Tag Archives: LED

Tomos Moped LED Tail Light Pt2

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After I burned out the LED driver on my driver board my LED tail light project has been sitting for a while. I replaced the driver chip on the driver board and it was back in action. Still not sure why it blew out in the first place though (highly suspect) but it could have just gotten shorted or otherwise “mechanically compromised” since it was just sitting in the compartment under the seat. This time around I wrapped it in a great deal of electrical tape!

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Moped tail light

LED Moped Taillight

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I have a 2008 Tomos Streetmate moped. Great for getting around town. Like many mopeds, the tail light (and brake light) run off the unregulated voltage coming out of the alternator. This allows the lights to run even when the bike is idling (~9V), but also means that on high speed downhills the light could be seeing up to 20V. Since automotive light bulbs are designed for ~14V, it means the tail light blows out all the time. This is bad since when you are riding it is impossible to know and not having a light will make it a lot easier to get hit at night. The LED will not only be much brighter but will come on faster (~100mS) which gives other drivers just a tad more time to react before rear ending me!

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