Reworking the lights, rewiring, top tube tank, etc

thegnu · Nov 30, 2012

I agree with SB on those dynamo's, I myself have considered adding one to the chain line an stopped short of cutting one open to see if there is enough room to add even a small grease fitting at the bearings I really believe the key to adding one of those is to have a voltage regulator of some sort . one experiment I tried was using a old harley generator , but my effort fell short due to my lack of machining skills.
Gary

Harold_B · Nov 30, 2012

I'm going to need to do something. We wired up the buck boost and one of our 1400+ lumen LEDs. That buck boost is really a current hog. To step up the voltage from 12vdc to 28.5vdc at 500mA it was sucking 1A. At 10vdc (the minimum input voltage) the current went to 1.5A! I have an old UPS from my computer and perhaps I'll raid it for the battery and run just the headlight of its output. One way or the other I'm going to need to charge while running.

Harold_B · Dec 2, 2012

The buck boost is in the circuit and working like it should. I needed to have an isolated ground for the headlight instead of having it wired into the common chassis ground with everything else. The first setup I had on the road last summer was a mix of LED headlights and incandescent tail and brake lights. The current draw from the incandescent bulbs really dragged the battery down to the point that the headlight would dim when the brake light went on. That is not happening with this setup and there are five more lights on the bike plus the headlight is three time the output from the last attempt at a system. The challenge now is too make the battery charge while the bike runs.

Harold_B · Dec 3, 2012

Aside from the generator and a switch (and a resistor) for a hi-lo beam select I'm about done with running wires for a while. Tonight I wired in a knife switch on the positive battery terminal and a switch for interrupting the ground to the CDI. I had read on the forum that shorting the coil isn't so good long term so I wired in a spring actuated reverse light switch from a '48 Buick. The switch lever is opened and closed using a thumb lever on the handle bar. There is a shorting switch as a back up in the electrical box in case the cable or switch should fail on the road and I need to bypass the switch to get home.

shellshopexotics · Dec 4, 2012

This is one of the most beautiful bike builds I have seen! I am also doing some upgrades including electrical combination magneto and generator, for a horn, turn signals, break and headlights.

Harold_B · Dec 5, 2012

Thanks! I'm curious about what you are doing with the generator. Are you using it to charge a battery or are you running the electronics off the combined output with the magneto?

shellshopexotics · Dec 5, 2012

I do have a 6v battery and I am tossing around some ideas and not sure how I will do it yet. The switch I have is head lights, turn signal and horn. I could charge the batt of the magneto or the generator just not sure what I am going to do any suggestions would be great. I am not a novice when it comes to electrical on vecheles but I am no expert by any means! Thanks in advance for any insight.
Jordan

Harold_B · Dec 5, 2012

I am a fair weather rider so I've got a little time to figure this out. There's only been a few flakes of snow so far and I've actually missed out on a few good days to ride while reworking things for these shows. The next thing for me to do is put the generator on a variable speed drill and run it up to 12v output while measuring the rpm with a strobe. Then I'll see where 10v and 14v (if possible) are at. This will help me determine the best ratio for the drive.

Harold_B · Dec 7, 2012

Today was the show at the NextEnergy building in Detroit for the MI Solid State Lighting Association and as planned we used my bike to show off our LEDs. The response was very positive both for the bike and the technology. Symposium was a hit too.

GearNut · Dec 7, 2012

Very cool, Harold B!
I am still hoping that the technology you were sharing with us will be available to us at a reasonable price. A 1400 lumen headlight would be great with one caveat or question perhaps; Would it or could it operate off of 12 volts instead of 30 volts as stated and still produce 1400 lumens reliably?
Also, how well does it handle the heat when stuffed inside a headlight bucket with no cooling assistance?

dracothered · Dec 7, 2012

GearNut said:
Very cool, Harold B!
I am still hoping that the technology you were sharing with us will be available to us at a reasonable price. A 1400 lumen headlight would be great with one caveat or question perhaps; Would it or could it operate off of 12 volts instead of 30 volts as stated and still produce 1400 lumens reliably?
Also, how well does it handle the heat when stuffed inside a headlight bucket with no cooling assistance?

Any LED over a certain wattage will need a heat sink to dissipate the heat. Now at what wattage will it need to be vented to outside of the headlight bucket I'm not sure.

GearNut · Dec 7, 2012

I already have a 1200 lumen (1200 rated, it's probably more like 1000 lumen)
headlight and it's housing looks a lot like an air cooled RC engine cylinder with all the fins it has. I would really like to stuff it inside a larger headlight assembly but I am concerned with cooling as that would end up being a dead air space/ no venting. I am hoping that the one that Harold B is sharing with us would perhaps run cooler by nature or perhaps be more tolerant of heat, or both.
30 volts is also a bit much for me as my target vehicle is already 12 volts.

Harold_B · Dec 7, 2012

Thanks! There's a heatsink stuffed in there that is capable of dissapaiting about 9W of heat. It's coupled to the metal housing through the metal reflector so in a round about way it is "vented" to the outside. I am running a 12vdc system just that there is a buck boost for that LED. It is difficult to get a high lumen output at 12vdc directly into the LED without needing a higher current draw. Sort of the nature of the beast. We do have a 9.6vdc LED that draws 1.03A that puts out about 1000lm (depending on color temp). I'll look into a 12vdc though and see what it would take.

dracothered · Dec 7, 2012

GearNut said:
I already have a 1200 lumen (1200 rated, it's probably more like 1000 lumen)
headlight and it's housing looks a lot like an air cooled RC engine cylinder with all the fins it has. I would really like to stuff it inside a larger headlight assembly but I am concerned with cooling as that would end up being a dead air space/ no venting. I am hoping that the one that Harold B is sharing with us would perhaps run cooler by nature or perhaps be more tolerant of heat, or both.
30 volts is also a bit much for me as my target vehicle is already 12 volts.

Like I said all LED's over a certain wattage needs a heat sink and there is no getting around this. Though this may also be one of the reasons that the company Harold B working for is using 30 volts as that would change heat dissipation values (If I remember right the heat dissipation would lower).

Harold_B · Dec 7, 2012

Actually the voltage is determined by the current requirements of the die, the number of die and how the array is wired. The design does generate less heat per lumen because we can use fewer die for the same output as a comparable LED. It still needs a good heatsink like any high output device though.

Harold_B · Dec 8, 2012

All of the running lights and the brake light are 12vdc. They are 450lm at 350mA. I think I'll put one in another bucket with a fog light lens that I have on hand to see how that looks. A few other posts have mentioned being happy with 100 - 200lm. The key really is how you get the light where you want it, then you can get by with less.

F_Rod81 · Dec 8, 2012

Great work, nice lighting system! I'm working on something similar, just need to find the right looking headlight for my bike.

Harold_B · Dec 8, 2012

Finding just the right one is a challenge. The chrome one on the bike now is the third headlight, this is the second tail light, second set of rear running lights and first stab at front running lights. I'm planning to make a few changes to the mount for the front bullet lights and possibly the headlight. Since the bike is more of a build inspired by bikes of the 1920's to 1940's I don't have a specific look in mind, just a general idea. As I try things I find what I like and what I don't, what will work and what won't. Trial and error (and more error) and then reworking gets a little expensive but I enjoy rebuilding the same bike the way others seem to enjoy building multiple bikes. Perhaps I'll move on to another in a year or two.

Harold_B · Dec 13, 2012

This is the preliminary spec on the buck boost converter that I used: http://www.luxdrive.com/download/?dltf&dmid=1512
There is a 500mA version available that is not shown and that's the one I purchased. Over the last few days the goal has been to wire in a dimmer / lo-beam mode to give oncoming traffic a break. The converter has a loop for a dimmer circuit that allows for several methods of dimming including a simple fixed resistor and that was my route. I added a Lucas style hi-lo switch with horn button and in one of the switch circuits placed a 10K ohm resistor. I tied to capture the difference with a camera but both photos just saturate the detector. Still, it cuts the headlight down to about 700lm on low beam.

Harold_B · Dec 16, 2012

Finally have the hi-lo beam selector working like I want. The way the buck boost works is the dimmer circuit is closed (on) to be fully off. I rewired the switch on the electrical box so that it turns the 12vdc to the buck boost off and then the Lucas switch on handle bar selects open (hi) or closed with the 10K ohm resistor (lo). The next issue is the horn. Now that I'm running an isolated circuit for the headlight the horn button having a common ground can't be used for the horn. Small problem I guess. Also removed the amber bullet lights from the front. Seems a little less cluttered.
While I shop for a new horn button solution I decided to mess around with the Dana 3-speed transmission I had bought on eBay. I read Scotto's post about running out of gas and started thinking about pedaling my tank more than a quater mile or so. I decided the Dana would go on the pedal drive. Swapped out the spindle and started looking at clearence for the cranks. Nope. Looks like I will be trying my hand at bending the cranks using a torch and a pipe.

Reworking the lights, rewiring, top tube tank, etc

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