on board charging system

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UP Rider

New Member
Jun 29, 2014
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Upper Peninsula MI
Getting tired of pulling cells out for charging and the case cracking on the elcheapo wall charger. The wife said to me that it would be kinda nice to just " plug in the bike at night. Que the light bulb over head. Why not ?

parts list

one- busted and disassembled 18650 wall wart Output 4.2 V 600Mah
similar to this http://www.ebay.com/itm/291127724724?

up to ( haven't decided yet ) 5 2X battery holders 3.7 V 18650 http://www.ebay.com/itm/251548956095?

to be determined H X L X W project box

2X Cree U2 LED headlights http://www.ebay.com/itm/141130730133?

up to 10 of 18650 3.7 V batteries http://www.ebay.com/itm/190911430355?

control switches mounted on center control station. Another project box ? Off the shelf ready made more than likely.

LED tail light ( Wally World special ) 3 volt in series ? 1.5 volt in parallel ? Must investigate. Or any ideas out there to identify ?

replacement lamp plug and cord ( local toy store aka Menards )

Plan


mount the battery holders in project box (note here that the holders are in parallel to increase run time)


unscrew the cheezy rubber band mount and fab up an "L" shaped mount to go on the front light bar ( six inch piece of 1 X 1 aluminum angle )

wire from the box to handlebar mounted switch to lights front and back. Probably going to have to crack the case on one to see if I can jump the push button switch on the back of the light housing If not wire direct and remount the light bar higher up for ease of operation


Cut off the battery terminals on the charger board and solder to a " buss bar "

The charging board is pretty small and will fit easily inside the battery box if the box is big enough.


Any thoughts, concerns, or comments ?




UP Rider
 
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greaser_monkey_87

New Member
Mar 30, 2014
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USA
Whenever I need to charge my battery manually, I roll the bike up to my back door (no garage), pull the extension cord out the back door and connect my charger. There really is nothing complicated about it, just make sure your lights are off while charging. I do have a charging system in place on the bike, consisting of a tire generator, scooter rectifier, a power distributor, and a 12v sla battery. This cuts way down on the need for wall charging.
 
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UP Rider

New Member
Jun 29, 2014
14
0
0
Upper Peninsula MI
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greaser_monkey_87

New Member
Mar 30, 2014
397
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USA
My system is a bit complex atm, my friction generator died, so I ordered a charging coil on ebay that will run off my flywheel. I'm running a 4 stroke, so if you're running a 2 stroke, then you'll want to look up the wonderful creations store on ebay. They have a lot of lighting accessories for the 2 strokes. My battery is small, only a 1.4ah. My lights draw about 3 amps altogether, but when the brake light is not on, less than an amp. I don't run all my lights very often, so how long a charge lasts can vary, but usually a good while. I only ride at night to get home from work, and work is only a mile from my house.
 
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UP Rider

New Member
Jun 29, 2014
14
0
0
Upper Peninsula MI
Running a 4 stroke. Got 17 miles one way to work, about 45 minutes, and at 230 in the morning it's pretty dark out. Hence the lighting project.
 
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greaser_monkey_87

New Member
Mar 30, 2014
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USA
I'm assuming a kit 4 stroke? I'm not sure what charging coil would fit, but if you just want to wall charge, I recommend a high amp hour battery, like a 12ah if you have a place on the bike it'll fit.
 
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UP Rider

New Member
Jun 29, 2014
14
0
0
Upper Peninsula MI
Sorry for some confusion here, I want to mount up a box containing batteries and an incorporated charger. I don't think a 35 CC Honda is gonna run my fat ass and a generator at the same time LOL No this is a system mounted up on the bike and can be plugged in while I am at work and when stored overnight in my garage. Some of my estimates are coming out at 4 hours of USABLE light with the 10 cell configuration. That alone will be enough for me to go 2 round trips, 68 miles, without a recharge. The one thing that I am wondering about is the tail light. Yes the batteries are reversed from each other in the holder, so I am suspecting that it is a 3 volt system and should be able to be wired up to the 3.7 volt control box I am planning. Hey GM ,,,,,,,, how bout some pics ?

Thanks


UP Rider
 
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greaser_monkey_87

New Member
Mar 30, 2014
397
0
0
USA
Now I get what you're saying. My setup is completely different from yours. But here is a simple way to determine how long a battery will last. First you need to know how many amps you are drawing. The only way to calculate amps is to know the voltage and wattage of the light. To determine amps, divide wattage by voltage, and that's how many amps a light is drawing. Do this for each light in a system, then add them together, and that's the total amps. The next think you need to know is the amp hours of the battery you're using. If it's listed as milliamps (mah) then multiply it by .001 and that's the amp hours. For example, a 1600mah battery would be 1.6 amp hours. If you are going to use multiple batteries for extra capacity, they must be wired in parallel, and they must all be the same amp hours. If you are wiring batteries in parallel, then multiply the amp hours by the number of batteries being used. Once you have that figure, take the total amps being drawn and divide. For example, if you have a 10 amp hour battery and your lights draw a total of one amp, then your battery will last for 10 hours. Hope this helps :D
 
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