Not so much a mod as a question...

[Gavin]

I like sport mode in second gear for city driving... Good power and I barely have to use the brakes at all since the active regen gives me tons of braking power.

But that raises the question of cars behind me not knowing I am in effect "braking" every time I let off the throttle. I often will put slight pressure on the rear brake...hopefully enough to engage the brake light without adding too much extra braking to the regen braking...It makes more sense to have the regen braking adding power to the battery than using traditional braking and wearing down the brake pads

Sooooo....

Any reason to not have the brake light come on with active regen? As in: I let off the throttle and regen braking kicks in and at the same time the brake light is turned on until I either stop or apply "gas". Seems it would be a simple enough "fix"...the bike knows when active regen is happening, so activating the brake light at the same time would be a simple task to tie in.

Thoughts?

Gavin

[Jeff]

Or perhaps a vololight.  I followed the kickstarter and have some interest in how the product turns out.

[frodus]

I'd like that too!

Cars can't see that I'm in regen. I think there needs to be a slight delay though, sometimes while you're cruising, you're at that barely in drive, barely regen mode, and I can see the light flickering or flashing and annoying the crap out of people.

Maybe a 1 second of regen and the brake light goes on.

[Jeff]

I'd like that too!

Cars can't see that I'm in regen. I think there needs to be a slight delay though, sometimes while you're cruising, you're at that barely in drive, barely regen mode, and I can see the light flickering or flashing and annoying the crap out of people.

Maybe a 1 second of regen and the brake light goes on.

Right -- that's why I think something like a decelerometer would be more effective.  It's tied to how much you're slowing down, rather than the state of being in regen.

Upon further perusal of the vololights stuff, it looks like they sell just the module without the license plate form factor.  I'd totally consider doing something like that.

[frodus]

so it'd go off up a hill?

What about having it go off when Deceleration rate is greater than X  + regen active

[skuzzle]

Or perhaps a vololight.  I followed the kickstarter and have some interest in how the product turns out.

I just received my Vololight.  This product is a license plate frame that has built in lights that flash when you decelerate using regen and no brakes.  Installation is pretty simple, although there is an issue with the height of the unit.  It's not possible to use the license plate holes because of a clearance issue with the Vololight top border around the plate.  For now I'm just using zip ties to hold it in place.

To install remove the cover over the brake light.  That makes it really easy to see which wire goes to the license plate light.  I cut the zip ties holding the tail lights together and separate out the plate light wire.  Then I cut and stripped the light wire and connected to the Vololight wire connector.  Vololight has a nice installation video which makes it pretty simple.  It's raining today, so the road test will be tomorrow.

[opfietse]

I installed a VoloMOD today...see how that goes.
And I hope I don't annoy anyone...we are not used to flashing brakelights, I am not even sure it's legal.

[Shinysideup]

I'm interested in how they perform. Skuzzle never got back to us with the promised road test.

I installed this and had a friend follow me. It never flashed with engine braking, even 1st gear Sport mode, but came on only under heavy braking from the disc system. I became disillusioned enough to not even look in to how to adjust it. I guess I'm just overly impatient with stuff that doesn't work out of the box as advertised. (You can tell I don't work in the computer field!)

[skuzzle]

I'm interested in how they perform. Skuzzle never got back to us with the promised road test.

Oops.

The biggest problem with this product is that the only way you can tell if it's working is to have someone drive behind you or mount a goPro on a stick.  According to my wife it works fine.  I personally have no idea if it still works.  The LED's are very directional, and the plate is at an angle pointing them up away from the road.  I would have thought that at night I would see a reflection on the road below or a reflective sign behind me, but no.  All I can say is that it passed the wife behind me in the car test.  I did send feedback to Vololights about needing some sort of feedback.  I think a tiny LED on the dash which is on with the brake lights would be great.  It would have a side benefit of telling me when I have accidentally rested my foot on the rear brake lever.

The lights do go through a test cycle whenever the bike is turned on via key or charge cycle.

[opfietse]

I'm interested in how they perform. Skuzzle never got back to us with the promised road test.

I installed this and had a friend follow me. It never flashed with engine braking, even 1st gear Sport mode, but came on only under heavy braking from the disc system. I became disillusioned enough to not even look in to how to adjust it. I guess I'm just overly impatient with stuff that doesn't work out of the box as advertised. (You can tell I don't work in the computer field!)

On the way home today it was dark and I could clearly see the brakelight flashing wile I backed off in second gear in Sports mode. It activated the 'first' threshold  because the light was flashing slowly.

I adjusted the system as per the instructions: move the magnet towards the modulen and as soon as the red LED comes on move the magnet away quickly.

[Chocula]

I am glad to see the VoloMOD works with the Empulse.  I placed an order for one today.

[helixpteron]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I found another product that should react to the g forces of regen:

http://www.ebay.at/itm/WhipFlash-WF-II-2WS-G-Force-sensor-controlled-flashing-brake-light-system-/261625459137?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cea17b1c1

There is a detailed spec sheet... http://www.whipflash.se/en/technical-data

With an iPhone and an acceleration app someone could find out what kind of G Force the regen causes. The flashing would be activated with .8 G. I guess that's not sensitive, but thought to be only for emergency braking.

I don't have my Brammo yet, so I can't say if she even uses this kind of relay, but it looks interesting.

Cheers.

EDIT: Just saw that the one for trucks only needs 0.4G to activate flashing.

2ND EDIT: I found another one... http://strobewise.com/motorcycles/

[protomech]

0.8G is pretty serious. I suspect you would need to hit the friction brakes to trigger that, not just motor regen.

[helixpteron]

That's what I think - the truck version is .4 - but still that's sounds like a lot. I will go for the VoloMod and connect separate footpeg lights like in this video. That looks quite attention drawing ...