An LED whip for us hi viz peeps

I like the idea and my horse is very tolerant but because of the way a horses field of vision works, I'm not sure that it would be fair to use such an irritant.
 
It’s arrived! It was securely packaged inside a stiff cardboard tube. And first impressions are very favourable :).

It looks and feels just like a normal schooling whip. The LEDs are hidden inside.

No destructions that I could see, but it is very simple to set up. The top button acts to switch between off, torch, static LED and flashing LED. It will be easy to switch it between the modes with a thumb press when on the horse, so there is no need to have it lit up all the time.

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I like the idea and my horse is very tolerant but because of the way a horses field of vision works, I'm not sure that it would be fair to use such an irritant.
Fair point, but as long as she tolerates it, I will give it a go as our safety on the roads is my prime objective. I’m almost at the point of giving up riding on the roads, despite having a very good horse.
 
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I like that it's got an easy switch, as with my hacking you could easily opt to switch it on when you heard something.
(the issue with the LED breastplate was they were all down on the chest so couldn't do that).

I can turn my flashing breastplate on while mounted, I just give my mare a really big hug!
 
Ooh, I like it! I've always wondered why there's not many flourescent dressage whips, definitely a gap in the market.

Oof, £35 though... Let me know when they're having a half price sale, I'll stick with the strip of yellow tied to the end of my whip for now.
My local tack shop sell hi vis whips cheaper than a normal black one! Hence I don't hack out but all my whips are hi vis
 
I just finished the time trial for a 5m length of EL wire, run from two AA 1.2V rechargeable batteries...

Ten and a half hours! I set it running at half past eleven this morning, and the it went off at about ten o'clock tonight.
 
The rechargeable battery for this whip is concealed within the handle. I don’t know what exact type of battery it is, but it doesn’t affect the weight or handling of the whip at all, I had feared that it would make it heavy and unwieldy. I’m pretty fussy about how a whip feels in the hand, but this is fine.

OH is a techie type who can rig up most things electronic, but he couldn’t diy one of these for the money. He was very impressed with it, and he doesn’t usually bestow praise on any of my horsey purchases :D.
 
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I've got some EL wire that I bought a while ago for experimenting... the battery and driver circuit boxes are a bit bulky, though.

I've just been looking at the data sheet for the Supertex HV850 driver chip. It's a surface-mount device (3mm × 5mm × 1mm), so might be a bit difficult to hand-solder in circuit, but I might be able to find a way to do it (or find a similar chip in a socketable package).

Three 1.2V AAA sized rechargeable batteries and the required circuit could easily fit inside the handle part of a crop or of a driving or schooling whip.

I’m looking forward to photos of the Keith_Beef illuminated schooling whip!
 
I’m looking forward to photos of the Keith_Beef illuminated schooling whip!

It might have to be a prototype made with a thing and whippy branch cut from the hazel tree; I don't have a schooling whip to work with.

I found a thread about schooling whip lengths, and there are plenty of pictures on teh Intarwebs...
 
I like the idea and my horse is very tolerant but because of the way a horses field of vision works, I'm not sure that it would be fair to use such an irritant.
This is why I sold on the flashing breast plate thing I had.
I find cyclists with LED flashing lights hurt my eyes if I am walking and they are eye level.

I have lights but they can just be set to on. The whip may be the same?
 
This is why I sold on the flashing breast plate thing I had.
I find cyclists with LED flashing lights hurt my eyes if I am walking and they are eye level.

I have lights but they can just be set to on. The whip may be the same?

A flashing light attracts your attention much more than a steady light, but LED cycle lamps are often very, very bright and can be dazzling.

The white light at the front is not only so that drivers see the cyclist, though; it's also to light the way, like a car's headlights, and so there's always this temptation to have the most powerful beam possible.

And of course there's no MOT-type inspection for bicycles, so the beam angle is usually badly adjusted (unlike car's headlights, of course, which are always, invariably at the correct angle :rolleyes:).

EL wire is nowhere near as bright as an LED cycle lamp, and doesn't have a directional beam, so I don't think that dazzling could be a problem. I don't know how a horse would react to a flashing EL wire...

ETA: I just re-read that post, and I'm starting to sound like an EL wire salesman.
 
Especially when we have so many potholes to be avoiding on unlit roads.

There is the option to have the whip (and on my breastplate) just as steady light which is my preference.
 
A flashing light attracts your attention much more than a steady light, but LED cycle lamps are often very, very bright and can be dazzling.

The white light at the front is not only so that drivers see the cyclist, though; it's also to light the way, like a car's headlights, and so there's always this temptation to have the most powerful beam possible.

And of course there's no MOT-type inspection for bicycles, so the beam angle is usually badly adjusted (unlike car's headlights, of course, which are always, invariably at the correct angle :rolleyes:).

EL wire is nowhere near as bright as an LED cycle lamp, and doesn't have a directional beam, so I don't think that dazzling could be a problem. I don't know how a horse would react to a flashing EL wire...

ETA: I just re-read that post, and I'm starting to sound like an EL wire salesman.
Not at all. It's good to know what you said.
 
Can we have an update on the whip, was it worth it ? I am hacking down lots of tree covered lanes, and looking for a few extra bits of high viz, horse already has martingale and all legs, saddle cloth, i have bits on my stirrups too.
 
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