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  • The fact that its draining power from the dynamo, and converting it to the usb ports... has nothing to do with the fact that the heatsink is triggered. Its just a matter of "if too much electricity arrives to the unit, dump it as heat to avoid problems".

    Thats the reason why it still heats up even without no usb connected, and why I'm thinking about putting a electrical switch in the cable that connects the unit to the dynamo, to avoid that problem when not using it.

  • This is incorrect, the two are directly related. The voltage level from the dynamo is determined by;

    a) how fast you're going
    b) how much load there is on the dynamo (usb, lights).

    You can avoid the overvoltage situation (protection trigger) by either;

    a) slowing down :)
    b) charging equipment, powering devices

    When a device charges it places a load on the dynamo. Let's say you're going at warp speed - 60kph, and the dynamo is producing 60V. The USB may consume 20V to charge the device, the protection activates at 20V (approx) so 20V must be shed as heat.

    [ these are example figures used to explain the process, not actual figures ]

    It is the last value that you want to lower (ideally to 0V).

    Hope this helps!

    Andrew

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