Improving the Bobike rear light

I have a Bobike Tour Exclusive seat which I really like. It looks great, it can carry up to 22Kg and the belts clip in above the shoulders so you don't have to fumble around under their legs to strap the kids in.

I also really like the integrated light, I like the idea of it, Bobikes implementation isn't great for regular use though as the batteries run down quite quickly - takes two little AAA, it needs a special torx screwdriver to open the compartment and the circuit doesn't have protection for putting the batteries in the wrong way round. Something sleep deprived parents are sure to do.

This final point is ultimately what killed it. I think as I use it everyday and for a fairly long commute (almost an hour in the dark) I ended up changing batteries almost every week. Changing a set in low light and forgetting which way round the batteries should go meant that the batteries ended up going in the wrong way round and with a puff of smoke and a burning smell that was the end of it.

As my bike is electric I really want to hook up this light to use the main battery power so I don't have to open the light fitting and change batteries all the time.

I broke it apart. The lens is glued on so it came off in pieces and drilled out holes to put some high power red LED's through. Much bigger than the surface mount ones on the Bobike circuit, though they are surprisingly bright for there size.

The Bobike seat unscrews and with a few carefully drilled holes through the plastic ribs a neat wire can be run down from the light through the structure of the seat and pops out underneath where I can connect it up to either the bikes battery or a more easily accessible and longer lasting AA battery pack.

You can see the little black chip all
burnt out on the Bobike board below.