That may work, though I'm leaning more towards the 12V batteries to be safer.
Yet another tail light/turn signal/horn question
- Thread starter bailsafe
- Start date
That may work, though I'm leaning more towards the 12V batteries to be safer.
Here's a thought... would it be possible to drag a third wire out from the magneto to trickle charge a 6V or 12V battery, and just wire the lights to that? It would eliminate the need for resistors and make in-line fuses a possibility. So the lights wouldn't be powered directly by the engine, but rather the battery...but can the engine provide enough current to keep the battery charged?
I think this was possible with the older magneto coils (with the white wire) if I remember correctly, I'm just not sure how I'd be able to get a 3rd wire out of my current coil.
I think this was possible with the older magneto coils (with the white wire) if I remember correctly, I'm just not sure how I'd be able to get a 3rd wire out of my current coil.
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A rectifier diode is probably essential, then from the diode, run two wires: one to a fuse and to the light/horn switch, and run one to the positive terminal on the battery, and ground the battery to the frame. Might that work?
EDIT: Also, problem is, I don't have a white wire coming out of mine. I'd have to find a way to connect a 3rd wire to my coil.
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Didn't the white wire just come out of the blue wire on the old magnetos? Would it be possible to tap into the blue wire on the current style?
Any way to use 12V lights in this system with a 6V battery, do you know? Or should I spring for the 12V battery instead?
You could probably use a 6v battery...but it's going to be pretty dim I would imagine...and not sure it would power a flasher relay. You could see if they make 6v LED's and a 6v flasher to make the whole thing 6v. Old school cars like vw bugs, etc. ran 6v's until the mid to late 60's...but those are bulbs vs. LED.
After thinking about 6v vs. 12v ideas...did a google search and found this thread...looks like a good read:
http://motoredbikes.com/showthread.php?21634-How-I-m-using-my-white-wire
http://motoredbikes.com/showthread.php?21634-How-I-m-using-my-white-wire
Not a bad read. Pretty good ideas in there.
I'm thinking maybe just getting a rechargeable battery but I want to figure out an easier way to recharge it that doesn't involve taking the entire battery out of the enclosure and disconnecting the terminals and whatnot...any way to attach a power jack to it that you can plug a normal power cord into?
EDIT: I should also probably find a way to add an on/off switch...
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Not sure what you mean, but if you are talking about all the wiring to the battery...You could pick up a small terminal block (home depot/auto supply store, radio shack)..or even a fuse block...hard wire the battery positive to it, you could ground the battery negative to the bike frame (or a separate terminal block)...then run everything through the block(s).
Thanks, I wasn't sure how to explain it.
Charging the battery is obviously the biggest issue here. I think I'm going to use a 12V 1.3 Ah battery. Charging via solar is hard due to mounting the panel, bottle dynamos usually only output 6V, and I don't really know how well a 12V magneto generator would work. Seems like snake oil to me.
I'll have to keep looking around and see what I can find, or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
TheNecromancer13
Active Member
I've been thinking about putting rollers on the wheels to power little dc generators, the rollers would attach to the brakes and would hit the wheels slightly before the brake pads, so if I just lightly tap my brake lever, I could make the light flash on one side for the front wheel, the other side for the back wheel, and those would be turn signals. Then if I acutally need to brake, when I squeeze the levers harder and both at the same time, the lights both come on and stay on until I release the brakes, and there are the brake lights. Keep in mind that this is just a concept idea and I have no idea if it is actually feasible, but I'm going to give it a try at some point.
It's definitely a creative idea! I would prefer manual controls for the turn signals but that's just me. Only issue I can see is that whatever you put between the brake pads could potentially interfere with their braking power.
TheNecromancer13
Active Member
Oh, I don't mean put them between the brake pads and the wheels, I mean attach them next to the brake pads, in such a way that they touch the wheels like 1mm sooner than the brake pads when the levers are squeezed.
Ahhh, gotchya. That makes a whole lot more sense, haha.
I don't see why something like that couldn't work then.
I'm going to give one of the little 12V coil generators a shot at keeping a SLA battery charged to power my lighting system, we'll see how that turns out.
Think I've reached a compromise, got a bulk order of these on the way from China. The only set I could find that was truly an all-in-one package. Will post thoughts in a new thread once they arrive.
Separate attachments for tail light/turn signals, headlight, horn, and controller.
Separate attachments for tail light/turn signals, headlight, horn, and controller.