Supernova The Plug II+ Install
 

I installed a Supernova The Plug II+ onto my bike tonight and I thought some others here may be helped by how to install it. The manual for it is really sparse and actually slightly wrong as the II+ is NOT the same as the II.

The II+ includes a cable that has a PAT module for power amplification which helps smartphones charge whereas the II has all the electronics in the cap.

1: On most bikes you'll need a new star nut to install the cables. The cables are routed down the tube and through the fork. I found that the size of the cable on The Plug was big enough that it would have been pinched once I had the new star nut installed so I filed it out a bit to give myself enough room to be able to move the cable when the star nut is installed.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244354

Here's the star nut that nees to be removed:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244360

2. Remove the star nut. I used pliers to remove the star nut. It's MUCH easier to drill it out; however if you drill it out you may lose the star nut in your tube and have to find a way to get it out:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244356


3. Once you have the tabs on the top of the star nut pulled back you can use a bolt and a piece of wood to provide leverage for some pliers to pull out. When pulled out mine looked like this:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244361

Here the star nut has been removed from the tube:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244355

4: The cable on the II+ has a sealed cartridge with electronics in it that needs to go down your tube:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244353

5: Here the cartridge is inserted into the tube. Make sure to insert it with the cable connector pointing up. This gives you the ability to vary the length of cable for the connector.:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244357

6: Put the star nut back in with the cable going through it. If you don't have a specific tool to do it you can use a bolt through the star nut to tap with a hammer to insert it:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244351

7: Get a wheel with a dynohub: :)
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244359

8: Connect the cable and install the Plug's cap. Make sure the loop for the USB cover is under the cap so you don't lose it. I have my The Plug pointing to the side so it doesn't interfere with my phone's mount:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244358

9: Attach the cable to the dynohub. If you have lights do it IN PARALLEL. This means twisting both the wire for the light and the plug together. Do not use the connector on the light because that is normally wired in series which has too much of a voltage drop to start The Plug let alone charge a phone.

10: Spin the wheel and you should see The Plug's LED start:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=244352

Hope this helps someone... :)

That's really neat, thanks for posting this with all those pictures

When using it I've found that some smartphones (like my Droid RAZR) are very sensitive to fluctuations in the level of current. I went looking for a way to solve this issue with a buffer/cache battery and I believe I've found the perfect buffer battery that's A LOT cheaper than an E-Werk cache battery.

The Motorola P893 is 1800mA and small enough to fit inside bento boxes. It's tiny, light, supports charging of 2 devices concurrently, and can be recharged at the same time it's charging other devices. I'm going to try it out powering both my front hd808 and my razr. I'll report back on how it works.

Hey there,


I was wondering if you could help me out.


I've just had the plug, E3 pro and tail light along with the supernova infinity 8 installed on my bike and was having a couple of issues.


When I have the lights running the plug lights up with no issues and the lights work great, however when i plug my iphone 4 in, the plug flashes on and off repeatedly... when i switch the light off however the plug charges my phone


Both the wires of the plug and the light are plugged into the dynamo- should the wire of the light be connected to the wire of the plug and plugs wire then connected to the dyno-hub?

Hey rickieconcarne, I just purchased a similar setup (but yet to be installed)
- Supernova Infinity S dynamo hub
- E3 Triple Headlight
- The Plug II

Did you get any answers to your question? How has your setup been working for you?

surprised I didn’t see this question before. I think that there just isn't enough power to power the light and the plug while it's charging something like an iPhone. It's like when you go to the doc and say "it hurts when I do this," doc's answer is, "don't do that." Dynohubs only put out about 500mA max, and that's not enough for both things at the same time

Yeah so I've done some research on this and why there isn't any 1Ah setups.

The dynohub puts out a variable amount of power that is roughly 500mA. It can go up to about 600mA when you're really cruising but it's really not a huge difference. There's just not enough juice to power the iphone and the light at the same time. Infact, without a cache battery there's sometimes too many fluctuations to power an android phone. My iDevices don't seem to be as sensitive but that could be because of the specialized circuitry they added to enable iDevice charging. (Not sure what they did there.)

As for how I have them wired.. Just wire the light and The Plug in together. Don't wire them using the light's out because that has significantly less power and is meant for being used for the brakes. I can draw up the wiring if anyone's confused about it...