Motion Sensor Helmet Brake Light

[Mondo]

My daughter saw this on Shark Tank, I think, and I looked into it. The concept is that as we slow with down shifting, there is no warning to cages behind us, who are often distracted. This has a motion sensor they claim will activate and light up the back of your helmet. The cost is $170. Check it out and see what you think.

https://www.brakefreetech.com

Greg

 

[st11ray]

I saw that. I would hate to be riding behind someone in the mountains that had one. That darn thing would be coming on going into every turn as they let off the gas. It would bug me to death!
I'll stick with my Whelen light bar and Hyperlites to notify cars behind me that I am slowing. If they can't see those, there is no hope.

 

[STJohnS]

Boy that looks pretty cool. The video review on the website mentions different colors but I don't see that on the website to order.
I would like to see a demo of turning it on/off while wearing a helmet. I predict I would forget to turn it off at every stop.
But I love the ingenuity of the thought and design.
John

 

[Obo]

While the idea is good (being seen better,) I'm not sure it's practical. This could have been done on a simple scale long ago. Imagine a plug in connector from a brake light on your helmet running to the bike's brake circuit. No, that would not be wireless, nor automatic, but it would be functional and conspicuous! (and inexpensive)

You can get brake light accessories for the bike itself that activate / flash brake lights on quick deceleration before you even hit a brake lever / pedal, but if I think hey would cause way more false activations compared to benefits of saving that few fractions of a second. There's a reason none of this auto tech is OEM in cars or motorcycles and I don't think it's just costs.

 

[paulcb]

This could have been done on a simple scale long ago.

It has, both wireless...

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[mcarver351]

STS or Safe Turn System has had this technology for a while to activate the brake light based on a signal from your speed sensor and canceling your turn signals based on a lean angle sensor. It sounds like the new company is just putting it on a helmet. I would be afraid people would fixate on the light on the helmet having no clue it is tied to the braking system on the bike.

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[RaYzerman]

This is not for me for the above reasons....... save yer money.

 

[STraymond]

How about warning lights that are activated when the closing speed of the vehicle approaching from behind is excessive?

 

[ST Gui]

STS's Smart Brake Module works solely off its own accelerometer (and the bike's 12V natch). Years and years ago I had a deceleration warning light – the Voevodsky Cyberlight which was a very trick bit of kit. It's accelerometer was a bank seven mercury switches each mounted at a different angle driving two 6V bulbs behind an amber lens. Based on the angle of the vehicle during braking each switch that closed would increase the flash rate of the bulbs. It was very effective and had a huge role in the creation of the CHMSL that all passenger vehicles have today. I wish it was still made today. I had two but both eventually died over the last forty years or so.

To the best of my knowledge nobody needed to be educated on what to do when seeing rapidly flashing amber lights. In my experience people tend to slow down when they see a flashing red light of any kind even when they shouldn't. There might be the odd person who might ignore brake lights and not realize they need to slow down. Maybe.

The helmet light isn't for me but if there were a modern deceleration warning light like Cyberlight it would get my very serious consideration.

 

[mcarver351]

STS's Smart Brake Module works solely off its own accelerometer (and the bike's 12V natch). Years and years ago I had a deceleration warning light – the Voevodsky Cyberlight which was a very trick bit of kit. It's accelerometer was a bank seven mercury switches each mounted at a different angle driving two 6V bulbs behind an amber lens. Based on the angle of the vehicle during braking each switch that closed would increase the flash rate of the bulbs. It was very effective and had a huge role in the creation of the CHMSL that all passenger vehicles have today. I wish it was still made today. I had two but both eventually died over the last forty years or so.

To the best of my knowledge nobody needed to be educated on what to do when seeing rapidly flashing amber lights. In my experience people tend to slow down when they see a flashing red light of any kind even when they shouldn't. There might be the odd person who might ignore brake lights and not realize they need to slow down. Maybe.

The helmet light isn't for me but if there were a modern deceleration warning light like Cyberlight it would get my very serious consideration.

As a former LE, I can tell you that 50% of people drive with their heads so buried in their #$$ that they fail to even see or react to red and blue strobing lights and a 120Db dual tone siren, even when it is attached to a 40 ton Pierce fire truck let alone my little ST.

 

[Ol'Tomcat]

STS's Smart Brake Module works solely off its own accelerometer (and the bike's 12V natch). Years and years ago I had a deceleration warning light – the Voevodsky Cyberlight which was a very trick bit of kit. It's accelerometer was a bank seven mercury switches each mounted at a different angle driving two 6V bulbs behind an amber lens. Based on the angle of the vehicle during braking each switch that closed would increase the flash rate of the bulbs. It was very effective and had a huge role in the creation of the CHMSL that all passenger vehicles have today. I wish it was still made today. I had two but both eventually died over the last forty years or so.

To the best of my knowledge nobody needed to be educated on what to do when seeing rapidly flashing amber lights. In my experience people tend to slow down when they see a flashing red light of any kind even when they shouldn't. There might be the odd person who might ignore brake lights and not realize they need to slow down. Maybe.

The helmet light isn't for me but if there were a modern deceleration warning light like Cyberlight it would get my very serious consideration.

I remember those devices from many years ago. Seemed like a good idea with some room for improvement as technology advanced and if it flashed the brake lights. Unfortunately, that didn't come to pass. If someone were to engineer and market something similar but for the brake lights I'd be all for it, especially with all the distractions drivers have nowadays; cell phones, texting, etc.

As to the helmet-mounted gizmo, I think I'll take a hard pass as well. If I'm going to mount anything on my helmet it would be a helmet cam.

 

[ST Gui]

if it flashed the brake lights.

That would be a different device - a modulated brake light. A modulated CHMSL would be more effective than modulated brake lights unless the brake lights were separate from the tail lights.

The Cyberlight was high-tech in its day but was put out of business when CA allowed a low-tech CHMSL to be added to a vehicle. Cheap and effective and the Cyberlight was done and the rest is history.

 

[Ol'Tomcat]

I can only speak for my own perceptions; I don't respond to blinking yellow lights in the same manner as I do red lights flashing or steady. I see too many too frequently for them to register as deceleration as opposed to a turning or slow-moving vehicle warning. I would rather have a device that would put my brake lights on for the time that I was decelerating and off when I was accelerating or cruising at the same speed. I've seen some bikes equipped with devices that would flash the brake lights a few times before steady on so coupling an accelerometer to that process would be more useful and meaningful to me. Once again I'm speaking from my very narrow perspective. I'm not sure how cagers would react to a device like that but from my own observation of the flash then steady on, The flashing gets my attention and the steady brake light tells me the vehicle I'm observing is braking and I don't have to keep my eyes on lights that are somewhere one would normally not expect them to be, like a helmet. There is a lot of truth in the KISS principle and as Mcarver pointed out; many drivers fail to even see or react to red and blue strobing lights and a 120Db dual tone siren.

 

[ST Gui]

many drivers fail to even see or react to red and blue strobing lights and a 120Db dual tone siren.

The truth is that many more do and that's more important than many don't. That's my direct observation. That someone would chose to ignore flashing yellow warning lights is a something of a curiosity.

 

[jrp]

The point of this is that the light is up higher where it is more noticeable. Normally, the brake lights of a motorcycle are lower than that of cars and may not be noticed as readily by car drivers.

 

[Erdoc48]

I own something similar (Cosmo Connected)- mine was about $70 from motardinn.com and it runs via deceleration. It’s pretty bright and gives 8 hrs of life from a full charge (Li-ion). It has an app that the light connects to and you change settings of the light (on continuously, then brighter with deceleration or off when riding, on when decelerating). Anything that makes me more visible is worth it, at least in my opinion.

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^^ Here it is...magnetically held in place (used on my J Cruise). For my 2 Neotecs I use a wired in to the brake light circuit LED bar on the back of the helmet- hit the brakes and the light flashes on the helmet as well as the brake lights

 

[Mondo]

I’ll steal my own thread. Anyone have any experience with the STS Smart Turn System or other turn signal cancelling system? Please include difficulty of installation. The older I get, the more blinking I do.

Greg

 

[Al st1100]

Its a great idea for a brake light to go on during deceleration. For every advantage it has some came will claim a disadvantage. People get rear ended every day that have brake lights and drivers can't stop in time with abs. If I did a lot of night driving in the city I would like more attention. Then again who is going to see a flashing light when their attention is on a key pad, hopefully this will help.

 

[Mondo]

Its a great idea for a brake light to go on during deceleration. For every advantage it has some came will claim a disadvantage. People get rear ended every day that have brake lights and drivers can't stop in time with abs. If I did a lot of night driving in the city I would like more attention. Then again who is going to see a flashing light when their attention is on a key pad, hopefully this will help.

Exactly. I, personally, am more concerned with drivers distracted by eating, drinking, fiddling with the huge screen, talking on the phone, texting, etc., than fixation. If they don’t even notice the light, they cannot fixate on it.

Greg

 

[mcarver351]

I’ll steal my own thread. Anyone have any experience with the STS Smart Turn System or other turn signal cancelling system? Please include difficulty of installation. The older I get, the more blinking I do.

Greg

We know we're in trouble when we're replacing turn signal bulbs twice as often as headlamps