Technical > Lighting and Electronics

Dynamo lighting recommendations please

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Oldboybob:
Hi all,

I have a Son 28 dynamo hub and it currently runs a Sinewave Revolution USB unit on a Nomad I have bought.
I would like to fit some quality lights to it, ones that are powerful and you can see well in completely unlit areas rather than ones just to be seen.
Does anyone have any recommendations that would fit the bill?

Or indeed if anyone has some for sale that would be great also.

Thank you

mickeg:
B&M are the most common ones out there.  Their website is a bit hard to navigate to find their dyno powered headlamps, but this link takes you to them.
https://www.bumm.de/en/products/dynamo-scheinwerfer.html

Lots of choices, lots of variation in prices, some more powerful than others, some more fragile than others. 

I have only used B&M and I have one AXA light.  There are a  few other brands too.  One nice think about B&M lights is that you can see on their website what a headlamp pattern looks like. 

I have a couple Luxos U, but I am starting to think they might not be that great for touring, especially when you already have the Sinewave.  I have an IQ-XS on one bike, nice light for a good price, with metal housing it is pretty durable too.  Note that there also is an IQ-XS with plastic housing, so if you want a metal housing, be careful what you order.

Some of the B&M headlights are poorly sealed on the bottom and rear, so if you do not run fenders, be careful to mount the light where you do not get much tire spray.

I am intentionally silent on taillight, you did not say if you want it frame mounted, rack mounted, fender (mudguard) mounted, etc.  I have a rack mounted taillight and on a couple bikes a fender mounted taillight.

Photos are not one of my touring bikes, it is my rando bike where my Sinewave is usually fitted.  If I do a tour, the Sinewave is removed from that bike, it goes on whatever I tour on.  I have fitted spade connectors so that I can disconnect my Sinewave and re-connect the headlamp to the hub if I remove the Sinewave.  Since I move some of my equipment from one bike to another, I have tried to put quick connects wherever I might want them later.  Light shown is the metal IQ-XS.  I think some of the B&M lights have a better light pattern, but I chose this light anyway.  They now rate the IQ-XS at 80 lux, mine was rated at 70 so the internals might be different now.

Oldboybob:
Thank you for the quick and detailed reply!

Yes the rear would be for a rack fitting. I hadn’t looked at the b and m ones in detail, I have a budget of around £100-180 for both front and rear so want to make the right choice.

Thanks again

Oldboybob:
Sorry Mickeg I forgot  to ask, can the Sinewave be switched off when using lights? Or can the Son 28 power both? I have not had a combined set up before.

Thanks

mickeg:
You wire the taillight to the headlight.  There are two pairs of wires from the headlight, one pair to the hub and the other the taillight.  The headlight switch controls both lights.

When the lights are off, the lights consume virtually no power at all.  Then all the power goes to the Sinewave.  Thus, no need for extra switches.  When your light is on it will consume the vast majority of the power, so it is best to assume you won't get much from your Sinewave with lights on.  I have measured a small amount of power out of my Sinewave when my lights were on, but it was not enough to realistically charge up any devices. 

Wire the headlamp and Sinewave in parallel.  If you do not know what that means, you have two wires each from the hub, from the Sinewave, and from the light.  Connect one of the wires from each of those devices together so the wires are like a Y.  Then connect the other wire from each device like a second Y.  From my photo you could see I have two wires coming up a fork blade, and each of those wires connects to one wire from both the light and the Sinewave.

On a different forum I detailed how I wired up my rando bike.  That may give you some ideas.  The link to that is at:
https://www.bikeforums.net/electronics-lighting-gadgets/1228845-wiring-up-dyno-powered-lighting-system-usb-charger.html

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