Drifting

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Gee, it’s been almost a year since I said I’d have a little quiet time. The rest has done me a lot of good.

I’ve decided to stick to just two kits, the Four Eyes kit (while I can get parts) and the Trailer Isolator (though this is likely to go).

I’m doing other things and enjoying them. Having to come to the bench is not as good as wanting to come to the bench, so production has pretty well stopped.

I have parts for a few Four Eyes kits which I will make up, with a view to not making any more this year, and I have some of the parts I need to make up one Trailer Isolator, possibly the last one.

It might be that I’ll close this site altogether. If so, I’ll still happily support those who have bought my kits into the indefinite future.

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 plethora of pinatas

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The updated version of the LED brake/tail light kit is now shipping, and the ballast for LED indicators is *this* close to finalised. I have a final test circuit on the bench waiting…

I got a call from a Spyder rider who had a problem with his reversing light switch. I pushed the indicator ballast aside, and put together a prototype of the new design of the reversing light switch.

It was very pleasing to see that it took up significantly less board space than the previous prototype. At this rate I might have to move into smaller premises. 😉

After final testing I’ll deliver and install it tomorrow.

I’ve been testing a headlight modification that keeps the low beam on when high beam is selected. This is in response  to one rider in particular who points out that while the high beam on the Spyder is bright, the beam is very narrow. Several other Spyder riders have agreed, so I have built and been testing a kit. I have to say that it does make a great difference to what can be seen when high beam is selected.

In the Pogotronics tradition, it is plug and play, no wires need to be cut or tapped into.

If the new owner is happy with the result, then I will order more parts and add this kit to the Pogotronics line card.

If you have a suggestion for a new product, or even an idea you’d like to talk about, please send me a comment in response to this article.

Pogo.

Update:

A week after posting this, I was contacted by another mate who wanted two reversing light switches. I was able to put together two more prototypes from the parts that I had on hand.

It is good to know that I can produce things that people need, and it encourages me to push projects along even when demand is quiet.

The steady tick, tick, tick

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Two projects have been keeping the Pogotronics lab busy over the past month:

One is the production of a new batch of LED brake/tail light isolators. A change of technology has allowed me to make these much smaller and therefore easier to install.

The other is development work on the indicator ballast. Lola has been burdened with test wiring and instrumentation while I refine the design. The basic technology was proven on the bench and has now been run on a working bike. Now it goes back to the bench to make it ready to be the next product to go on sale.

Of geeky interest, the CanAm Spyder, or at least my 2008 GS, appears to have two indicator controllers. One runs the indicators and hazard lights when the ignition is on, and despite being all electronic, it behaves like an old fashioned blinker can and flashes too fast when it has a light load. The other runs the hazard lights when the ignition is off and behaves like an electronic indicator controller, flashing at a constant rate regardless of load. Why? I guess because it was designed by a committee… 😉

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.

We’ve gone viral

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Well, we might be infectious. 😉 After the initial batch of five LED brake/tail light kits sold out, I ordered parts for the next, and geared up to make and sell them.

I’ve recently been contacted by an Australian company who is interested in stocking my LED brake/tail light kits. That is awesome!

I’ll be shipping most of my new batch to them to on-sell, and picking up development of the  LED Electronic Ballast with the profit. This is one of my geeky treasures, and I hope that it works well for users and sells well as a result.

Meanwhile I’ll be making a further batch of isolator kits to meet the apparent demand. It will be a busy and productive time, and I’m excited about what it means for the future of Pogotronics.

Oh what a feeling!

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I was pretty pleased yesterday when the first production circuit boards arrived for the LED Brake/Tail light isolator.

They look great!

A new batch of isolator PCBs

I was going to announce them here, but went instead to the OzSpyderRyders forum.

The response was amazing. I had had indications of interest in two isolators, and bought parts to make five,  thinking that they would eventually sell and pay to develop the next circuit.

I’ve sold four of the five already! By the time I actually have stock of completed boards, the fifth will likely have gone, and I won’t have any to sell here.

With that level of encouragement, I will have to gear up production (good thing that I designed them to be easy to make), and postpone development of the next circuit.

What a great feeling!