White wire lighting system

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Identical 12V/29LED lights.

My lighting system consist of two 12V headlights with 29 LED's in each for the front and one 12V with 29 LED's for the rear(their all the same lights)
Their originally meant as car driving lights but as car driving lights u can't take them seriously,but as motored bicycle lights their great.On a rescent trip with other MBc members & friends a few ppl commented on how bright the rear tail light was(i keep it running all the time for safety)
I also have a 3-way switch on the front,centre off/left left light/right both lights.
front.JPG
rear.JPG
switch.JPG
 
You know, if you took a new maglite with the 3W LED bulb (3 cell) you could cut it down to about 4 inches long, seal up the back & power it from the white wire or a hub generator, or even a good scrubber generator.

I have a regulator circuit I found, and which has also been posted here, to recharge a 4-cell nicad battery pack. The regulator circuit could probably be housed inside the the shortened flashlight housing.

A 3W mag-light is awfully bright, and you can focus the beam for higher speed, or widen it out when you need to, just by turning the head.

Also - dr_clabo: Your diagram is a bit off. The two diodes on the right side are reverse polarity - they are pointing the wrong way. All diodes in a bridge rectifier must be 'pointing' towards positive. (ref the altered schematic, below) If it gets wired as is, the right side diodes will short out the white wire.

The idea is OK, with a few clarifications, and one reservation. First, you should use schotsky diodes - they are a low forward voltage drop, about half that of a standard silicon diode, and will thus reduce the .6 volt loss to .3 volt loss. Second - the lights/aux circuitry MUST be isolated from the frame ground, or you must isolate the engine from ground (a much tougher approach.) If a light is grounded by its mounting bracket to ground, it will bypass two of the diodes, and probably act to kill the motor, just like the kill switch.

Finally, the reservation - This approach, while it will work, will lead to reduced battery life. There's just no way to avoid overcharging the battery. (The way that the IC based battery chargers avoid this problem is by monitoring battery temperature with a thermistor. When the battery temperature starts rising faster than ambient temperature, then the battery is fully charged, and then they stop charging.)
 

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I purchased a bullet headlight for bikes which is battery operated mounts on stem. With a little modification I took out battery pack and ran white wire to lamp, there was alittle soldering involved, I used a 5v 250ma bulb, The light has just enough lumes to light the street. You can also use the switch in the light to turn the engine on and off. Most bike suppliers sell these lights.
 
I really dislike the idea of messing with the magneto power, let alone pushing the thing to the limits. Seems like the CDI needs are the juice it can muster.

For 14 bux (on sale 20% off) at Fred Meyer I bought a fairly strong Bell LED light (front and rear) with all sorts of options for lighting. I also have a Norman egg bullet front light. These combined all on rechargeable RC battery power provide a lot of light.

I may use the magneto for the rear....but that one only takes 3V (two AAA cells) and maybe I'll need a little voltage drop (maybe not), so I'm not sure what the point it would be besides saving batteries (always a good thing I guess)

Great thread, btw. Except the jumping on the new guy part. :eek::cool:
 
What about other motors? I have a Robin Subaru that I want to set up a good commuter light set. The wire coming off it is what I use for a ground to kill my motor, but it is not white or Chinese.

Also I have wondered if a trickle charger can be set up from that power source for a 12 V 5 or 7 A rechargeable battery to run a battery light system from? loquin may have answered that above, as I read it again that is what I think he says, darn heat makes me groggy. I sure need to get a good commuter light set up. And now it could allow me to ride at 95 degrees instead of 110.
 
Head Light

Well Pablo its been a couple of years head light still works fine no problem with the mag coil.I will admit the light is not as bright as a halogen but it does fine for night riding. The engine starts with light on and idles, I have also been considering rewinding a coil to see how that might work have you herd of anyone attempting this.
 
White wire voltage output

ok, it's time to define the white wire lighting.

the value of the white wire output is listed as 6V/3W, in don't have a meter to check it.

i've successfully run the engine with a single 6V/2.4W bulb, but it blows the bulb fairly quickly.

i can't get the engine to spark at all with any 2 bulbs in place.

i need somone who can discuss this in layman's terms:

what value (V/W/A) bulb is really needed if i want to successfully run 1 bulb? 2 bulbs?

i suspect the output surges at times...is the surge a matter of amps or watts? is there something i can cheaply wire inline to limit/regulate the surge?

is it doable to use a 12V/3W bulb to resist blow-out?

who's having consistent luck with white-wire lighting, and what are you using/doing?

I recently hooked up a voltage meter to my 2-stroke, 66cc motor white wire and ground and went for a spin...
At idle, I get 4.5 volts AC. At an indicated 33 KPH (20.5 MPH) I get 8.0 Volts.
at 40 KPH (25 MPH) I'm getting 9.0 Volts. Any faster speed causes the meter's display to go blank (from the vibrations?) I'd call going from 4.5 to 9 volts a "surge" and would expect a 6 Volt item to get fried. A voltage regulated circuit would seem to be in order for the "white wire" to have a usable lighting application, but then, I'd only be getting less than 5 Volts of rectified DC at 25 MPH, right?...or can the full AC voltage also be easily "regulated"?...

Ode
 
How exactly do you get juice (AC) from CDI to power lights.

Short Answer is you dont.

The HT engines need all the juice they can get to run properly. Use a battery, Lithiums are cheap these days, or the even cheaper SLA.
 
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