12v lighting & safety system project-an MBc Community Effort

[vegaspaddy]

Hi steve,

sorry to hear your sick man, my project got slammed in the face too, wife got sick (she has MS) kids sick, i have no room in the garage ( so i am having to restore an old chair of my wifes to make room Pain In A..)

Why dont you just hold onto those babies and just cruise at the weekends, unfortantly theres too many crazy drivers around here for me to ride my bikes on a regular basis, so i just like to cruise for a little at the weekends.....

I still have two projects sitting in bike boxes covered by a tarp at the side of the house, since i dont have anywhere else to keep them, and i still have to build my Gebe kit up again,

I have most of the parts just have to try and find the time to do it,

 

[ezdzd]

Any word on the progress mr. john?

 

[vegaspaddy]

After a nightmare with the USPS my bulbs finally showed up a week after tracking had shown them delivered.

The next step was a little scary as i decided i was going to make a hole in the light casing and install a second bulb. My reasoning behind this was because any dual filament bulb has high wattage, i think the lowest you can find is the 9004 with a high beam of 65 watts low beam of 45 watts , still drawing too much current.

I ordered H3 bulbs at 25 and 35 watt



After a hour of so of tinkering i have think i might have SUCCESS !!!!!!!! Although i will not know for sure until i test it later tonight. The bulbs are bright, i didnt notice much of a difference between the 25 to 35 watt bulb.



I fitted the second bulb over the main centered and it has plenty of clearance both inside the light itself and in the outer casing.



So i think i will be able to get away with running the 25 watt (if it is bright enough) constantly and put the 55 watt bulb back in and use it as high beam if needed.

All i have to do now is try and reassemble the bike and find a neat way to get the whole wiring attached.

 

[vegaspaddy]

Headlight has turned out better than expected, was worried for a minute but the 2 separate bulbs work perfect. I have mounted the 25 watt center and the 55 at the top, the 25 watt is bright and can be see from quite a distance. I will run a battery test to see how long the 25 watt will burn with the battery i have, although i am thinking of converting to a SLA.

All i have to do now is clear out some more room in the garage so i can rebuild my bike on the stand without having to move it from one place to another every day...

A trip to the local goodwill store is in order i think...

 

[vegaspaddy]

Heres another custom mounted wiring box for me to drool over, now if i could only learn to do some fabrication of my own.

http://motoredbikes.com/album.php?albumid=596&pictureid=4412

http://motoredbikes.com/album.php?albumid=596&pictureid=4413

 

[KCvale]

Magneto wire

Grubee 66cc 2-stroke.

What is the output of the white "kill switch" magneto wire?
I read somewhere it was 7.5VAC 500mA max or the engine would die.
It also looks like it is ground based.

I had a 5 LED handlebar mount headlight that takes 4 AAA's.
For the life of me I can't recall if it 3V or 6V.
Since they were LED's I would guess 3V, a pair of 2 series bats in parallel.

Since it's ground based I and want to drop the voltage a single diode and varable resistor in series should be enough to provide 3V should it not?

I seldom ride at night, but I figure if I put 4 AAA NiCad's in the light and then run two wires out of it, ground to the handlebar mount, and the hot out to my diode/resistor I should be able to get a trickle current when in operation to keep the batteries charged right?

 

[unior]

Question for aussiesteve:

I have a huasheng engine with room for a second magneto if I can figure out a good way to mount it. Would it be a bad idea to use a second factory huasheng coil?

I'm trying to charge/maintain 2 seperate battery packs. Each consisting of (3) 1.2 bolt nimh 3800mah cells. So 3.6 volt packs.

tia

 

[AussieSteve]

Question for aussiesteve:

I have a huasheng engine with room for a second magneto if I can figure out a good way to mount it. Would it be a bad idea to use a second factory huasheng coil?

I'm trying to charge/maintain 2 seperate battery packs. Each consisting of (3) 1.2 bolt nimh 3800mah cells. So 3.6 volt packs.

tia

I'm not familiar with the Huasheng engines so I can't really comment, except to say that if you can fit it, a second factory coil is the only way to go unless you can wind your own.
You'd need a regulator and charging system, absolute minimum a current-limiting resistor to trickle-charge.

 

[Bob the boatbuilder]

driven generator

I bought my kit with a PTO shaft hoping that I will be able to find a way to make and store electricity for lighting and perhaps accessories/horn. Though much thought has gone into the project I have so far reached dead ends trying to find a "system" that can be purchased. The PTO is off the gearbox so when the clutch stops, so does the PTO shaft. This would mean that unless a battery is used it means lights out at stop signs. it would be so much simpler if the PTO were live always with the engine running.

I will need to address the following:

1. battery (small Motorcycle or other)
2. generator (driven by belt??? from a PTO pulley???) I wish I knew the
PTO's RPM. I have not yet recieved the kit.
3. voltage regulator (not being an electrical engineer, I need help here)
4. overcharge protection (not being an electrical engineer, I need help here)

I can't be the only one that wants this system, I hope it is already outlined.

 

[AussieSteve]

I bought my kit with a PTO shaft hoping that I will be able to find a way to make and store electricity for lighting and perhaps accessories/horn. Though much thought has gone into the project I have so far reached dead ends trying to find a "system" that can be purchased. The PTO is off the gearbox so when the clutch stops, so does the PTO shaft. This would mean that unless a battery is used it means lights out at stop signs. it would be so much simpler if the PTO were live always with the engine running.

I will need to address the following:

1. battery (small Motorcycle or other)
2. generator (driven by belt??? from a PTO pulley???) I wish I knew the
PTO's RPM. I have not yet recieved the kit.
3. voltage regulator (not being an electrical engineer, I need help here)
4. overcharge protection (not being an electrical engineer, I need help here)

I can't be the only one that wants this system, I hope it is already outlined.

Hi Bob. As far as I know there is nothing ready-made on the market. I'm building mine from the ground up.
My setup will be driven by my shift-kit jackshaft, so like yours', it will only work when the clutch is engaged. As you say, the answer is a battery.

1. Battery: I figured that I'd like to draw 36W maximum, (3A @ 12V), so opted for a 5Ah 12V SLA battery to allow for about 1.5 hours without the engine, or 3 hours on low beam at 18W.

2. Generator: You won't find an off-the-shelf generator as such, but a DC motor is the same thing. To get a minimum of 36W at 12V, I settled for a 24V, 100W DC brush motor. (An electric scooter motor.) It easily provides enough power without revving excessively high. It's rated at 2300rpm.

3. The regulator is the hardest part. It needs current limiting and reverse-discharge protection as well as a well-regulated output to avoid over-charging.
I have a simple (step-down) one partly done, a switching regulator, but have a bit of work to do yet when I get a chance.
I'd like to use a buck-boost regulator, (one that steps up the generator voltage when the engine is revving low and steps it down to the charging voltage when the revs are high), but I have to get over a few problems to make that work.

4. See #3.

My jackshaft is geared down 6.96:1 from the crankshaft, so I'm gearing the generator back up by about 3:1 so that the generator runs at a little over half the engine rpm. My engine does 7500rpm max under load and I want the generator doing about 4000rpm.

I found that a digital optical tacho is indispensible for working out power output at rpm etc. I attached the generator to a variable speed electric drill, locked in the trigger and used the tacho to set speed, to help work out gearing. eBay has cheap tachos.
There's a pic of my test setup below, producing 13.9V into an 18W bulb.

I decided to get the headlight, switch and battery all fitted and working before I continue with the charging system, so I've spent the last few days making up and painting an aluminium battery box and brackets and headlight mounting brackets. Got a good handlebar-mount off/low/high switch on the way. It's all shaping up well.