Wanted to post something to replace that earlier sad bastard post with something more interesting. Like wiring diagrams!
Yes yes, I know. Just… shut up.
Wiring up the Bad Monkey for dynamo power has been fun and educational, if slow going. Everything is complicated, cumbersome, or expensive – sometimes all three. The benefits of it are you will always have (usually very very bright) lights, and possibly the ability to charge devices while you pedal. It’s an appealing idea.
Why the Bad Monkey?
Because this bike is already ridiculous; And because I like the idea of an apocalypse bike I guess. Go everywhere, do everything… and charge my phone! Yeah! Because I’m a little bored and want a project, and the whole thing idea is kind of neat.
The only things I care about are the headlight and possibly a USB charger. I don’t really care about a dynamo powered tail light but I’ve made provisions for one because it seems silly to go through all this and not. I’ve never had problems keeping batteries in my tail light but my headlight and phone are perpetually running out of juice on rides – the math in this can’t be that hard to work out.
Why a USB charger? Mostly because I’m sick of carrying batteries around to recharge phones and lights and whatever else. I’m still unsure which direction to go with the USB charger but there are a number of commercial solutions to do it, such as this:
http://www.supernova-lights.com/shop/show_product.php?products_id=179
I just need to build the circuit for the bike itself.
Below is the leading candidate for the circuit. The idea is to wire the frame once, and make components (like dynamos, headlights, tail lights, forks, etc…) interchangeable. If there seem like a lot of connector points, that’s why. I’m trying to keep it modular.
Onward
In this diagram, the circuit for all the lights (or that entire rear half of the circuit) is controlled by the on/off switch present on 90% of all headlights.
Not perfect, but this is my leading candidate at the moment.