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Re: [ST] Spinning rear brake light



On Tue, Jan 13, 2004 at 09:03:23AM -0500, Rod Brown wrote:
> disappointing of all.  I think someone else said it, but they don't take
> advantage of the reflector which really takes away any advantage they might

When it comes to the LED options, there's a wide variety and big
difference between the ones made for automotive use and that of everyday
consumer electronics. One problem of the automotive units is that you
have to design the package to sufficiently dissipate the generated heat.
The lens has to be designed to give the wide viewing area -- or you have
to mount the LEDs in a manner to help out. As for the intensity, it sort
of depends. On one hand, you don't need the reflector as much because
the light only goes out one way -- not the spherical radiation pattern
of the incandescent. Plus, your red filter isn't absoarbing a large
percentage of the radiation.

For a while, I was looking into building my own tail lights using the
automotive LEDs and a PIC uprocessor to power them. I had a SV650 at the
time and I figured the power savings would go to the heated grips, and I
was looking for the quick illumination since my commute is on the daily
gridlocked SR 520 in Seattle. One thing that kept nagging at me was the
legal issue of "not for street use". I have this feeling that if someone
were to hit me -- for whatever reason -- their lawyer and/or insurance
company could claim that b/c I didn't have legal running lights, the
other person wasn't at fault and create a bigger mess. I did a bunch of
research on what is really required for brake lights, what DOT approval
gets you, what wavelength red is the standard, and found that (as far as
I could tell, at least) the whole thing is a complete and confusing mess
of local and federal regulations to sort out.

And then I decided I had enough other projects sitting uncompleted that
I could deal with instead. Like a set of bookshelves that 1.5 years
later still need to have some trim installed.



- -- 
trey valenta t@xxxxxxxx seattle     (maybe a) random quote--v
Any father who thinks he's all important should remind himself that this
country honors fathers only one day a year while pickles get a whole week.

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