Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Gutterballs TNR 12/03/09
Rode around downtown, Banbury (David got a flat), east side, south side off roading, then down to the Civic center for cookie break. Then to the Last Chance.
Christmas lights. I met the guy at the Bike shop the next day. That's an actual bike up there.
Christmas lights. I met the guy at the Bike shop the next day. That's an actual bike up there.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Cheap Brook's Saddles
Normally I wouldn't advocate purchasing bicycle parts from anywhere except EC Bike and Sport, but these are stupid cheap. Ben's Cycles (Milwaukee Bicycle Co) has some no box Brook's saddles for half off... which puts them lower than cost. The only thing is it mainly on higher end titanium rail models, women's saddles, and dual rail springs that require a straight seatpost.
I got my black Ti rail Swallow today for $225+tax w/free shipping. It was supposed to come without a box but it came with one and with the proofride, cloth, and rain cover. I also weighed it. 360 grams on the nuts, just as advertised.
I got my black Ti rail Swallow today for $225+tax w/free shipping. It was supposed to come without a box but it came with one and with the proofride, cloth, and rain cover. I also weighed it. 360 grams on the nuts, just as advertised.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Dynamo Powered Light & USB Charger
So some of you know that I've made a few dynamo lights. My latest creation is one with a switch that changes from the 600 Lumen 4x Cree Q5 leds to a female USB out producing 4.96v that charges your cell phone, iPod, GPS.... whatever you need (Yeah... GPS on a bike. Taking touring to the extreme. Turn left here.) It's a solid continuous voltage supply as long as you're going faster than 5mph or whatever. If you slow down below that it shuts off. It's regulated with an LM2940 regulator so you can't fry whatever electronic you put on there.
The schematic. It's a combination of two designs available on the internet. The general dynamo light design is from Pilom. The USB charging is available on the internet if you do some searching. I'm not an EE so I'm not that great at designing this stuff, but I do understand it. The dynamo is a 0.5A current source. It produces AC (alternating current) voltage. A full bridge rectify is use to convert the AC to DC. That's what the four diodes are doing. Diodes only allow current to flow one direction. Since AC is a wave that goes positive to negative, the diodes direct the positive voltage to the positive side of the circuit and the negative voltage to ground on both waves. It effectively takes the normal wave and takes the negative potential of the lower half of the wave and makes it positive. Schottky diodes are used to reduce the voltage drop across the diode. Then C1 cleans up the row of humps so it is a flatter line. This is how flicker is reduced in the LEDs. C2 and C3 are acting as a voltage boost. The resistor just biases the capacitors since they are polarized. Then on the light side it just puts the positive through the LEDs and goes to ground. The reason it must be converted from AC to DC is because of the LEDs. LED stands for light emitting diode. As explained earlier, current can only flow one direction through a diode. If you put a diode in backwards it goes into what is called breakdown and it is no more. Putting a capacitor in backwards makes them explode.
The USB charger side of the circuit is pretty simple. C4 and C5 are just noise filters and the LM2940 is a voltage regulator. It will output approximately 5v. Only one side of the circuits need to be switched. The ground can be shared since there is no potential without a complete circuit.
You can see the full bridge rectifier in the center of the board. The metal rectangle is the LM2940. The three big cyclinders are C1, C2, and C3. C4 and C5 and hidden by the LM2940 in this pic.
The four LEDs epoxied (using thermal epoxy) to an aluminum disc. My dad cut these out of some scrap aluminum he had laying around. Thanks Daddy. The disc is a heatsink so keep the LEDs alive for longer. They don't produce as much heat in this application because the dynamo limits the current to 500mA. Many battery powered lights use 700mA to 1A. This creates a bit more heat. The bolt is what I call the spine. It holds the LEDs, then spacers go on and the electronics go on there and then the bolt goes into the housing and supports everything. The cap puts pressure on the optics to support the front.
The LEDs. The rectangle is the actually LED with a primary optic. They are put on a 16mm star board to give them a better base.
Secondary spot beam optic on the LEDs.
The underside where all the soldering happens. It's pretty messy and not done in a manner that would be considered proper but it works and reduces the amount of wires needed to connect them. If I was going to manufacture these I'd want a pre-printed board so I would just have to solder in the components. Maybe go to the extreme of having a chip made with all the capacitors and diodes integrated into the board.
A little better view. You can see C4 and C5 now. They're the little yellow bulbs. It's another style of capacitor usually only used on smaller capacitors. You can see about half of the resistor between the capacitors.
This is the On/On switch.
All done. The white nub is a cover over the switch. The black bosses are waterproof bungs for the wires. The brown goes to the dynamo and the black is the female USB plug. The metal piece is the mounting bracket. Everything is siliconed together after everything is tested to make it more water resistant. I wouldn't submerge it but I haven't had any issues in the past year using dynamo lights. It's kinda messy of a method but it works.
The LEDs with an optical grade lexan lens siliconed into the cap. The cap used to have an S in it for Salt.
So now you have an idea as to why they're so big. They should be cut down about an inch shorter but it would effect the strength of the housing (the end of the can has a lip that gives it structure) and also make it difficult to push the wires in since the spacer for them would be less. Obviously it can all fit in a much smaller area. My first light is in a small candle holder. The electronics could be remotely mounted in a project box as well with just two wires feeding a small housing with the LEDs. In this case the housing could be about an inch, inch and a half deep with just the aluminum disk, LEDs, and secondary optic.
The schematic. It's a combination of two designs available on the internet. The general dynamo light design is from Pilom. The USB charging is available on the internet if you do some searching. I'm not an EE so I'm not that great at designing this stuff, but I do understand it. The dynamo is a 0.5A current source. It produces AC (alternating current) voltage. A full bridge rectify is use to convert the AC to DC. That's what the four diodes are doing. Diodes only allow current to flow one direction. Since AC is a wave that goes positive to negative, the diodes direct the positive voltage to the positive side of the circuit and the negative voltage to ground on both waves. It effectively takes the normal wave and takes the negative potential of the lower half of the wave and makes it positive. Schottky diodes are used to reduce the voltage drop across the diode. Then C1 cleans up the row of humps so it is a flatter line. This is how flicker is reduced in the LEDs. C2 and C3 are acting as a voltage boost. The resistor just biases the capacitors since they are polarized. Then on the light side it just puts the positive through the LEDs and goes to ground. The reason it must be converted from AC to DC is because of the LEDs. LED stands for light emitting diode. As explained earlier, current can only flow one direction through a diode. If you put a diode in backwards it goes into what is called breakdown and it is no more. Putting a capacitor in backwards makes them explode.
The USB charger side of the circuit is pretty simple. C4 and C5 are just noise filters and the LM2940 is a voltage regulator. It will output approximately 5v. Only one side of the circuits need to be switched. The ground can be shared since there is no potential without a complete circuit.
You can see the full bridge rectifier in the center of the board. The metal rectangle is the LM2940. The three big cyclinders are C1, C2, and C3. C4 and C5 and hidden by the LM2940 in this pic.
The four LEDs epoxied (using thermal epoxy) to an aluminum disc. My dad cut these out of some scrap aluminum he had laying around. Thanks Daddy. The disc is a heatsink so keep the LEDs alive for longer. They don't produce as much heat in this application because the dynamo limits the current to 500mA. Many battery powered lights use 700mA to 1A. This creates a bit more heat. The bolt is what I call the spine. It holds the LEDs, then spacers go on and the electronics go on there and then the bolt goes into the housing and supports everything. The cap puts pressure on the optics to support the front.
The LEDs. The rectangle is the actually LED with a primary optic. They are put on a 16mm star board to give them a better base.
Secondary spot beam optic on the LEDs.
The underside where all the soldering happens. It's pretty messy and not done in a manner that would be considered proper but it works and reduces the amount of wires needed to connect them. If I was going to manufacture these I'd want a pre-printed board so I would just have to solder in the components. Maybe go to the extreme of having a chip made with all the capacitors and diodes integrated into the board.
A little better view. You can see C4 and C5 now. They're the little yellow bulbs. It's another style of capacitor usually only used on smaller capacitors. You can see about half of the resistor between the capacitors.
This is the On/On switch.
All done. The white nub is a cover over the switch. The black bosses are waterproof bungs for the wires. The brown goes to the dynamo and the black is the female USB plug. The metal piece is the mounting bracket. Everything is siliconed together after everything is tested to make it more water resistant. I wouldn't submerge it but I haven't had any issues in the past year using dynamo lights. It's kinda messy of a method but it works.
The LEDs with an optical grade lexan lens siliconed into the cap. The cap used to have an S in it for Salt.
So now you have an idea as to why they're so big. They should be cut down about an inch shorter but it would effect the strength of the housing (the end of the can has a lip that gives it structure) and also make it difficult to push the wires in since the spacer for them would be less. Obviously it can all fit in a much smaller area. My first light is in a small candle holder. The electronics could be remotely mounted in a project box as well with just two wires feeding a small housing with the LEDs. In this case the housing could be about an inch, inch and a half deep with just the aluminum disk, LEDs, and secondary optic.
TNR 11/19/09
Little late but whatever. Rode around, got a case of beer... acquired some chips... went to the beeramid.
Then went and had a little fire. It was a good time. Lots of riding around to do dumb stuff. I threw up at 5:20am from eating too many cheetos.
Then went and had a little fire. It was a good time. Lots of riding around to do dumb stuff. I threw up at 5:20am from eating too many cheetos.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Ghettocross
Well, EC had it's first cyclocross race. It was pretty fun. Definitely wouldn't mind making it a regular thing next fall, but a better venue would probably be required.
The load
We locked EZ in the can.
We freed him and didn't tell him. He was still trying to get out.
The load
We locked EZ in the can.
We freed him and didn't tell him. He was still trying to get out.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Jeff gets hit by a car
Jeff Fringes has a blog. He was the one attacked by the snow plow last year. He rides with cameras. He got hit by a car that then drove off.
http://bikesafer.blogspot.com/2009/11/ironically_03.html
Who wants to buy me a helmet cam?
http://bikesafer.blogspot.com/2009/11/ironically_03.html
Who wants to buy me a helmet cam?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Guilty! (not me)
So last summer this doctor swerves in front of some cyclists and slams on the brakes and they get hurt. Well, he's guilty of six felonies now.
http://www.velonews.com/article/99800
"Thompson's lawyer had argued that the cyclists were belligerent and may have fallen because of the inherent instability of bicycles."
Yes, the inherent instability of gyros spinning. 10 years is the maximum, but he'll likely get the minimum and be out before that on parole. They should take his license away. Use a car as a weapon, you lose your car and right to drive. Just like with firearms.
Let's see how the legal system treats me Thursday...
Also, GHETTOCROSS, BE THERE, damnit!
http://www.velonews.com/article/99800
"Thompson's lawyer had argued that the cyclists were belligerent and may have fallen because of the inherent instability of bicycles."
Yes, the inherent instability of gyros spinning. 10 years is the maximum, but he'll likely get the minimum and be out before that on parole. They should take his license away. Use a car as a weapon, you lose your car and right to drive. Just like with firearms.
Let's see how the legal system treats me Thursday...
Also, GHETTOCROSS, BE THERE, damnit!
Friday, October 23, 2009
TNR 10/22/09 also GHETTO CROSS
Ghetto Cross will be Nov 7th at Sherman Creek at 1pm.
Rode 20ish miles then went to Hilltop. EZ was laying off the sauce....
That didn't last long.
Rode 20ish miles then went to Hilltop. EZ was laying off the sauce....
That didn't last long.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Week in review
Rode around, had a couple way overpriced pitchers at the Metroplis hotel. Made a fire.
Then on Saturday it was the Tour d'Eau Claire. Drank 100 High Lifes in 30 minutes then went to the Maple Manor. Shots.
And drew mustaches on the fingers.
That's going to be weird to explain at work on Monday.
Then on Saturday it was the Tour d'Eau Claire. Drank 100 High Lifes in 30 minutes then went to the Maple Manor. Shots.
And drew mustaches on the fingers.
That's going to be weird to explain at work on Monday.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
TNR 09/24/09
Rode around a bit. Had some pics of us taken for V1. Went through Carson. Got a flat. Seven minutes later we rode towards Hallie and had some fire. Rode back. I ate shit on the way home.
On Friday a ride was bummed.
On Friday a ride was bummed.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Just in from Interbike... new fat tire
Surly has a new front tire for Pugsleys (finally). It should allow for a bit more steering control with it's more rudder like tread. Perhaps I'll have to get one for my Pugsley.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Tandem Obstacle Course Race
Went to the Elk Lake Tavern for some tandem obstacle course racing.
Two pedal strokes in and the pressed on crank spider came off a bit. One tandem down. We did rig it up to work though.
No more shifting. Duct tape SS.
Check it. What.
GO GO GO GO!
Seat would tighten. Duct tape = fixed.
Ketchup
About to eat shit to avoid a telephone poll.
I got hit in the face with a wiener.
Pretty awesome time. Everyone should make an effort to attend the event next year. Everything was coming loose on the bikes. We wrecked two front wheels as well.
EC Velo represent.
Two pedal strokes in and the pressed on crank spider came off a bit. One tandem down. We did rig it up to work though.
No more shifting. Duct tape SS.
Check it. What.
GO GO GO GO!
Seat would tighten. Duct tape = fixed.
Ketchup
About to eat shit to avoid a telephone poll.
I got hit in the face with a wiener.
Pretty awesome time. Everyone should make an effort to attend the event next year. Everything was coming loose on the bikes. We wrecked two front wheels as well.EC Velo represent.
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