Regulator 6V 3W for a Hub Dynamo bicycle

This is a regulator for a 6V/3W bicycle hub generator system. The purpose is to manage the powering of bicycle lights from the hub generator and from rechargeable batteries, to charge the batteries using excess power from the generator, and to provide intelligent charging of the batteries from an AC adapter, when needed.

The switch has three positions: charge-off-light. In the charge position, the bicycle dynamo charges five AA NiMH batteries if those are drained. If the batteries are reasonably full, then the circuit draws virtually no power. In the light position, if the dynamo’s average voltage is below some threshold value, then the bicycle lamps are fed by the batteries aided by the rectified dynamo If the dynamo voltage is high, the lamps are fed directly by AC from the dynamo and the dynamo excess power is used to recharge batteries. The direct use of AC maximizes efficiency. Additional circuitry is provided for an intelligent charging of the batteries from an outlet using a 12V AC or DC adapter. Practice shows that that additional circuitry may be redundant. A flickering green LED indicates the activity of the dynamo in the charge mode and the fact that the light is fed by AC in the charge mode. A red LED indicates the fast charge state when the charging is done from an outlet.

Source: http://www.nscl.msu.edu/~daniel/sreg.htm

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Automotive, Power supply. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.