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Old 02-24-19 | 04:40 PM
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Tourist in MSN
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Joined: Aug 2010
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From: Madison, WI

Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.

You said you "charge my front and rear lights, day time running while charging a battery pack". In general terms, running bike lights and also trying to charge up batteries are mutually exclusive. There is not enough power to do it all at the same time. I use a dynohub for bike touring but my headlamp is almost always turned off.

A few bits of trivia, in the event you were unaware. Almost all dyno powered taillights are wired to the headlamp, when the headlamp is off, so is the taillight. And dyno powered taillights do not flash.

When I am charging up devices, I have my dyno powered lights off. Bike touring, I have always used battery powered taillights for two reasons, (1) I want to be able to use flashing taillights during the daytime, and (2) by using battery powered taillights, I can charge up batteries from the hub while using taillights at the same time.

I have recently bought some dyno powered taillights, but I do not consider them a primary light, I consider them to be a supplement to my battery powered taillights.

You are getting the most expensive dynohub, so I am not sure what your budget constraints really are like. I assume you are looking for a USB charger. They come in a wide of prices. And there are a few different headlights that include a USB charger. I think most people that use a USB charger for touring have one that is separate from the headlamp.

I have used the Sinewave Revolution USB charger, it is one of the more expensive ones but I wanted one that had really good waterproofing.

Some devices are picky about the USB power source. My Garmin 64 will not charge batteries from my Sinewave charger directly without a pass through cache battery. Many people that have devices that do not charge well from a dynohub buy a big power bank, charge that up during the day and use that to top up their other devices later.

This link describes a pass through cache battery better than I can, so I won't try.
https://www.cyclingabout.com/best-dy...fer-batteries/

Peter Whites website has very good discussion on dyno powered lighting, he is the distributor for B&M, you can learn a lot from his website.
https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/

A couple years ago I did a two week bike tour, I was fully self supporting for power, did not plug into an outlet for the whole time. My GPS is always on when I am rolling, I had a tablet that I used for e-mail and weather forecasts but my tablet was only used where i had wifi, so it was usually turned off. I took lots of photos with a waterproof point and shoot camera, had to charge those batteries up frequently. Most of the time while rolling I had one or two taillights on in flash mode. That trip was in February when the sun set early, so I used my headlamp (on my head) in the campsite a lot. I had a phone (flip phone, it only was used to make phone calls) but it was almost always off.

I think if you have specific questions, we can provide more help.
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