blinking taillight turns itself off

Sat, 11 Oct 2003 17:15:24 -0500, <[email hidden]>, "Pat"

Quoted message said:

Only thing I can think of is that the bouncing of the taillight against the seat bag caused the
switch to depress and turn the light off.

The dampness may have caused the switch circuit to sneeze. I use clear surgical tape to seal the
light housing.

Quoted message said:

Does anyone have a brand of taillight that I can get without a similar arrangement for the
on/off switch?

The Planet Bike 7 LED blinky I use has the switch inside with just a depression molded into the
casing. It requires very conscious effort to turn on the switch though heavy moisture did cause it
to act erratically. There have been no problems since I taped it though.

During the summer it spends most of its time stashed in the under seat bag with other stuff and I've
never found it turned on accidently.

Quoted message said:

thanks,

--
zk

The electronic switches in many taillight models can be jarred into turning on or off without the
mechanical button being touched. Sometimes, the batteries might be poorly contained and get their
connections momentarily disrupted by bumps. This turns off an electronic switch. I've discarded a
couple of lights that did these things to the point of being undependable. I now use a Bell LED
flasher that has been glitch-free for some time (never thought I'd recommend anything but a helmet
from that outfit). I have it mounted so I can see it by turning my head and confirm that it's still
working, before I go out on a dangerous road.

Steve McDonald

Zoot Katz <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sat, 11 Oct 2003 17:15:24 -0500, <[email hidden]>, "Pat"

Quoted message said:

Only thing I can think of is that the bouncing of the taillight against the seat bag caused the
switch to depress and turn the light off.

The dampness may have caused the switch circuit to sneeze. I use clear surgical tape to seal the
light housing.

Quoted message said:

Does anyone have a brand of taillight that I can get without a similar arrangement for the on/off
switch?

The Planet Bike 7 LED blinky I use has the switch inside with just a depression molded into the
casing. It requires very conscious effort to turn on the switch though heavy moisture did cause it
to act erratically. There have been no problems since I taped it though.

During the summer it spends most of its time stashed in the under seat bag with other stuff and
I've never found it turned on accidently.

Quoted message said:

thanks,

--
zk

I have one of the emerson 18 led lights that exhibited the same charateristic. I found the problem
was the expansion joints on the bike path I frequent were jarring enough to make the batteries
momentarily lose contact, causing the electronic switch to reset to the off position. A bit of tape
on the back side of the battery door to take up the slack between the batteries and the case nipped
that problem in the bud. I look in my rear view (helmet mounted) to verify the blinking Iif I hit a
big bump....Regards Pat

Good thing the switching mechanism isn't part of the mounting mechanism like on my cheapest, 2-led
blinky. I drop it in my pannier bag and it starts blinking. I place it there carefully and the same
might happen ;p

How about using multiple blinkers for extra visibility and just in case your bombproof blinky failed
after all?

--
Risto Varanka | helsinki.fihpv.htmlOpen ↗ varis at no spam please iki fi

12 Oct 2003 20:42:34 GMT, <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

How about using multiple blinkers for extra visibility and just in case your bombproof blinky
failed after all?

The law here specifies a red reflector and red tail light be displayed. I've already got those. The
blinky is a noticeable and identifiable additional light.

Recently the law has been changed so that a single blinky is acceptable as long as it can also act
as a reflector when unlit.

Headlights are required but too many riders ignore that part of the law though generally they'll
have a poorly aimed dim blinky on the rear.
--
zk

[email hidden] (Steve McDonald) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The electronic switches in many taillight models can be jarred into turning on or off without the
mechanical button being touched. Sometimes, the batteries might be poorly contained and get their
connections momentarily disrupted by bumps. This turns off an electronic switch. I've discarded a
couple of lights that did these things to the point of being undependable. I now use a Bell LED
flasher that has been glitch-free for some time (never thought I'd recommend anything but a helmet
from that outfit). I have it mounted so I can see it by turning my head and confirm that it's
still working, before I go out on a dangerous road.

Steve McDonald

I have a Vistalight Eclypse that started turning off by itself a couple of years ago. I opened it up
and stretched the battery clips so that it's now a tussle to get the batteries in. Since then, I've
had no problems.

[email hidden] (Steve McDonald) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The electronic switches in many taillight models can be jarred into turning on or off without the
mechanical button being touched. Sometimes, the batteries might be poorly contained and get their
connections momentarily disrupted by bumps. This turns off an electronic switch. I've discarded a
couple of lights that did these things to the point of being undependable. I now use a Bell LED
flasher that has been glitch-free for some time (never thought I'd recommend anything but a helmet
from that outfit). I have it mounted so I can see it by turning my head and confirm that it's
still working, before I go out on a dangerous road.

Steve McDonald

I have a Vistalight Eclypse that started turning off by itself a couple of years ago. I opened it up
and stretched the battery clips so that it's now a tussle to get the batteries in. Since then, I've
had no problems.

The proper solution is two of whatever taillights you have.

A single taillight can go out for any number of reasons. The odds are much lower (quadratic in fact)
that both go out.

Actually if you do the odds, you probably need 3. Say one goes out once a month. Then it will be a
couple of years before two go out on the same ride; maybe you want 30 years odds, which would be 3
taillights, at that failure rate.

They put only two magnetos on airplanes, but their initial failure rate is much lower than
once a month.
--
Ron Hardin [email hidden]

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Zoot Katz <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Headlights are required but too many riders ignore that part of the law though generally they'll
have a poorly aimed dim blinky on the rear.

Sigh.

It seems that this is the rule rather than the exception. There must be a thousand factories in
China churning out these dim, flakey blinkies. There are some bright blinkies out there, see the
Real Lite, sold by Harris Cyclery.

Unfortunately, bicycle lights are subjected to a lot more stress than automobile lights, by virtue
of the jarring they get, and blinkies with snap on covers and spring loaded battery holders are
inherently unreliable. Glueing or taping it together, and putting more pressure on the battery
contacts helps, but of course doesn't address the real problem.

It's a shame that the Belt Beacon isn't sold anymore, it was cheap, bright, and built very
well. It used a battery snap on a 9V battery, and while the cover was removeable, it was on
there very tightly.

The Lightman strobes are good, but are too expensive for a lot of people, though they are more
reliable and much more visible than LED blinkers, and aim is less critical due to their wider angle
of visibility.

"lightmanstrobes.combike.htmOpen ↗"

Steve "bicyclelighting.combicyclelighting.comOpen ↗"

14 Oct 2003 10:19:11 -0700,

Quoted post said:

The Lightman strobes are good, but are too expensive for a lot of people, though they are more
reliable and much more visible than LED blinkers, and aim is less critical due to their wider angle
of visibility.

Left me offer a friendly word of caution if you ever plan to tour Canada with your strobes -
turn them off.

You see, some well intentioned person may believe you're in distress and call the authorities, who
would then - call out the helicopter.

Bad Move™

These Sea King helicopters we fly for SAR have been known to lose pieces in flight. I'd hate to be
toodling along naively believing my throbbing xenon force-field was protecting me and suddenly have
heavy noisy objects raining down from above.

I saw a cyclist approaching me near dusk with a yellow strobe attached to the left front shoulder of
his fluorescent orange vest. However, the most visible thing that actually gave me a clue to his
speed and trajectory was the white helmet he was wearing.

For strobes, I'd use something like a photo flash in the same instances I'd be tempted to use an air
horn or grenade launcher.

How do you feel about tagging the gropes with lasers?
--
zk