Wow, riveting night on the policy front. My colleague Mr. Chan posted this video on FB in response to the Mitch Daniels quote - “The late Steve Jobs - what a fitting name he had - create more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew”.
Was he talking about Chinese jobs? Mr. Jobs is one of my heroes, but not because he saved America through job creation. Just leave it to a politician to twist the facts to fit their reality. Click on that link above, pretty interesting report by the NYTimes earlier this week.
That there is a schematic for my bicycle light setup. Three 4w LED’s are wired in parallel to the 12-24v Tung Lin Dynamo. Bright as day while out on the road at night. I’ve got two up front and one in the back.
So go grab yourself some supplies and get to work. This has to be the cheapest, best lighting solution for biking out there. Yes cheapest and BEST. Cost me just around $80 for a total of 1320 Lumens.
A video of my bicycle light.
Instructions for a single lamp version of the tung lin dynamo powered bicycle light are below. Of course, I upped the game a bit since that post - now the same dynamo is running three lights in parallel. The lighting system is simply fantastic for the a ride in the dark. I can clearly see things in the road even when riding at 20 mph. Thank you physics and electricity.
Tung Lin Dynamo Update!
Over the holiday break I broke down some physics with my friend Stephen. Bottom line - on the Tung Lin, scrap the rear tail light port. You get more power/current/voltage from the headlight port. Enough to run 3 of the 4w 12v LED’s I mentioned in the previous article. I wired there up in PARALLEL and the street is brighter than any other bike light I’ve seen. Two in front, one in back for ~$80. I haven’t finalized the lights yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll update the instructions with another post.
Happy riding!
It’s the holidays and snow is on the ground. Procrastinating is running high and the food is tasting good. I finally finished v1 of the lighting system on my bike. I’ll update with final specs soon. I just downloaded Motion 5 and will attempt to pump out a few videos over the next few months. One for the Survivor Storytelling Project, others for my bike and holiday times.
I’m hoping to get some good photos in the next few days as new frontiers are on the horizon. Those will be posted on the photograph page soon too. I hope everyone enjoys the holidays, relaxes, and learns a thing or two.
America - Something to think about.
23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health? (by DocMikeEvans via @CBM)
My friend David and I were building bike lights tonight and talking about the possibilities for big changes in medicine. We tend to dream and it’s nice to ham it up with someone who dreams big too. David sent me this ted talk the other day that talked about the plain crappy way information is presented/delivered in medicine and how the one the one thing we really need to be able to do in medicine is figure out how to help people change one life habit or another. Not more pills, not more this, not more that. It wasn’t a perfect talk but it resonated, and then David brought up the topic tonight but we kind of left the idea hanging. So he rides home with his new light and I popped on the interwebs prior to one last bout with thyroid chemistry and found this video. I liked the presentation, the data, and the mentality and it hit home a bit.
(via jayparkinsonmd)
Source: youtube.com
Tung Lin Dynamo + Super Bright LED
Prelude
In my quest to minimize battery use I recently embarked on building a self powered headlight for my bike. The purpose of this post is to help others with similar aspirations. I found numerous instruction sets across the web but none of them addressed all of my needs in a clear and well documented way. So here is my attempt at adding something useful to the web. I hope it helps.
The bottom line is that I wanted a self powered super bright light that would make me aware of rocks and potholes when riding home from school in the dark. I quickly learned that I did not have enough time or energy to build my own dynamo or light source from custom LEDs so my project consisted of finding suggestions of design and hardware from across the web - ultimately blending them all into my final product. Major sources: 1, 2, 3
Reasoning behind the parts
The Tung Lin dynamo is easily the cheapest and most powerful one I could find. It claims to pump out 12 volts AC from its headlight port which is the right amount for the pre-made 12v MR16 LED lamps out there. Further, it has a second taillight port that pumps out ~4v AC for future expansion. In testing the voltage with a multimeter I found that the headlight port will pump out upwards of 24 volts at higher speeds.
When testing it with my friend David cranking on the bicycle (on a stand) as hard as he could the dynamo but out 70 volts. But for real world conditions I figured it’d be best to mount a multimeter on my bicycle along with a GPS to tell my speed. Unfortunately at 20mph I hit a bump and my multimeter and GPS went flying into the street so I was only able to track the amperage; here is the amperage I was able to map out with the tung lin dynamo:
7mph = 1.0 Amps
10mph = 1.15 Amps
12mph = 1.23 Amps
15mph = 1.28 Amps
19mph = 1.34 Amps
I chose the MR16 LED lamp for two reasons. First, because it already has the circuitry embedded to deal with variations in voltage that dynamo produces, as explained above. Second, because they can easily handle the AC voltage the dynamo produces. And LED was chosen because the brightness simply kills halogen and incandescent and requires far less power.
The rest of the parts were found as Kristen and I wandered Home Depot and Ace Hardware looking for the right pieces to reasonably mount the light. If you buy the parts listed below you might save yourself a lot of time.
Mandatory Part List
- Dynamo - 12v Tung Lin Dynamo - Amazon
- Super Bright LED - 4w, 4 LED, 440 Lumen, MR16 - Amazon.
- 18 Gauge Electrical Wire - Radio Shack
- Conduit Hanger size #1 - Home Depot
- 3/4” #20 Bolt + Locking nut - make sure it fits in ↑ (#4)
- Flexible PVC Coupling 1.5 inch → 1.25 inch. - Home Depot
- Electrical Tape / Solder + Soldering Iron
Additional Optional Part List
- MR16 Socket - Amazon
- Drain Bushings to fit on dynamo head - Ace Hardware
Tools
- Drill + Drill bits
- Wire cutter/trimmer
- Flat head screw driver
- Washer for the 3/4” inch bolt
The Steps
- Drill Holes in the 1.25” Portion of the Rubber PVC coupling
There are two holes to drill: one to attach the conduit hanger, the other so that the wires attached to the LED lamp can leave the PVC coupling.
First, put the conduit hanger against the 1.25” side of the PVC coupling to see where the best position is for the hole. Then choose a drill bit smaller than the diameter of your 3/4” bolt. This will allow you to have a very tight seal after pushing your bolt through.
Second, drill a hole for the wires that need to leave the coupling. Choose the place for this hole farther back than the lamp will extend from the 1.5”. Also consider where you’ll be mounting the light. You’ll see where I drilled mine in the photos. - Attach the Conduit Hanger
Slip the washer onto the 3/4” bolt and then push the 3/4” bolt through the PVC coupling so that the head is inside of the coupling and the threads are sticking out into space. Then slip your conduit hanger to the bolt and solidify it’s place with the locking nut. - Attach Wires to LED Lamp
If you have the MR16 socket: Simply attach the socket to the lamp.
If you don’t: Solder or use some other method to attach the two separate 18 gauge wires to the electrical posts of the lamp. - Add the LED Lamp to the PVC Coupling
Loosen the metal straps on your PVC coupling. Then insert your lamp into the 1.5” side of the PVC coupling - electrical wires first. Push the lamp in so that three or four millimeters of the coupling extends over the lamp. Next move the wire strap on the 1.5” end so that it is flush with end of the rubber - then tighten it to the level that you are confident the lamp won’t pop out the front of coupling when you’re riding over bumps at 20 mph. Don’t tighten it so much that you crack the glass on your lamp.
Now thread the wires through the second hole so that they are hanging outside of the coupling. Your light fixture should be looking snazzy at this point. - Mount your Lamp Fixture
Pop the conduit hanger portion on to your handle bars or wherever else decide your lamp should be. Make sure that it’s secure. I added some electrical tape prior to installation so that the conduit wouldn’t scratch up my handle bars. That move certainly wasn’t necessary though. - Install the Dynamo
Anywhere you want. I chose to mount if on my pannier rack so that it got drive from my rear wheel. But I don’t see any reason you couldn’t do the front.
Make sure that the dynamo head is pretty close to your tire. Mine is 4-5 mm off the tire when it is not released. Tighten the attachment quite a bit as the internal spring in the releasing mechanism is likely to rotate the attachment a bit if not tightened.
Throw a drain bushing or two onto the plastic head of the dynamo. This will preserve the plastic head and can cheaply and easily be swapped out as they wear down. - Connect the Wires From the Headlight to the Dynamo
Two 18 gauge wires should be sticking out of the lamp fixture. Attach one to the port labeled “H” on your dynamo. Attach the second wire anywhere but the “T” port. That means any part of the arm, or any the silver bottle part itself. Attach using electrical tape or solder.
Make sure you tuck away your wires with tape or some other means so that you don’t tear your lighting fixture off when ripping up a mean hill on the way to work. - Go for a ride!
I just finished 8 of the hardest weeks I’ve had ever had in school. Not much running over the last year but I’ve been motivated by some buddies to bicycle commute to school. It doubles as my exercise too. I love it. It’s getting a little chilly but my best guess is that the riding will persist.
I’ve been slowly learning Adobe Illustrator too. This here is a diagram Kristen and I made last night to better memorize antidepressants. Our brain final was this morning. Off to do all of the things I’ve been avoiding…
A glimpse.
