/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1219278
I'm sure the EL wire outlining my frame will make me identifiable as a cyclist and help with with the "pinpoint brightness" problem, while the LEDs will make me visible head-on and tail-on, and they are required by the law. I could try an EL panel on the front and rear each to get more of a "brightness over area" thing, but I already have a relatively reflective orange cycling raincoat which I wear, which should be fine.

>subvert other road users expectations
The last person I crashed into asked me if I had a bicycle licence, I don't think their expectations are existent if the first place. The main motivator towards indicators is that I'm constantly changing gears and tapping the brakes, and often find myself unable to indicate because I'm in the middle of a gear change as I go about a corner. I lie, the main motivator for brake lights and indicators is simply to have fun designing and building the things. I might as well install an obnoxious speaker if I go that far, but I probably won't.

I find it best to strobe the rear lights for sheer eyecatchingness and find most cyclists around do the same, but I'm not a big fan of strobing front lights.

>>1219282
Perhaps some sanded sheets of acetate could make a nice diffuser? Especially with a 3W, 240lm, 120° viewing angle LED I found for less than 1/2 the price of the shitty Jaycar 5mm LEDs. No datasheet, but for that price I'm buying one anyway. At that power output I bet it's worth investing in a down-converting constant-current supply, because who wants to dissipate 2W through resistors? I find most rear lights have a bunch of shitty red LEDs to make them fairly diffuse in the first place, and my plan of 6 LEDs is probably fairly good on that front, but adding a diffusor couldn't hurt. Diffused lighting is also more aesthetic.

I was also looking at building a discrete comparator instead of a 555 to get an RC oscillator made, since the sinusoidal output would (could?) be much better for the transformer.