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Gndlf
hippy
@acharnley
Hi, I'm Andrew, the D1 is my baby, and I'm always scouting around for user posts. It's a buzz to see riders using them!
Thanks for the comments Alex, as always the D1 does exactly as it's sold to do and I'm honoured it's proving such a success for you.
A couple questions posted and here's the answers;
how is it so good? Spec! It's around 95% efficient, it's got over-voltage (aka over speed) protection (amazingly many don't and burn out if you hit a fast decline), huge capacitance, and an alu body (that and the epoxy filling make it bullet proof).
it is designed for a bottle mount and comes for a spacer for it, but you could use a cheapo bottle mount for a handlebar, or mount anywhere where there's a 5mm hole, as Alex has so done. You have to ensure rain doesn't sit in the USB ports or electrolysis will eat the gold plating on the pins, so a slight down angle at one end is required (hence down tube bottle mount is ideal).
It will work with any dynamo light but many of them include simple over-voltage protection (like Shimano's regulator that comes with the 72 & 80) which massively reduces efficiency. Dynamo's can produce much more than 6V and the D1 uses this for greater power output (or a second device). If a cheapo regulator shunts the voltage over 6V as heat there's no way for the D1 to utilise it.
Apologies they are a bit expensive - they are hand made (pick and place can't cram in all the bits) and take a good two hours per unit to make.
Anything else, ask away.
Best,
Andrew