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Old 09-19-07 | 09:27 AM
  #12  
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n4zou
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Originally Posted by remsav
Thats great! ... I did wonder about the rechargeable battery in the set up, since all the dynamo flash lights comes with nimh batteries built in... thought maybe overcharging was a concern. You should make a video and put it on youtube.
I don’t know how good a youtube would be as the lights are on all the time, stopped or not! It's just like powering the 3-watt Mag-Lite flashlight on batteries except they're being recharged when you're riding above 8 MPH, which is very easy to do. All the video would show is a guy riding around on a bike with his lights on. My average speed is 14 MPH so the flashlight is using 350mA; 30mA by the taillight, and the remaining 120mA is recharging the NiMH batteries. I've started disengaging the dynamo from the wheel when riding up inclines and then re-engaging it on the flat or downgrade. I got home last night and noted the batteries were at 90% charge. So far the batteries are holding up pretty well even doing that. Doing that got me an extra 2 MPH average speed increase. I remembered having an old solar panel and dug it out of a box. I hooked it up to the batteries and parked the bike in the sun. The panel started pumping 275mA into the batteries and in 2 hours the batteries were back to 100%. I am going to be going on a week long tour and will take the solar panel with me so I can recharge the batteries during the day without resorting to the dynamo for charging. Here is a photo of the solar panel sitting on the front rack.

Ignore the 12-24 volt label on the panel. There was a boost circuit board connected which went bad and that’s the reason it found it's way to a dumpster. I retrieved that panel and removed the boost board and now have a free solar panel that runs about 5 unloaded volts in bright sun, just right for charging my NiMH batteries!
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