Jump to content

MSuper X front and rear road lights


Recommended Posts

37 minutes ago, RockyTop said:

I have an old IPhone 6+ that I keep just for the app. This way I don’t worry about killing my phone battery or breaking my real phone. ( As a backup phone I can also call 911 without phone service if I had to)

I use a “Survivor” phone case and have already dropped the phone on the street at 30 MPH once. No damage.

That's some option; maybe one day I'll get convinced to it... :efefd8a002:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, szaroczek said:

Come on, man! Are you serious? Doesn't this really look to you as the most ridiculous procedure ever?!!! To have to turn the wheel off and on again to properly control the headlight...? Would you imagine of doing so with you Toyota Corolla, that is stopping the car and turning the engine on and off to be able to change your light...??? To me this is total crap! I honestly can't believe you find this sequence acceptable! :blink1: Anyhow, as far as I am concerned I am on a mission to end it ASAP by means of the switch I posted a picture of in my post above. And I'm going to mess with the rear light too to try to get rid of the green and leave only red and only when the headlight in on! If any of you have any clues as to how to deal with the rear light to fix it the way I've just described, your suggestions are very welcome. :)

I find it acceptable because I rarely ever have to turn the light on/off multiple times when I go for a ride. Most of the time I ride without the light and when I turn on the light, it's on until I turn off the wheel. So I never have to cycle through all the modes as you apparently you do quite often.

You're the first person that I've heard complain about this, but I'm glad that you have a solution that will make your life easier.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had my wheel opened some other day in the past but just for the tire maintenance purpose, so I did not take a careful look at the headlight and the rear (green/red) lamp wiring at that time (don't care about Christmas-tree front and rear diodes, to be sure). However, I would expect the headlight most likely be featuring just two wires ("+" and "-") connected to it. How about the rear lamp, though? It obviously is much more complicated in terms of its lighting modes. How many wires go to it, then? Is there possibly a one specific wire among them all which would just provide power alone and buy cutting it off (and connecting to the additional switch) the whole lamp would go totally dead regardless of the mode that would be active at the time? Maybe someone of you might offer some pictures of the MSX rear lamp wiring with some explanation...?

Edited by szaroczek
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, szaroczek said:

I had my wheel opened some other day in the past but just for the tire maintenance purpose, so I did not take a careful look at the headlight and the rear (green/red) lamp wiring at that time (don't care about Christmas-tree front and rear diodes, to be sure). However, I would expect the headlight most likely be featuring just two wires ("+" and "-") connected to it. How about the rear lamp, though? It obviously is much more complicated in terms of its lighting modes. How many wires go to it, then? Is there possibly a one specific wire among them all which would just provide power alone and buy cutting it off (and connecting to the additional switch) the whole lamp would go totally dead regardless of the mode that would be active at the time? Maybe someone of you might offer some pictures of the MSX rear lamp wiring with some explanation...?

The LED strip lights all use 3-wires, including the rear light.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am with @szaroczek on this, the current behavior is ridiculous. @Marty Backe’s procedure puzzles me, since on my early MSX the coloured LEDs turn on when the front light turns off from the mentioned two button presses.

One alternative for installing an additional switch would be to unplug the coloured LEDs. That way only the two presses were required. Rear light would be on all the time though.

I’m not sure how the red/green rear light LEDs are done, so best I don’t speculate what would it take to ditch the green. A photo on the rear LED strip might reveal enough.

The front light runs at 3-3.5V and uses 700mA (or was it 1000mA?) of current.  Any switch can handle 4W of DC.

But the switch in the earlier picture only has one channel, so it can connect only one pair of cables. I wouldn’t run the rear light from the same power source as the front light, unless you are prepared for a bit dimmer front light.

The perfect solution for this would require some enthusiasticity... A small generic striped circuit board, that would host a dual channel relay (and a few resistors) for the front and rear lights. It would be piggy-backed to a constant 3-5V source at the main board, and would be operated by the separate switch. The front light would now only follow the extra button, and if left on, the light would also be on at the next power up.

But this requires a lot of work compared to just unplugging the coloured LEDs. It’s of course up to you how much your perfect solution would be worth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, regarding the MSX headlight itself, what you suggest, @mrelwood, is once all four (a pair at the front and a pair at the back) Christmas-tree-diodes modules are physically disconnected, the sequence of, say, eight button-presses necessary to turn the headlight off would automatically be reduced to possibly two presses, eliminating all the Christmas-tree-diodes modes...? Have I got it right?

Edited by szaroczek
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Exactly. The front light cycles through on-strobo-off, just like currently. The christmas lights will be ”on” during two of the cycles, but will not show since they are unplugged.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, mrelwood said:

I am with @szaroczek on this, the current behavior is ridiculous. @Marty Backe’s procedure puzzles me, since on my early MSX the coloured LEDs turn on when the front light turns off from the mentioned two button presses.

One alternative for installing an additional switch would be to unplug the coloured LEDs. That way only the two presses were required. Rear light would be on all the time though.

I’m not sure how the red/green rear light LEDs are done, so best I don’t speculate what would it take to ditch the green. A photo on the rear LED strip might reveal enough.

The front light runs at 3-3.5V and uses 700mA (or was it 1000mA?) of current.  Any switch can handle 4W of DC.

But the switch in the earlier picture only has one channel, so it can connect only one pair of cables. I wouldn’t run the rear light from the same power source as the front light, unless you are prepared for a bit dimmer front light.

The perfect solution for this would require some enthusiasticity... A small generic striped circuit board, that would host a dual channel relay (and a few resistors) for the front and rear lights. It would be piggy-backed to a constant 3-5V source at the main board, and would be operated by the separate switch. The front light would now only follow the extra button, and if left on, the light would also be on at the next power up.

But this requires a lot of work compared to just unplugging the coloured LEDs. It’s of course up to you how much your perfect solution would be worth.

I just checked and you are right - the LED mode switches when the light is turned off. So if you want to retain the LED mode you must turn off the wheel when turning off the light.

This still hasn't been an issue with me because I'm never turning my light on and off while riding. Usually it's off and sometimes I need to turn it on and then it stays on until I'm done riding.

So for my riding style, this LED worry is not an issue. For you guys who are always turning your lights on and off I can see where it would be bothersome. Then again, a quick multi-tap of the power button to cycle through the modes isn't horrendous, but YMMV of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I found the behavior annoying early on, I decided to manage. For me either the situation is not present very often. And 8 presses of a button can be just two bars of your favourite drumbeat! Or just one bar if your gloved hihat hand is up to the task... There’s usually a song playing in my head anyways. :whistling:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, mrelwood said:

the switch in the earlier picture only has one channel, so it can connect only one pair of cables. I wouldn’t run the rear light from the same power source as the front light, unless you are prepared for a bit dimmer front light.

How about this one then; although it is only 36V/2A but it switches two channels.

110658332_przecznikbistabilny4piny01.PNG.9a2a2b39709865fbd0ca4483d1563132.PNG291197239_przecznikbistabilny4piny02.PNG.97c38ab3aff17b1fdfb93fd5e35b2df4.PNG

Edited by szaroczek
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How about that, good find! As long as it’s not a momentary switch, it will work well for switching the front and back light circuits separately, at the same time of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is not a momentary switch (mono-stable), it is a regular on-off (bi-stable) one. B) I also believe 36V/2A would be quite enough for only the rear and front road leds... 

Edited by szaroczek
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Has anyone tried talking to Gotway about the lighting requirements for the EU and America ? Actually it's probably the whole world.  The xmas tree lights being pretty and all are actually of no use.  They serve no vehicle safety purpose.  Flashing red is not a normal vehicle mode for rear lights.  It would be nice if Gotway had a "set mode" in the app where you set it and it never changes unless you tell it otherwise.  Ie the front button is Power, lights on, lights off.

 

Anyone here work for Gotway or have really good contacts.  This idea above would be perfect for international sales.

 

The alternative is that I or someone else looks at the wiring and adds a microcontroller circuit that interrupts the signals coming in to the LEDs and sends out a proper value regardless of what they are commanding from the ECU.  I'm sure they have a string of RGB LEDs and are just doing PWM on the 3 colours to generate whichever colour they want.

 

Does anyone have a schematic of the MSX ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...