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Fun with LED's

ChrisF

Long Gone

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Fun with LED's II

Here's a shot with the sun behind me -
 

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Fun with LED's III

... and another with the garage door closed. I had only the parking lights on for these pictures. The side LED's are orange, while the rear LED's are red. There are 3 sets of 3 rear lights. The center LED of each is a 2 Hz flasher that lights with the brakes. I'll be riding tomorrow (60F+ :D ) to verify that the current draw (425 mA) doesn't make the ABS system burp.
 

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mounting

Looks nice. :thumb Do you have any close ups of how you mounted them? I'm looking to something the same for side safety lighting.

Scott
 
Hey Chris, they look really good! I like my cheapie topcase, and I have led's mounted just at the back.
 
I went with Martha too. I'm looking for a wrecked Chevy Impala to get its third-light array to install across the back of the cutting-board mount.
 

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CHPBike said:
Looks nice. :thumb Do you have any close ups of how you mounted them? I'm looking to something the same for side safety lighting.

Scott

I do, but remember you asked for this! You're looking at the bottom of the mounting plate for a JC Whitney top case (which I purchased based on Loraz's thread "Inexpensive Top Case" from about 6 months ago). The LED's are as follows:
RL5-O4030 (side)
0RL5-R3545 (rear)
RL5-BR2020 (rear, flashing)
I chose these particular LED's for brightness and relatively wide viewing angle. The SuperbrightLED site shows the specs for each LED and includes a calculator to determine the proper resistor size. The LED's were mounted with LED holders (same source) after drilling 1/4" holes. My "winter hobby" is model railroading, so I already had the soldering iron, solder, wires, and liquid electrical tape. The biggest PITA with this project was cutting slots in the plastic webbing to route the wires - a Dremel tool with cutting disk helped a lot.

Total cost for this project was $26, including the $5 shipping charge for the LED's.
 

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BTW, today I rode 140 miles to Riverside, IA and back to verify that the LED's wouldn't cause a problem for the ABS system (they didn't). I thought it was an appropriate destination, given the "space-age" nature of the lighting system. Riverside, IA is "The official future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk (March 22, 2228)".That's my shuttle-craft in the background. :D
 

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