After trudging through much of the old standlight thread, with its various lines of development and numerous missing images, it was a great relief to find the more recent Dynamo lights for Dummies, even if I was out of my depth after the first few posts.
Given those resources, I put together the following on a breadboard, which has been hanging off my rear rack, plugged into the taillight output of an old B&M IQ Fly running off a Sturmey-Archer X-FDD for a couple of days:
It works reasonably well, I was able to put it together with parts I had on hand, and I [think that I] mostly understand what it's doing.
The LEDs are all generic "superbright" 5mm red LEDs.
Now that it's working, I'd like to upgrade the LED(s) across the standlight to something brighter. After browsing www.ledsupply.com, I'm thinking a Cree XP-E2 with maybe a Carclo 10140 frosted wide-angle lens, but I would love to get suggestions from folks with more experience selecting and buying LEDs.
I realize this will require changing the upper LED (D3), and I'll probably also get a higher voltage Zener (D1) and change D2, the clamping diode on the capacitor, accordingly. I figure D3, the non-standlight LED, will probably end up being 2 red 5mm LEDs angled out for side visibility.
Anyway, I have three questions:
1) Does this circuit look viable, or is it just biding its time, waiting to blow up on me?
2) Is there another LED/optic that would be brighter or give a better beam pattern?
3) While I'm asking dynamo-related questions, is there any LED/optic combo available for a headlight that will yield a beam pattern similar to what I've become accustomed to with B&M lights?
Thanks!
-Darin
Given those resources, I put together the following on a breadboard, which has been hanging off my rear rack, plugged into the taillight output of an old B&M IQ Fly running off a Sturmey-Archer X-FDD for a couple of days:
It works reasonably well, I was able to put it together with parts I had on hand, and I [think that I] mostly understand what it's doing.
The LEDs are all generic "superbright" 5mm red LEDs.
Now that it's working, I'd like to upgrade the LED(s) across the standlight to something brighter. After browsing www.ledsupply.com, I'm thinking a Cree XP-E2 with maybe a Carclo 10140 frosted wide-angle lens, but I would love to get suggestions from folks with more experience selecting and buying LEDs.
I realize this will require changing the upper LED (D3), and I'll probably also get a higher voltage Zener (D1) and change D2, the clamping diode on the capacitor, accordingly. I figure D3, the non-standlight LED, will probably end up being 2 red 5mm LEDs angled out for side visibility.
Anyway, I have three questions:
1) Does this circuit look viable, or is it just biding its time, waiting to blow up on me?
2) Is there another LED/optic that would be brighter or give a better beam pattern?
3) While I'm asking dynamo-related questions, is there any LED/optic combo available for a headlight that will yield a beam pattern similar to what I've become accustomed to with B&M lights?
Thanks!
-Darin