Nean brake taillamp (not named)
I noticed this taillamp end of 2020, bought it early 2021, but didn't get round to reviewing it until now due to finalising house renovations and other matters. It has a brake light, not legally perhaps in the sense that it is likely only according to the old rules, not the new rules in StVZO, which means the manufacturer can't just say it has a 'brake light' unless it was approved as such and the KBA allowed it as such... I don't know the details of the approvel of this taillamp. The packaging mentions "Bremsanzeige", i.e. braking indicator, which is the terminology they likely used to get around the newer requirements, instead of writing "Bremslicht" which would possibly not be allowed. I deal with all such types of issues in my StVZO analysis btw.. These details are likely not of interest to normal users but I mention them as to me they are of interest :)
Experiences
Tested from: 2022-2-28
Esthetically it looks ok, not special, but not ugly. It is very cheap for a taillamp with included brake signal action. I found it on amazon.de, where it seems that several brands distribute this same light under their own name.
Power: Running on my lab power supply, it starts at more than 0.16A, then drops after a short time to 0.085A, then after a bit longer time it stays steady at 0.065A. It has brake light functionality coming from an accelerometer. I already wondered many years ago why this wasn't employed in taillamps instead of dynamo pulse counting (as in the B&M line brake plus) which is not reliable with sidewall or rim dynamos and doesn't work with DC dynamos such as the Sunup rear wheel dynamos and the Spinup front wheel dynamos. In testing you can see this in action by pointing it upwards or moving it backwards, it then gives 2 extra LEDs beside the main LED that light up as brightly as the main LED.
The middle LED's light is shining partly straight to the rear and is partly distributed to the left and right. The distribution is similar to other lights, and gives a pretty good light distribution to the sides. The light to the centre seems a bit too bright (too small emitting area, i.e. could use some form of redistribution part of the optic there too) but I will test more in the evening. The brake functionality is quite cool to see in action, I will have to try it on a bike and let someone else ride or mount it on the handle bar to see how well it works with heavy and light braking.
I accidentally let it run briefly on 30V DC when I pressed the wrong preset on my lab power supply... And it survived... At least it seems still fully functional at this time, so this is a good point too: Resistant to fairly high voltage. This means that if the headlamp dies and the included overvoltage protection of the headlamp also does not function, or if the headlamp loses connection entirely while the taillamp is wired in parallel with the headlamp, then this taillamp should not be affected.
The brake signal is continuous with enough power, on just standlight power it still functions with flashing.
The connectors are hanging fairly loose similar to with the Spanninga Elips (based on the Philips Lumiring). I don't like that, I'd prefer them to be supported so they won't bend or get ripped off the PCB.
2022-3-17: I rode with it attached to the Spanniga Axendo 40's taillamp output, which was connected to the FW12pro dynamo which gives a DC output (so brake taillamps that count dynamo pulses do not have any brake action in that case), and:
1. It takes several seconds to light up, I presume because it charges up capacitors which is also why initially it draws so much power on my lab power supply. This should be reduced, the Spanninga Duxos lights up immediately.
2. Braking with the light attached to the handle bar so I immediately see the action shows that the brake signal function is slightly delayed and lasts about 2 seconds after the braking stops, and that braking needs to be fairly strong to activate the brake signal function. I think this is the right way to do it, you would not want for example having the braking action on all the time when decelerating a little bit. Also that would not be good down hills. See 3:
3. Going down a fairly steep downward section (I think 10% or thereabouts) after a bridge the brake signal function dit not activate. Of course this can be checked with static testing too: Holding it downwards at some angle will activate the brake signal function but that is a fairly large angle. The brake functionality will activate sooner (with less strong braking) than on the flat or uphill of course.
4. Braking uphill gave (subjectively) not much difference compared to on the flat in how hard I would need to brake on the flat.
All in all I think the brake functionality is well designed, working when you really want it to work, not when you are slowing down slowly, so not lighting up all the time at any deceleration, which would just be giving distractions on the road.
Beamshots
Note: I cannot yet make the taillamp beamshots as I don't have the proper space at the moment. This will come in 2nd half of 2022.
See the camera settings page for more on the setup and settings to make pictures of the beams of taillamps.
Out of a corner (showing how much light is cast upwards, forwards and to the sides) [ F3.9 & F1.8 ]:
Wallshot (showing the beam pattern):
Visibility from various angles (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°) [ 0.5m, zoom x3, F3.5, ISO80, 1/250s & 1/60s ]:
Comparing taillamps
Design- and thus review considerations for taillamps
See Theory for taillamps.
Conclusion
2022-3-18: The light distribution is pretty good, better than B&M's Line plus, but not quite as nice as some of Spanniga's and Axa's taillamps. For the price this is unbeatable if you want brake signal functionality on your taillamp. It works with any type of dynamo, even on battery if you were to run it on battery, so it could be used on an e-bike too (but perhaps there is a version specifically for that, note also that pedelec/e-bike systems vary a lot in voltage that they output for the lighting system).
Last modified: 2022-3-1
