My Lighting Project So Far

How about you read a whole post and understand what it says before going off half cocked. I said his setup was not as sophisticated as a balancer. Now say goodnight gracie.
 
The reason for explaining what a balancer does was to illustrate the differences in charging systems and their capabilities, and to show that when you charge off a generator, the generator powers the system while its running, not the battery. The battery only powers the system when the generator isn't running. If he had a lipo battery and a balancer, the battery would run the system the entire time, but he doesn't. And I was trying to point out that a generator and a rectifier lacks the sophisticated charging abilities of a balancer. Had you read my post more carefully, you'd have realized that as he and everyone else reading this thread did.
 
You can slow your bottle dyno down a bit so you don't burn it up by just placing the twist off cap from 1.75 Liter bottle, like a plastic whiskey bottle, over the dyno's contact wheel, the caps even have grip lines around the edge to better contact the tire and they last a surprisingly long time, much longer than whiskey in the bottle the cap came off of so there were always spares ;-}

You can make your full wave rectifier work by tying the bikes ground to the AC ~ input you didn't connect, just note that your + and - outputs ground for the light is no longer bicycle ground.

The way to do it right is insulate your dyno from the bike frame with like a piece of tire tube and pinch a wire in there and run that to the other side of the full wave AC ~ in as you are only getting half wave pulsed DC now.

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Bummer you are over $100 into your light already and don't have a killer light in the front.

You might want to start with this as a light/battery/charger base for $24 next time.

http://www.amazon.com/Lumen-Bicycle-HeadLight-Flashlight-Headlamp/dp/B006QQX3C4/ref=pd_sim_sg_3

614esgqGKcL._SL1000_.jpg


1200 Lumen Cree XM-L T6 LED Bicycle Light
8.4V 4.4A quad 18650 Lithium Ion Battery Pack
AC charger (100-240V)
Bright, Medium and Low light plus strobe mode.

In full bright mode you'll get 3 hours and then some before a charge, on lower settings it lasts longer and on strobe for daylight riding it lasts for days. I leave one on now and again and they are still flashing the next day.

I love lights like this and there are several brands that are all pretty much the same, at least the ones I have tried are and I keep a couple of boxes around for testing bikes and for new build customers to buy because I know first hand over a dozen times how running a daylight strobe that caused an auto driver to see and avoid me so I don't have yet another 'face to face' as it were meeting with Mr. Pavement.

Are they perfect, no.

The headband that comes with it is a joke and gets thrown away.
It mounts the bars with a rubber band and is not solid but you get a kick butt light with the batteries and charger and making a better mount is nothing.

Note that as attractive as this light looks to pop into an old style bullet light it is not ideal for that either.

The power/mode switch is a push 'clickie' that you have to run through each mode to turn it off and you can't relocate the switch as the base of the light is the switch circuit and - power connection.

A better light base for a Lithium/CREE LED in a bullet is a flashlight, preferably one that just uses a pair of 18650's and you can jump the push-button out to the panel switch on the old bike light.

This one was your typical cheap 2AA 2 flashlight bullet lights.

ArmyLight1.jpg


I bought like a $45 flashlight like this.

ArmyLight3.jpg


Cut off the back of the reflector in bullet, put in the top of flashlight, ran power on/mode select to the bullet switch (not the top turn one, it does nothing, the back panel toggle, and a wire pair out for the 18650 NiCad cells.

This is shot of the light being directed at the ceiling in my shop in the middle of the day with drapes open and that ceiling fixture with a pair of 100W lamps in it on.

FeltCREE3.jpg


Having your bike generate you 'free light' is all good in theory but unless you are using regenerative braking to generate you little 2-stroke motor is and it comes at a cost.

If you are about running out of light carry a couple extra batteries and all you have charged and let your motor use all it's power to move you is all I am saying.
 
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The headband that comes with it is a joke and gets thrown away.
It mounts the bars with a rubber band and is not solid but you get a kick butt light with the batteries and charger and making a better mount is nothing.

I have the Cree 9800LM 7x XML T6. I learned from another forum to use O-rings for the rubber bands. I have a SAE set that I bought from Harbor Freight a while back. The second to the largest O-ring in the kit works great. It has a 8.4v 6400MmAh Battery Pack. I bought it specifically for the strobe mode for touring (non-motorized) on the foggy Oregon coast.

With the handle bar wraps, the light stays attached to the bars and doesn't move.

http://www.harborfreight.com/382-piece-o-ring-assortment-67554.html

HPIM0879.jpg

7LED.JPG

Chris
AKA: BigBlue
 
I have the Cree 9800LM 7x XML T6. I bought it specifically for the strobe mode for touring (non-motorized) on the foggy Oregon coast.
Chris
AKA: BigBlue
Sweet light, and 6.4A 7 CREE's, that should get some attention.
Thanks for the O-ring tip as well.
 
Well, I got my generator set today. Turns out the metal drive wheel is not meant to be removed, so that kills the idea of a larger drive wheel. However, the drive wheel is larger than my previous one, so it may still make a difference. Also, I see grease under the wheel, so that should help the generator stay lubricated and hopefully prevent the same thing from happening to this one that happened to the last one.
 
Turns out I was able to remove the metal drive wheel after all. Now, I don't know how many rpm's the generator actually makes at normal pedaling speeds, but estimating 15mph pedaling speed and a 26" wheel with a 1" generator drive wheel, the generator should probably be spinning somewhere around 4k-4500 rpm. With a top motorized speed of 32mph, and using the rim circumference (not the tire circumference, since I am driving an r/c car tire directly off the rim, not the tire), with a 2" drive wheel the generator spins about 4600 rpm. Obviously, I am not going to be traveling at constant top speed and many times well below top speed, so I think the rpm's of the generator at average cruising speed with a 2" drive wheel will be comparable to its normal rpm's at average pedal speeds (15mph is overestimating just a bit, the average casual bicyclist probably does not pedal that fast for very long). So it looks like I did it. I've found a way to keep the generator spinning about the same rpm's as pedal speeds on a motorized bicycle.
 
I have the Cree 9800LM 7x XML T6. I learned from another forum to use O-rings for the rubber bands. I have a SAE set that I bought from Harbor Freight a while back. The second to the largest O-ring in the kit works great. It has a 8.4v 6400MmAh Battery Pack. I bought it specifically for the strobe mode for touring (non-motorized) on the foggy Oregon coast.


So the strobe helps with visibility in the fog, or is safer for cars to see you.
 
sorry for jacking your thread so much, bro. I'm gonna start my own now, lol.
 
I have the Cree 9800LM 7x XML T6. I learned from another forum to use O-rings for the rubber bands. I have a SAE set that I bought from Harbor Freight a while back. The second to the largest O-ring in the kit works great. It has a 8.4v 6400MmAh Battery Pack. I bought it specifically for the strobe mode for touring (non-motorized) on the foggy Oregon coast.


So the strobe helps with visibility in the fog, or is safer for cars to see you.

The strobe will help me be more visible to cars.

I am also sorry for high jacking your thread. I started my own thread on the Cree and will post one on my Lung Lin generator that I "found" in my garage attic from 2004.

Chris
AKA: BigBlue
 
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