Fun with Lights!

[Philip Barrett]

I had been looking for a while for something cool & retro for lighting to add to the Trek about-townie. I have a Light+Motion set that really work great but certainly don't have the "look."

A trip to the parts bin at my local bike advocacy store & a suitable donation to the cause netted me a very dirty but largely undamaged chrome headlight that had been part of a generator set. Yesterday, after judicious applications of Simulchrome, I fired up the soldering iron and rebuilt the light, adding a push switch and LED bulb powered by rechargeable AAAs. Plenty bright enough to be seen & works well with the build methinks?

[Eric Norris]

Looks like a great mod! 

I did something similar with the original vintage headlight on my Alex Singer. Because the front rack on the bike was purpose-built to support the light, I decided to leave it on and add a modern Schmidt headlight on the other side. Inside the vintage light is a new LED lamp that, as you note with yours, is more for visibility than for seeing the road. Both are powered by a modern Velogical dynamo running on the rear wheel.

--Eric Norris
campyo...@me.com

Insta: @CampyOnlyGuy

YouTube: YouTube.com/CampyOnlyGuy 

On Feb 8, 2021, at 6:24 AM, Philip Barrett <philipr...@gmail.com> wrote:

I had been looking for a while for something cool & retro for lighting to add to the Trek about-townie. I have a Light+Motion set that really work great but certainly don't have the "look."

A trip to the parts bin at my local bike advocacy store & a suitable donation to the cause netted me a very dirty but largely undamaged chrome headlight that had been part of a generator set. Yesterday, after judicious applications of Simulchrome, I fired up the soldering iron and rebuilt the light, adding a push switch and LED bulb powered by rechargeable AAAs. Plenty bright enough to be seen & works well with the build methinks?

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[Philip Barrett]

Nice, yes since this is the Trek-About-Townie my night riding is well lit. Now to find something offbeat for the rear.

[Mike Godwin]

Looks really good Phil. Nice work. The bell got a polishing too.

Mike SLO CA

[Paul Richardson]

so cool and inspiring; thanks for sharing this.

paul

takoma park, md.

[Robert Blunt]

Eric,

I would love to see some photos of the Singer.

--Robert Blunt

Pennington, NJ

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/30E2F6D1-2310-42CA-81BB-81B0AC1F9BAC%40me.com.

[Matthew P]

This is fantastic. Looks great.
Did you use any guides online that were helpful? I'd like to get better at this stuff.
Also looking for a basic guide on dyno hub and lights troubleshooting with a multimeter, but I can search and then start a new thread.
Thanks
-Matthew
San Diego/Kumeyaay, CA

[Philip Barrett]

Thanks. Start a new thread & I’ll jump in, that way we share the knowledge that can be searched later.

I've been around electronics all my life so this comes to me pretty easily, however I know that it can be quite confusing at first. The must-have tools for this are a decent soldering iron, some wire cutters & strippers plus a multimeter (DC voltage & impedance/ohms is what you'll be measuring) and some test-clip leads.

Basically for a lamp circuit;

1. you have the positive (+) connection from the battery to the tip of the lamp
2. you have the negative (-) connection to the body of the lamp (this can be carried through the body of the housing too provided it's made of a conductive metal)
3. the LED is matched to the battery voltage - 2 x AA batteries at 1.5 volts each = 3 volts total so you'll need a 3V LED lamp 
4. Connect the + and the - to the lamp as above & it will light
5. To be able to turn on or off the lamp you need a switch inserted into the + supply to the lamp
   1. This will be of a type known as Single-Pole-Single-Throw or SPST where you have one power in, one power out and a single flick or push connects or disconnects those terminals
6. The rest is just packaging everything to your taste & needs - remember, if you connect the + to the - somewhere in the circuit or on the metal of the lamp housing you will short out the circuit & it will not work

Here's mine sort of laid open;

A link to my parts list on Amazon is here - https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/GIX0ABVS090U?ref_=wl_share

Note, there is nothing dangerous in the voltages here and it would be very difficult to damage the components inadvertently. If you get something wrong it just won't work.