Duolamp - Conversion

[Rusty_S85]

I saw a picture previewed (didn't get to see it and now cant find it) but someone installed on their rear fender a Duolamp from a Model A ford for their taillight/brake light assembly.

I'm wondering if anyone did a write up on that? I did a search here for Duolamp but no hits were found.

I'm wondering if they did theirs as a battery powered unit or not. The size of the assembly itself should lend itself nicely to being converted into a internal battery powered assembly with a simple on/off switch for tail light and run two wires out for the brake light.

 

[Frankenstein]

https://www.google.com/search?q=mod...2pMPVAhVLyoMKHQ6RD5QQ_AUIEygD&biw=360&bih=559

This is probably exactly what you are looking for, you can find an led replacement lamp for virtually anything with an incandescent bulb. If you picked one up I wouldn't doubt you could hook it up like many of the people did seen in the above Google search.

 

[Rusty_S85]

https://www.google.com/search?q=mod...2pMPVAhVLyoMKHQ6RD5QQ_AUIEygD&biw=360&bih=559

This is probably exactly what you are looking for, you can find an led replacement lamp for virtually anything with an incandescent bulb. If you picked one up I wouldn't doubt you could hook it up like many of the people did seen in the above Google search.

Well I'm looking at doing a LED conversion myself by using 12v LED strip lights. I figure I could use a 9V battery to power the strips and be able to install the battery inside of the housing for a contained unit vs running wires out for power and ground.

 

[Frankenstein]

Well I'm looking at doing a LED conversion myself by using 12v LED strip lights. I figure I could use a 9V battery to power the strips and be able to install the battery inside of the housing for a contained unit vs running wires out for power and ground.

That should work, I used a rechargeable li-ion 9v on my helmet lights, I used 6 of those little sections of 3 total and could get many rides out of a single battery using the red lights only. Doubling up and using 2 batteries in parallel could get me 2 weeks worth of rides.

If you break it down and use 2 or 3 sections of strip light you could power the lamp for a good long while on any 9v. Now the issue is that these are all designed for an automobile mains power, so they expect the machine to do the switching on and off of the lights, if you want to control that you'll need to have an external switch somewhere, and even then the brake light won't be activated with the brakes unless you do route out of the lamp with wires.

 

[Frankenstein]

Also there's another alternative, you can source out some flat ribbon cable, the one pictured below is capable of 60v (who knows the amps but with small leds I doubt you'll ever exceed the rating)

It's for audio applications but really it's a wire and does what any wire can do. It's super thin and those contact pads are 1.25mm wide. You can hide that easier than a lumpy wire, and you can get an appropriate tape or even spray paint to shade it in a colors that matches well with the backdrop.

If you paint it you can add a layer of thin clear tape and fold it over the edges after the pain cures so it won't flake off.

That stuff isn't much different than the flex cabling that makes up the back of the led strip lights, I think if one was really driven to hide a cable that would have to be the best option.

 

[Rusty_S85]

That's why I am weighing my options. If I do the 12v generator I can run one wire from the generator to a toggle switch that I want to switch the lights on. Then run two wires off the switch one forward and one backwards. This will be the positive wire for the lights. Then run a ground wire from the lights back to the engine to ground it. So I would have two wires coming out of each light. I would have three if I do a low beam/high beam headlight and a tail light/brake light. The third wire would be a power wire as I would have all lights share a common ground to free up clutter of wires coming out of the housings. But power would have to be supplied and if I run a brake light that would require two wires as well one coming from before the on off switch to get constant power that would run to a momentary switch which then will run back to the brake circuit.

If I do it as a internal battery using a single 9V home battery then the only wires I would have would be two wires coming out for the brake light to complete the circuit. I would mount a on/off switch on the housing to switch it on and off.

For me the battery would be the most clutter free route as it would only have two wires coming out vs 3 wires. Which an extra third wire wouldn't be that big of a deal. The problem arises from the mess of wires I would have down by the engine for the on/off switch which I think I would mount a double toggle switch on the aftermarket CDI, one for the lights to run wires to and one for the ignition kill. This would clean a lot of the clutter up by me being able to bundle the wire up and route it one way vs routing it all over the place. The wiring coming out of the engine from the magneto for the external cdi I can route along side of the positive and negative wire for the 12v generator.

Big down side is if I do run the 12v generator since its alternating current (should be a 12v alternator not generator) I cant run a LED light strip without trying to find a 12V AC spec.

Which I have not seen one yet everything I see for indoor is 12V DC strips that use a 120V AC to 12V DC inverter to power it.

I guess I could build a rectifier but if I build one I would need to have a capacitor as well to store voltage to smooth out the voltage ripple that you will have rectifying the AC to DC. Its either that or have a 12V battery to smooth the voltage ripple out. Which I don't want to have a battery unless it can be hidden in the light itself.

I just don't understand it because I know old bikes that were kickstart had magnetos to run the ignition system as well as providing lighting for gauges and headlight/tail light but yet it seems cant get one that is capable of providing a smooth clean 12V DC only a 12V AC.

 

[Rusty_S85]

Well I think I might have found an option.

If I go ahead and get the 12V AC generator from Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-Generat...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

I had the problem of not having it DC to power LED strip lights which is what I wanted to use to stick inside the headlight/tail light housings for my build. Well I was looking at tachs and came across this place that has many different forms of these Voltage Regulator/Rectifiers.

https://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle...0-p-999544.html?rmmds=detail-left-hotproducts

The above is just one of them. I need to do more reading but I think I could mount one of those small rectifier/regulators out of the way and regulate and convert my output to DC.

Problem is from my understanding two wires are to hook to the two wires for the AC current in then the other two wires will be common earth ground and the other 12V positive. Problem is that generator I linked above only shows one wire so I am not fully sure how one would hook these regulator/rectifier up.

Another thing is I need to find out if its going to burn up the regulator/rectifier if I hook it up without a battery. I have no need for a battery and bikes of old used to not have batteries either they just ran off the magneto fully for lights and electricity.

 

[Frankenstein]

Well I think I might have found an option.

If I go ahead and get the 12V AC generator from Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-Generator-80CC-Gas-Motorized-Bicycle/262277794979?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

I had the problem of not having it DC to power LED strip lights which is what I wanted to use to stick inside the headlight/tail light housings for my build. Well I was looking at tachs and came across this place that has many different forms of these Voltage Regulator/Rectifiers.

https://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle...0-p-999544.html?rmmds=detail-left-hotproducts

The above is just one of them. I need to do more reading but I think I could mount one of those small rectifier/regulators out of the way and regulate and convert my output to DC.

Problem is from my understanding two wires are to hook to the two wires for the AC current in then the other two wires will be common earth ground and the other 12V positive. Problem is that generator I linked above only shows one wire so I am not fully sure how one would hook these regulator/rectifier up.

Another thing is I need to find out if its going to burn up the regulator/rectifier if I hook it up without a battery. I have no need for a battery and bikes of old used to not have batteries either they just ran off the magneto fully for lights and electricity.

They expect you to use the frame as your ground connection, the same company also makes the rectifying and regulating components..

 

[Rusty_S85]

They expect you to use the frame as your ground connection, the same company also makes the rectifying and regulating components..

the frame as ground for the AC connection? cause the wiring schematics Ive been looking at for 4 wire regulator/rectifier shows two AC in puts and a single 12V positive and 12V ground output wires.