Charging on the move.

[freiston]

Useful information. Thank you. Have any of your cameras got enough charge in them to be able to take a photo of your set up and post here? That would be super useful.

The close-up photos have just been taken on my phone, they aren't very good and are not very flattering for my bike...

From the rear, you can just see the heat-shrink from the joins poking out the bottom of the steerer - the wire from the front lamp to the rear lamp has been coiled with a generous amount of excess:

Front view:

Side view:

The charging unit atop the steerer:

 

[Ice2911]

Here’s my effort now. Obviously the front light is for when the bar bag is not there. Dynamo front light underneath and light on front of bar bag.thanks for all the advice and help.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

My Igaro D2 arrived yesterday. It is absolutely tiny.

I will be using it to charge my Wahoo, iPhone, GoPro and cache battery on the go. For now I have a cable piggy-backing the headlamp cable down by the dynohub leading up to the stem area where the end plugs into the Igaro D2. This sits in a little top tube fuel pod which in turn has a short USB-C to USB adapter. That is the point I can plug in the various different cables for each device. I can choose to carry the charger or not depending on need.

In the small print there are strong caveats about water ingress via the USB-C cable into the Igaro D2. I have sealed it in a small ziplock bag and I am dreaming about making another protective case for it. You all know how damaged things bouncing and jiggling around bike luggage can get. I also want to protect the two prongs/connectors on the D2. The area needs beefing up. There are no issues with the D2 overheating like the predecessor so this should be ok.

I fettled it altogether last night and just by spinning the front wheel for a bit, my iPhone charged a couple of percent.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I found with my Luxos U a phone would charge from flat to full in three hours of riding. 2% from spinning by hand, 3 mins or so I suppose.

 

[andrew_s]

In the small print there are strong caveats about water ingress via the USB-C cable into the Igaro D2

I am dreaming about making another protective case for it. You all know how damaged things bouncing and jiggling around bike luggage can get. I also want to protect the two prongs/connectors on the D2.

The warnings are about USB plugs and sockets in general. Water won't get inside the D2 via the port, but if you've got current passing through tiny connecting pins, in the presence of water, electrolysis can erode the pins away. Cables are cheap, but replacing the socket in a D2 or your phone wouldn't be.


I found the plastic box a couple of pairs of earplugs came in just the right size for the D2

http://www.lloydspharmacy.com/en/noise-x-foam-bullet-shape-ear-plugs-2-pairs

 

[freiston]

An update on my experience. As yet, my charging capability is still to be tried out in earnest (my intention is that it is a fall-back rather than an M.O.). I realise that the following is by no means "scientific" and that device reports of battery percentages are not always reliable.

I've got a little outing planned for very soon and I have plotted a route on very minor roads for most of the 50 miles per day. I find it too difficult to follow OsMand in sat-nav mode but I find it very easy to follow if I put the OsMand map into night mode, have the track displayed on the map and follow the line. The problem with this is that my phone battery depletes very quickly as the screen is permanently on - a test ride the other day over 15 miles with track recording active resulted in my battery going from 97% to 51%. Which means that I cannot do my 50 mile journey without recharging.

Today I went out with a Ravpower 10000mAh Power Bank (which I had seen described as capable of pass-through charging) plugged into my Cycle2Charge and the phone plugged into it. I had the track to follow displayed on the phone but was not recording. After three or four miles I noticed that my phone battery had gone from 97% to 91% and that it was only charging when I was stopped (or below about 6 mph) - so the Ravpower does not charge the phone whilst itself is charging but once it stops charging up, it outputs to the phone. I unplugged the Ravpower and plugged the phone directly into the Cycle2Charge

I was going quite slow today, with lots of stopping and starting to allow vehicles to pass on the narrow lanes and for the remaining 10 or so miles, the phone battery went from 91% to 86% (it did start to go up on a particularly long downhill stretch).

I'm currently recharging my phone from another powerbank that I have with a percentage display on it, with the powerbank plugged into a USB power supply. The powerbank percentage remained at 72% whilst the phone went to 100% and now the powerbank has started to charge. I reckon I will use this powerbank to pass-through charge the phone and keep the fully charged Ravpower in the bag as a back-up.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

My Igaro D2 arrived yesterday. It is absolutely tiny.

I will be using it to charge my Wahoo, iPhone, GoPro and cache battery on the go. For now I have a cable piggy-backing the headlamp cable down by the dynohub leading up to the stem area where the end plugs into the Igaro D2. This sits in a little top tube fuel pod which in turn has a short USB-C to USB adapter. That is the point I can plug in the various different cables for each device. I can choose to carry the charger or not depending on need.

In the small print there are strong caveats about water ingress via the USB-C cable into the Igaro D2. I have sealed it in a small ziplock bag and I am dreaming about making another protective case for it. You all know how damaged things bouncing and jiggling around bike luggage can get. I also want to protect the two prongs/connectors on the D2. The area needs beefing up. There are no issues with the D2 overheating like the predecessor so this should be ok.

I fettled it altogether last night and just by spinning the front wheel for a bit, my iPhone charged a couple of percent.

Bubble wrap pocket for the D2 ?

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Bubble wrap pocket for the D2 ?

You know that may just suffice. I have a little camera pouch or another net pouch which might work. Tiny dry bag maybe or make sure the top tube bag doesn’t leak.

 

[Randomnerd]

This rig gives me all the charge I need from a Son dynamo. Spendy but very neat and totally weatherproof.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Quite happy with my Igaro 2. Today was the first chance I have had to have a play.

Sealed the USB-C cable to the charger with silicone glue and zip tied it into a double layer of little ziplock baggies. The lot sat in the little net divider inside my top tube bag. Still thinking about a soft, protective sleeve for it to slip into.

Anyway I didn’t charge my iPhone SE last night and set off with 30% charge. Within a couple of hours it was topped up to over 90%. When I left the café, I hooked it up to my Wahoo Elemnt which was on 73%. Half an hour later I was up to 85% charge.

Nothing scientific in these findings, but I think I feel pretty self sufficient for multi-day mischief now.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

View attachment 485045

This rig gives me all the charge I need from a Son dynamo. Speedy but very neat and totally weatherproof.

Nice. I looked at these but nothing is suitable or bodgeable for carbon forks with compression plugs like I have on my Audax bike.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Nice. I looked at these but nothing is suitable or bodgeable for carbon forks with compression plugs like I have on my Audax bike.

I first read that as "nothing is suitable for biodegradable carbon forks like I have ..."
Biodegradable forks eh? Very eco friendly.

 

[tyred]

I first read that as "nothing is suitable for biodegradable carbon forks like I have ..."
Biodegradable forks eh? Very eco friendly.

It is nothing new. All my steel bikes have biodegradable forks as eventually they will return to dust (just like an Alfasud!).