morrisond

I'm building a new long distance bike.

I'm considering a Generator System.

I would use the SON-SL system with SON Taillight and Edulux II on the front.

During the day - I would like to run the Taillight only and use the excess power to recharge my Garmin or iPhone.

I'm looking at something like the Cinq Plug 5 Plus or the Sinewave reactor.

Normally I think you wire the Taillight to the headlight and the switch on the Headlight turns off both. How do I just turn off the headlight?

Basically the taillight would always be on.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Tourist in MSN

Vast majority of taillights that are dyno powered do not have the overvoltage protection needed to run without a headlight. That could be a problem. Check with someone to find out if the taillight you want will blow up from overvoltage. And, most people use taillights in flashing mode during daytime. Will the taillight you want to use flash? I am not familiar with any dyno powered taillights that will flash. Germany and a few other countries prohibit flashing taillights, but most places allow flashing taillights on bikes.

You said long distance but did not elaborate. That could mean touring where you mostly are riding during daytimes. Or it could mean around the clock riding in longer brevets. I would use completely different equipment for a brevet than i use for touring. Could you explain in more detail what you are planning?

morrisond

Long style Rando type events building up to the next PBP.

That's a good point on Flashing. I live in Ontario, Canada and like Fashing during the day for the extra visibility.

That makes things a lot simpler.

Thanks

Baboo

I tour with a dyno hub, the way I handle this is to run a battery powered flashing tail light in the day and charge a cache battery with hub at same time, then recharge phone and taillight at night. If you have access to plugging in AC at night then not a real problem most of the flashing lights I have will last longer than I can ride.

Tourist in MSN

My brevet riding is limited to 200k events, lighting not so important. But I have a lot of touring experience with a dynohub. Most of my experience is from charging batteries, but I have dyno powered lights on several bikes, thus I have some knowledge on that too. There are several very knowledgeable dyno powered lighting users on the rando forum, they might have better advice than mine as there are some PBP riders there.
https://www.bikeforums.net/long-dist...rance-cycling/

The Peter White website has a lot of information that may be informative to you, even if you do not buy from him. His articles and products pages are quite informative.
https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/

That said, I have a few thoughts that may be pertinent.

Dynohub. Son certainly has a good reputation. But I have not used one, I have only used SP and Shimano hubs.

Taillights. Since rando rules are a constant on taillight at night, your proposed taillight would probably work for that. A battery powered taillight that flashes for daytime or be used at night as a backup in constant on mode if you had a wiring problem would be a good idea. If you did need to use a backup taillight all night, you would of course need that much battery life. I prefer AAA battery powered taillights, but you might find a USB recharged taillight for that kind of event. My experience is with B&M and Spaninga dyno powered taillights, so I have no comment on your proposed light.

Headlight. Edelux has good reputation, other than that i have no opinion. My experience is with B&M and with AXA.

USB Chargers. I use Sinewave Revolution, but you named some good units so I am not saying anything against them. As far as I know, Sinewave still does not have an internal pass through cache battery, my Revolution does not.

Pass Through Cache Battery. I would suggest you plan to get a pass through cache battery. Then all of your USB charger power goes into that battery and then you use that battery to power your GPS or recharging your phone, or recharging your blinky taillights, or whatever. Lot of powerbanks do not function as pass through cache batteries, meaning that you can only charge them or discharge them, but not both at same time. A good pass through cache battery allows you to do both at the same time. I do not know if one comes with the Cinq Plug or not, that might be an option.

More on pass through cache batteries here:
https://www.cyclingabout.com/buffer-...o-hub-systems/

For touring I use a Voltaic V44 (now discontinued) pass through cache battery. It holds 44 watt hours of power. For touring I like a battery that big because it gives me several days of buffer capacity. For something like PBP, you might be happy with something that has less than that much power to save weight and $. I keep my battery in my handlebar bag. My USB charger is attached to my handlebar bag bracket.

While riding, I average about 2 watts per hour coming out of my Sinewave when you factor in slow uphills and occasional breaks. When biking at a pretty good clip on flat ground, I get about 2.5 watts out of the charger. If you are only charging GPS and phone, 2 watt output might be plenty. I usually leave my phone in airplane mode with no apps running or off while riding to save power.

During night or when both your dyno powered lights are on, you should assume zero power coming out of your USB charger.

And if I went to PBP, I would certainly bring back up battery powered lighting in case I had a wiring failure or something like that. And that backup would use batteries that I could buy if I needed to, such as AAA batteries. And I assume you already have a headlamp (for your head) in case you have to fix a mechanical at night, etc.

Wiring, I have no clue how much of your bike you have to disassemble to put it into a shipping container. But you might want to add quick connectors on any wiring that you would have to discconnect for packing up the bike.

Photo of my rando bike, note the Sinewave Revolution is the little white thing on my handlebar bag bracket. And you can see my B&M headlight on the bike too. I used the optional extra tall light mount and bent it a bit to get it up above the fender.

unterhausen

My thought for rando is that you don't need recharging, just get a battery pack. I run a dyno powered taillight on all my bikes. I have had too many instances of battery lights running out of power unexpectedly, so the dyno is a backup. A solid, non-flashing light is required by most RUSA RBA's and is required at PBP.

Peter White lists all the B&M taillights that can be directly connected to a hub. No mention of the schmidt. Some of the SON headlights don't have taillight connections, so I wonder if that means their taillight will take full power. I would check with someone who has authoritative knowledge.

morrisond

Thank you all - very informative.

dim

my setup on my Miyata 1000 .... (my commuter/touring bike and audax bike)

Son 28 Dynamo Hub

Supernova E3 Triple front light (connected to the Son 28 Dynamo Hub)

Supernova E3 Tail light 2 (connected to the Supernova front light)

Sinewave Revolution generator/USB charger connected to the Son 28 Dynamo Hub

Zendure A8 QC Portable Charger (26,800 mAh) connected to the Sinewave Revolution ... (The Zendure Powerbank is one of the few that is safe to charge items whilst it is being charged at the same time .... you can charge 4 items simultaneously as it is being charged by the Sinewave ....it has Pass through Charging and comes with a 2 year guarantee)

so, in a nutshell .... front light, rear light, powerbank all working at the same time while I charge 4 other items such as my satnav, phone, backup lights, Ipad, etc etc .... and only 2 things are connected to my Dynamo hub .... the front light and the Sinewave Revolution... I have very good lights .... I can see in the dark and cars can see me ... and everything works in harmony...

well biked

I use a Supernova dynamo headlight and tail light on a bike, also. Just curious, regarding your Sinewave Revolution USB charger, do you have it wired to the connector that plugs to the hub alongside the wires from the Supernova headlight? In other words, two pairs of wires into the plug to the hub?

2_i 

In my experience with Sinewave Revolution, the charged phone still discharges when the navigation is in operation even though the lights are off, just the discharge is slower than without any charging in progress. Presumably the taillight on would change it a little, but you need to factor how much power the phone is actually going to consume during your riding. When the screen and GPS are off, sure, the phone charge goes up.

Tourist in MSN

One more thing, you said you were setting up a bike at this time. Sometimes people think that they should just get a bike now and in a couple years, add the dynohub. I advise against that. If you get a dynohub initially, your additional cost was the dynohub cost minus the cost of the regular hub. But buying a bike with a regular wheel now and upgrading to a dynohub later usually means getting a new wheel later, which means buying a dynohub, new spokes, new rim, possibly a wheel build charge after you have already paid for a perfectly good non-dynohub wheel.

rifraf

I use a Son 28 disk braked dynohub, an Edelux (1) headlight and Philips safe-ride lumiring taillight.
(I think this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Saf.../dp/B005LEXEGC )
My taillight connects to the headlight so am unaware of how it might be charged/utilised independently of the headlight.

I've been happy for many years now with my E-werk charging system, so happy in fact that I built up a mirrored (the same) system for my single wheel trailer.

No suggestion that other systems aren't equally good, merely offering an alternative.

rifraf

I concur as this was the methodology and reasoning that I followed.