Want to use 1 watt PB Blaze as rear like, help me make it red.

[nars42]

Hi, first post here. I was wondering if anyone could help me use my 1 Watt Planet Bike Blaze as a rear light. Currently I have a SuperFlash as a rear light directed at roughly the hight of car windows but want something aimed lower to paint the pavement behind me red. Is it hard to replace the LED with a equally powerful red one? Or would it be easier to get some kind of red filter for the lens (this would probably be better since then I could use it as a front light again at some other point in time). My other idea was to color in the lens with a red permenant marker or the kind of markers used for writing on glass, but I am not sure how well that would work.

Thanks!

 

[StarHalo]

Only a small fraction of an LED's output is in the red part of the spectrum - When you use a colored lens (or color one), only the light that falls within the spectrum of the lens color is let through, the rest is lost. So if your LED has only about 20% red spectrum output, and you put a red lens in front of it, your light is now only 20% as bright as it originally was.

Because of the unique and narrow spectral bands of output that an LED produces, it doesn't really pay to use a colored filter. If you want color with an LED, the LED itself must emit that color.

 

[nars42]

Would it be hard to replace the LED? Anyone tried that on a Blaze?

 

[StarHalo]

If you're looking to do a red LED cheaply and easily, buy a regular 2AA MiniMag at a local store, then buy a TerraLUX MiniStar2 Red LED drop-in. Including the cost of the Mag, it's ~$40 for the whole kit, with 40 lumens pure red output.

TerraLUX also makes a red LED drop-in for 3-6D cell full-size Mags, with 140 lumens of just red, for the same price.

 

[ncaudio]

Vetta TSL-C

On sale at Amazon for $37.50, plus free shipping, comes with 4 cheapo batteries, uses 4 AA's, 3 modes: bright, not as bright, flashing of not as bright. spec is 30 hours on high, 120 hours on other settings. Decent light, not in the same leage as a Dinotte taillight, but decent output, a lot cheaper and batteries last a lot longer. I hung one on the back of my helmet, a little heavy, but it always goes with me.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YXBIA4/?tag=cpf0b6-20

 

[nars42]

Re: Vetta TSL-C

That looks interesting. I might just get another superflash too.

Still wondering how hard it would be to swap out the led on the blaze.