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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone know of a back light that turns off after 5 minutes of no movement? I'm tired of backlight being out of juice just because I forgot to turn it off ... I'm tempted to make a circuit and maybe even the sensor myself but I don't have the time for it and it probably already exists.

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If you use a bike computer: the Garmin Varia tail lights auto shutoff shortly after disconnecting from the computer, and the computers themselves have auto shutoff after a period of inactivity.

A bicycle tail light that wirelessly connects to a central computer to turn itself off? I really hate the timeline we live in. Back in my time a bicycle tail light was connector to a dynamo and a capacitor. It would automatically shut off after a minute or two. No Bluetooth required.

Turns out, the simple way had some shortcomings that were only solvable by making things more complicated. I don't see an alternate timeline where that isn't true, unless we stick to an agrarian society. Banks were a mistake.

What shortcomings did it have? Like never having to charge anything? Not needing an app? Not needing wireless communications? Not needing to pair? Sound like terrible shortcomings.

If you had ever used the actual product you wouldn't have made the comment.

It's very unlikely that you'll forget to turn off the computer in the first place. And the whole experience is very smooth.

I would just take my bike, sit on the seat, peddle and never had to think about lights. How is that with the Garmin solution?

How is it unlikely that I forget to turn off the computer?

There is no amount of words that can explain it. If you don't have first hand experience, you are not going to understand it. And it's fine if you never use Garmin (or another bike computer), and you can be the biggest skeptic, but I don't think it's helpful to describe he experience with words.

The Ravemen CL200 does. And it's cheap. Doing a 2000km ride with it currently.

Thanks!

I have a Knog Cobber. While it doesn't shut off automatically, it's bright enough that I think it would be quite unlikely to finish the ride without noticing the light is still on.

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