Freelights - low drag lighting system

Dave Kahn said:

There is an active thread about this rather dubious looking system over in rec.bicycles.tech.
There was also a thread about it here a few months ago. See makeashorterlink.commakeashorterlink.comOpen ↗
or groups.google.co.ukgroupsOpen ↗
ws.dfncis.de&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26q%3Dfreelights%26meta%3Dgr-
oup%253Duk.rec.cycling

I just noticed from the website that they are planning to be at the British Invention Show
(stall 86) at the Barbican in London from today until Sunday. I was just wondering whether
anyone was planning to go to that show, and if so would they care to spend a few minutes looking
at this thing?

AFAICS it's just like a cycle computer in that the magnet passing the stator induces a tiny current
in the circuit - enough to make a small LED flash. Virtually no power at all.

Zog The Undeniable said:

AFAICS it's just like a cycle computer in that the magnet passing the stator induces a tiny current
in the circuit - enough to make a small LED flash. Virtually no power at all.

That's right. I suppose I'm really interested in how a UK company (albeit a tiny one) can get away
with pushing something so obviously inadequate and plainly illegal to use. Unless of course I'm
wrong and they somehow resemble a proper lighting system.

--
Dave...

Dave Kahn said:

Zog The Undeniable said:

AFAICS it's just like a cycle computer in that the magnet passing the stator induces a tiny
current in the circuit - enough to make a small LED flash. Virtually no power at all.

That's right. I suppose I'm really interested in how a UK company (albeit a tiny one) can get away
with pushing something so obviously inadequate and plainly illegal to use. Unless of course I'm
wrong and they somehow resemble a proper lighting system.

--
Dave...

But with a magnet on every spoke, it might be quite good, although there would start to be penalty
in having a heavier wheel.

In article said:

Dave Kahn said:

Zog The Undeniable said:

AFAICS it's just like a cycle computer in that the magnet passing the stator induces a tiny
current in the circuit - enough to make a small LED flash. Virtually no power at all.

That's right. I suppose I'm really interested in how a UK company (albeit a tiny one) can get
away with pushing something so obviously inadequate and plainly illegal to use. Unless of course
I'm wrong and they somehow resemble a proper lighting system.

--
Dave...

But with a magnet on every spoke, it might be quite good, although there would start to be penalty
in having a heavier wheel.

What's wrong with a normal hub dynamo? Looking at their web site, they look about as [censored] as a very
[censored] thing.

I've seen LED torches that work on a better system than that. The torches have a spring magnet
suspended on a PTFE track inside the torch. General movement of the torch (they are intended for use
on boats) charges up the battery. They are quite bright too. I'd have thought a slightly more
refined system would be ok for bikes.

Whatever, I'm sure we'll all be using LEDs in our lifetime, especially as their luminence increases
with development. Incandescent light bulbs are hopelessly inefficient (a large percentage of the
energy is wasted as heat) and also very unreliable. LEDs are efficient and last forever. They are
already being adopted for navigation lights on sailing boats which have limited electron supplies
like bikes.

Michael Ferenczi said:

Dave Kahn said:

On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 17:34:06 +0000, Zog The Undeniable <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

AFAICS it's just like a cycle computer in that the magnet passing the stator induces a tiny
current in the circuit - enough to make a small LED flash. Virtually no power at all.

Quoted message said:

That's right. I suppose I'm really interested in how a UK company

Quoted message said:

(albeit a tiny one) can get away with pushing something so obviously inadequate and plainly
illegal to use. Unless of course I'm wrong and they somehow resemble a proper lighting system.

But with a magnet on every spoke, it might be quite good, although there would start to be penalty
in having a heavier wheel.

And there'd be substantial drag. There really is no such things as free energy.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗

;; killing [afghan|iraqi] civilians is not 'justice'

Ric said:

They are already being adopted for navigation lights on sailing boats which have limited electron
supplies like bikes.

There's no shortage of electrons on my bike, It's pumping them around the lighting circuit that
provides the challenge.

--
Dave...

Dave Kahn said:

There's no shortage of electrons on my bike, It's pumping them around the lighting circuit that
provides the challenge.

I can only fit two Campagnolo Electrons on my bike and it would be a real challenge to get them into
the light let alone keep cycling at the same time with no wheels ;-)

Tony

Ric said:

Whatever, I'm sure we'll all be using LEDs in our lifetime, especially as their luminence
increases with development. Incandescent light bulbs are hopelessly inefficient (a large
percentage of the energy is wasted as heat) and also very unreliable. LEDs are efficient and last
forever. They are already being adopted for navigation lights on sailing boats which have limited
electron supplies like bikes.

LEDs aren't actually particularly more efficient than a good incadescent with a regulated power
supply, IIRC.* Unless of course you want light of only one particular frequency, then they can put
it out pure, without the need for filtering, which of course makes them much more efficient.

Having said that, however, Chris Juden, the CTC's technical officer, said recently he'd seen demos
of high power LEDs and that they were getting impressive. But they're not currently a panacea, and
are certainly well below, e.g. a compact fluorescent in terms of efficiency.

Ambrose

*From the mailing list BikeCurrent at topica.com if you want to follow it up. I've long since
unsubscribed since it was high traffic and I wasn't actually doing anything with electricity on
bikes anyway...