Pedal & Power with SON

Quoted message said:

I've now rigged up a Pedal & Power (from IKON Global) to
my SON dynamo hub. I'm quite impressed with the ability to
charge my mobile phone, since it's managed to charge from
about 3/4 charge (guaged by the battery guage on the
phone) to fully charged.

Genius. I'd been hoping those things were good. I'll start
saving me pennies for when (if) I do the lejog. As I'll be
camping and riding unsupported I'll need to be able to
phone my friends and talk just to keep me sane! I do like
my own company but 2 and a bit weeks of it would get
rather tiresome!

All I've got to work out now is where to keep the rat.
Parents have managed to kill off 5 pets since I started uni,
so I've no particular wish to leave the rat with them! Also,
rat loves cycling - the one time I took her on the bike she
ran down my arm onto the handlebars and leant forwards into
the wind! Given her love of gnawing on electric cables I
think she's a bit of a thrillseeker. I'm thinking some kind
of knaw-proof handlebar bag with a wire covered opening in
the front so she can still get her thrills, then a tube into
her sleeping quarters in a saddle bag. Apart from the
obvious downside of taking up precious luggage space it will
look absolutely stupid. Maybe I'll just have to tail another
lejoger on a bent so no-one notices me.

Wed, 24 Mar 2004 20:48:44 +0000, Simon Proven:

Quoted message said:

I've now rigged up a Pedal & Power (from IKON Global) to my
SON dynamo hub. I'm quite impressed with the ability to
charge my mobile phone, since it's managed to charge from
about 3/4 charge (guaged by the battery guage on the phone)
to fully charged.

What model of mobile phone are you using? I tried the P&P
system with a Siemens C25 and an older Alcatel Easy and the
charge rate stayed very low.

Quoted message said:

As the phone lasts about a week on a full charge that's
rather good. That was over 4.5 miles of my morning
commute, I stopped charging and put the phone and adaptor
away once it started to rain.

Make shure to disconnect the P&P electronics from the hub
dynamo, when you do not charge the phone. I managed to toast
the electronics at 50 km/h without load. But this is not the
worst thing to happen, because the electronics are IMHO
inappropriate: It is a simple voltage doubler circuit and a
7812 linear regulator designed for a weak 6V3W sidewall
dynamo. The result is 250mA max. charging current at 12
volt. If you just rectify the AC output of the SON, add a
bigger capacitor to smooth the DC and a fat 15 volt 5 watt
zener (cooled by the airstream) to limit the voltage, you
will be able to charge with up to 580mA.

Quoted message said:

I also replaced my front light (Lumotec N Plus) as the
contacts had become dodgy at not much more than 18
months age.

It is relative common for Lumotecs to have the flat spring
in the middle bend back and loose contact. This happens
especially when you adjust the beam angle while the mounting
screw is relative tight. You can eliminate the problem, if
you bend the flat spring forward and avoid adjusting the
beam angle.

Quoted message said:

The replacement is the Schmidt E6 which seems to be a
much better light. I rigged up a 3 way double throw
switch (on-off-on) to select between light, neither, or
the Pedal & Power.

With an extra switch the cheaper E6-OS might have been the
best choice.

Quoted message said:

I am thinking of re-working it all to be a bit more tidy,
perhaps by re-jigging the wiring so that the switching is
at the back (under the saddle?) with the frame used to
provide the earth side of the circuit. This would make it
all a bit neater and tidier, particularly if I can wire it
all using a single 3-core cable to carry the power from the
dynamo to the switch and then back to the charger and to
the lamp.

All in all, I'm reasonably pleased so far.

I'm very interested in your long term experiences!

Andreas

Andreas Oehler said:

Wed, 24 Mar 2004 20:48:44 +0000, Simon Proven:

Quoted message said:

I've now rigged up a Pedal & Power (from IKON Global) to
my SON dynamo hub. I'm quite impressed with the ability to
charge my mobile phone, since it's managed to charge

Quoted message said:

from about 3/4 charge (guaged by the battery guage on the

Quoted message said:

phone) to fully charged.

Quoted message said:

What model of mobile phone are you using? I tried the P&P
system with a Siemens C25 and an older Alcatel Easy and
the charge rate stayed very low.

The phone is a Sont Ericsson T68i. Today the phone is back
to roughly the charge level I had when I set off for work
yesterday morning.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

As the phone lasts about a week on a full charge that's
rather good. That was over 4.5 miles of my morning
commute, I stopped charging and put the phone and adaptor
away once it started to rain.

Quoted message said:

Make shure to disconnect the P&P electronics from the hub
dynamo, when you do not charge the phone. I managed to
toast the electronics at 50 km/h without load. But this is
not the worst thing to happen, because the electronics are
IMHO inappropriate: It is a simple voltage doubler circuit
and a 7812 linear regulator designed for a weak 6V3W
sidewall dynamo. The result is 250mA max. charging current
at 12 volt. If you just rectify the AC output of the SON,
add a bigger capacitor to smooth the DC and a fat 15 volt
5 watt zener (cooled by the airstream) to limit the
voltage, you will be able to charge with up to 580mA.

That's interesting, thanks for the advice. I note you said
15V for the zener; I presume in-car chargers will cope with
this adequately. I guess they ought to work with at least
the charging voltage in cars which would be 13.8V iirc, and
some margin for safety.

I looked at doing something for charging a lead acid battery
using a SON without the inefficieny that a zener will bring
once the battery nears full charge. However the problem is
that once you start to limit the current from the SON the
voltage will always climb and I don't know enough to design
a circuit that will be able to cope with the high voltages I
understand the SON will produce on open circuit. In fact
what might work is a switch-mode version using a FET where
the FET, where the FET's output is smoothed by a large
capacitor and fed to a comparator, which feeds back to
switch off the FET when the voltage is elevated. I guess
that the FET would need to be fast to avoid it drawing a
large amount of power and overheating. Maybe when I'm bored
one day I will try to build it (unless someone tells me now
why it won't work!).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I also replaced my front light (Lumotec N Plus) as the
contacts had become dodgy at not much more than 18
months age.

Quoted message said:

It is relative common for Lumotecs to have the flat spring
in the middle bend back and loose contact. This happens
especially when you adjust the beam angle while the
mounting screw is relative tight. You can eliminate the
problem, if you bend the flat spring forward and avoid
adjusting the beam angle.

I've a Lumotec on my Birdy (with a 16-20" SON) still so I
will bear this advice in mind, though I'm tempted to
replace it with an E6 because I'm very impressed with the
beam it gives.

Quoted message said:

I'm very interested in your long term experiences!

It seems that a few people are. I'll post again after I've
got some more to report.

Simon