Dynamo LED Driver Circuit - PCB available

[Martin]

.. You mention a FAQ .Where might this be please? ..

It's well hidden: Get the ZIP with the design files and find an XLS inside. Open it and locate the sheet "FAQ".

I am naughtily updating files inside the ZIP without notice, just two days ago I've added an answer to the tail light request.

 

[dom]

Ahhh - I did get that but can't seem to be able to open half of the files.I can open the parts Excel file and the pictures.
I've just downloaded OpenOffice.org but that didn't seem to help either.

Perhaps i need the latest Excel?

Cheers
Dom

 

[Martin]

Ahhh - I did get that but can't seem to be able to open half of the files.I can open the parts Excel file and the pictures.
I've just downloaded OpenOffice.org but that didn't seem to help either.

Perhaps i need the latest Excel?

Cheers
Dom

It's MS Office97, virtually any version of Excel should be able to open it. For a test, I have downloaded and opened the zip from my website, it works OK.
Are you aware that an Excel document can have more than one sheet ? Mine does. The BOM sheet is displayed upon opening the file, while the FAQ is the very last sheet.

By the way, how's your legs ?

 

[dom]

Wow!Thanks for that Martin -you can see i'm a bit of an expert with the Excel
Heaps of info there - now what was Ktronik's phone number hehe

3 more weeks on the crutches and lots of physio and should be back on the bike.I'm going to resurrect it today.

Cheers
Dom

 

[cdev]

Hi, New to these forums and I'm very interested in a couple of the pcb's. Are there any available and how do I buy them? I plan to use them with schmidt dynohubs and a 3 led headlight setup. Thanks...

 

[cyberscenic]

Hi, New to these forums and I'm very interested in a couple of the pcb's. Are there any available and how do I buy them? I plan to use them with schmidt dynohubs and a 3 led headlight setup. Thanks...

PM Martin and you will get served!

 

[kkk1]

Hi,

Do you sill have PCBs (v2.1 ?) for sale? If do, I am interested for Shimano and for 3xLEDs.

BTW: Do you have parameters (or lucky guess) for Shimano HB-C050-DR Hub?

-kari

 

[Steve K]

The main issue is, that charging the reservoir eats some of the dynamo's energy and charging the reservoir QUICKLY costs a very noticeable amount of light. To reduce the impact from this, I need to have a switch that selects trickle-charge & light (rural riding with a lot of light output), fast-charge & light (city riding with frequent traffic lights), fastest charge without light (topping up the battery during short daytime hops), off (bike parked). So much complexity and less light output.. Need a better idea.

hi Martin,

I've done a couple of standlight designs for my own bike, and I absolutely agree about the difficulty of designing a standlight that works for all applications. My initial design kept the headlight running at 3W, but it wasn't able to keep the battery charged in the winter when it was below 0C and dark all of the time.

My second, and current, design keeps four 5mm leds powered brightly when stopped. The battery is a single AA nicad cell. It works fine for me, but I don't know if it would be adequate for city riding where the rider spends half of the time waiting at intersections.

The limiting factors, in my experience, are the limited power that can be obtained from the dynamo, and the ratio of time spent moving to the time spent stopped.

The first factor can be optimized with a "peak power tracker", similar to what is used for solar panels. If the dynamo type & model is known, then the PPT is not too complicated. The circuit needs to measure the frequency of the dynamo output, and then adjust the input impedance of the load. If the circuit will be used with any dynamo, then the PPT will have to constantly adjust the load input impedance to maximize the power.

I've worked with solar panels and battery charging many years ago, and even designed an analog PPT circuit. It's fun stuff, but may be too complicated and expensive for a bike light.

To handle the problem of keeping the standlight powered when much of the time is spent stopped.... all I can think of is to minimize the power delivered to the standlight. Perhaps a microcontroller that runs the standlight at max power for the first 10 seconds, and then changes to blinking mode? The microcontroller might also watch the battery's state of charge, and go directly to blinking mode if the battery is low.

I'm curious as to what others' experiences are. The commercially available standlights are pretty weak, but there are significant challenges to building a bright, cheap standlight.

regards,
Steve K.

 

[turboferret]

I'd be very interested in a PCB board too, if you have any left.

Cheers, Rich

 

[russellg]

Hi Martin,

If the PCB boards are available still I'd also be very interested in obtaining one.

It will most likely be for a Shimano hub (I'd like a SON but can't afford/justify it) and I have ordered a cutter 4 led kit.

I am also planning a 3 LED kit and maybe a Bottle dynamo one too for the missus.

I have looked for the link to PM you but I cant find it!

Thanks very much,

Russell

 

[Martin]

..I have looked for the link to PM you but I cant find it!..

Hi Russel, welcome to CPF. You can imagine, this nice forum is hit by its share of spam and this isn't going better. Now forum rules have been updated:
...Until a new user account has been approved and vetted in the above manner, the account has NO private message privileges...

To let me know where to send your PCB, contact me either after you have PM privileges or dig for my current email address on my website.
Martin

 

[russellg]

Hi Martin, Thanks for that.

That totally makes sense. I have been on other forums where someone has done the very same thing and I have received unsolicited PM's along with the rest of the forum members

Its good to see that CPF have puts measures in place.

In the mean time I have sent you a mail.

Cheers, Russell

 

[turboferret]

I'm a noob in the same boat as russelg, so email sent too.

Cheers, Rich

 

[nintendo64]

Sounds like a good project to build and I , might be interested. sourcing he components will probably be hard in australia since one of the retailers stopped selling them.:mecry:

anyone got any pictures/video of their setup, performance at night or finished light in action?

 

[znomit]

sourcing he components will probably be hard in australia since one of the retailers stopped selling them.:mecry:

anyone got any pictures/video of their setup, performance at night or finished light in action?

I got almost everything from farnell, a few bits from jaycar too.
Performance is very good. Build details of mine here. Sorry no beamshots but a really good amount of light.

 

[Cemoi]

Hello Martin,

it fits into a 1 1/8" steerer tube

How did you manage to put it inside the steerer tube? I suppose you drove it in from the bottom since the top is obstructed by the star nut which can not be removed. But then how do you hold it in place, and how do you protect it from splashing water? Pictures would be appreciated if you have some.

 

[mrbubbles]

Hello Martin,


How did you manage to put it inside the steerer tube? I suppose you drove it in from the bottom since the top is obstructed by the star nut which can not be removed. But then how do you hold it in place, and how do you protect it from splashing water? Pictures would be appreciated if you have some.

I used pieces from punctured inner tubes and bolts screwed from the fender mount at the fork crown.

Here's mine. Seoul P4s with L2 optics. The switch goes on the handlebar.

 

[nintendo64]

I got almost everything from farnell, a few bits from jaycar too.
Performance is very good. Build details of mine here. Sorry no beamshots but a really good amount of light.

ive been trying to source parts at jaycar to see if it would be feasible to do this project. unfortunately i dont think i can get all the components at this stage.

 

[znomit]

I was unable to source some things from Jaycar.
Heres my Farnell order. This is for a quad LED build.
The shipping was very reasonable (especially since it arrived by courier in 3 or 4 deliveries).

Part Num. Quantity . Availability Line Price Description Mfr Part # Mfr Name
========= ========== ============ ========== ======================================== ============== ========
1179713 1 In Stock 3.20 Voltage / Frequency (V/F & F/V) Converte LM2907N/NOPB NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
1350866 1 In Stock 1.85 MOSFET; Transistor Polarity Channel; D IRFD9024PBF INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER
1350855 1 In Stock 1.47 MOSFET; Transistor Polarity:N Channel; D IRFD024PBF INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER
1097252 5 In Stock 0.95 DIODE, ZENER, 18V, 1.3W; Voltage, Vz:18V BZV85-C18 NXP
1510729 1 In Stock 1.59 THYRISTOR, 12A, 500V, TO-220AB; Current, BT151-500C NXP
1166011 5 In Stock 2.48 CAPACITOR, 0.33UF, 100V; Capacitance:0.3 2222 370 21334 VISHAY BC COMPONENTS
1833452 1 In Stock 9.73 RUBBER CHICKEN, :latex RBCHOOK113 ACME CHICKEN CO
1215508 5 In Stock 0.88 CAPACITOR, 0.1UF, 63V; Capacitance:0.1µF 2222 370 11104 VISHAY BC COMPONENTS
9692550 3 In Stock 8.43 CAPACITOR, 470UF, 63V; Application:Low E EEUFC1J471 PANASONIC

 

[DavidM]

Martin,

I'm looking forward to building some dynamo lights based on your designs. I posting this not-particularly-substantive message so that I can unlock my CPF self. I tried sending you an email the old fashioned way, maybe you got it already.

Here's a genuine question though: you don't specify what sort of "Power LED" you're designing around. What do you recommend?

Thanks