Eyc headlight problem

On Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at 10:01:54 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/31/2021 12:17 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 7:29:29 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/30/2021 2:59 PM, sms wrote:
On 3/29/2021 5:02 PM, Sepp Ruf wrote:

snip

Hold on, Jeff, I'm sorry for the little misunderstanding. I only
linked to
Ulli Horlacher's latest work there, presented at de.rec.fahrrad on
Fri, 26
Mar 2021 08:06:31 +0000 (UTC). Actually, I do not even agree with the
concept of basing one's entire front lighting on one, single beam lamp,
however expensive and reliable it may be.

Most people in the U.S. with dynamo lights (and there aren't a lot of
them!) also have some sort of battery powered light, even just an
inexpensive USB-rechargeable light.
I very much doubt that statement arose from anywhere but your
imagination. You can't possibly have data to back it up.

It's true there aren't a lot of U.S. cyclists with dyno lights. That's
mainly because there aren't a lot of U.S. cyclists who use their bikes
as anything but toys and exercise machines. There isn't the critical
mass to form a target market for a light that's always available at the
flick of a switch plus gives far better illumination than almost all
battery lights.

That's total nonsense. Pre-pandemic, I rode with dozens or hundreds of commuters every day, probably one out of thirty had a dyno -- if even that.
You live in the bike commuting capitol of the U.S., but the total number
of your commuters is still minuscule compared to the number of U.S.
bicyclists. A company thinking about "What shall we market?" still looks
on bike commuters, justifiably, as a tiny niche market. As a result,
most cyclists never see a dyno system for sale.
People prefer brighter, battery powered lights.
People "prefer" what they are told to buy, which is what's on top of the
counter when they wander into a bike shop. If shops had dyno systems
available and explained their advantages, more Portlanders would buy them..
Every time I hear your story of cohorts admiring your bright light, I think WTF? I've got SP PD8 dyno hub driving a Luxos B, and its inadequate for night riding anywhere other than lighted streets.
I can't explain that (and with you'd trade your system for my Oculus). I
don't know if your problem is electrical (something wrong with the
light), age-related vision problems (but I'm older than you) or just
mis-perception, similar to the one in 50 motorists on yesterday's
freeway drive who chose to blind everyone else by running their high beams.

Again, on the ride where the Eyc gave trouble my friend had his battery
light off most of the way because, as he said, it adds nothing to mine.
Yet its what he uses when he does the ride solo. Now most (not all) of
that ride is on a quiet MUP, but a dark MUP is pretty much the opposite
of your "lighted streets."

Part of your mis-perception might be ever-increasing expectations. In my
view we've had a lot of that in bicycling, where a bike is "too heavy"
if it's 20 pounds, where 9 rear cogs are suddenly way too few, where
actually having to move a mechanical lever makes shifting too difficult,
etc. You seem to have bought into the myth that anything under 250
lumens is too dim.
Its nice having the dyno when all else fails, but it is not a serious primary light on the roads and in the weather I ride.
I've talked about your wet night riding before, but IIRC you've never
responded to the fact that on a really wet road, a motorist can't even
see his car's headlights on the road. It's an easy to understand optical
phenomenon, and it doesn't mean that you can't see obstacles. Adding
excess lumens to that problem only bounces more down the road into the
eyes of other road users.
And yes, I ride with a battery "flasher" -- an L&M that pulses. It differentiates my solid beam from other solid beams, vis., cars and other bikes in two way facilities.
Did you really have problems with that before you got a pulsing beam? I
don't ride at night as much as when I was commuting, but I still have
motorists waiting inordinate amounts of time to let me pass. I've never
had a remotely close call.

I wonder if you're experiencing a combination of "safety inflation" plus
placebo effect. As in "All I know is, I've had far fewer flat tires
since I bought my St. Christopher's medal! I'll never ride without it!"

Keep praying. I've almost run into cyclists with super-strong headlights because they blend with the super-strong headlights of the cars behind them in two-way facilities next to a road -- which is part of my commute through south waterfront. It is way easier to see cyclists with a low-watt flasher or pulsing light. Bright flashers are a nuisance. I doubt you encounter these facilities or even a fraction of the cyclists encountered on my pre-pandemic commutes. And mix in pedestrians, trains, streetcars and buses (on-coming lights in parallel facilities) and other static light sources from buildings. A solid beam becomes light camouflage.

I also know that my pulsing light makes me more conspicuous at night because I see other cyclists while driving, and a good, pulsing light is noticeable without being annoying. I have no idea what other drivers see, although Joerg is convinced cars stop for him because of his flasher. It may work -- with my L&M Seca 1400, which has a flasher visible from outer-space, I'll run that as punishment for car that appear to be creeping into traffic, but I only do that rarely because it even annoys me.

I night ride on bikes other than my commuter, like my racing bike, and I can just move my battery light around. I'm not going to wire-up four or five bikes. My current night rides are almost entirely on bikes other than my commuter unless I'm going to pick up dinner on the way home, then I lug my dyno equipped commuter up into the hills and use my battery light on full power for the descent, many of which are dangerous even during the day because of the road surface. https://tinyurl.com/3spf5c4p Turn on Westwood and keep going up. Its hard holding on to the bars descending in daylight. https://tinyurl.com/3n3uvf8r

-- Jay Beattie.

On 3/31/2021 2:23 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at 10:01:54 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/31/2021 12:17 AM, jbeattie wrote:

And yes, I ride with a battery "flasher" -- an L&M that pulses. It differentiates my solid beam from other solid beams, vis., cars and other bikes in two way facilities.
Did you really have problems with that before you got a pulsing beam? I
don't ride at night as much as when I was commuting, but I still have
motorists waiting inordinate amounts of time to let me pass. I've never
had a remotely close call.

I wonder if you're experiencing a combination of "safety inflation" plus
placebo effect. As in "All I know is, I've had far fewer flat tires
since I bought my St. Christopher's medal! I'll never ride without it!"

Keep praying. I've almost run into cyclists with super-strong headlights because they blend with the super-strong headlights of the cars behind them in two-way facilities next to a road -- which is part of my commute through south waterfront. It is way easier to see cyclists with a low-watt flasher or pulsing light. ... A solid beam becomes light camouflage.

Ah, yes, Safety Inflation. Corrall the bicyclists into a bi-directional
side track.
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2014/06...cle-track.html

Then convince them that they need headlights as bright as cars' to keep
them safe.

Now you can tell them that they also need lower wattage pulsing lights
to distinguish them from the cars. Where does this folly end?

I also know that my pulsing light makes me more conspicuous at night because I see other cyclists while driving, and a good, pulsing light is noticeable without being annoying. I have no idea what other drivers see, although Joerg is convinced cars stop for him because of his flasher.

Jay, there must be a psychological study on this. You see a cyclist, and
because you are a fan of pulsing lights, you assume you saw him _only_
because of that light. Joerg comes to a stop when a mountain lion
crosses his path and is positive he stopped _only_ because of his
favorite brand of brakes. Someone takes CBD oil and it's the _only_
reason he hasn't died of a heart attack or cancer or both. And of
course, tens of thousands of bicyclists have had their lives saved by
their helmets - when only 850 die, year after year.

Pride of purchase (or pride of advocacy?) imposes a strong desire to
confirm the wisdom of a person's choice. But while your cyclists are
visible only because of a fashionable flavor of headlight, I see night
cyclists who don't have such gimmicks.

I night ride on bikes other than my commuter, like my racing bike, and I can just move my battery light around. I'm not going to wire-up four or five bikes. My current night rides are almost entirely on bikes other than my commuter unless I'm going to pick up dinner on the way home, then I lug my dyno equipped commuter up into the hills and use my battery light on full power for the descent, many of which are dangerous even during the day because of the road surface. https://tinyurl.com/3spf5c4p Turn on Westwood and keep going up. Its hard holding on to the bars descending in daylight. https://tinyurl.com/3n3uvf8r

I'll admit again that your riding is more extreme than mine. It's also
more extrme than most cyclists. But I have no problems seeing adequately
up to 25 mph with my B&M dyno lights. If I did have a problem, I'd
probably use my (caliper) brakes to slow to a safe speed.

(You _sure_ you don't want to trade for the Oculus? It doesn't have to
be an even trade.)

--
- Frank Krygowski

On 3/31/2021 11:23 AM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Keep praying. I've almost run into cyclists with super-strong headlights because they blend with the super-strong headlights of the cars behind them in two-way facilities next to a road -- which is part of my commute through south waterfront. It is way easier to see cyclists with a low-watt flasher or pulsing light. Bright flashers are a nuisance. I doubt you encounter these facilities or even a fraction of the cyclists encountered on my pre-pandemic commutes. And mix in pedestrians, trains, streetcars and buses (on-coming lights in parallel facilities) and other static light sources from buildings. A solid beam becomes light camouflage.

I also know that my pulsing light makes me more conspicuous at night because I see other cyclists while driving, and a good, pulsing light is noticeable without being annoying. I have no idea what other drivers see, although Joerg is convinced cars stop for him because of his flasher. It may work -- with my L&M Seca 1400, which has a flasher visible from outer-space, I'll run that as punishment for car that appear to be creeping into traffic, but I only do that rarely because it even annoys me.

I night ride on bikes other than my commuter, like my racing bike, and I can just move my battery light around. I'm not going to wire-up four or five bikes. My current night rides are almost entirely on bikes other than my commuter unless I'm going to pick up dinner on the way home, then I lug my dyno equipped commuter up into the hills and use my battery light on full power for the descent, many of which are dangerous even during the day because of the road surface. https://tinyurl.com/3spf5c4p Turn on Westwood and keep going up. Its hard holding on to the bars descending in daylight. https://tinyurl.com/3n3uvf8r

If a bicycle company (I hesitate to call most name-brand bicycle
companies "manufacturers") offered a dynamo wheel option on new bicycles
as say a $50-75 upgrade at the time of purchase then I think they would
be able to sell some decent dynamo lights.

The cost to the bicycle manufacturer of an SP hub dynamo is $10-15 so a
$50 upgrade would be about a break-even price. Brompton offers battery
lighting, dynamo lighting, and no lighting models, though the models
with lighting included aren't sold in the U.S.. For example, the M6L
with no lighting is £1275, with battery lighting is £1350, and with
dynamo lighting it's £1415. So £140 gets you both the dynamo wheel and
the light set. To buy a dynamo wheel for a Brompton costs $195-390, not
including lights. On my DaHon Speed TR, an SP dynamo-equipped wheel was
only $100 (not an upgrade, a whole wheel)
https://foldingbike.biz/Dahon-Deluxe-Front-Joule-11-Dynohub-wheel-Silver-20.


A hub dynamo is a lot different accessory than fenders, a luggage rack,
or fenders. Most people aren't going to take their existing wheel and
rebuild it around a hub dynamo that they pay upwards of $100 for.

The fact that so many people now have multiple bicycles is another issue
of course. Spending $150+ for a dynamo and dynamo light on every bicycle
is very costly, while a battery powered light can be easily moved
around, perhaps a few extra mounting brackets are necessary depending on
the light.

At least in my area, another reason to eschew dynamo lights is the
problem of "outrunning" your lights. I'm not talking about a 50MPH
descent I'm talking about having to navigate unlit multi-use paths that
are often the fastest and safest route because of the lack of traffic
lights, stop signs, or intersections. Once I enter the trail system in
Mountain View I can go a very long way, with minimal to no stops. I can
get to Facebook, Google, and Intel, all on MUPs. Even though I could
reach a higher peak speed on regular roads, the average speed is higher
on the the trails.

For a while, Breezer was selling some city bikes with dynamo hub front
wheels but they've stopped doing that because people wanted better
lights than could be powered by a hub dynamo.

I don't know whatever happened to the plans for 12V hub dynamos. There
are 12V bottle dynamos, but for whatever reason 12V hub dynamos never
were marketed
http://www.velovision.com/ftp-admin/VVArchive/www.velovisionmag.co.uk/showStory37a0.html?storynum=56.
Maybe they realized that the cyclists that wanted more powerful lights
had already moved on from dynamos and were not coming back, at least
except for one cyclist in Ohio, and the marketing team decided that
developing and manufacturing a product with such a minuscule TAM (total
available market) was not in their best interest.

Sorry to go on and on, but hopefully Frank now understands the issue better.

On 3/31/2021 6:25 PM, sms wrote:
On 3/31/2021 11:23 AM, jbeattie wrote:

snip

Keep praying.Â* I've almost run into cyclists with super-strong
headlights because they blend with the super-strong headlights of the
cars behind them in two-way facilities next to a road -- which is part
of my commute through south waterfront.Â* It is way easier to see
cyclists with a low-watt flasher or pulsing light.Â* Bright flashers
are a nuisance.Â* I doubt you encounter these facilitiesÂ* or even a
fraction of the cyclists encountered on my pre-pandemic commutes.
And mix in pedestrians, trains, streetcars and buses (on-coming
lightsÂ* in parallel facilities) and other static light sources from
buildings.Â* A solid beam becomes light camouflage.

I also know that my pulsing light makes me more conspicuous at night
because I see other cyclists while driving, and a good, pulsing light
is noticeable without being annoying.Â* I have no idea what other
drivers see, although Joerg is convinced cars stop for him because of
his flasher.Â* It may work -- with my L&M Seca 1400, which has a
flasher visible from outer-space, I'll run that as punishment for car
that appear to be creeping into traffic, but I only do that rarely
because it even annoys me.

Â* I night ride on bikes other than my commuter, like my racing bike,
and I can just move my battery light around.Â* I'm not going to wire-up
four or five bikes.Â* My current night rides are almost entirely on
bikes other thanÂ* my commuter unless I'm going to pick up dinner on
the way home, then I lug my dyno equipped commuter up into the hills
and use my battery light on full power for the descent, many of which
are dangerous even during the day because of the road surface.
https://tinyurl.com/3spf5c4pÂ* Turn on Westwood and keep going up.Â* Its
hard holding on to the bars descending in daylight.
https://tinyurl.com/3n3uvf8r

If a bicycle company (I hesitate to call most name-brand bicycle
companies "manufacturers") offered a dynamo wheel option on new bicycles
as say a $50-75 upgrade at the time of purchase then I think they would
be able to sell some decent dynamo lights.

The cost to the bicycle manufacturer of an SP hub dynamo is $10-15 so a
$50 upgrade would be about a break-even price. Brompton offers battery
lighting, dynamo lighting, and no lighting models, though the models
with lighting included aren't sold in the U.S.. For example, the M6L
with no lighting is £1275, with battery lighting is £1350, and with
dynamo lighting it's £1415. So £140 gets you both the dynamo wheel and
the light set. To buy a dynamo wheel for a Brompton costs $195-390, not
including lights. On my DaHon Speed TR, an SP dynamo-equipped wheel was
only $100 (not an upgrade, a whole wheel)
https://foldingbike.biz/Dahon-Deluxe-Front-Joule-11-Dynohub-wheel-Silver-20.


A hub dynamo is a lot different accessory than fenders, a luggage rack,
or fenders. Most people aren't going to take their existing wheel and
rebuild it around a hub dynamo that they pay upwards of $100 for.

The fact that so many people now have multiple bicycles is another issue
of course. Spending $150+ for a dynamo and dynamo light on every bicycle
is very costly, while a battery powered light can be easily moved
around, perhaps a few extra mounting brackets are necessary depending on
the light.

At least in my area, another reason to eschew dynamo lights is the
problem of "outrunning" your lights. I'm not talking about a 50MPH
descent I'm talking about having to navigate unlit multi-use paths that
are often the fastest and safest route because of the lack of traffic
lights, stop signs, or intersections. Once I enter the trail system in
Mountain View I can go a very long way, with minimal to no stops. I can
get to Facebook, Google, and Intel, all on MUPs. Even though I could
reach a higher peak speed on regular roads, the average speed is higher
on the the trails.

For a while, Breezer was selling some city bikes with dynamo hub front
wheels but they've stopped doing that because people wanted better
lights than could be powered by a hub dynamo.

I don't know whatever happened to the plans for 12V hub dynamos. There
are 12V bottle dynamos, but for whatever reason 12V hub dynamos never
were marketed
http://www.velovision.com/ftp-admin/VVArchive/www.velovisionmag.co.uk/showStory37a0.html?storynum=56.
Maybe they realized that the cyclists that wanted more powerful lights
had already moved on from dynamos and were not coming back, at least
except for one cyclist in Ohio, and the marketing team decided that
developing and manufacturing a product with such a minuscule TAM (total
available market) was not in their best interest.

Sorry to go on and on, but hopefully Frank now understands the issue
better.

Well, the I already knew the portion that was correct. The portions that
were still incorrect were largely repeats of previous Scharfian posts.
Nothing new there.

Thanks, though, for the pointer to the (prototype?) SON 12V hub. As the
article says, it's already possible to get 6 Watts out of a nominal 3
Watt dynamo, by simply wiring two headlights in series. I did that for a
while, with a switch to run headlight A, or B, or both; and the same
should be possible with a single headlight designed for that duty. But
as with the rest of my experimenting, I stopped that experiment. For me,
a decent dynamo and good LED dyno headlight have solved the lighting
problem.

I do find it satisfying that the person who has argued loudest against
dynamo lights (even constructing a web page to post arguments without
fear of rebuttal) now admits to using them.

--
- Frank Krygowski

sms wrote:

Sorry to go on and on, but hopefully Frank now understands the issue better.

This sort of rhetoric might have been part of why you could not win
reelection in Appleville.

Others have long grasped the issues about 12 volt systems:
In 2001, the 12V hub, literally weighed down by incandescent lamp physics in
legal requirements to provide a rather high voltage already at low speeds,
would have yielded 100 (source) halogen lumens from a geometrically
complicated filament. But 90 lm could already be tweaked by serially
running two 6V bulbs. Today, either a 2001 or a 2021 6V hub can yield more
than 300 lm (net output) from the optically preferential LED, while a cheap
$20 LED dyno lamp such as the Herrmans H-Black MR4 produces 120 lm, and a
beam quality unheard of even in 2011.
https://fahrradbeleuchtung-info.de/helligkeitsmessung-von-fahrradlampen

On 3/31/2021 5:21 PM, Sepp Ruf wrote:
sms wrote:

Sorry to go on and on, but hopefully Frank now understands the issue better.

This sort of rhetoric might have been part of why you could not win
reelection in Appleville.

Could be, but I think the real reason was that a developer spent about
$100,000 on the campaigns of two opponents. But I will try again next
year, it's no big deal either way, it's essentially a volunteer position.

My big accomplishments, bicycle-related, were pushing through a bicycle
boulevard, protected bicycle lanes, and a new multi-use trail (under
construction). The protected bicycle lanes have been wonderful. It
wasn't that the unprotected bicycle lanes were dangerous, it was that
they were constantly being blocked by errant vehicles and there was no
way that the police could keep up with ticketing or towing. They aren't
heavily used right now because the schools have not brought back
students for in-person classes, but once that happens they will be used
a lot https://goo.gl/maps/a8X5mehdKCrDi1BQ6.
Others have long grasped the issues about 12 volt systems:
In 2001, the 12V hub, literally weighed down by incandescent lamp physics in
legal requirements to provide a rather high voltage already at low speeds,
would have yielded 100 (source) halogen lumens from a geometrically
complicated filament. But 90 lm could already be tweaked by serially
running two 6V bulbs. Today, either a 2001 or a 2021 6V hub can yield more
than 300 lm (net output) from the optically preferential LED, while a cheap
$20 LED dyno lamp such as the Herrmans H-Black MR4 produces 120 lm, and a
beam quality unheard of even in 2011.
https://fahrradbeleuchtung-info.de/helligkeitsmessung-von-fahrradlampen

The article about the 12V SON dynamo mentions that you can get 6 watts
out of an existing 3W dynamo at high speeds. So presumably you can get
12 watts out of 6V dynamo at high speeds, but more importantly you can
get 6 watts at lower speeds.

"The obvious significance of this is that bike lights powered by dynamos
could soon become seriously bright - perhaps bright enough to woo back
some of those who have been tempted onto the new generation of
high-power rechargeables."
http://www.velovision.com/ftp-admin/VVArchive/www.velovisionmag.co.uk/showStory37a0.html?storynum=56

Of course you also have people like me, and apparently Jay, that
recognize the benefits of dynamo powered lights and the benefits of
battery powered lights, and the situations where each one has the advantage.

Not many people in the U.S. have even heard of Herrmans lights. I have
one of these
https://herrmans.eu/products/front-lights-4147/dynamo-10038/h-black-pro-dynamo/#technical-data
on my Dahon folder. Only 200 lumens but a nice beam pattern. It cost ¤63
from Bike24 in Germany. Also got some of the BBB Fueltank XL bottle
cages from them (now discontinued).

sms wrote:


snip

I don't know whatever happened to the plans for 12V hub dynamos. There
are 12V bottle dynamos, but for whatever reason 12V hub dynamos never
were marketed
http://www.velovision.com/ftp-admin/VVArchive/www.velovisionmag.co.uk/showStory37a0.html?storynum=56.



Come on now, Steven, dust off your EE textbooks. A typical hub dynamo
transmits 3 Watts of power over a distance of maybe 3 feet. If you wanted
to double, triple or even transmit 10 times as much power, you don’t need
to change the voltage, just change the internal design of the dynamo. The
obvious solution would be a 3 phase AC generator, with a rectifier/buck
converter inside that puts out a constant 6 V with a much higher current
limit.

Now, inside the dynamo, there may be arguments to be made for a higher
internal voltage before the regulator, but a 6V output should be good up to
the point where nobody would buy one because it would sap too much energy
from the rider.

sms wrote:
On 3/31/2021 5:21 PM, Sepp Ruf wrote:
sms wrote:

Sorry to go on and on, but hopefully Frank now understands the issue better.

This sort of rhetoric might have been part of why you could not win
reelection in Appleville.

Could be, but I think the real reason was that a developer spent about
$100,000 on the campaigns of two opponents. But I will try again next
year, it's no big deal either way, it's essentially a volunteer position.

My big accomplishments, bicycle-related, were pushing through a bicycle
boulevard, protected bicycle lanes, and a new multi-use trail (under
construction). The protected bicycle lanes have been wonderful. It
wasn't that the unprotected bicycle lanes were dangerous, it was that
they were constantly being blocked by errant vehicles and there was no
way that the police could keep up with ticketing or towing. They aren't
heavily used right now because the schools have not brought back
students for in-person classes, but once that happens they will be used
a lot https://goo.gl/maps/a8X5mehdKCrDi1BQ6.
Others have long grasped the issues about 12 volt systems:
In 2001, the 12V hub, literally weighed down by incandescent lamp physics in
legal requirements to provide a rather high voltage already at low speeds,
would have yielded 100 (source) halogen lumens from a geometrically
complicated filament. But 90 lm could already be tweaked by serially
running two 6V bulbs. Today, either a 2001 or a 2021 6V hub can yield more
than 300 lm (net output) from the optically preferential LED, while a cheap
$20 LED dyno lamp such as the Herrmans H-Black MR4 produces 120 lm, and a
beam quality unheard of even in 2011.
https://fahrradbeleuchtung-info.de/helligkeitsmessung-von-fahrradlampen

The article about the 12V SON dynamo mentions that you can get 6 watts
out of an existing 3W dynamo at high speeds. So presumably you can get
12 watts out of 6V dynamo at high speeds, but more importantly you can
get 6 watts at lower speeds.

"The obvious significance of this is that bike lights powered by dynamos
could soon become seriously bright - perhaps bright enough to woo back
some of those who have been tempted onto the new generation of
high-power rechargeables."
http://www.velovision.com/ftp-admin/VVArchive/www.velovisionmag.co.uk/showStory37a0.html?storynum=56

Of course you also have people like me, and apparently Jay, that
recognize the benefits of dynamo powered lights and the benefits of
battery powered lights, and the situations where each one has the advantage.

Not many people in the U.S. have even heard of Herrmans lights. I have
one of these
https://herrmans.eu/products/front-lights-4147/dynamo-10038/h-black-pro-dynamo/#technical-data

on my Dahon folder. Only 200 lumens but a nice beam pattern. It cost €63
from Bike24 in Germany. Also got some of the BBB Fueltank XL bottle
cages from them (now discontinued).


It certainly appears that German regulations are impairing progress in
bicycle dynamo lighting. I’d be sorely tempted to abandon all the current
standards and go to a DC 4 wire system (a pair for power and a pair for
comm), with a voltage that accommodates modern Li Ion batteries and modern
electronics. 5 V, 3 A could be a nice place to start. A standard connector,
an existing simple comm protocol and some sort of intelligent power
management scheme could allow dynamo hubs, batteries, lights and
accessories to all plug and play together.

On Wed, 31 Mar 2021 18:27:07 -0700, sms
wrote:

My big accomplishments, bicycle-related, were pushing through a bicycle
boulevard, protected bicycle lanes, and a new multi-use trail (under
construction). The protected bicycle lanes have been wonderful. It
wasn't that the unprotected bicycle lanes were dangerous, it was that
they were constantly being blocked by errant vehicles and there was no
way that the police could keep up with ticketing or towing.

Nicely done. In the People's Republic of Santa Cruz, the "pedestrian"
bridge over the San Lorenzo River is routinely blocked by police,
parks, state, and other vehicle using it as a short-cut when Hwy 1
traffic is at a standstill. The vehicles manage to squeeze over the
bridge with about 1ft clearance on each side. That means that
everyone has to walk or ride ahead or behind the vehicles as they
slowly and carefully crawl across the bridge. I suspect that some
oversized vehicle will eventually try to make it across and create an
Ever Given style blockage. I suggest that you remember this for when
the next bicycle trail is proposed and try to specify some kind of
vehicle barrier or minefield to discourage non-emergency vehicles from
using it as a roadway.

--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Thu, 1 Apr 2021 02:01:47 +0000 (UTC), Ralph Barone
wrote:

It certainly appears that German regulations are impairing progress in
bicycle dynamo lighting. I’d be sorely tempted to abandon all the current
standards and go to a DC 4 wire system (a pair for power and a pair for
comm), with a voltage that accommodates modern Li Ion batteries and modern
electronics. 5 V, 3 A could be a nice place to start. A standard connector,
an existing simple comm protocol and some sort of intelligent power
management scheme could allow dynamo hubs, batteries, lights and
accessories to all plug and play together.

Agreed, mostly. I've been proposing a similar standardized electrical
system for bicycles in this newsgroups for many years. The consensus
seems to be that it's not needed. So, the likely source of a standard
will come from the eBike faction, which does need it, and can make
best use of it.

While I like the simplicity of a 4 wire system, I'm a bit more
ambitious for what can be done with it. In my ideal system, it's a
data bus similar to what is commonly in use in automobiles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_bus
In theory, everything that can be electrically operated can
participate. Headlight, tail light, brakes, performance sensors,
speedometer, odometer, smartphone, GPS, rear view camera, crash
recorder, theft alarm, power management, trainer interface, coffee
warmer, etc. Lots of details would need to hammered out, but I think
the benefits of having a standard interface and power/data bus would
be worth the time and effort.

--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558