Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Years ago on a sidewall alternator with incandescent bulb I wired in a couple zener diodes to trim off the voltage peaks when I went down hills. I think I used 8 volt diodes.
IIRC, that was a somewhat recommended practice.
To some degree, it was to protect the taillight bulb when the headlight bulb blew out. The headlight bulbs were only rated for 100 hours life, so it wasn't as if you expected it to last years and years.
I've got a little Jos dynamoblock light that is the only sidewall dynamo I've used, and I've never used a tail light with it...
.... but now I'm wondering how well the bottle dynamos regulated their current, at least in comparison to hub dynamos. Their inductance must be a lot less, but their AC frequency is quite a bit higher. Maybe their current regulation is similar to hub dynamos??
Steve in Peoria