Why are dynamo USB chargers so expensive?
 

Dynamo USB chargers like the Sinewave Reactor are $200+ but I can get a light with a built in charger (AXA Luxx70 Plus Light) for $150.

What do the separate charging units provide that the light+charger doesn't?

you can leave your phone home (or off) and not need one.


Sinewave does not make Locks and many other products Axa in NL Does... I have one of their frame lock and chain combinations..

so a much larger corporation .

Economy of scale is a well known way to reduce costs.. make a lot of something, in an efficient factory..








.....

There is a bigger market for one than the other. From the consumer side you are either stuck with this one light or have a choice of any.

Lower production unit count, so higher production costs=higher price.
https://www.bumm.de/en/products/stromversorgung.html

As noted by the others, manufacturing volume does a lot to cut costs.

I had the chance to talk to one of the guys at Sinewave at a bike show, and I got the impression that they were trying to make their product much rugged and sealed than the B&M products. Seems like it might be a better choice for the serious bike tourist that will be out in all sorts of weather.

Have you tried contacting Sinewave? I'd bet that they'd be happy to provide a comparison with the B&M product.

Steve in Peoria

I was frustrated with the high cost of chargers, I tried to make my own. After blowing out several on downhills (voltage from the hub climbs at higher speed), I gave up and bought real chargers. They need to be designed well enough to handle high voltage at higher speeds downhill.

I have the Sinewave Revolution, the AXA 70 Plus, and the B&M Luxos U.

I first bought the AXA. It works well. But I did not trust the waterproofing well enough to rely on it for a month on a bike tour in Iceland where it can rain a lot, so I bought the Sinewave for that trip. I think the Sinewave Revolution is the best waterproofed one out there. The AXA USB charger is in the mount, it has minimal waterproofing. I saw on another forum that someone was really happy with that light for touring in Britain, but he put a plastic bag over it on rainy days to protect it. I also think that the Sinewave puts out maybe 20 percent more power at higher speed than the AXA, but at low speed they are about the same. When I got home from that Iceland trip I put the AXA back on the bike because for non-touring purposes the AXA is just fine for riding around home. Last winter, I did another tour, I used the Sinewave for that also. The Sinewave and the AXA both lack a pass through cache battery. Some devices will charge just fine without a pass through cache battery, but some won't. My Garmin 64 does not charge the battery when I plug it directly into the AXA or the Sinewave unless I also use a pass through cache battery.

For my most recent build last spring, I decided to pay a bit more for the Luxos U, it has a built in pass through battery that plays well with all of my devices.

The AXA is on my expedition bike, the Luxos U is on my light touring bike, the Sinewave will end up on my rando bike now that I have a dyno hub on that bike too. But I probably will always take the Sinewave on bike tours where it could get quite wet.

Some people do not like the light pattern out of the Luxx 70 Plus, I think it is just fine but it takes a bit of time to get used to. At low speeds some extra close in LEDs light up, but some people find that is rather sudden and it bothers them. But I got used to it pretty quick. The light pattern out of teh Luxos U is also good. Both lights have asymmetric light patterns, you are not wasting a lot of light up above the horizon.

First photo is my Sinewave, I just strap it on somewhere, it has to come off later when I pack the bike in the S&S case to come home. Second is my Luxx 70 Plus. Third is the Luxos U. The mount on the Luxos U is not stock, I bent it to fit.

Good luck with your choices.

Addendum added later:

I use battery powered taillights, but both the AXA Luxx 70 Plus and the Luxos U have outputs for a wired taillight. I use battery taillights because I often use flashing lights on roadways during daytime, but if you get a headlamp you might consider a taillight too. The wired taillights don't flash however.

I have a prototype charger from Kerry at kLite.com.au Dynamo Lighting Systems which cost me US$55 but it is a bit rough into terms of packaging. Not sure when they will go into production but the pricing should be reasonable so that might be a possible option down the track.

Orfos FlarePro and this cheap china rearlight can be used wired and have flash mode.
orfos.us
amazon.com/ToHa-Rechargeable-Flashing-Lighting-Red-Blue-Pink/dp/B06XJJ5VC3

Anyone who has spent hours in a caravan park kitchen, laundry or bathroom, knowing that if they leave for a second that their charging electronics will be stolen, think that the price for an on-bike charger would be cheap at twice the price for the convenience they offer.
I've never resented the money I spent on my E-werk and will happily upgrade when/if a better one is manufactured, irrespective of cost.
Definitely the best cycling accessory I've ever bought.

+ 1

BTW a Busch & Muller e-Werk can be had from Germany, from the likes of http://bike24.com for ~US$100. Not to unreasonable.

Can you point to the information that indicates that the Orfos can be dynamo powered please? I can only find a mention of USB on their website.

I guess having a battery that is charged off the dynamo whilst it is running the light might work.

To clarify my comment above about using battery powered taillights that flash instead of wired taillights that don't flash, by wired I meant the taillights that do not have an internal battery and are fed by a 6 volt line from the headlight when the headlight is turned on. Maybe you could run a long USB extension cable to a light that is recharged that way, but that is not what I meant by wired.

Most of the time I am using a dynohub, it is on a bike tour where I am camping and I rely on that for my sole power source. I use it to power a USB charger for charging GPS batteries (AA), camera batteries (Li Ion), phone (USB cable), headlamp (for my head, AA or AAA), taillights (AAA), etc. My phone is usually turned off, but when rolling I have my GPS turned on. Only rarely is my hub used to power the headlight, thus a wired taillight would probably be turned off when the headlight is turned off. Thus, a battery powered taillight makes more sense if I might want to use it in the daytime while also using the USB to charge batteries. Also, on my S&S bike, I really do not want to mess around with wiring when packing or unpacking the bike.

That is why on the photos above of headlights on two of my bikes, there is no taillight wiring.

My Garmin 64 GPS is capable of charging a pair of NiMH AA batteries or if I use AAA to AA adapters, I can charge a pair of NiMH AAA batteries. (That is done by fooling it into thinking that the proprietary Garmin battery pack is in the GPS instead of a pair of AA batteries.) Thus, my GPS is also my AA and AAA charger for my headlamp (for my head around the campsite) or for my taillight batteries.

I usually use a camera that can be charged with a USB cable, but that is a hassle when I want to take photos, so I usually instead use a Lenmar Li Ion charger that is supplied by USB to charge one battery while using the camera on a different battery.
https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Cha.../dp/B001RGYZJS

https://buy.ternbicycles.com/product...icro-usb-cable

$29.95 for the rest of us.

I bought mine when the price was $25 an had to splice in my own USB female connector.
I have run it in parallel with light.

Exactly, it can be powered over USB. So not with an internal battery, but wired.
For converting dynamo power into USB, there are several options:
https://shop.supernova-design.com/sh...ry/the-plug-23
https://www.sinewavecycles.com/produ...ave-revolution
M172 Bicycle charge controller USB (Mini B)
M172N Bicycle Power Charge Controller USB
NC-17 Pro Shop - NC-17 Connect AppCon GT 1 USB-Ladegerät für Bikepacker
DynaLader Digital-112
Plug III
Cycle2Charge
https://zzing.de/index.php/en/
https://www.bicycle-smart-power.de/e...ries/Category1
Marktübersicht: (USB)-Ladegeräte für Nabendynamos » Fahrradbeleuchtung Info

Sorry but it is not "exactly" at all ...the use of a battery or cache battery is not a wired system. A wired system is something like my Busch & Mueller Toplight Line Plus.

Based on your logic my Garmin Edge 1030 is "wired" because I can use a battery between the dynamo and the GPS unit, yet clearly it is not wired at all.

Furthermore frankly I wouldn't be that keen on having to rely on a bigger enough battery which I may need to continuously charge whilst riding to have a rear light. The reason I have dynamos and wired lights on all my bikes is to avoid the the reliance on a battery for my lights and to be able to simply get on my bike have lights [1].

My cache battery is charged daily whilst riding for one reason only: to top up my devices overnight in the tent. That of course can include USB charged rear lights, however it adds another device to be charged.

[1] I am not saying here the Orfos is not an interesting option but it does in my view lack the simplicity and functionality of a "wired" system but has the advantage [?] of being a flashing rear light.

They're not.

I paid $54 for my B&M USB-Werk including a small cache battery, ordered direct from Germany where dynamo lighting systems are required on all bicycles weighing over 11kg.

You're seeing high prices because you're shopping in the American market where dynamo powered USB power supplies are a luxury item (mainstream market alternative: USB power packs) for a small niche market.

They don't disable USB charging when the light is turned on, keep the light and USB failure domains separate, mean you can use a more mature design like the Cyo Premium or Edelux which doesn't have water ingress issues, and limit re-wiring if you decide to upgrade to a newer light.

Ordering from Germany a B&M Cyo Preium + USB-Werk combination costs less than a Luxos-U; and German prices + $22 shipping are much lower than US but can mean 2-weeks of shipping/handling/customs.

It is not just dynohubs and lighting that cost more in USA. The USA market for parts has too many high-profit-margin hands on every transaction. Before Ortlieb put a stop to their European dealers shipping to USA, I bought my Ortliebs from Europe, one of my Tubus racks, my Rohloff hub (that by itself saved me about $500), etc.

I built up another bike this past spring, from Europe I bought the SP Dynamo, Luxos U, a RackTime rack, one disc brake unit, rear Shimano hub, headset, Brooks saddle and a few other parts.

The last time I bought Rohloff oil, I paid less than half as much as I would have paid in USA by buying it from Germany.

There is a small tariff on imported bike parts from Europe that the distribution channels have to pay, but it is minuscule compared to the high markups that they charge.

bikeforums.net/electronics-lighting-gadgets/1134789-reasonable-priced-usb-charger-hub-dynamo.html

Nokia also made an dynamo powered USB Charger:
cnet.com/news/nokia-unveils-bicycle-powered-phone-charger/
amazon.com/Nokia-DC-14-Charger-CR-124-Holder/dp/B00475BGHA

I'm wondering why no manufacturer makes any Qi chargeable GPS items.
Something like a K-edge Garmin mount could very easily have a Qi-coil in the mount and be completely waterproof as well when hooked up to a dynamo or buffer charger.

Why did you use to be able to buy a DVR that didn't require a subscription service?


Money.

Most people nowadays aren't that interested in owning a videotape or dvd anymore if we are only going to watch it once or twice. Netflix or any of the alternatives are fine and are often starting to produce great content of their own.

As for the Qi story. It's a chicken/egg problem.
My guess is it would require a level of cooperation that isn't there yet.

Not sure how the DVR fits with the topic of bike stuff.

But, do you mean one of these?
https://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-MDR8.../dp/B015FOZCUS

Nobody asked me to pay any subscription fees, but I had to buy the antennae separately.

Their hard drive now is much bigger than it was when I bought two of them several years ago. Their cooling fans wear out, I had to replace the fan on both of them.

Walmart is cheaper than Amazon at this time.

I just ordered one of these. I already own an AXA Luxx light with a USB port as discussed above. The price of the biologic was so cheap I could not resist. My experience with these chargers is somewhat lukewarm. I try to charge external batteries but with mixed results. In any event the charge out of a dynamo hub isn't much and it takes a long time to top off a battery. I am always on the look out for something better but I am unwilling to pay some of the high prices for these devices.

I received the biologic usb charger yesterday and hooked it up to my dynamo hub and connected it to a battery pack (Anker Astro E1 5200mAh). I spun the wheel and I see there is charge going into the battery. I have not ridden the bike yet but I am optimistically hopeful that I will be able to dependably charge the battery.

I look forward to your subsequent reports. I also use an Anker Astro E1. I keep my phone's screen on all the time while I ride my bike, and the Anker battery can keep the phone's charge at 100% for several hours.