Re: NiteHawk Emitter (wow!)

Frank Krygowski wrote:
|| Roger Zoul wrote:
||
||| I just got this thing. I put some batteries in it and went outside
||| to see how well it worked. I hit the button once to turn it on
||| (the button is a bit of a pain). I was impressed by the beam. I
||| could illuminate a previously invisible stop sign a good 75 yards
||| away. What was really cool was when I tried to see how to activate
||| the low-power mode. I then discovered the 100% mode -- which
||| generates a beam that reminds me of my big Mag flashlight which
||| runs on 4 D size batteries. I can't believe this thing can get
||| anywhere near 9 hours on 4 AA size batteries - but if it comes
||| close I'm going to be a happy camper. It should really open up the
||| road on a dark morning when I'm leaving my house for an early AM
||| ride. I can't wait.
|||
|||
||
|| Please keep track of the hours of use, to tell us how long the
|| batteries last.

Okay...no problem.

||
|| Are you an electrical kind of guy? Could you put a meter on it and
|| see
|| what the voltage and current readings are when it's running? That
|| would
|| be interesting.
||

Yes, I'm going to try to measure the current draw with my meter.

BTW, what is the theory on aiming the beam? I just did a quick spin around
the neighborhood. The light definitely can light up a dark road....but
riding in the dark is a totally new experience...I may need a helmet version
of this light too, as well as something as bright on the back so I can make
sure cars seem be from behind. I currently have a 3 LED Trek tail light
now.

I'd hate to get chased by a pack of dogs at night....

|| --
|| --------------------+
|| Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
|| replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Fri, 3 Sep 2004 23:53:08 -0400, <[email hidden]>,

Roger Zoul said:

BTW, what is the theory on aiming the beam? I just did a quick spin around
the neighborhood. The light definitely can light up a dark road....but
riding in the dark is a totally new experience...I may need a helmet version
of this light too, as well as something as bright on the back so I can make
sure cars seem be from behind. I currently have a 3 LED Trek tail light
now.

I use a 7LED Planet Bike lamp with 120 degree visibility. That's in
blink mode and my dynamo also powers a steady red tail lamp.

There's a good basic treatment of the subject here:
http://www.bluedome.co.uk/MoutainBiking/bikestuff/nightcycling.html

Cycling at Night
By Bruce Rosar and Steve Goodridge of the NCBC

(that says in part)

A cyclist riding at high speed on a dark rural road needs a long,
relatively narrow beam of light to see surface conditions and
obstacles far enough ahead. A mountain biker riding over challenging
off-road terrain needs a wide, bright beam to find suitable paths over
obstacles and around turns. By contrast, an urban cyclist operating
under street lamps requires just enough beam strength to allow
navigation of the occasional dark stretch at reduced speed.

The faster you ride, the longer your effective headlamp beam needs to
be; if you double your speed, you need to see twice as far. Note that
since the power of reflected light decreases in proportion to the
square of distance from the lamp, doubling the range for a given
reflection power requires four times as much light power from the
lamp.

The light provided by a bicycle headlamp may be focused into a narrow
beam for maximum range, or may be spread out for better peripheral
vision. A three watt lamp can be focused into a beam suitable for high
speed cycling on the darkest roads, but will not give much
illumination of turns.

On totally dark roads, our eyes adapt to the darkness and allow us to
see surprisingly well with a low-power headlamp.
--
zk

"Frank Krygowski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]

[...]

Quoted message said:

Please keep track of the hours of use, to tell us how long the
batteries last.

I found one report which says it lasted the full nine hours:
http://forums.bicycling.com/thread.jspa?threadID=94317&tstart=15.
Interestingly, the "digital emitter" version only claims five hours at 100%.

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

Roger Zoul said:

BTW, what is the theory on aiming the beam? I just did a quick spin around
the neighborhood. The light definitely can light up a dark road....but
riding in the dark is a totally new experience...I may need a helmet version
of this light too, as well as something as bright on the back so I can make
sure cars seem be from behind. I currently have a 3 LED Trek tail light
now.

If night riding is new for you, I'd strongly suggest finding a friend to
a) drive by at night, from different directions in different lighting
conditions, to tell you how easy you are to see; and
b) ride your bike for you while you observe by driving by in a car.

You can learn a lot this way.

In my experience, all but the tiniest LED taillights do fine. I back
them up with reflectors, and/or reflective tape.

Regarding the headlight aiming: with my generator lights, I have the
top part of the beam sort of skimming the road out into the distance,
like the brighter yellow part of the top picture in
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/chapter8a.htm

And I do mount my headlights lower than my handlebar, as John Allen
suggests at that page. When the beam skims the road, you can see bumps
and holes better.

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Frank Krygowski wrote:
|| Roger Zoul wrote:
||
|||
||| BTW, what is the theory on aiming the beam? I just did a quick
||| spin around the neighborhood. The light definitely can light up a
||| dark road....but riding in the dark is a totally new experience...I
||| may need a helmet version of this light too, as well as something
||| as bright on the back so I can make sure cars seem be from behind.
||| I currently have a 3 LED Trek tail light now.
||
|| If night riding is new for you, I'd strongly suggest finding a
|| friend to
|| a) drive by at night, from different directions in different lighting
|| conditions, to tell you how easy you are to see; and
|| b) ride your bike for you while you observe by driving by in a car.

Good ideas....I have a buddy who is also interested, so I'll enlist his
aid...

||
|| You can learn a lot this way.
||

I agree. I'd really like to be confident I can be seen at night.

||
|| In my experience, all but the tiniest LED taillights do fine. I back
|| them up with reflectors, and/or reflective tape.

I do have some tape.

||
|| Regarding the headlight aiming: with my generator lights, I have the
|| top part of the beam sort of skimming the road out into the distance,
|| like the brighter yellow part of the top picture in
|| http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/chapter8a.htm
||
|| And I do mount my headlights lower than my handlebar, as John Allen
|| suggests at that page. When the beam skims the road, you can see
|| bumps
|| and holes better.

Yes, being able to see the bumps & holes will be helpful.

However, I think to a large degree, I have a solution. There is the 7-mile
loop around the Donaldson Center here in Greenville SC. No animals, no
traffic lights, but also no street lights - it should be very dark. So this
thing should light up everything at night....him....except me!?! Maybe that
is not such a good solution -- unless I take a flashlight or a helmet light.
It seems like to be effective, you need to see more than just the road. I
was thinking of doing 4 laps in the morning before work, getting out there
while it's still dark and riding into daylight. Maybe not.