatsinks (I dont think anyway). Awesome idea though. :niceone:

Ha, you should have fitted the pentium cooler fan too :).

[Ixion]

What would IMHO, be better still would be a gizmo, activated by pushbutton - like a horn button - that just flashed the brake light slowly - so no braking at all. Then just jam your thumb on the button. No WoF issues, cos they don't know what it does. I want to flash my brake light at the tailgater, but NOT actually slow down. (My brake lights are set so that they come on before the actual brake engages, but such a flashy gizmo would save the dab-dab concentration). Horn and headlamp flash for idiots ahead, brake flashy for idiots astern

[vifferman]

Was thinking that if your tech used FETs instead of transistors he wouldnt have to have those massive heatsinks (I dont think anyway). Awesome idea though. :niceone:
Yeah, I asked him about that.
The heatsink doesn't need to be that big - a third of the size would've done, but we couldn't be bothered cutting it down.


Ha, you should have fitted the pentium cooler fan too :).
That's already on my R/R.
(Actually, that's not true - I've got a fan from a Sun server on my R/R).


Only problem I see is that it negates the "dab effect".
Well, this was supposed to replicate that. Sort of. That was the thinking behind it anyway. What I initially wanted was a one-second flash, a pause, then a decaying series of flashes getting gradually slower till it stayed on.
There are several varieties out there, like this one:
http://www.signaldynamics.com/products/Modules/xp.asp
And this:
http://www.kisantech.com/index.php?cat_id=3

[imdying]

You can drag your front brake for a few seconds if you just want the flashing light without slowing down.

[scumdog]

You will need to disable it for WoFs,and be pleasant with a well rehearsed excuse when the Cop stops you.....often.

Seen this set-up on the top-box area of a Goldwing type bike (the whole arse of them looks like a big top-box anyway) while coming back from the Glenorchy rally on the twisty bits near Queenstown, seemed to have normal brake lights as well as this flash-flash-flash set-up, really effective and let you know how tight the next bend was likely to be, followed him for a bit then passed, eyes hurt from watching the pretty flashing lights...


vifferman, how about a plastic coated microswitch to activate this sytem?
Put it between the cheeks of your arse and the tighter they clenched the faster the lights flashed??

That way those that were following you would realise the seriousness of the situation by the frequency of the flashing!!

Slow flashing=normal braking,
Frantic flashing=situation getting serious, impending hazard RIGHT THERE.
Stacatto milli-second flashes= the switch is about to get shat on.
No flash= the switch got crushed to death