Hi SB,
Hopefully my schedule will allow me to "play" with the ignition in the very near future. I am sure the lead for the kill switch will produce some AC to work with.
Guess it is time to mention that I also hold a degree in Electronics, and should be easy to arrive at a way to extract some "juice" from the ignition.
Sadly time is problem, as EZM has managed to consume about 25 hours a day. Not complaining, as here it is November and we are still setting production records.
Here is some information that may help others until I can devote more time to lighting.
LED's use far less power than conventional bulbs. The wire for the kill circuit may produce some AC, but a diode should be used to stop the lights from killing the motor.
The resistance of the HF kill circuit is 2.2 ohms to ground. The coil on the HF motor is 4.43 K ohms from ground.
The resistance of the HS kill circuit is 1.5 ohms to ground. The coil on the HS motor is 5.1 K ohms from ground.
The common 2-stroke stator [HT] is 2.5 ohms to ground at the white wire. The blue wire on the 2 stroke coil is 254 ohms. The 2 stroke ignition doesn't use the coil to fire the sparkplug but via an external coil.
When magnets pass a coil, energy is produced. Honda GXH50, HS 142, and the HF motor all have magnets in the flywheel. All three motors can have additional coils placed near the rotating flywheel to produce additional power.
If you have time, I can help you locate the extra power to run lights at minimum cost. As an example....... What if you took a HT stator, cut the ends of the center bar to fit the contour of the flywheel, mounted the stator to the motor. You would now have a 2.5 ohm tap and a 254 ohm tap to play with. Chances are the 254 ohm would be way too much, but who knows.
It must be remembered the flywheel only has 2 magnets and it is a long way from each passing of the coil, whereas most alternators have many magnets passing the coils per revolution.
Maybe the answer is using the blue wire from a modified HT coil to make up for the lack of magnets in the flywheel and arrive at enough AC to run LED lights.
Whatever the solution, it must remain within a small budget, because there are a lot of cheap lighting systems for bicycles on the market.
You can attach an AC meter to the black wire while the motor is running and see the amount of AC available. It will be sometime before I actually mount & start the motor, as I planned to use it for the 2-speed drive testing. Don't use an amp meter, as it will most likely draw too much and shut the motor off.
There ya go, lots of information to work with, let us know if you discover an inexpensive solution.
PS, I noticed the idler pivot bolt will need to be re-located on the Q-Matic to avoid hitting a "boss" at the base of the HF motor. We will look into a different location for the arm for the HF motor in future production drives.
Have fun,
