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Introduction
MonkeylectricFAQ
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| Frequent
Ask Questions 1. How many Monkey Lights do you recommend using? 2. Does it come pre-configured for the best graphics? 3. How bright and visible is it? 4. How does it attach to my bike? Is it easy to install? 5. Will it fit my bike? 6. What does it look like when riding? Do the patterns fill the whole wheel? 7. Can I use it on a motorcycle or car? 8. Can I use it on a wheelchair, baby stroller, or other slow-moving wheel? 9. Is it environmental? 10. Will it make my wheel off balance? 11. Is it durable? Can it handle daily riding and bad weather? Can it handle mountain biking? 12. How do I prevent it from getting stolen? 13. If I put two units on a wheel, will the effects be coordinated? 14. Can I create & download my own patterns from my computer? 15. How long do the batteries last? 16. Will it work on a playa (alkaline desert)? 17. How does it work? 18. Have I seen this before? 19. Could this be powered by the energy from the spinning bike wheel? 20. Where is the Monkey Light made? 1. How many Monkey Lights do you recommend using? We recommend either 1 or 2 units on a wheel. Just one looks great! 2. Does it come pre-configured for the best graphics? Yes! The Monkey Light comes pre-set from the factory to display all patterns and all colors. You can use the on-board control buttons if you want to change it to display only certain colors, or certain patterns, or different activity levels. The control buttons let you reconfigure in seconds anytime, anywhere - after a bit of experimentation the printed tip sheet is rarely needed. 3. How bright and visible is it? Very! Check out the photos in this page - notice the spread of light on the pavement on either side of the wheels. There are 32 full color ultra-bright LEDs on the Monkey Light, its much brighter than most front and rear bike lights. The graphics patterns are highly visible at dusk, at night, and in cloudy conditions or indoors. The patterns are not visible in direct sunlight. 4. How does it attach to my bike? Is it easy to install? It attaches to the spokes with 3 standard cable ties. It takes about 5 minutes to install. Install diagrams and photos are included in the box, and we also have an install slideshow online with many examples. 5. Will it fit my bike? It fits all common bike wheels found on Road, Mountain, BMX, Cruiser and City bikes. Specifically: any spoked bike wheel 20" and larger, with between 18 and 40 spokes. Many other wheels can be fit as well if you are a little creative. For example - very low spoke-count wheels and "Mag" wheels can sometimes be fit if you supply long zip-ties or rope. Wheels with a great many spokes can sometimes be fit with the Monkey Light on the outside of the spokes (possibly with extra rubber spacers), or by removing a spoke during installation and replacing it after. 6. What does it look like when riding? Do the patterns fill the whole wheel? It varies depending on how fast your bike is going, and how many Monkey Lights you have. The effects are designed to look good at a wide range of speeds, even when they don't fill the entire wheel. With one Monkey Light: The patterns appear at about 8mph (12km/h) in a section of the wheel. As you go faster an increasing amount of the wheel is filled with graphics, at about 20mph (32km/h) the graphics fill the entire wheel. With two Monkey Lights: The patterns still appear at about 8mph (12km/h), but now in two sections of the wheel at once. As you go faster the whole wheel is filled with patterns at about 12mph (20km/h). Below 8mph (12km/h) the row of LEDs on the Monkey Light is very bright and visible going around the wheel, and the lights and colors on it change and move all the time. If you rarely bike above this speed you can configure low activity level settings which will give you several choices for the moving colors and lights you will see as you ride - it still looks great! 7. Can I use it on a motorcycle or car? No, it is not designed structurally for speeds above 30mph. 8. Can I use it on a wheelchair, baby stroller, or other slow-moving wheel? Yes, if you can find a way to mount it. The length of the device is about 160mm (6.5") - so your wheel needs to be at least 200mm (8") diameter. You may be able to mount the unit across the middle of a small wheel. The Monkey Light has 10 slots which fit a standard zip-tie, giving you a bit of mounting flexibility. The mounting slots can also be drilled for screws if needed (this will void your warranty). 9. Is it environmental? Yes! As an electronics and product designer and manufacturer we are comitted to being a leader in environmental design and awareness. The Monkey Light is manufactured using a lead-free process and conforms to the EU RoHS standard. In addition, our all-weather construction does not use a cheap plastic enclosure, reducing overall waste volume when disposed. We also designed the Monkey Light to take best advantage of NiMH rechargeable batteries, they will provide greater light output and similar lifetime to non-rechargeables. We also hope the Monkey Light will make you want to ride your bike more! Every mile you ride instead of driving is perhaps the biggest environmental contribution you can make. 10. Will it make my wheel off balance? It can. Our more casual test riders can't tell the difference when riding. As with any product you attach to your bike wheel or bike - it can affect the handling especially at high speeds. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the handling of your bike after installing the Monkey Light. Any imbalance is more noticeable on high-performance lightweight wheels, and at faster riding speeds. If this is important to you there are a couple things you can do: (1) mount the Monkey Light closer to the hub of the wheel - this will dramatically reduce any imbalance, (2) remove the batteries when you are not using it. the bare unit is only 65g, the batteries usually add another 100g. (3) mount a second Monkey Light, or similar weight, on the opposite side of the wheel. 11. Is it durable? Can it handle daily riding and bad weather? Can it handle mountain biking? YES! The Monkey Light was designed and tested from the start for daily use, bad weather and rough riding. Instead of using a cheap plastic case we developed a rugged IP55 rated construction - built to last. We started with a high strength fiber composite mounting plate and used that for the entire structure of the device. We coated the LEDs with a waterproof clear hardcoat, and used an extra layer of matrix fiber over the electronics - all the electronics are literally embedded into the fiber composite construction. Then we developed our 3-point vibration-proof mounting system featuring custom 5mm thick solid 40A rubber shock-mounts, all strapped to the spokes with standard UV-resistant zip-ties that can't jiggle loose. Lastly the batteries are protected by a waterproof rubber cover and strapped in with a double-sided hook-and-loop strap - secure yet with easy access. But don't take our word for it - check out the wet-weather photos and videos in this page. The end of the Monkey Light can be submerged in deep puddles, and if it gets covered with dirt you can hose it off no problem (remove batteries first). Please keep in mind the Monkey Light is rain proof, but if stored outdoors in wet environments the batteries and battery holder may corrode. 12. How do I prevent it from getting stolen? For use in high crime areas, we recommend replacing one of the plastic mounting straps with a steel wire. Check out our anti-theft strap instructions: Anti-Theft Strap 13. If I put two units on a wheel, will the effects be coordinated? Two units do not synchronize with each other. Some combinations of patterns look amazing while others may just look muddled - its up to you to experiment with the graphics settings! At slower speeds the effects from the two units will not overlap visually. If you use two units at higher speeds - try simpler pattern settings so that when the patterns overlap it still looks sharp. There is a lot of flexibility in the effects so finding combinations that look good is easy. 14. Can I create & download my own patterns from my computer? No. The Monkey Light graphics synthesizer is very configurable using the on-board control buttons, but it does not support downloading text or bitmap graphics from a computer. If you are interested in a Do-It-Yourself project, we recommend the SpokePOV Kit from Adafruit. It is a kit project requiring you to solder all the electronics together yourself, when completed it allows you to download your own bitmap graphics and display them on your bike wheel. SpokePOV currently only supports single-color graphics, and does not have a graphics synthesizer - it only supports downloaded bitmap graphics. 15. How long do the batteries last? The Monkey Light uses 3 x AA batteries. It has two power settings: high efficiency mode lasts 15-30 hours, and high-brightness mode lasts 3-6 hours. NiMH rechargeable batteries provide best performance especially in the high-brightness mode. High efficiency mode lasts 4-5x longer but the visibility is still very good because the LEDs are more efficient at lower brightness. 16. Will it work on a playa (alkaline desert)? Yes. Our prototypes have been tested in playa conditions and survived in good condition. Cleaning: after return to civilization, spray all the dust off with a hose or faucet. 17. How does it work? The graphics display is based on the Persistence Of Vision (POV) effect of the human eye. The LEDs on the device are blinked very rapidly by the on-board computer. When the wheel rotates, this blinking is perceived by your eye as a complex graphical pattern. In order to see the effect the wheel must rotate faster than about 8-10mph (10-15km/h). The visibility of the graphics also depends on whether you are looking directly at the device - the eye's persistence effect is more sensitive in the sides of the eye. At very slow speeds you may notice that you can see the effect only when you don't look directly at it. 18. Have I seen this before? Maybe - Wheel lights have been around for several years, but the Monkey Light offers a much higher level of performance and functionality than any previous product. The Monkey Light is the only product offering full color, it also uses superior LEDs that are far brighter than anything else you may have seen. The Monkey Light is also the only product designed for the demands of all-weather daily urban cyclists, and it has practical controls to customize it and get the look and style you want. 19. Could this be powered by the energy from the spinning bike wheel? Yes - but easier said than done. Hub-integrated generators are made by a few companies including Shimano, you can find them for sale on the web if you look around. They are fairly pricey (more than the cost of an Monkey Light). Connecting the hub-generator to the Monkey Light will take a bit of Do-It-Yourself ingenuity because all the ones we have seen have the output power wires on the non-rotating side of the generator, while the Monkey Light is on the spinning side of the generator. You will also need to add a 3.6V to 5V converter/regulator since most hub generators output either 6V or 12V, which will fry the Monkey Light if directly connected. The Monkey Light is most efficient running at 3.6 - 4.0V. 20. Where is the Monkey Light made? The Monkey Light is designed and developed by MonkeyLectric in California USA. The raw components are manufactured in several countries including China, USA, Taiwan, Maylasia and Japan. Final assembly of the product is in Mexico. |
Monkey Light Graphics Sample |
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Effects Created by the Monkey Light |
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Monkey Lights Video Sample |
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