All right, who out there among our readership makes things, sells things, can link us to a storefront so we can look at your wares? I’m always up for getting presents from someone I know instead of a giant store.
Think of this as a store-whoring thread.
A.
What a GREAT idea! 🙂 I’ll be checking back for updates! 🙂
Oh, this will be most excellent. I’ve never been invited to flog my stuff to an utterly inappropriate audience before. You’d think people would know better, but…
Who do you know, who wouldn’t bethrilled to receive this little rectangle of PCB?
http://batchpcb.com/index.php/Products/42251
This one, it also doubles as a beer coaster.
http://batchpcb.com/index.php/Products/42514
The images at the “store” don’t do them justice:
http://dr2chase.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/goodies-from-batchpcb/
http://dr2chase.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/more-batchpcb-goodness/
Operators are standing by…
(Here’s their intended use, assembled and tested just last night:
http://dr2chase.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/standlight-for-power-leds/
I still need to cost out the entire assembly, the goal is to get a buttload of lumens on the road for relatively cheap, where “relative” is with respect to existing incredibly overpriced bike lighting. )
My my, it would seem to me that a sensual funky ambient crunch CD by a sober pro lead guitar player called “Bipolar Shaman” would be the perfect Musical “holiday” gift.
A friend of mine has some cool stuff in his Etsy shop. My favorite is the hollow books, which he’ll custom make for you.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScreaminMonkeyCircus
my ebay id is pansypoo, but mostly stuff not mine. art at my blog. prints of roadkill + cats available. some other stuff too.
need to paint more cats.
dr2chase,
Didn’t know you were an electronics fan. As we speak, I am lining up a series of parts to put together for some other projects (as well as fixing one where the trace burned out and have to jumper around it as well as fix where I put in some fuse holders backwards).
Also, I cycle and love your idea of putting together some lights that are reasonable in cost!
Athenae, I’m surprised at you. You’re blogging with a retailer: http://jacksonsquaretiles.com Go forth people, and order from Adrastos. Order, order!
I also recommend Leveeland Creations’ works: http://leveeland.com (alias Varg of The Chicory blog).
Liprap! I forgot there was a web presence for Arius!!! Thanks for reminding me! 🙂
Oh! And Varg! I finally bought one of his amazing pieces this last visit. I may have to treat myself to some more of their (Varg & Adrastos) stuff. I’ll look online, since I’m not sure if I’ll make it for the Treme’ Creole Gumbo Festival/Celeb in the Oaks…might get jury duty. 🙁
My publishing company puts out some neat stuff:Streetcar Press. E-mail at the “Sales” link in the sidebar to place an order with Rustin, chief cook, bottle washer, and order-filler.
If anyone calls the shop we’ll give you a better deal on shipping than paypal.
@MapleStreet — I still need to work on the packaging, and it needs a second go at the power level breakpoints, and I’m going to tweak the microcontroller a bit, but otherwise, it seems to work.
PCBs (with a small cut for me) run $26 for the pair.
3 power LEDs are $25
lenses + holders are about $3.
Parts pile from Digikey is about $25 ($100 for parts for 4)
BuckPuck is $15.
So, ignoring mounting hardware, and shipping and handling, $94.
Adding S&H (high on the PCBs, unfortunately) gets you to about $115.
Oh, and a “shunt”. Could be a 10 ohm – 10 watt resistor ($.52), could be 3 spare power LEDs (everyone’s got these hanging around, right? Otherwise, that’s $$$.) You need this in case you go down a steep hill, or if a wire to the LEDs breaks. I use power LEDs, partly because .5 mA trickles into the shunt, which lights them up just a hair, which can be an “on” indicator for the whole show.
Add also an 8-cell battery holder, plus 8 batteries of your choice. Might be an ok application for non-rechargeables, they’re supposed to last a really long time because they’re only used at low speeds. Here, again, your choices control the price.
Plus a dynamo hub, only tested with the high-end Shimano hubs, that will be pricey. I mean to get a cheap hub for testing and to recycle to my wife or kids, to see (the circuit is matched to the hub to get the most power out).
Problem is, with the dynamo hub, it’s not really “reasonable”, though the cheaper ones bring the system cost down below what is often charged for comparable power (they have slightly better lenses).
What this gets you is 2 LEDs front, 1 rear, running at between about 100mA and about 1000mA, depending on speed. You’ll hit rated current (350mA = 139 lumens/LED with CREE XP-G) at 9mph, at 12 you should be over 400mA. 600mA is the most I’ve measured with hand spins (measurement in the field is a little tricky). 350mA is rated to give you 278 lumens to the front, 400mA gets you to 300, 600mA is about 450. If you ride around people, you’ll need low beams (add a 1PDT, plus two more lights and lenses, so about $20. I use amber LEDs for this).
The standlight runs the LEDs at about 100mA, which is still bleeping bright (about 70 lumens).
I’m adding a switch to allow you to leave the light on if you need a stationary (bike-mounted) flashlight, or to turn the light off immediately instead of pulling down the batteries for a couple of minutes.
And mine, I do think I will build some low beams. I did that for my big bike, this is for my “little bike”.
Mounting hardware is an entirely different PITA — P-clamps get the job done for the rear light and maybe the low beams. I use aluminum angle stock for heat-sink and mount.