I was in my downtown area when I saw a bicycle with a lighting system/computer I've never seen before. There are 6 magnets attached to the spokes and a black box that attached to the seat stay in line with the 6 magnets. The box looked like it was large enough to house batteries, but I don't see the reason to have 3 sets of 2 magnets on the wheel for a simple reed switch. OTOH, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have such a small stator. Since I didn't happen to have a magnet on my, I couldn't figure out the polarity of the magnets. It's possible that they are being used to spin a magnet inside the black box as well as triggering a reed switch to give information to the computer. I took several pictures, but there was no model number or make on it. I also left the person a note to email me, but they never did. Can anyone identify this setup?
They didn't have the bike properly locked so I was able to spin the wheel and as soon as I spun the wheel, the rear light came on (I couldn't see the front light because I was at the back of the bike). This black box is powering the front and rear L.E.D. lights and a computer (which the person took with them, that would have been the easiest way to identify the system). I don't see the need for 6 magnets if it isn't a generator, but I can't see this as a very efficient generator. It looked big enough to hold 3 AAA cells, so it could be just using the magnets to turn on the lights automatically, but that could be done with a single magnet. The pic was over 2 meg, so I had to save it as a gif to upload it, which of course makes it 256 colors. The box has a weird spinning emblem on it, but no name brand or other identifying information on it.
Anyone know what this system is?
