So currently I rock shredlights. They are… ya know… fine.
Its a little annoying having to take them off to charge them.
The cool kids are pretty adamant that only a chump would do that and you gotta have wired in lights so here is the thread where I think out loud about what to get and how to do it and look for advice.
So first off is the form factor. Currently on my low rider I have them mounted on the sides of the nose:
I’m going for a long and low look here so I really don’t want them on top. That means that the wired-in lights have the basically be the same size as shredlights.
On my AT board it’s a similar story:
I don’t care so much about not having the lights on top here - but it works well - I like knowing I can run off the board if necessary without tripping on lights or kicking them off.
But again it means whatever I get can’t be much wider than shredlights (about 30mm when mount is included). Could go to 3.5 but that’s about it.
The closest I’ve found so far is this guy:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004505610214.html
It claims to be 39mm wide including the mount which… maybe. Would prefer narrower.
Can’t beat the price tho holy crap. If they don’t work I’m only out $15.76.
I’m a little worried that it might be insanely bright. I actually don’t want my lights to be brighter than my shredlights at their brightest setting. I already find my SL-300s too bright at level 3 for unlit bike routes at night - I don’t want to hose down oncoming cyclists with sun guns.
These do have the handy feature of working on 10v-80v because that’s the next issue… wiring it in.
Seems like running it directly off the battery would be preferable to bucking down to 12V all else being equal.
But if a buck was needed this feels like the right one:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=k481208
Either way I need some way to turn it on and off.
One option:
… to turn it on and off with the board.
Another option is to wire a relay to the accessory output on my stormcore and use that to switch power to the lights.
If the lights are low voltage then I think a car relay should work fine to switch the output of the storecore accessory outlet to the buck.
But if the lights are high-voltage I don’t think a 12V relay would be happy being ordered to switch 50V power even if the switching input is 12V? So I guess I’d be looking for a solid-state relay instead of a regular automotive relay? Maybe?
So yeah anyway, again, they will be on whenever the board’s on, but then maybe I don’t want the lights on whenever the board is on. I do like leaving my board on when I’m stopping somewhere or when it’s charging so I can fiddle with it over bluetooth. I would feel obligated to shut it down before picking it up if it going to be blasting light into everyone’s eyes including my own.
…so maybe just a regular old switch on it somewhere and forget the relay.
If I did go 12V I might be able to find something like this but smaller (this one is still 33mm):
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003617024485.html
It’s a replacement bulb for a headlight that is a little LED projector. It looks kinda dope and could be married with a wired socket:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005248418321.html
or could just solder wires right onto it and heat shrink the stem.
That specific one is still 33mm wide (and $45 each) but maybe i could find one that’s a tad smaller.
As for the back I’m still casting around. Currently the lights are on top and I hate it:
So I’m thinking:
Or:
Or even:
(Putting the lights behind the motors and just blasting them onto the ground instead of into driver’s eyes)
But I haven’t found anything that’s not a stupid looking little bubble of plastic so far to serve as taillights. I mean say what you will about shredlights but a little squarish rubberised flashlight is not a bad esthetic really. I hope I can do better tho.
On the AT board big chunky lights are just fine and I like having my taillights floating up top:
Anyway that’s what I’ve got so far.
If anyone’s got ideas I’d like to hear them.
