best bulb for dynamo front lamp w. DToplight rear?

google.10.robessee@spamgourmet.com

hi,

i just installed a SON hub using my previous lights - B&M Toplight rear
with standlight, Union Halogen (~10yr old, nice beam, with zener, don't
know what model - same as this one in Evans dynashoe illustration:
http://www.evanscycles.com/product_images/S315L.jpg )

Bulb a bit old & darkened in front, so might get another. Is 3W or 2.4W
best with that rear? I'm pretty sure the single LED doesn't use all the
0.6W of a standard rear, it isn't very bright (mine's a few years old,
are new ones brighter?), but does the complete unit waste enough power
to use 0.6W altogether? Or is power usage low enough for 3W at the
front?

Also, are the philips Blue Vision bulbs good? Good for conspicuity i'd
imagine but if it's acheived by filtering then surely it means less
light?

cheers,

rob.

Andrew Chadwick

On 2005-01-17 12:53 +0000, google.10.robessee@spamgourmet.com wrote:
>
> i just installed a SON hub using my previous lights - B&M Toplight rear
> with standlight, Union Halogen (~10yr old, nice beam, with zener, don't
> know what model - same as this one in Evans dynashoe illustration:
> http://www.evanscycles.com/product_images/S315L.jpg )
>
> Bulb a bit old & darkened in front, so might get another. Is 3W or 2.4W
> best with that rear? I'm pretty sure the single LED doesn't use all the
> 0.6W of a standard rear, it isn't very bright (mine's a few years old,
> are new ones brighter?), but does the complete unit waste enough power
> to use 0.6W altogether? Or is power usage low enough for 3W at the
> front?

I've just tried this out on a run to the shops using a similar setup[1]
and it seems to me that a fresh 3W bulb was a little dimmer and yellower
than an older 2.4W bulb. All the standlights and LEDs worked fine, but
it seems that in my case at least whatever's in the rear light causes it
to behave similarly to a 0.6W incandescent.

That said, a 3W bulb still gives out enough light to get you home by,
especially if you can safely disconnect the rear. If you use a 12V
series setup with cutout, like me, you can probably get away with
carrying just 3W spares on the road.

I may give the 24 superbright(?) LEDs trick[2] described by a poster
here a while back a go, as I have the shell of an old mudguard lamp
around here somewhere. Would this too behave like a 0.6W incandescent
bulb?


[1] B&M Oval Standlight Plus, and a B&M 4-D LED rear light in parallel.
[2] 12 one way, 12 the other. Might flicker a bit at low speeds, mind.

--
Andrew Chadwick

Clive George

"Andrew Chadwick" <and-x-rewc@pi-y-ffle.org.z> wrote in message
news:slrncuo5qc.5ef.and-x-rewc@oolong.piffle.org...

> I may give the 24 superbright(?) LEDs trick[2] described by a poster
> here a while back a go, as I have the shell of an old mudguard lamp
> around here somewhere. Would this too behave like a 0.6W incandescent
> bulb?

No, it doesn't - you run it in series, not parallel. Try it in parallel and
it'll blow up very quickly!

cheers,
clive

Just zis Guy, you know?

google.10.robessee@spamgourmet.com wrote:

> i just installed a SON hub using my previous lights - B&M Toplight rear
> with standlight,

If it's a B&M 4D toplight then you need a 2.4W front lamp - the Philips
halogen one sold in the past by CTC shop was the best I found. If it's
the old Toplight with fewer LEDs you can get away with a 3W front lamp.
Again, the Philips works well for me.


Guy
--
"then came ye chavves, theyre cartes girded wyth candels
blue, and theyre beastes wyth straynge horn-lyke thyngs
onn theyre arses that theyre fartes be herde from myles
around." Chaucer, the Sheppey Tales