Category Archives: Discussion

A pause to reflect

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Back in late May,  I rode across to Western Australia to attend the Numbat Rally. Pogotronics was quiet, and I did not bother to buy parts in, since I had no firm return date.

While I was on the road, I found a new calm. It took me several weeks to settle back into ‘normal’ life, and even now I feel the loss.

The fun has gone out of Pogotronics. I feel uncomfortably committed to slavish reproduction rather than happily creating solutions. And, as Pogo says, “If it ain’t fun, I don’t do it”.

So I am looking for ways to let go of the hassle and find the fun again. I have ordered parts to build up stock, but I may not build the kits myself, I may farm that out and look for more fun elsewhere.

I will still back those kits I have sold, after all BRP have already cornered the market on ignoring customers’ problems, but for now I won’t be accepting any new orders.

With superb timing, a security upgrade just a few weeks back cleared a problem that I have had with the checkout on this site, and I began receiving orders through PayPal completely unannounced. I have now shut down the checkout and sent refunds to those buyers who used it.

So for now, I will return to quiet contemplation of the beauty of the outback

Plus ca change…

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There have been three significant changes in the Pogotronics product line.

The first is that I have more or less indefinitely suspended production of the Pogotronics LED brake/tail light isolator kit because I have found it impossible to source bright, reliable LED brake/tail light globes at a reasonable price.

If I wouldn’t use them on my Spyder, I won’t sell them, and if I can’t buy good globes, then it is unlikely that you can, so you won’t be needing a kit to use them.

If you have a set of LED brake/tail light globes that you want to fit, I will sell you an isolator to keep Nanny quiet. Send me an enquiry for a price and availability.

The second has been the finalisation of the design for the RT version of the Four Eyes kit.

BRP had made it difficult to build a kit for this model, using different headlight globes and different wiring connections from the RS range. A similar situation obtained in the case of the ST range.

I have found a convenient and reliable place to make connections for the Four Eyes kit for the RT and the ST, and so I am now supplying kits for these models.

Finally, I have had a few enquiries recently about the Pogotronics Trailer Wiring Isolator. The volume of sales for these is very low, so each is made to order. To simplify the wiring and reduce the load on the Spyder wiring (the RT in particular), I have deleted the power feed through from the isolator.

If you have a question about any of my kits, or a suggestion for an improvement or a new kit, I would be happy to hear from you.

Pogo.

Rolling, rolling…

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The market has a way of exposing weaknesses. While I was struggling with the Four Eyes headlight extender for the ST model Spyder, the number of enquiries that I received regarding this model continued to grow.

I have come up with a solution and have shipped half a dozen kits in the past couple of weeks, but it is not as simple to fit as the same kit for the GS/RS models, and the RT remains problematical.

While investigating the RT and ST, I have found a way round that promises to make these kits easier to fit, at the cost of being very different to the GS/RS kit.

I’ll put a test version together and test it shortly and, if it works well, then I’ll add it to my range.

The most difficult kit in my range for me to make is the trailer light isolator. While I have been working on making it easier for me to make, and simple to install, every one I sell has been slightly different. The last iteration was much easier to make, so much so that I think a new circuit board layout is needed.

One problem is that users want to have a live 12 volt supply as well as the trailer lights. This could draw as much or more current as all the lights on at once, and this makes board design difficult. A high current track takes up a lot of space.

There are workarounds, and they might be sufficient to make the new layout viable, but I would like to have a one shot fix, so for now, these kits will continue to be hand made.

The LED brake/tail light supply situation remains grim. Good bright globes are scarce and expensive, and so I have not produced any more kits for sale.

If you have your own LED brake/tail lights, you can still buy the bare isolator. It should work fine, and if not, I will refund your purchase.

Pogo.

Market forces

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Its been an interesting few weeks. The LED brake/tail light kits have been selling steadily. I’m pleased that I have solved a problem here.

My suppliers however have solved a different problem, and the high brightness red LED brake/tail lights that I use in these kits have become scarce and expensive.

Rather than greatly increase the price of these kits or use an inferior grade of globe, I have stopped producing these kits while I find a suitable replacement.

The Four Eyes kit I was poking at took off so quickly that I haven’t had time to list it as a product. That will come soon. I have a few days over the break when nothing can be done in the lab, and so I will put up a listing for these kits.

In the rush to meet demand, I found a couple of gotchas with these kits. I had assumed that BRP would use a standard wiring loom for the headlights across all models. I found out that the wiring for the RT is very different (thanks for your help, Adrian) and that the ST model uses different connectors again.

So for now I am making Four Eyes kits available only for the GS/RS models while I first get some suitable connectors for the RT and ST and then make a better wiring harness to suit these models.

Those folk who have bought kits for the RT or ST can of course get a full refund, but I am hoping to have the revised kits available soon, and will exchange them at no cost.

Lastly, I have removed the comment box from my blog posts. I have been getting literally hundreds of spam posts which I have to check and reject. Among them I found only two genuine comments.

So if you would like to comment on a post,  please use the enquiries page, and enter the name of the post in the subject.

Pogo.

A word about LEDs

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A couple of my circuits centre on using LEDs on a bike. These would replace a conventional incandescent globe.

In my investigations recently, I have found how difficult it is to make that replacement.

Incandescent globes have been around for a long time. Their design is stable, almost standard, and as a result the folk who design lighting make certain assumptions that don’t hold true when the light source is changed to an LED.

  1. The light is a point source.
    While the filament is not quite a point source, it is much smaller than an array of LEDs. This affects how the light is gathered and distributed by the reflectors and lenses in the light fitting.
    Light from an LED is directional, within a cone of about 15 degrees, so it won’t be spread off a reflector the same way as light from a filament. In many cases, no light at all will reach the reflector.
    Similarly, light from an LED won’t be collected and redirected by the lenses in a light fitting the same way as light from a globe.
  2. The light is bright.
    A 21 W brake light or indicator is almost painful to look at. Many LED globes are dull in comparison. I recently ran some side-by-side tests of brake lights and was disappointed to see how dull the LED light was.
    People often choose a white LED to replace a standard globe that is used as an indicator or a brake light or tail light. The amount of amber or red light produced by a white LED is much less than that produced by an incandescent globe, and the LED will appear quite dull behind the coloured lens.
  3. The globe has a low resistance.
    This is the driver for both the LED brake/tail light isolator and the LED ballast. LEDs have much higher resistance which means that LED indicators won’t blink at the right rate, if at all, and LED brake lights will trip the globe failure warning on modern bikes.
  4. The globe is a standard size.
    As a result, the fittings are designed to accept a globe of a certain size. LED ‘globes’ are not necessarily the same size as standard globes. A 27 mm diameter LED ‘globe’ won’t fit into a hole made for a 1″ diameter globe.

So when replacing a standard globe with an LED globe, take some time to look at the assumptions that the light designer made, and choose the LED that is the best match to these.