Bright lights

So, I don't know if you've heard, but apparently there's this new "LED"
technology that's all the rage among the cool kids these days.

Ahem.

After a lot of hemming and hawing, I've taken the plunge with some
friends and ordered a whole bunch of flashlights with SSC P7-C emitters.
Lighting nerds will recognize this as Seoul Semiconductors latest and
greatest commodity emitter. It can produce up to 900 lumens when running
at max rated voltage (4.2V). In this application, it is powered by a
rechargeable lithium battery.

The not-secret is that these flashlights are well ahead of the
bike-specific lighting market, and you can buy bike mounts. If anyone
wants to reproduce my setup, here's what we ordered:

Flashlight:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15691

Batteries:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790

Charger:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105

Cheesy plastic bike mount:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15642

No particular endorsement of DealExtreme intended he they had this
stuff, the prices were good, and about five of us saved a small amount
by grouping an order and using their BULKRATE code.

This is mostly a preview post. I promise to have something to say about
the lights once I have them in hand.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

On Dec 20, 10:07*am, Ryan Cousineau wrote:
So, I don't know if you've heard, but apparently there's this new "LED"
technology that's all the rage among the cool kids these days.

Ahem.

After a lot of hemming and hawing, I've taken the plunge with some
friends and ordered a whole bunch of flashlights with SSC P7-C emitters.
Lighting nerds will recognize this as Seoul Semiconductors latest and
greatest commodity emitter. It can produce up to 900 lumens when running
at max rated voltage (4.2V). In this application, it is powered by a
rechargeable lithium battery.

The not-secret is that these flashlights are well ahead of the
bike-specific lighting market, and you can buy bike mounts. If anyone
wants to reproduce my setup, here's what we ordered:

Flashlight:http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15691

Batteries:http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790

Charger:http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105

Cheesy plastic bike mount:http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15642

No particular endorsement of DealExtreme intended he they had this
stuff, the prices were good, and about five of us saved a small amount
by grouping an order and using their BULKRATE code.

This is mostly a preview post. I promise to have something to say about
the lights once I have them in hand.

If there was a 2 cell version of that light with 3h runtime for 30
bucks--the temptation to mount two of 'em frogeye stylee on my front
Nashbar platform rack might be way too tempting. I figure I can ride
the local wetlands in pitch blackness with a bungeed 3C cell Mag at
10mph and that's 130 lumens, but with 1500 lumens, I can go 100mph!
Hell, yeah!

On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:07:06 +0000, Ryan Cousineau wrote:

So, I don't know if you've heard, but apparently there's this new "LED"
technology that's all the rage among the cool kids these days.

Ahem.

After a lot of hemming and hawing, I've taken the plunge with some
friends and ordered a whole bunch of flashlights with SSC P7-C emitters.
Lighting nerds will recognize this as Seoul Semiconductors latest and
greatest commodity emitter. It can produce up to 900 lumens when running
at max rated voltage (4.2V). In this application, it is powered by a
rechargeable lithium battery.

The not-secret is that these flashlights are well ahead of the
bike-specific lighting market, and you can buy bike mounts. If anyone
wants to reproduce my setup, here's what we ordered:

Flashlight:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15691

Batteries:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790

Charger:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105

Cheesy plastic bike mount:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15642

No particular endorsement of DealExtreme intended he they had this
stuff, the prices were good, and about five of us saved a small amount
by grouping an order and using their BULKRATE code.

This is mostly a preview post. I promise to have something to say about
the lights once I have them in hand.

great, just what we need - more assholes that don't understand that
shining this **** into the eyes of other cyclists is highly
objectionable. when are cyclists going to discover what auto
manufacturers have known for nearly 100 years? use diffusers people - the
light should be on the ground, not the eyes of oncoming traffic.

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
So, I don't know if you've heard, but apparently there's this new "LED"
technology that's all the rage among the cool kids these days.

Ahem.

After a lot of hemming and hawing, I've taken the plunge with some
friends and ordered a whole bunch of flashlights with SSC P7-C emitters.
Lighting nerds will recognize this as Seoul Semiconductors latest and
greatest commodity emitter. It can produce up to 900 lumens when running
at max rated voltage (4.2V). In this application, it is powered by a
rechargeable lithium battery.

The not-secret is that these flashlights are well ahead of the
bike-specific lighting market, and you can buy bike mounts. If anyone
wants to reproduce my setup, here's what we ordered:

Flashlight:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15691

Batteries:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790

Charger:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105

Cheesy plastic bike mount:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15642

No particular endorsement of DealExtreme intended he they had this
stuff, the prices were good, and about five of us saved a small amount
by grouping an order and using their BULKRATE code.

This is mostly a preview post. I promise to have something to say about
the lights once I have them in hand.


I do have this one (Cree Q5 LED) in hand:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10727

I haven't mounted it on a bike yet, but I have used it quite a bit. My
impression is that it's plenty bright for road cycling, marginal for
off-road, being about equivalent to a 10W halogen. It's fairly "floody",
at 10' throwing about a 2' spot and a 10' (fairly bright) "spill". Seems
like a nearly ideal beam for biking as opposed to my head-mounted 3W
light which has a smaller spot and less/dimmer spill.

My concern with the P7 lights is that they might be actually too bright
(900 lumen vs 230). The P7 is actually a quad die, with 4 adjacent LED
chips under the single lens.

The light I bought has a "buck/boost" regulator, so it can run on a
single or dual AA Nicad, NiMh, or alkaline, or a single lithium. I
tested this and it ran with even a single nearly dead alkaline. The low
power mode is efficient since it uses a switching regulator. Max output
runtime is about 2 hr with 2 cells. I figure I can easily ride all night
(summer) with 8, AA's. In a pinch I can use convenience store batteries.

I have been using the 1W LEDs for a few years, both head mounted and
handlebar mounted. They were pretty marginal, close to a 2.5W halogen
like the Cateye micro or the Bell whatever-it-was. The 3W LEDs are a
different experience altogether, especially the more recent models like
the Q5. You really have to see one to appreciate how bright it actually is.

For a flashlight handlebar mount, the more expensive Fenix ($8.40) gets
really good reviews, but mine is still back-ordered.

I think I will make a small hood for mine with some aluminum tubing to
mask the upper part of the beam for bike riding. The default circular
beam of a very bright flashlight could be pretty obnoxious to oncoming
traffic.

By all means get back with your P7 review. I'm interested in buying one
for off-road mountain biking. It should be a flame thrower.

The brighter the better I am more worried about my vision and safety
than if others find lights too bright.


On Dec 20, 12:25*pm, jim beam wrote:
On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:07:06 +0000, Ryan Cousineau wrote:
So, I don't know if you've heard, but apparently there's this new "LED"
technology that's all the rage among the cool kids these days.

Ahem.

After a lot of hemming and hawing, I've taken the plunge with some
friends and ordered a whole bunch of flashlights with SSC P7-C emitters..
Lighting nerds will recognize this as Seoul Semiconductors latest and
greatest commodity emitter. It can produce up to 900 lumens when running
at max rated voltage (4.2V). In this application, it is powered by a
rechargeable lithium battery.

The not-secret is that these flashlights are well ahead of the
bike-specific lighting market, and you can buy bike mounts. If anyone
wants to reproduce my setup, here's what we ordered:

Flashlight:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15691

Batteries:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790

Charger:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6105

Cheesy plastic bike mount:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15642

No particular endorsement of DealExtreme intended he they had this
stuff, the prices were good, and about five of us saved a small amount
by grouping an order and using their BULKRATE code.

This is mostly a preview post. I promise to have something to say about
the lights once I have them in hand.

great, just what we need - more assholes that don't understand that
shining this **** into the eyes of other cyclists is highly
objectionable. *when are cyclists going to discover what auto
manufacturers have known for nearly 100 years? *use diffusers people - the
light should be on the ground, not the eyes of oncoming traffic.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:03:55 -0800, bigjimpack wrote:

The brighter the better I am more worried about my vision and safety
than if others find lights too bright.

would it help focus your attention if i rode into you and punched your
dumbass brains out you selfish piece of ****? i am ****ing SICK of
assholes with their retina-destroying point-sources shining their led's in
the eyes of their fellow cyclists.

Wear sunglasses . I'm not scared of someone who never learned to look
to the side while riding or driving


On Dec 20, 1:31*pm, jim beam wrote


would it help focus your attention if i rode into you and punched your
dumbass brains out you selfish piece of ****? *i am ****ing SICK of
assholes with their retina-destroying point-sources shining their led's in
the eyes of their fellow cyclists.

On Dec 20, 6:03*pm, wrote:
The brighter the better I am more worried about *my vision and safety
than if others find *lights too bright.

That seems like a self-defeating plan. If you blind another road user
with a sharp light carelessly disposed, you make it more likely that
he will crash into you. Surely, if the purpose of the lights is your
"safety", you want to use your lights to enchance your safety, not
endanger it recklessly. -- Andre Jute

On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:51:52 -0800, bigjimpack wrote:

Wear sunglasses .

at night??? **** dude, you're even dumber than i thought.



I'm not scared of someone who never learned to look
to the side while riding or driving

look out for me asshole - i'll ride straight into you. and make you hurt.





On Dec 20, 1:31Â*pm, jim beam wrote


would it help focus your attention if i rode into you and punched your
dumbass brains out you selfish piece of ****? Â*i am ****ing SICK of
assholes with their retina-destroying point-sources shining their led's
in the eyes of their fellow cyclists.

"jim beam" wrote in message
m...
On Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:51:52 -0800, bigjimpack wrote:

Wear sunglasses .

at night??? **** dude, you're even dumber than i thought.



I'm not scared of someone who never learned to look
to the side while riding or driving

look out for me asshole - i'll ride straight into you. and make you hurt.


e-fight! e-fight!

J.