Dynamo Lights

Surly those are just bullet connectors

How hard is it to replace the coaxial cable on a SON post mount light? This one. I'm damned if I can get it opened to get to the cable. Any advice would be appreciated.

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Would guess that it will require popping open the light and using a soldering iron.

Perhaps it is worth contacting SON and seeing if they have a repair service?

Hey folks.

Need some electronics help.
Going to replace the spades on my iq2 U light. The spades for the rear light snapped from corrosion. Any clue on what spades I need? They look different than the type which crimp to a wire (longer?).

according to their website the electronics are cast in resin so probably not much you can do.
If you still have cable sticking out then just solder a new one to that.

Haven't looked at that particular light myself but hard to imagine it'd need special connectors to work. Just crimp new ones on and maybe change the female bits (fnar) on the rear light cable as well if there's bad corrosion.

What's wrong with the cable, why do you need to open it up?

The coaxial cable is too short to reach the front light and I have several meters of coaxial cable in the drawer. I knew it was too short when I got the light (it's not new) and I thought it might be a straight forward pop the lens off, solder and pop the lens back on type of job but it's seemingly not.

Surely easier to splice two bits of cable together with a connector of some sort?

Why do they use co-ax? Rather than doorbell wire?

The rear light is earthed back at the front light. So I'm guessing that's why? Truthfully I don't know. I've never wired with coaxial before. It is a pain to be honest. I wanted to wire in a switch for charging devices that I could remove when not doing multi day riding but I would need about a million pairs of spade connectors to do it.

Just put some connectors on the wire and heatshrink over everything. Or solder/splice + heatshrink.

If I was going to get one of those Decathlon dynamo wheels what ultra-cheap lights should I pair it up with? Nothing fancy, they'll just go on a town bike so I don't have to take battery lights on and off all the time.

Edit: and will I need AC → DC converters and all that stuff?

Have a look at AXA blueline led lights, they are pretty cheap.

Cross posting this from the regular 'Lights' thread, should have put it here:

But of a random one... just got an excellent deal on 2nd hand Exposure Revo/Redeye in classifieds, I don’t actually have the Dynamo to go with but it’s coming when I can afford. Also anticipating I’ll need cables - seems daft to buy ready made ones when a roll of twin core 0.5mm cable costs a fiver and 2-pole DC plugs cost buttons.

What I need to try and find out is the spec of the right angle DC connector on the back of the Revo (presumably the same one across all exposure lights) - anyone got one they can measure fairly accurately? Length and width? Or happen to know spec?

Edit: and will I need AC → DC converters and all that stuff?

Shouldn't do.

My B+M Lumotec front light started rattling - some component has come loose. Still works. Asked B+M this morning and they said “speak to Rose” which is where I bought it. Hardly worth sending it back to Germany. Probably just as cheap to buy a new one. Frustrating.

I am losing faith in B&M. Have a rear mudguard-mount light that just fell apart with a couple of knocks. I mean, yeah it's a fairly exposed spot for a light - so make it tough!

On a scale of 1-10 how stupid would it be to drill my seatpost to be able to fit a dynamo cable? I’ve got a Son seatpost light on the way. Thnking something like this:

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4.3

Hope this helps.

How heavy are you? How far away from home will the bike get?

@coldharbour has done this on some thomson seatposts.

Other option is to try and route the cable through the top of the seatpost if possible.

I wonder if it wouldn't be neater and safer to have the seatpost hole drilled below the clamp, where the frame slot is, and then mount the light on the seatpost clamp, like the cable guide.

Better for the post, looks neater and also doesn't catch your baggies with the light being up high.

This is my personal one. Been like this for 3 years and hasn't failed yet. With the Thomson it is much easier as you just drill a hole in the cradle mount, the routing is clear before that anyway, so I'd think not much chance of failure.

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