Revelations From a Visible Brake Light

[insightman]

Great job! I'll see if my wife will approve of this mod.

Your solution uses less power than my grain-of-wheat LED. Please show how you end up routing the fiber optic when you move it inside the housing and drill a hole from which it will be visible. I couldn't find room in the panel to position my LED so it was facing forward. Your fiber optic may be easier to route than my LED, but my advice is to route twice, drill once (I had to drill twice because I didn't route first).

 

[RunOnE]

I'd really like to have the center tail light flash under regen F1-style.

 

[Norman Levi]

Hi all. Mini SE on order. Late June production guess.
I've had until now: 2020 Nissan Leaf, 2014 BMWi3 REX, 2017 BMW i3 BEV and 2020 Nissan Leaf SL Plus.
On all of them the brake lights stayed on when stopped. I don't understand the logic of them going off when stopped. Maybe coding might correct this?

 

[revorg]

They do sell chips that one can wire into the center light that cause a rapid flash. As I recall, you can set it to to flash for only a few seconds. And I can testify that they do keep those tailgaters back very well.

 

[insightman]

I'd really like to have the center tail light flash under regen F1-style.

They do sell chips that one can wire into the center light that cause a rapid flash. As I recall, you can set it to to flash for only a few seconds. And I can testify that they do keep those tailgaters back very well.

But unless Bimmercode can work magic, there's no way to have the third brake light flash only upon regen braking.

 

[insightman]

Hi all. Mini SE on order. Late June production guess.
I've had until now: 2020 Nissan Leaf, 2014 BMWi3 REX, 2017 BMW i3 BEV and 2020 Nissan Leaf SL Plus.
On all of them the brake lights stayed on when stopped. I don't understand the logic of them going off when stopped. Maybe coding might correct this?

I'm surprised to learn that when the car is stationary the BMW i3s brake lights behave differently than those of the MINI Cooper SE. That means the SE's designers decided to vary from the precedent set by the i3.

If the i3s and the Leafs use their brakes to hold the car stationary, the brake lights would remain illuminated. The SE uses its motor rather than the brakes to prevent the car from rolling backwards when stopped (the SE's motor doesn't prevent the car from rolling forward unless it's in Reverse). To me, it seems like an oversight--not a design decision--that the brake lights go out when the SE is stopped unless the brake pedal is depressed.

I didn't realize the brake lights went out until I installed my interior brake light a week after acquiring my SE.

 

[revorg]

But unless Bimmercode can work magic, there's no way to have the third brake light flash only upon regen braking.

The flasher chip is wired to the third light. If there's power to the light, it will flash, regardless of who or what flipped the switch to send that power to the light. It's just on the third light.

 

[Puppethead]

I'm surprised to learn that when the car is stationary the BMW i3s brake lights behave differently than those of the MINI Cooper SE.

I wonder if it's because the i3 was designed as an EV, and the SE is a retrofit into the ICE model. The SE's friction brakes seemingly work just like on the ICE version, maybe the i3 had better integration between regenerative and friction brakes.

 

[RunOnE]

I guess the Porsche Taycan uses the brake to do regen. I think I like one-foot driving after getting used to it.

Probably if I want a flashing taillight I can just wire it up with a flasher like my 2016 Miata had as a throw in option from the dealer. I'm almost always using regen anyway.

 

[Ssbg58]

@insightman
I stumbled upon this post by accident, and while reading your write up I felt how much you care about your impact on the road to other drivers (similar to myself). My thought was, this dude is from Europe or Canada. Surprised you are from Midwest US of A. Then I saw your age.

Why I am saying all this - Jesus ****ing Christ how bad the drivers in US of A can be. The other day I saw a Prius crossing 6 lanes in one single diagonal move, no turn signal at all, caused multiple other cars to touch the brakes; 90% of drivers when making turns don't finish the turn in the correct lane (they cross to a lane over during the turn); many many more examples.

Gen-Z and whatever else was next would never care like you show you do. Kudos to you sir!

 

[Rexsio]

@insightman
I stumbled upon this post by accident, and while reading your write up I felt how much you care about your impact on the road to other drivers (similar to myself). My thought was, this dude is from Europe or Canada. Surprised you are from Midwest US of A. Then I saw your age.

Why I am saying all this - Jesus ****ing Christ how bad the drivers in US of A can be. The other day I saw a Prius crossing 6 lanes in one single diagonal move, no turn signal at all, caused multiple other cars to touch the brakes; 90% of drivers when making turns don't finish the turn in the correct lane (they cross to a lane over during the turn); many many more examples.

Gen-Z and whatever else was next would never care like you show you do. Kudos to you sir!

If you use regen braking one pedal driving and you come to stop on red light and a se is is rolling down to a cross walk you apply a brake the same with car with automatic transmission if you approach a stop slowly you hit a brake at last moment to show your braking lights to stop a car and how many SEs were hit in *** bc as EV have different braking patterns as I’m seeing an IDIOT approach me to close I hit a brakes few times and sometimes I show them a middle finger too to not have 6000 lbs SUV in my *** as Mini Cooper SE