As promised my new improved taillight.
As much as I like my light described in post 177 and 186 I've continued to think about the issue of attracting the attention of other vehicle drivers (so that they might "see us" and not run over us).
Brian, Savvas and others have written here and in other posts about the perceptual challengers involved in cutting through an overload of fatigue and visual data and I agree with almost all that has been said. The question is "how do we safely make them aware that there is a smaller, vulnerable and slower moving vehicle hidden in the dark"?
Brighter lights? Flashing lights? Bigger lights?
Then I thought….How about lights that change colour and change size….That's not something you see every time you drive. That might register and attract attention.
Therefore I present for discussion the yellow/red size changing light. From the rear it simply flashes yellow and red but from the side (where most danger lurks) its' size changes with the red light being twice the size of the yellow light.
In order to attract maximum attention from the side it is also larger than its predecessor.
Summary of the build:
Like its predecessor it has a Fenix diffuser on the tail so that it can be diffused for night-time use and opened for full direct output brightness for day-time use as shown in the last photo of post 186.
The LEDs are driven at 750ma from an astable multivibe with a 3:1 Yellow:Red ratio.
It has good visibility from the oblique front of the bike both day and night.
