TheCharm 

Good day all.

I have a SON 28 dyno driving a Supernova E3 Pro 2 up front and TL-2 in back.

I noticed recently my stand light stopped working. I believe the capacitor that drives that feature is in the E3 up front. There doesn't appear to be a way to open that light up to service anything - at least to my non-expert eyes. Does anyone have any expertise here? It's a pretty minor annoyance, but if I can solve it, I'd like to.

Is this light serviceable in any way?

Thanks for any info.

Iride01 

Usually if the manufacturer considers things user serviceable then they will be in the user manual which many manufacturer's expect you to download from their website to save on printing costs for things most people will throw away. Otherwise it's up to your DIY skills and adversity to the risk of making it totally and irreparably useless.

TheCharm 

I figured as much, thanks! I'll just leave it be.

Tourist in MSN

Is it still under warranty? If so, contact Peter White. And if not, contact them anyway to see if they do repairs.

His website says you can't mix Supernova with other brands, but can with a Schmidt. If it was me, I would ask Peter White if I could use a B&M taillight with it since B&M taillights have their own standlight and are not that expensive.

Good luck.

steelbikeguy

I'm not familiar with the various versions of the Supernova E3, but a few years ago, I did fix a fellow's E3 Triple that had been connected to a battery and blew up just about everything. The front and rear portions unscrewed from the center of the body.... which is not really a surprise.



The supercap that powers the standlight was on one of the two circuit boards that were accessible by removing the rear portion of the housing.



Steve in Peoria

TheCharm 

I's about 7 years old, definitely not under warranty. Good thought to reach out to Peter - he has built a wheel set for me, though not for the bike with this lighting setup. That's a great idea about investigating B&M. I like the stand light on the rear.

Tourist in MSN

Yeah, check with Peter.

His website says you can't use any taillight that is not a Schmidt or Supernova on a Supernova headlight, But it says that is because the Supernova is DC (direct current) and lights that use AC (alternating current) won't work. But I have tested a B&M taillight with a DC power source (a Li Ion battery from my phone), so I know that lower voltage DC is not a problem for B&M taillights. I have also used the phone battery to test a Spaninga Pixeo taillight, so that will work on DC too.

If you try a B&M or Spaninga light and if the stand light on the tail light does not work, reverse the wires to the tail light, as it is possible that polarity might matter for the standlight on a B&M or Spaninga.

Good luck.

steelbikeguy

The Supernova that I fixed (and reverse engineered) used a LM317L adjustable voltage regulator to create 5.9V to feed to the taillight. That's about the same as the voltage that would go to any dynamo taillight, so I think that any dynamo taillight would be able to be powered by the Supernova.

However, the tricky detail is that the voltage across the taillight is also used to regulate the charging of the super capacitor (a.k.a. "supercap") that powers the standlight function. While I can't think of a way that some generic dynamo taillight might interfere with the supercap charging, I'm not sure that it might not be possible. The supercap in the Supernova that I fixed was rated for 5.5V, and appears to rely on the voltage drop across a diode to limit the charging of the supercap to 5.5V. I'm not sure that it really did a good job of that, since once the current through the diode decreased, the voltage drop across it would decrease too, resulting in charging the supercap to a higher voltage.

Anyway... it's hard to recommend that anyone ignore Supernova's advice to only use their taillight, despite not seeing a real problem with it. In fact, since most dynamo taillights have to include a full wave bridge rectifier and some sort of current limiting, there's less voltage available for powering LEDs. As such, the Supernova taillight should be able to produce more light.

Steve in Peoria