tcs

A little one-minute video on assembling a Magnic Microlight eddy current dynamo StVZO bike light:


The Magnic Microlight Company, Inc. seems to consist of Dirk and his family - a definitive 'small business'. Anyway, I like all his 3D-printed assembly jigs and fixtures.

I have a bike that's nigh impossible to fit with a dynamo/generator light. I've got one of the Magnic Wega lights on order for that bike. I'll keep you posted re: the light itself.

steelbikeguy

It's been a while since I've heard anything about the Magnic lights. It's a clever idea, and I'm glad they are still in business.
I didn't know they were integrating the mount into a brake pad. I wonder how they are dealing with the transition to disc brakes.

Steve in Peoria
(still liking the idea of a little dynamo, but have two SONs on bikes)

Rick

​​​​​​​They also have a forke blade ,seat stay mount unit.

tcs

In the interim, the mounts have been redesigned, simplified and streamlined, disc versions developed, StVZO approval acquired, and all those 3D printed assembly fixtures designed and made.

Very much so. Certainly, the lights will find a place in the 'to be seen', daylight-aware and taillamp markets. But does the eddy current Magnic send enough photons out to be competitive in the 'to see with' headlamp market in 2024? We will, ahem, see.

steelbikeguy

Have they ever built a prototype that can generate the 2 to 3 watts required to drive a proper headlight? The generator portion would probably end up the same size as the old bottle dynamos, but how big would the disc of magnets need to be?
and of course, as the disc of magnets grew in diameter, the rotor speed of the dynamo would slow down and drive the dynamo to be larger.
I imagine that the designer started out wanting to create a conventional 3 watt light, but it evolved to be too large to be practical... but it would be interesting to learn the details.

Steve in Peoria

Road Fan

If I recall, Magnic is a German company. They probably think about watts electrical output, but I bet they think even harder about compliance with STvO compliance. This standard states the minimum power needed for legal sales of a bike light system in Germany. I haven't followed bike lighting standards for a while, but in the past it was necessary.

steelbikeguy

I'm not sure if they started out as STvZO compliant, but their website now advertises that they are. Interesting.
Those regulations started in the days of incandescent lights and was based on the illumination of the road, and I don't think that it takes a lot of power to meet the standard when using LEDs.

Their general website is here.
A little deeper into their site, they list some technical specs for the front lights....

• Illuminance (2 front lights) ~11 lux at 15 km/h . 20 lux at 25 km/h (see data sheet)
• Light intensity rear lights 2x5 Cd (see data sheet)
• Generator output 0.1-0.5 watts
• Voltage 2-5V (AC)
• Weight 52g per dynamo lamp (brake pad + brake pad + generator + headlight)
• Weight of alternator+headlight: 32 g

I'm guessing that the "0.1 to 0.5 watts" is per light, with two in front and two in back. That's still only 1 watt of light going out the front, which is less than a vintage Sturmey Archer Dynohub, IIRC.

It would be interesting to know how hard it would to get it up to 1 watt for a single generator, if only for the simplicity of just having one front and one rear one. I suppose that one drawback would be having so much weight attached to one side of the brake calipers?

Their website mentions that they are back-ordered right now, so I guess business is good!


Steve in Peoria

tcs

The other eddy current light I know of is the Danish Reelight Nova. It is not StVZO. Reading their marketing blurb, I think simple optics and fewer photons with the Reelight.

tcs

Well, 1 Watt of power to send to a light-making device. The (1945-1983) Sturmey GH6, rated @ 1.8~2 W, originally sent its power to an incandescent bulb. These Magnic eddy current dynamos/generators/alternators/magnetos are sending their power to "the latest Cree LEDs". Then the light is sent through the optics; if these Magnics are StVZO, that light is surely beamed better. I'm guessing more photons to the road with the latter, but we will 'see'.

zacster

I've been using a Magnic Light as the rear light for many years now and have never had a problem with it. As a front light though it never seemed to be bright enough. As a rear people have commented on how visible it is so I guess it is. I never actually rode behind it. My front light on that bike is one of the brighter B&M CYO lights with a Shimano 3N72 dynohub. It's been a while since I checked into these thing as I retired 5 years ago and hardly use it at night anymore except the occasional fun ride. I ride well lit streets in NYC so I never really need it to light the road, just to be seen. But when I have taken it on a truly dark trail I'm always very impressed by how much light there is.

tcs

Magnic offers this comparison to 25 & 40 LUX headlamps:

https://www.magniclight.com/index.ph...ght-comparison

Note: this comparison uses two Magnic front lights used together, which is also necessary for the StVZO compliance.