Changing dynamo uses?

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jhawk

Veteran
Hi all,

My bike uses a dynamo system for it's lighting, but I've had a thought that I won't be out at night much during my tours - I'm not planning on cycling into the night. So I thought that I could perhaps better equip my dynamo to act as a charger for my phone/GPS.

Is this possible? Can I keep my current dynamo, is there much re-wiring involved? Or will I have to buy a new one?

Thanks,

Jack.
 

andrew_s

Legendary Member
Location
Gloucester
You can, but you need a thingy to be between the dynamo and the phone.
The USB-werk is the good & relatively expensive version . It includes a cache battery so you don't lose power during short stops - some devices will turn off if they lose power whilst plugged in.
Alternatively there are 3 front lights with USB output ports (Axa Luxx 70 plus, Axa Nano 50 plus, B+M Luxos U). The B+M has a cache, the other two don't.

Then there are a whole raft of other dynamo to USB options, some better than others. The basic ones tend not to like being plugged in to the dynamo, but not having anything connected on the output side.
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
How about the Son Dynamo hub? Can it be used say to charge a power gorilla which you can then hook up to your laptop, gps or phone? The power gorilla can also be powered by a solar gorilla but if it's cloudy the option to switch to dynamo charging would be very useful.
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
I was talking about this to a long-distance cyclist a few weeks ago.

He had a solar panel about the size of an iPad strapped to his back.

He said it was sufficient to keep his phone charged, but not powerful enough for much else.
 

CopperBrompton

Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
Location
London
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