[OrRando] i am now prepped for the nighttime populaire...

Bert Lutz bert_lutz at hotmail.com
Fri Apr 14 10:25:45 PDT 2006


Here is a link that gives some info on the water tightness of the Topal.  

 <http://www.baldurdash.org/OtherStuff/dlumotec.html>
http://www.baldurdash.org/OtherStuff/dlumotec.html

I don't know whether this was my problem or not.  My failure was 15 hours
into a ride with almost continuous hard rain.  May have the opportunity to
retest on Saturday night as rain appears to be in the forecast and I have
not attempted any reconfiguration as yet.
 
Here is what I'm think about doing over the next 2 weeks.
 
1.  Run a single stout wire pair (gauge?) from the hub up to a small
waterproof junction box near the fork crown.  I'll need to solder on some
spade connectors on one end to attach to the hub and put plenty of shrink
tubing around same.  Maybe some sort of strain relief mechanism (stiff wire,
spring or some such) to minimize stress on the wire at the hub.
 
2.  Plug the lights into the junction box using some sort of connectors
(maybe spade again) so that I can more easily remove lights if necessary and
to facilitate testing.
 
3. Investigate storm proofing the Topal in some way just in case water is
finding its way up into the electronics.
 
 
 

  _____  

From: orrando-bounces at tire.patch.com [mailto:orrando-bounces at tire.patch.com]
On Behalf Of David Rowe
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 9:39 AM
To: Oregon area Randonneurs
Subject: Re: [OrRando] i am now prepped for the nighttime populaire...


Joel and Bert - 

Any thoughts on the lighting failures/shorts that were reported here
yesterday?  I wonder if it was a short _inside_ the fixture housing, rather
than exposure of the contacts to rain.

dr


On 4/14/06, joel metz <magpie at blackbirdsf.org> wrote: 

ive never actually soldered that connection on any of my bikes with
schmidts... just crimp crimp crimp! :)

i generally unplug the hub after releasing the wheel, which gives me
a good bit more space to wiggle things around with... im also a 
stickler for extra wiring at the hub end, again, for more wiggle
room, and more to grab on to...

im also quite liberal in my use of shrink tubing, anything that gives
that area more body to grab on to. ive always been nervous of that 
situation, but ive never had problems (and at times, i can be
downright sloppy with it, just forgetting to unplug at all before
pulling the wheel etc :) ) im actually surprised that the connection
on my work bike hasnt broken in this manner, considering the amount 
of exposure its had, and the number of times ive sloppily
disconnected it over the past 8 years or so...

-joel


>I'm always having to take my ft wheel on and off which means lots of
>unplugging and plugging the E6 from the hub. Two days ago I ended up with 
>the connector on the hub and the wire in my hand. So I looked at it
>yesterday and my solder connections still looked really fine (Thanks to the
>my Elec Engineering internship spent replacing components on PCBs.) It was
a 
>simple mechanical failure... the wire just eventually failed from the
>plugging/unplugging I'd been expecting this, trying to grab those 2 little
>connectors.
>
>Has anyone a better solution? I've stayed away from splicing in another 
>connector because these tend to become new failure points ...
>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: orrando-bounces at tire.patch.com
>>  [mailto:orrando-bounces at tire.patch.com]On Behalf Of Bert Lutz
>>  Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 11:35 AM
>>  To: 'Oregon area Randonneurs'
>>  Subject: RE: [OrRando] i am now prepped for the nighttime populaire...
>>
>>
>>
>>  Well, the fleche was my test bed for my new lights and there is some
good
>>  news and bad news. 
>>
>>  The good news is that I really like the d'Lumotec Topal (primary) and E6
>>  combo.  The Topal led lights up the "near" world with LOTS of
>>  light.  Almost
>>  tempted to put on some shades,  ;-)  It also kicks in at about 3 mph
which 
>>  was really nice at 3am climbing in the rain.  The stand light is
>>  bright and
>>  seems to work for about 5 minutes.  It also has an auto sensing
>>  feature that
>>  turns on the light at dusk.  At dawn the light goes off and
unfortunately, 
>>  occasionally as a car approaches from the rear where the sensor
>>  is located.
>>  ;-).  The E6 throws a much more focused beam with a longer reach
>>  once I get
>>  moving and the 2 are a good together. 
>>
>>  The bad news is that both of my lights died on the fleche.  The Topal
came
>>  back after an hour or so and the E6 is now working again several
>>  days later.
>>  I suspect that the issue was a water induced short and although I
soldered 
>>  and sealed all the splices, I must have missed something.  There was a
LOT
>>  of rain on the fleche so this may be an aberration.  I have also seen
one
>>  post on a message board that the Topal is not as weather proof as the
E6. 
>>  Anyway, I had a spare EL500 as a backup and that saved the day.
>>
>>
>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: orrando-bounces at tire.patch.com
>>  [mailto:orrando-bounces at tire.patch.com]
>>  On Behalf Of joel metz
>>  Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 1:44 PM 
>>  To: Oregon area Randonneurs
>>  Subject: Re: [OrRando] i am now prepped for the nighttime populaire...
>>
>>
>>  well, youre gonna find a big e6 booster in me :)
>> 
>>  the lumotecs are fine, though - i rode the last couple of years with
>>  twin lumos, and was just fine - but on pbp, when i first really got
>>  to see the beam pattern of the e6, jealousy kicked in... 
>>
>>  im just running one for the time being, mounted under the hbar bag to
>>  the immediate left of the wheel. ill be adding a second eventually,
>>  mounted to the right side fork tip, for better pothole vision. 
>>
>>  -joel
>>
>>  At 10:59 -0700 04.11.2006, nate armbrust wrote:
>  > >I'm looking forward to checking out everybody's light setups on the
>>  >100K this Saturday night. I'm in the market for another lamp and I'm 
>>  >hoping to do a little research on our ride, looking at light output
>>  >and beam patterns of different lamps. This will work out great
>>  >unless it turns out that everybody has an E6. 
>>  >
>>  >See you Saturday.
>>  >
>>  >Nate
>>  >
>>  >On 4/11/06, joel metz
>>  ><<mailto: magpie at blackbirdsf.org <mailto:magpie at blackbirdsf.org>
>magpie at blackbirdsf.org> wrote:
>>  >
>>  >schmidt wheel built, e6 wired up, and i just finished my diy
>>  >reflective sash mk. 2. 
>>  >
>>  >im not really the orange reflective vest type, and i just cant make
>>  >myself *buy* one of those ugly things, so ive one-upped the sash mk.
>>  >1 (which was constructed of cut-up reflective road sign material) and 
>>  >made a sash out of some lightweight grey reflective fabric my
>>  >housemate had. rolled up, its about half the size and weight of a
>>  >clif bar - and blindingly reflective.
>>  >
>>  >compared to the sash mk. 1, that means i can carry 1 more sandwich
>>  >with the space i save! :)
>>
>>  --
>>  joel metz  : magpie at blackbirdsf.org :  http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
>>  bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
>>                     portland, oregon
>>  ==
>>             i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
>>                                   after she got that bicycle...
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>
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--
joel metz  : magpie at blackbirdsf.org :  http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
                       portland, oregon
==
           i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
                                 after she got that bicycle...
_______________________________________________
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