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Old 03-08-18 | 09:53 AM
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rhm
multimodal commuter
 
Joined: Nov 2006
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From: NJ, NYC, LI

Bikes: 1940s Fothergill, 1959 Allegro Special, 1963? Claud Butler Olympic Sprint, Lambert 'Clubman', 1974 Fuji "the Ace", 1976 Holdsworth 650b conversion rando bike, 1983 Trek 720 tourer, 1984 Counterpoint Opus II, 1993 Basso Gap, 2010 Downtube 8h, and...

Originally Posted by Pompiere
If LED stands for light emitting DIODE, and a bridge rectifier is four diodes soldered together, couldn't you just solder four LEDs together in a bridge configuration to work with a dynamo? Or am I forgetting something from electronics school? It has been a while and the only LEDs we had were little red ones.
Yes.

The real caveman solution (my specialty) is to attach one wire from the dynamo to the "+" of the headlight and the "-" of the taillight; and attach the other wire to the "-" of the headlight and the "+" of the taillight. That way the alternating current goes to the headlight and taillight alternately, giving each one full power half of the time. No on/off switch, no capacitor, nothing fancy.

It works, I know 'cuz I've done it! But my $80 B&M headlight works so much better, I can't recommend anything else.
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