Dynamo Lights

IQ-X working well here. Did a side-by-side/on-off comparison with a mate running an Edelux on the TnR and I gotta say I prefer the IQ-X.

It looks good compared to the Supernova. I wonder if I'm just blasting a light hole in the road and have my light angled so far down to appease sooky drivers that I would be better served with an IQ-X.

bumm hehehe

I figured you'd spot that. Brings out my inner Beavis

Nothing slips by m.. argh! what the fuck was that?!

IQ-X looks waaaaay sexier than that 90 lumen one and it's more powerful.

I have the IQ-X and just installed it. Not ridden it in anger yet but yes, as Sean Connery would say...

Shex-shee

As lcuk would have it I'm balls deep in fine Scotch so I can read Scootish. I'll probably have a poke around at them in the new year.

Need the Dynamo hive mind, I'm two connections away from being able to ride all weather commuter. Trying to connect rear light to front light. Rear light cable has bare wires and seperate spade connectors (my terminology could be incorrect, see photos below for what I'm trying to connect) and I've brought this crimping tool to close connector around bare wire. Have I purchased the correct tool for the job? Or do I require something else? Answers welcome..

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Second the IQ-X. About to install one on my own bike.

Small needle nose pliers are fine Those crimps are better for thicker gauge wires and for the variety of stuff you fine in homes. It'll work, but not 100% necessary.

Hoping someone can help me diagnose a problem as I'm unsure as to which part of my lighting setup is broken :|

I returned a Luxos U after it wouldn't stay on for more than 5 minutes, replaced with an Edelux 2 which I just tried to connect to the SP-8D hub (and B+M Secula rear-light) today.

No light anywhere :(

I dug out a multimeter that I don't really know how to use and found:

Hub: Continuity across the connectors, but no output at high speed, with ~2.5 output at low speed/just about to stop. (multimeter set at 200v AC - bike in the workstand)

Edelux No continuity at the ends of the dynamo cable. Continuity at the rear ends of the output/ground cable.
Secula No continuity across the light connectors.

I should be at least getting continuity at the Edelux's dynamo connectors, shouldn't I?

I did (foolishly) connect the rear up before testing the front alone. Is it possible that I've wired up the Secula the wrong way round and blown everything? There's no polarity marks on the Secula :(

Any advice would be deeply appreciated. I have no idea what I'm doing.

I didn't use any connectors on mine. I just twisted the bare pairs together, shrink wrapped them and added a bit of electrical tape for paranoia.

post a pic of the light spread cc/ @Aroogah @Alb

I'm shit at mechanics, and I've got the connectors so thought I may as well try and do a decent job as I'm not looking to be fucking around with it again. Did get some rubber tubing which I'm going to cut down and see if I can make the connector a bit more water resistant..

Unless you plan on using the connectors to removing/reinstall lights on other bikes, I don't see the point in using connectors. You're effectively adding another point of failure into the mix. Get proper heatshrink from Maplins, insert it onto wire before you join it, join wires, slide heatwrap over join, use lighter to GENTLY shrink it. Mine has been flawless.

I have all of the shrink wrap stuff you could need. Happy to lend a hand if you are in the hood. (Plus you can pick up the wireless extension if you still need it)

RIDE my bike?

I think I will have the lights installed before that :P SBC said Weds ..

You shouldn't get continuity at the lights connectors as that would imply an open circuit, whereas the the light need some kind of resistance in order to provide a load.

What do you mean by 2.5 output? V? You need to see whether your multimeter is giving you an RMS value which should help things. Seems odd that it would not give a reading at high speed.

Ah that's cool. Glad that doesn't mean the lights are wrecked then. Thanks for the advice :)

Erm, well I don't really know how to use the multimeter but it's similar to this and the settings it has to read Volts AC are 600 and (edit)200.

My understanding is that you set the multimeter to the next rating up from the output you expect. So in this case I had to set it to 400 and as the hub was stopping, 2.5 flashed up on the readout.

It feels like the hub might be dead if there's nothing when it's rotating at speed...

Have another test for the hub, found on another forum:

Use the multimeter on resistance and without turning the wheel check for a reading across the two hub terminals. This should be very low, mine measures 2.5 ohms. This is the coil of the generator. If there is no reading then the rotation has severed a connection internally, the coil wires will be very thin.

So hopefully this confirms it one way or the other!

What output are you expecting? Sp pd8 is a 6v hub.

Anything!

Tested again with the multimeter last night and while there's a bit of resistance, there's no voltage at all, so I think it's pretty much dead. I guess it hasn't done too badly for being submerged a few times during its 5500 miles.

I emailed Ison earlier yesterday to see if they could put me in touch with SP for an out of warranty repair, and they said this:

Naturally, as the SP units are produced in Taiwan, the practical option for UK customers to send a single hub to the factory for servicing is – at best awkward.

Therefore, SP and Ison have devised a UK warehouse exchange hub system that provides fast and cost effective options for SP customers that require hub service assistance outside of their normal 2 year warranty period.

They'll build a new hub into my wheel for £50 so I'm just going to get that done. Apparently will take around a week, so I'm pretty happy with that.

That sounds like a pretty good deal.
Is there any option for user serviceable dynamo hubs?

No idea I'm afraid! Ison are Shutter Precision's UK distributors so it's likely specific to SP hubs.