alt.energy.homepower

>Per Martin Riddle:
>>I use one of those flashing LED rear lamps.
>>
>>And a converted head lamp with a 6v Kryton bulb driven off 4 1200mAh AA's. Its 2hrs of light.
>
>There's not doubt whatsoever in my mind that the rational
>solution is battery-powered lights. They're everywhere - and on
>sale right now at Performance. Witness my own hand-held
>flashlight (2 C batteries - probably be putting out light on the
>original batts long after I'm dead...)
>
>But now I've got this Sturmey-Archer Dynohub (was planning on
>just a drum brake... but the drum + generator was only five bucks
>more...) so, just for grins, I'd like to make a system that works
>without batteries.

I think you could make it work. Even if the dynohub is grounded, you could use a bridge
rectifier; just ensure that anything on the DC side is NOT grounded.

I'd set it up as a six-volt system. That's what it's rated at. Running 3 volts
lamps/batteries, there's too much likelihood of overcharging batteries or burning out
lamps. You could run some pretty impressive LED lamps with 4 watts of power.

Set it up with a plastic battery-holder and 4 AA cells. Try nicads or alkalines. The
latter aren't supposed to be rechargeable, but likely a SMALL reverse current won't kill
them. The bridge rectifier should keep the batteries from backfeeding the alternator coil.

Sounds like a fun project. Good luck with it.

Gordon Richmond