Make your own gear? Talk about it here!
I wanted to be able to with the dynamo light on and off, and I also wanted to be able to send the current to the Cycle2Charge device as well. I could have wired them up in parallel but I did some research and came up with this.
As the C2C wasn't going to be stem mounted, I had reservations about damaging the wire and connector underneath, a stem spacer and the disc with holes helped solve that, just waiting on a shorter bolt to tidy it up a bit.
After dusting off my soldering skills and using a "hello kitty" hairdryer for the heat shrink, I had come up with switch system Mk1.
Mounting on the bike, I was realising that had been generous with the wire lengths but was happy with the switch position and how it worked.
So once on, I promptly head out into the wintery hills to test the system, well the charging arrangement as I was too impatient to wait until dark to test the revo!
Edit to add the Mk2 to the bars!
Hopefully get out after dark later to test it again!
Last edited by welshwhit on Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Don't worry, I was on tea brake and I used the dynamo to power the machine!
I did consider setting it as a pupil task at one point though... in fairness some of them may have done a neater job!
Cheers though, probable a complex solution to a simple problem!
True! I don't usually use the 800 on the hills, I had it plugged into to the C2C to get a feel for when it was getting enough juice and when I needed to pedal faster!
Where did you get the connectors and the switches?
Actually what was the reason for using connectors and not just hard wiring the switch in place?
Thanks, the connectors were included to try and make it as versatile as possible. I had a plan to make sure that i reversed one of the connectors so that I could remove the usb charger and switch and just use the Revo.
Now its all done and on the bike, the connectors seem surplus to requirements, but there is always Mk3!
All the switches and connectors I got from eBay. All the electronic bits cost around a £10 all said and done, that includes a switch I cooked by accident!
Bravo Drew, nice work. .
Nice and neatly put together, I like the staged heatshrink! (In case you didn't already know, I see you have some standard heatshrink stuff which I use a lot of the time, but you can also get some more expensive stuff which does a considerably larger amount of shrinking - i.e. shrinks to a 1/3rd of original size rather than 1/2 etc - rapid electronics, essentra components etc. stock it if you leaf through their product catalogue enough.).
That all looks very neat.
Why don't you put the Cycle2Charge bit into the steerer?
If you're charging something, do you not need a buffer battery somewhere, or does the C2C handle this for you?
Ian wrote: That all looks very neat.
C2C in the steerer would foul the GPS.
The c2c doesn't have a buffer as such but I've found my Garmin doesn't notice unless I actually stop, a moments hesitation at a junction and it seems to cope.
But the GPS is mounted on the front loop, not the stem?
Ian wrote: But the GPS is mounted on the front loop, not the stem?
welshwhit wrote: The main issue I had was mounting the switch and the C2C device, I didn't want it on my stem cap, as thats where the Dakota lives, the switch also needed to be in a handy location for the obvious reasons.
The GPS you see on the front loop is an Edge. The stem fouls the Dakota.
But in principle, if you didn't mount your Dakota/Edge on your stem, the C2C could be mounted there with the switch along side, right?
Would there be any disadvantage in doing that?
Thinking as I type - full carbon forks and the C2C system don't work do they, as you've no route out of the bottom of the fork..?
I've got mine in the steerer and a Dakota mount on the stem, fits on a 110mm stem. Monocoque carbon forks could prove tricky but if you had that nice fat spacer for the switch you might be able to route it through that with a notch or hole drilled as the wires into the c2c are thin gauge.
The mount is 10mm so there is the possibility of mounting the C2C on the stem and routing the wire 'through' it or even in through a spacer, but care would be needed as this wire was the smallest gauge and most fragile, more heat shrink would probable hinder the routing.