Anyone good with electronics?
Thread started by
brassknuckle at 12.5.06 - 2:03 pm
I was gonna wire my bike up with Christmas lights for the toy ride, and I can't seem to get this to work. I bought a set of LED Christmas lights and some battery holders from Radio Shack. I cut off the plug and connected the wires to the battery holders. I figured 8 AA batteries should be enough to power some LED lights for a little while, but i can't seem to get them to light up at all. Anyone have any ideas? I know you can buy battery powered LED lights but no stores close to me seem to carry them and I don't have a car so I can't travel too far.
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This stuff is way better:
http://www.elwire.com/
Try it. Brighter, shinier, easier to run than a full xmas light setup.
Bruce Steel12.5.06 - 2:18 pm
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That stuff looks cool, but i doubt i can get it by Friday
brassknuckle12.5.06 - 2:21 pm
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Try looking for red and green Cyalume light sticks. Very Christmasy and not too expensive.
Jeronimo12.5.06 - 2:38 pm
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a normal set of plug-in lights needs 110 volts AC
8 batteries = 12 volts DC but not like a car battery's 12 volts...
you would need to tote around a car battery and a power inverter to make house lights work
adrian12.5.06 - 2:48 pm
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oh yeah, corded christmas lights are 2.5 volt bulbs EACH...so, your batteries would actually light up about 6 of those bulbs brightly...not the usual string of 100 or so bulbs...you wouldn't light those up at all
here's a good link for what you're trying to do:
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/dc-christmas-lights.html
adrian12.5.06 - 2:52 pm
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Thanks Adrian. Wonderful, I only need 35 AA batteries to power it.
brassknuckle12.5.06 - 3:09 pm
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if you keep reading, there is a way to REWIRE the string, but it won't last long, because AA batteries don't have enough power stored...and the link does have an actual source for battery powered LED lights...but I don't know if you can find them locally...or if you can get them in time for the weekend
adrian12.5.06 - 3:11 pm
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I think i'll call it a night on this idea and figure it out for next year. Thanks for the help.
brassknuckle12.5.06 - 3:20 pm
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your other option would be wandering through the 99 cent store or Big Lots...sometimes they have the strangest things...and they just might have some battery powered lights...
good luck with that...I'll go take a peek tonight to see if I see anything interesting
adrian12.5.06 - 3:22 pm
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If you go buy a deep cell boat battery at costco or something, approx 30 lbs, then I will get a car inverter and we could hook up directly to the battery. We'll put the battery on a rollerskate and tow it from both our bikes, run an extention cord along the ropes to our christmas lights on the bikes. We'll be all bright and sparkly! What do you say?
Joe Borfo12.5.06 - 3:40 pm
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breassknuckle - i just picked up some battery powered lights from the 99cent store on sepulveda and parthenia. I am hoping to string them on my bike for tonights critical mass. They don't seem to be that bright, but i'm sure you will get the idea.
big boy phil12.5.06 - 4:14 pm
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Yo Dan,
There is a difference in voltages that you will need to do some math on. You would also more than likely need to put some resistors on a bread board to restrict some of the power going from your battery to the lights.
I work with a bunch of geeky engineers and could probably get a schematic drawn up....I know how to solder, but I don't know if I could get it all done by Friday...
Maybe 4th Friday ride if we're going to do one. I was thinking about doing it myself. We could even put in an on/off switch, and really tweak it out.
anonymitytheif12.5.06 - 7:38 pm
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I didn't read all the responses to see if this might be covered, but an el-cheapo alternative that I found at the 99-cent store in Silver Lake are battery operated strings of 15 multicolor lights. They run off two c-sized batteries and I bought four to rig up on my ride for Friday's Ridazz.
Agent Orange12.6.06 - 9:30 am
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I actually ended up with a few strings of those 99 cent store lights on my bike last night for the SFV Critical Mass. The batteries worked for 3/4 of the ride which is more than i expected.
brassknuckle12.6.06 - 9:44 am
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ok ok... I got my whole shit figured out perfect. christmas lights all over my bike!! the ony problem is I need is a really long extension cord. anybody have a couple 5 mile length extension cords I could borrow? polarized plugs prefferred.. but three prong is cool too...
yuk yuk? oh... I'll go stand in the corner now.
Roadblock12.6.06 - 10:02 am
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LEDs are cranky loads. They don't light up at all until the volts across 'em gets above something like a couple volts for red, 3 volts for green and yellow and 5 volts for blue I think. If that werent' wierd enough, then they suck as much current as your battery will supply, hence the need for a resistor or other current limiter. Even worse, wire them up backwards (on battery supply) and they won't light at all.
But there's another approach -- try taking apart a bike taillight blinky. Disconnect each LED in the blinky and run wires to your LEDs on your helmet or bike. if you use the original LEDs from the blinky and an LED doesn't light, reverse its connections (polarity) and it should be OK. If you substitute other LEDs (yellow, green, blue) then they may not light up until you jack up the drive voltage by adding more AAA batteries in series with the usual two, and again try both polarities. Stands a remote possibility of working. If it does work, it'd could have cool application to the UFO ride. Good luck to anyone who gives it a shot.
OverTheHill01.9.07 - 6:59 am
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ive seen raw led lights taped directly to those flat batteries.
its caveman easy, i just dont know where to get 'em.
one could craft a very freky URO very easily with those.
trickmilla01.9.07 - 1:26 pm
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Some LEDs are made with internal current limiting resistors. Without these resistors, whether internal or external to the LED, you could maybe cause enough current to flow through your LED and fry it. Pfft. Whatever, nothing gets invented without trial and error.
All Electronics (google it) here in the valley is a sort of "big" surplus electronics mail order place, they should have more than you wanted.
dave01.9.07 - 2:18 pm
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Ridazz Roulette!
let's blinkie this mutha out.