ThermionicScott 

That seems like a really complicated way to avoid using a helmet light.

wphamilton

Edge case stuff. I'd been looking into measuring cornering motion anyway so it dovetails with that, but computer-controlled lights does seem like overkill for a bicycle. Still it would be really nice to have on a trail at night.

Off-topic anyway, my apologies to the thread.

ThermionicScott 

I couldn't resist, but it is an interesting-sounding project! Keep us posted.

Tourist in MSN

I was looking at it from the perspective of simply re-aiming some of the LEDs or perhaps adding a pair of them, then if you slow down and do not turn, there is nothing really wrong with adding some side lights. I am a retired engineer, I consider an elegant solution to be one that accomplishes the goal with the greatest reliability, simplicity and lowest cost. But if you want to put in the gyros and accelerometers, go for it.

unterhausen

I wanted an IQ-XS until I saw they went backwards on the light output from the IQ-X. Why did they do that?

Tourist in MSN

Backwards? Do you mean less light output or do you mean something else? I suspect less output was associated with lower price. The price was the driver for why I bought the XS.

unterhausen

it's hard to believe it was price. But yes, I mean 70 vs. 90 lux. Emitters have gone down in price and up in efficiency since the IQ-X came out. I wanted an IQ-XS because of how fragile the mount is on the IQ-X. I was worried the mount was going to be broken on PBP, because you have to put your bike in crowded racks a couple of times. I probably will start carrying an extra mount, but I keep forgetting to buy one.

JaccoW

It's a cheaper, smaller version of the IQ-X, hence the XS name. But they both have the same plastic mount, just like the Cyo. I have had the latter on my commuter for the past couple of years and while the glass lens is now cracked because someone bumped their bike into it a couple of times, the mount is as sturdy as ever. It's probably ABS or nylon and that's a tough plastic to destroy.

I think it is great as a commuter light but for long distance night rides I prefer the Cyo or the IQ-X. I had the IQ-XS on my randonneur but I didn't like the light pattern compared to the Cyo Premium so I replaced it with the IQ-X. The IQ-XS went on my girlfriend's commuter.

IQ-XS



IQ-X



Cyo T Premium

Tourist in MSN

I bought the XS for several reasons, but one small reason was that I assumed the mount was metal. Pasted from Peter White website:
"The new IQ-XS has similar styling to the IQ-X with a machined and anodized aluminum housing. Unlike the IQ-X the IQ-XS cannot be mounted upside-down."

Your comment on plastic caused me to investigate further. Mine is black, not silver, so visually I could not tell from a glance.

This photo looks like the mount below the housing is indeed plastic. Crap.
https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/ima...&m-167-sil.jpg

At least for me, the good news is that the light is unlikely to get bumped where it is mounted. Photo of mine below (the bracket is the extra long B&M bracket, not the standard length that came with it). And if somehow it breaks off, at least mine was the less expensive of the two options.

unterhausen

I could tell from the picture on Peter White's site that the mount on the XS was plastic. It's true that the similar mounts on Cyos are known to fatigue and fail over time. In fact, I made an aluminum repair mount for one of my Cyos that I got for cheap because the mount had broken off. The IQ-X mount is a thin plastic clamshell that hides the wires, so it is much more susceptible to breaking from impact. Or in my case, when I was trying to adjust the height of the light without stopping. Fortunately, convenience stores sell duct tape in small rolls for a reasonable price.

Tourist in MSN

Yup. But even when I installed my black one, the black painted Aluminum and the black plastic mount both looked, ... black, ... so I assumed it was all metal until this thread alerted me to the error in my assumptions.

Fortunately nothing broke yet. And since I don't do all night long brevets, it is unlikely that it will be a disaster for me. If I do an all night long brevet, I will bring a battery light as a backup.

JaccoW

You can even buy a replacement clamp for the IQ-X for just a few bucks. B+M Lumotec clamp for IQ-X

unterhausen

Yes, upthread I mentioned that I wanted to start carrying a spare. The Cyo mount takes a lot of work to break. I have a Cyo premium on my gravel bike, and it seems fine. The light I have with the broken mount was used off-road and has a lot of battle scars. I wouldn't worry about an IQ-XS mount, the vast majority of them are not going to break.

Tourist in MSN

Thanks for the re-assurance. But if I decide to do any all night long brevets, I will bring a battery light as a backup.

But I probably would have done that anyway. Just yesterday I found one of my dynohub wires at the light had unplugged itself on the Luxos U on my Lynskey, this was not the first time that has happened. It was an easy fix, I wired the bike so I knew where to look. But things happen at inopportune times.

noglider 

Sure, it's good to be prepared for the unexpected. I've read suggestions for carrying a spare headlight, and I didn't bother for a long time, since my dynamo lights are super reliable. But I recently started carrying one. It's not much effort to carry it and keep it charged. I recently had to attend a meeting, and I took one of my bikes which doesn't have a dynamo setup. I planned to use my regular battery headlight. And I realized I had forgotten it. Well, lucky I had my daily bag, so I used my spare headlight.

unterhausen

I always have a spare headlight on my rando bike. I don't on any of the other bikes. In fact, the two bikes that I use for randonneuring share parts for the battery spare and I have to move them back and forth. I have had a dyno light fail, but it was one I made. I do worry a little about the B&M lights I use because they don't seem to want to glue down the supercaps they use and they do break off.

gecho

This year a guy I was riding with had his dynamo headlight go out. After the ride he determined that the tail light cable that was routed along the chainstay and up his rear rack got pinched in the rear dropout creating partial short that allowed the tail light to keep working but not the headlight. He finished the rest of the night with a head mounted light he picked up at a gas station.

Tourist in MSN

My primary reason for dynohub is for bike touring. Riding around town near home is a distant second priority. Randonneuring is a distant third priority, so far I have only done 200k brevets that did not require lighting.

Bike touring, several of my previous tours I did not even bother to turn on the headlight for the whole trip. And bike touring, I like to have flashing taillights in daytime and the flashing taillights precludes dyno powered ones, so I only use battery taillights for touring. And my S&S bike needs almost total disassembly and re-assembly, so putting on a headlight that I probably will not use is just one more thing that takes (wastes) time and effort.

So, my last bike tour, my dynohub was used for one purpose, plugged into the Sinewave Revolution it gave me USB power for battery charging. Did not even install a headlight on the bike. But I brought a light I could use in case I needed one for a tunnel or for going to the pub in the evening.

Lighting.

• Taillights - brought two Planet Bike taillights, each of which took a pair of AAA batteries. Used Ikea (white) low discharge NiMH rechargable AAA batteries and a Powerchimp charger to recharge them. Changed and charged batteries weekly.
• Headlamp - one that has no battery, instead is powered by USB cable, cost about $5 USD on Ebay, shipped from asia (takes about a month for shipping). Powered by plugging it into a powerbank. Can be strapped onto the bars with an elastic band. Beam like a flashlight, round, not low and flat. I would not recommend it for an all night ride as a primary light, but as a backup or for occasional use, should be adequate.

Photo of the $5 headlight I bought is below.



I could see putting that light in my handlebar bag as a backup if I was going to need lighting for a brevet that extends into nighttime hours, but it would also mean I need a powerbank to power it. It does not play well with my dyno powered Sinewave Revolution USB charger without a pass through cache battery, thus the battery pack would be needed.

unterhausen

I've never had anything close to a wiring problem on my dyno systems. I'm pretty careful about how I wire them up, strain relief and wire routing. I know a lot of people that have had problems though.

My travel bike has connectors everywhere. Since I ran the wires in my down tube and out the back of the seat tube, I was a little worried about that. Fortunately, I can take the bike apart and inspect the most likely trouble points

ilchymis

I'm impressed... what hardware are you using? I mainly use my Shimano DH-3D72 hub (6V, 3W) to power my lights. I have a Supernova USB port, too, but it seems barely able to keep my phone topped up.

What sort of issues did you run into? Asking for a friend who owns a dynamo-equipped bike and might be interested in flying with it someday.

Tourist in MSN

In response to my comment:

My last bike tour (five weeks in Canadian Maritimes a couple months ago), I used battery powered lighting. My dynohub was exclusively used for charging up batteries for my GPS, phone, taillights, camera, and headlamp (for my head). I also had a headlamp (for the bike) that was powered only by USB cable, could use it by plugging it into my powerbank, but never used the headlight on the bike for all five weeks.

you posted:

SP PV8 hub wired to a Sinewave Revolution USB charger. I learned early on that my Garmin 64 GPS does not play well with the Sinewave without a pass through cache battery, so I needed one of those too. I had difficulties finding a good one and some of my old pass through cache batteries eventually died and were no longer in production. On this forum in a different thread months ago, one poster suggested that powerbanks that were sold for use in solar charging systems worked well as pass through cache batteries, and that poster mentioned one made by Voltaic. Based on that I bought a Voltaic V44. (That model is now out of production, but other Voltaic models should function the same way.)

So, the SP hub creates the AC current, that supplies the Sinewave Revolution USB charger, that sends all of the power it creates to the Voltaic V44. I then draw power out of the V44.

When rolling, I use that system to recharge my batteries in my Garmin 64 or my phone. I try to primarily charge up things while rolling, as when you charge up a power bank and hours later draw power out of it, you lose some of the power. (Charging a battery and later discharging it generates heat, heat is wasted power.) But, other batteries for camera, headlamp (for my head), taillights, etc., I charged in the evening.

More on the Garmin 64 here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/19403692-post26.html

Initially I had some difficulties in keeping everything charged, eventually discovered that I had a high resistance cable from the Sinewave to the V44, thus I was not getting all the power that the Sinewave Revolution could produce into the powerbank. When I discovered that half way through my tour, I charged up everything while doing laundry on a rainy day while plugged into a wall outlet. And I changed the offending high resistance cable, that mostly solved my problems. I finished the tour with everything charged up. Two other things I also did were to (1) limit my screen time on the phone to only checking weather forecasts each morning and occasional use of a GPS routing app if my Garmin looked like it was giving me an odd route, and (2) I found that when it was cold out my phone battery discharged quite fast, so I stopped using my phone when it was cold. It often was in the 40s (F) in the morning and checking weather forecasts with a cold phone ate up power quickly. If it was a cold morning, I would warm up my phone in the sleeping bag or inside my jacket before using it.

I figured someone would ask details so I took a photo before my trip of my electrical stuff.



Not shown is the SP PV8 hub. Starting at the top, left to right:
- LG phone and case. I never got a local sim card for Canada, so I only used the phone as a wifi device for weather forecasts. Almost every campground had wifi, although sometimes only at the office.
- Pentax WG3 waterproof camera, uses Li Ion batteries.
- A small Goal Zero Flip 10 powerbank, brought as a backup but never used it.
- Voltaic 44 powerbank. 44 watt hours of capacity.
- Headlamp for my head. (After the photo was taken I decided to take a different one that runs on one AA battery.)
- Lenmar USB powered charger for Li Ion camera batteries, the brown plastic bottle to the right of it is where I store it when not in use.

Middle row, left to right:
- A small plastic case (formerly a 35mm film canister bottle) with wired headphones or ear buds.
- USB charger to plug into the wall if needed.
- Plastic box with spare camera batteries.
- And on far right in middle is a Powerchimp USB powered AA and AAA NiMH battery charger, used this to charge up headlamp and tailight batteries.

Bottom, left to right:
- A bunch of cables and a digital USB current flow meter. (The meter is how I discovered I had a high resistance cable part way through my trip.)
- Garmin 64. I prefer a general recreation GPS instead of a cycling specific one, I also use it for backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, etc.
- USB powered bike headlight, can strap onto handlebar with an elastic, powered by USB, no internal batteries. Will work on Voltaic 44 powerbank. As noted above, not used at all on my trip.
- Two taillights, Planet Bike Superflash and Planet Bike Superflash 65, both powered by AAA batteries. (Charged up the batteries weekly to keep them bright.)
- Some spare AA and AAA batteries, the AAA batteries in the photo are in some AAA to AA adapters that if I had to I could put them into the Garmin. My current favorite NiMH batteries are Ikea Ladda white low discharge batteries.
- Sinewave Revolution USB charger.
- And on far right, a luggage scale.

The Sinewave Revolution gets strapped on to the bike at some convenient location.

I can't say what percentage of my power is used by specific devices, but I can say that the GPS by far used the most power. After that the phone and camera batteries consumed a lot. And tied for a distant last place would be a weekly recharge of the taillight batteries and my headlamp for my head in the campsite. Taillights still appeared to be bright after a week, but that is safety equipment so I just charged them up weekly anyway.

When I changed cables from the Sinewave to the V44 powerbank which was in my handlebar bag, the new cable I started using (red cable in photo) was quite short so I had to move my Sinewave to a spot closer to the handlebar bag. The black coiled cable in the photo was from the V44 to my Garmin 64 GPS.



The green light on my Powerchimp charger tells me that one of my AAA batteries has been fully charged, three red lights mean that the other three are still charging.



And of course, a weather forecast:




Twice I have flown to foreign countries with a dynohub and USB charging system. I had no problems. The dynohub was of course in the bike case. The rest of my electrics I carried in my carry on so if there were any questions, I could answer those questions. Do not carry any Li Ion batteries in checked bags, that is a no no.

But I do not know what issues Gauvins had, so I have no further comment.

gauvins

[In our case] flying involves removing the front wheel and the handlebars. Actually, the stem, which minimizes the need for adjustment. My bike is equipped with the (excellent) forumSlader top-tube USB charger connected to a Shimano XT dyno-hub (works great).

(1) I usually ride to the airport and pack on the premises. I once severely damaged the wheel connector while removing the front wheel; often had close calls. I ride on 2" tires. If I am not careful the wheel will trap the connector between the tire and the fork and will pull the cable from the connector. May not be dramatic but, once or twice, involved cutting a length of cable to get a clean connection to the terminal (2) I've destroyed the USB connector when putting the stem back on the steerer, by over-tightening the steerer cap. It has crushed the connector and pulled the wires. Impossible to repair in the field. Difficult to explain in details -- the cable must be routed inside a compression plug that replaces the star nut. If you are not careful, and I wasn't, the plug will rotate when you tighten it and will strip/cut the cable. Once you are aware of the problem, you can learn to be careful when tightening and things will work out.

I've flown my bike, maybe 16 times. Have had 2 issues, including one that has prevented using the dynamo at the start of a 2-month tour. (and several close calls). If you are careful, not be a problem. But I prefer "bomb-proof" solutions.

unterhausen

the connector is a bit of an annoyance. It's going to be nice when I get my SL connectorless system working.

polyphrast

Schmidt offers for their SON a coax plug... so if someones thinks about buying a new hub dynamo... that would make removal of the wheel easy

Edit: Probably a different connection was meant than the one connecting the light/ The power generation system with the hub

Tourist in MSN

I have had no complaint with the Shimano or SP plugs that connect the wires to the dynohub. There have been a few people that commented that they fell off the hub, but perhaps because I usually used fatter wire, my plugs gripped the hub connector just fine. The Shimano and SP connectors are interchangeable, in the photo I have a Shimano plug on a SP hub.

But if you use thin wire and pull the wire to remove the plug from the hub, sometimes the wire pulls out of the connector and the connector stays on the hub, that is the only problem I have had. It was winter and I was wearing ski gloves, I did not get a good grip on the plug when I tried to remove it. But that is the kind of mistake you only make once. (I also have a Tubus Tara rack mounted on this fork, so that complicates the photo.)



In the photo below I have a SP connector on a Shimano hub.