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Bicycle Rim Lights
Bicycle Rim Lights
Living
Outside
Play
Technology
Workshop
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
Author:LongToe
I'm a software engineer who tries to stay away from the computer when I'm not at work.
Bonus! After riding to your favorite disco, rave, gathering, or whatever you've got some glowy things you can swing around and try to look cool. Just don't hit anybody, that's not cool.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
Step 1: Investigate
I couldn't find any details on how LED rope lights are constructed, so I took the plunge and bought a 12ft. blue one. After I ripped open the package, admired the glow, I decided to take some measurements to see what I was dealing with. I used a multimeter to measure the DC voltage coming out of the converter and got 110VDC. That's when I knew I was in trouble. That's going to take a lot of batteries. Materials: LED Rope Light 4 3-Battery Holders 12 AAA Batteries Hot Glue Solder 4 10 Ohm Resistors Wire Ties Rubber Bands made from old bicycle tubes Tools: Multimeter Soldering Iron Hot Glue Gun Razor Blade Wire Strippers Wire Cutters Needle Nose Pliers
Image Notes 1. Resistor 2. Outer tube 3. Inner tube covers a positive and negative wire.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
Image Notes 1. The 3 pieces of the LED rope light, an outer shell, an inner tube with 2 wires, and a center string of LEDs and resistors.
Step 3: Strip
I weaved the rope into the wheel and end up up cutting a 33 in. section for my 26 in. wheels. I couldn't pull the innards out so I had to cut the outer section to take it apart. Once I removed the inner section I began cutting the insulation off every 2.5 in. Having the LEDs close together looks cool, but it's more work. Every 2.5 in. seemed good enough. Removing the insulation was harder than I expected. I used wire stripper, a razor blade, and needle nose pliers.
Image Notes 1. A razor blade works well for removing the outside cover.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
Image Notes 1. It's hard not to cut a few strands while removing the insulation. Solder the strands back on, or cut them off.
Image Notes 1. Battery pack for testing LEDs and figuring out polarity. 2. Resistors are ready to be attached to the rope
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
Image Notes 1. LED is inserted into the plastic section. 2. Solder these wires.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
Step 5: Finish
To finish up, I used wire zip ties to hold the battery pack onto the LED rope. I made one tie really tight and left one loose enough to slide over so I can add and remove batteries. To keep the battery pack from flopping around on the wheel I used some rubber bands made from old bicycle tubes to attach it to a spoke. Once all four sections were complete, I weaved the rope into place, and wrapped the rubber band around a spoke to secure the batteries. It's turns out to be really easy to add and remove the lights.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
Image Notes 1. The rubber band wraps around a spoke to secure the battery pack.
Image Notes 1. 2 rubber bands tied together made from an old bicycle tube.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/
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Comments
5 comments
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Aug 7, 2012. 10:20 AM REPLY
depotdevoid says:
Nice! Reminds me of my own wheel lights, only lighter, and probably with better battery life!
DoctorWoo says:
Aug 7, 2012. 4:23 AM REPLY Sorry if you have this noted somewhere....but why the need to break it down to four strips? Was that just due to the needed voltage? Also...did you happen to test using just one strip on a wheel? I have a few bikes I think this would be awesome to do to, and seeing as how once you get up to speed, the strip would more then likely blur into one ring. At least, that's who I'm thinking it. Thanks in advance! Oh, and awesome build!
LongToe says:
Aug 7, 2012. 9:47 AM REPLY Thanks! Yes, you could certainly go with one strip per tire, but since I wanted a battery pack on opposite sides of the tire for balance, it just made sense to break it in 2. It would look more continuous if it was just one strip though, good idea. I could still probably glue and wire 2 sections together. That's something to think about.
kombi66 says:
hell ya paratrooper ingenuity... way to go
LongToe says:
Thanks man!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicycle-Rim-Lights/