£1 Poundland red armband headlight

[guerney]

I'm hoping that drivers at night will give me more elbow room, when a bright flashing LED is on my elbow. It's a headlight, and not waterproof:

Cob Headlight

COB HEADLIGHT

www.poundland.co.uk

...I simply unscrewed three tiny screws to insert a strip heat resistant acetate "Flame red" gel over the LED.

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Not waterproof, but a bight armband rapidly flashing LED light on my right elbow for night use for £1. Hope it keeps the b*ggers further away. They're also easy to attach to my trailers, can be attached onto securing straps. I'll cover them with plastic food bags when it rains.

Batteries not included.

 

[WheezyRider]

I'm hoping that drivers at night will give me more elbow room, when a bright flashing LED is on my elbow. It's a headlight, and not waterproof:

Cob Headlight

COB HEADLIGHT

www.poundland.co.uk

...I simply unscrewed three tiny screws to insert a strip heat resistant acetate "Flame red" gel over the LED.

Heat Resistant Colour Transparent Acetate Gel Sheet Crafts Plastic Film Lighting | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Heat Resistant Colour Transparent Acetate Gel Sheet Crafts Plastic Film Lighting at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

Not waterproof, but a bight armband rapidly flashing LED light on my right elbow for night use for £1. Hope it keeps the b*ggers further away. They're also easy to attach to my trailers, can be attached onto securing straps. I'll cover them with plastic food bags when it rains.

Batteries not included.


View attachment 48030

Yes, these are good. I used a laser cutter to cut a piece of red acrylic to fit exactly to the hole. I have also run these from a USB powerpack, so the battery can be recharged. However, I did have to epoxy a bigger heatsink to the back of the COB so it didn't get too hot.

Someday I will 3D print an enclosure for two of these units, a USB battery, bigger heatsinks and something that will screw onto the back of the rack on my bike.

 

[PC2017]

Keep an eye out in either lidl or aldi - there is a bag/arm motion triggered/powered light based on a dynamo, I was thinking about one or two next time I see em. Jogging light... Edit - might need sewing into an arm band pml I hate sewing lol

Big Clive Live

 

[guerney]

Yes, these are good. I used a laser cutter to cut a piece of red acrylic to fit exactly to the hole. I have also run these from a USB powerpack, so the battery can be recharged. However, I did have to epoxy a bigger heatsink to the back of the COB so it didn't get too hot.

Someday I will 3D print an enclosure for two of these units, a USB battery, bigger heatsinks and something that will screw onto the back of the rack on my bike.

It's certainly a light light circuit board. And a bright LED. If I could find a suitable waterproof and light housing for the light, I could alight the light to trailer flagpole with a couple of others powered by a USB power pack. I'd feel safer knowing that drivers could see how close the passing side and corner of the trailer was, while passing too close. I'd prefer them to lights situated at a lower elevation.

 

[guerney]

I used a laser cutter to cut a piece of red acrylic to fit exactly to the hole.

You've got a frickin' laser cutter at home?!? Would a hot wire cutter cut acrylic cleanly? I was thinking about how to cut some (approximately) round pieces out of 5mm thick acrylic sheet.

 

[guerney]

Keep an eye out in either lidl or aldi - there is a bag/arm motion triggered/powered light based on a dynamo, I was thinking about one or two next time I see em. Jogging light... Edit - might need sewing into an arm band pml I hate sewing lol

Big Clive Live

Clive's channel has some good vids. Yes I'd definitely look out for those. Are they waterproof? It's fantastic that the LEDs can be powered by just movement. Epoxy jogging lights to either side of the crank arms, or onto pannier rack sides? Glued onto trouser clips? My main worry with that jogging light on my elbow, is the feasibility of remembering to do the chicken dance while cycling, like my life depended on it. I'm not sure the LEDs would be activated by normal cycling elbow movement, they might need a vigorous elbow waggling chicken dance. Would trembling while cars are passing do it? I do a lot of trembling while cycling.

 

[WheezyRider]

You've got a frickin' laser cutter at home?!? Would a hot wire cutter cut acrylic cleanly? I was thinking about how to cut some (approximately) round pieces out of 5mm thick acrylic sheet.

I borrow the one at work. But a lot of places now have "Maker Spaces" where for a small membership fee you can get access to laser cutters, 3D printers etc.

Best thing would be to 3D print a case, then you can waterproof it.

 

[guerney]

I borrow the one at work. But a lot of places now have "Maker Spaces" where for a small membership fee you can get access to laser cutters, 3D printers etc.

Best thing would be to 3D print a case, then you can waterproof it.

Cheers for the maker space tip! There's one near me which has a Stratasys Dimension SST1200 and laser cutters.

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Should you buy the Stratasys Dimension 1200 printer? Check out our review here to find out whether it's worth the money or not.

www.3dbeginners.com

 

[guerney]

But a lot of places now have "Maker Spaces" where for a small membership fee you can get access to laser cutters, 3D printers etc.

Alas, I haven't found a Maker space which has a 3d printer capable of printing something like this in steel or titanium - good job too, it'd probably break in short order:

3D Printed Bike Frame | 3D Printing Blog | i.materialise

3D printed bike: It's a bike frame like no other - it comes straight from a 3D printer.

i.materialise.com

 

[guerney]

Keep an eye out in either lidl or aldi - there is a bag/arm motion triggered/powered light based on a dynamo, I was thinking about one or two next time I see em. Jogging light... Edit - might need sewing into an arm band pml I hate sewing lol

Big Clive Live

That jogger light may activate when glued to near the top of the trailer flagpole? I'll give it a shot, if I spot them at Lidl or Aldi. I think the "Crivet" brand is Aldi's.

 

[guerney]

Keep an eye out in either lidl or aldi - there is a bag/arm motion triggered/powered light based on a dynamo, I was thinking about one or two next time I see em. Jogging light... Edit - might need sewing into an arm band pml I hate sewing lol

Big Clive Live

How much were they selling for? Likely contains the same mechanism as this £16 version?

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[WheezyRider]

Here are some pics of using these Poundland headlamps as USB powered lights. They are great modules, but normally, if powered with USB banks they get very hot as there is very little in the way of heat dissipation.

Remove module from case. Using high temp epoxy, glue the back of the module to an old CPU heatsink. Desolder the battery clips and solder in a cable from an old broken USB charging cable. Here I am using two modules in parallel:



Hot melt glue to secure cables and insulate and glue the heatsink to a base (take more time over this than I did and make it look pretty):



Do a test:



Then carefully superglue the rubber buttons back on:



Of course, if you have time 3D print a nice case for it. Works really well as an off grid shed light, or with a case and bracket would work well on the bike. Is so bright, two modules is really overkill and I normally only need one of them on.

Re-use cells from dud battery packs, recharge the USB packs with solar. Don't buy disposable primary batteries any more.

 

[guerney]

Works really well as an off grid shed light

Yes I imagine they'd be excellent for a shed - those Poundland LEDs spread light extremely evenly. It's pretty weird walking around over grass, with one situated on one's brow - depth perception disappears with such sharp shadows, all looks completely flat. I gave my last one away to an electrical engineer who did a safety check recently, because we were in complete dark and he had lost his.

 

[WheezyRider]

Yes I imagine they'd be excellent for a shed - those Poundland LEDs spread light extremely evenly. It's pretty weird walking around over grass, with one situated on one's brow - depth perception disappears with such sharp shadows, all looks completely flat. I gave my last one away to an electrical engineer who did a safety check recently, because we were in complete dark and he had lost his.

Annoyingly, they have gone from £1 each to £2 each in Poundland. How about that for inflation! Still, it's hard to find a decent COB LED light that runs off lithium cells for a reasonable price, so it's still worth the modification process to get exactly what you want.

 

[WheezyRider]

BTW, don't buy this one from Poundland:

Poundland.co.uk | Amazing value every day

Branded quality everyday essentials. Choose from food, drink, home, garden, food, toys, health, beauty, pets & more

www.poundland.co.uk

It doesn't have a proper current control module, so even if you mod it with a heatsink, it dumps all the excess heat in the variable resistor slider. Eventually it will cook the COB and die if run from a USB power bank. Really it needs a proper drive module.

 

[guerney]

Annoyingly, they have gone from £1 each to £2 each in Poundland. How about that for inflation!

After seeing the results of their commissioned impact studies, they must have concluded that simply selling them half-sized, as they do with other products, wasn't indicated as a viable option. My many angry letters of compaint to trading standards, regarding the lack of explicit plurality suggested by the name "Poundland", have been ignored.

 

[guerney]

I very much disapprove of their going upmarket - the idea of rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi, willing to spend twice as much as I am makes me nervous. They claim to be returning to the reasurring simlicity of £1. I do hope their focus on other goods, doesn't destroy their often amazing hardware aisles - I bought a better hackasaw the other day from Poundland for £1, than I did from my local hardware store for £8.

Poundland to add cost of living sections in 300 stores in bid to rival ASDA, Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Morrisons
More items will cost £1

Have discounters like Poundland and B&M become the place for grocery?

As Poundland ramps up its frozen food offer, we look at the throng of discounters that are wooing shoppers away from grocers to do their food shop.

www.retailgazette.co.uk