Rear Dynamo light not turning off

[Deleted member 26715]

Obviously not a member of the Wheel Tappers and Shunters Social Club .

Not renewed my membership for many a year

 

[silva]

Having a red light showing is against railway regulations since it could cause confusion to a train driver and so risk an accident.

Other (mine) reasons are that at a shop visit I don't want to leave my bike with lights on drawing attention from the curious and the thieves, and that I rather want to preserve the capacitor energy so that when back I can switch on to see something, energy that got lost for nothing in the case of inability to switch off.

 

[andrew_s]

The red button dumps the capacitor, so kills the light at rest.

The red button is an off switch.
If you wheel the bike a yard or so, the light will come back on, and stay on for another 4 minutes, without you needing to ride the bike half a mile or whatever to charge the capacitor back up, which you would do if the capacitor charge had been dumped.

To OP:
Only some lights have an off switch.
The Toplight Line rack-mounted lights have the red switch
The 4D-lite (mudguard light) has a couple of contacts on the outside you can short with a key
The Secula and Seculite mudguard lights don't have any off switch

If I'm on a bike with a switch, I turn the light off to stop helpful strangers coming looking for me to tell me I left my light on.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I've never come across the "Off" although that may be because Dynamo lights are a legal requirement here, and recently the law changed to say new bikes must have stand lights at the rear at least. I'm not sure about the ruling on railway stations.

On one hand I can see the logic, but on the other hand I miss the opportunity to switch the front light off and ride in the moonlight, something I often did in the rural lanes of Devon.

 

[citybabe]

The red button is an off switch.
If you wheel the bike a yard or so, the light will come back on, and stay on for another 4 minutes, without you needing to ride the bike half a mile or whatever to charge the capacitor back up, which you would do if the capacitor charge had been dumped.

To OP:
Only some lights have an off switch.
The Toplight Line rack-mounted lights have the red switch
The 4D-lite (mudguard light) has a couple of contacts on the outside you can short with a key
The Secula and Seculite mudguard lights don't have any off switch

If I'm on a bike with a switch, I turn the light off to stop helpful strangers coming looking for me to tell me I left my light on.

it is a Secura rear mudguard light and it doesn’t have an off switch

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It's the norm. The rear light has its own capacitor and so will stay on independent of the front light, when you stop. It's nothing to worry about for trains I often turn off the front light a few mins before reaching the station. The light are then drained down and unlit when I reach the platform.

 

[silva]

All the modular click on mount battery powered lights have a button to switch them off. Sometims you have to "scroll" through X blinking modes to reach it, but it's off, immediate light out.
A dynamo powered one, model with standlight (apparently they don't all have this), some/alot (I found brands that do provide it) scrapped this switchoff button, which has nothing to do with safety since it's the rider deciding on/off and leaving on means staying on till electrical load storage empty. The only reason left is to save some bucks, ie the price of a button and related provisions.
So for those that want to be able to turn a light off, just skip the brands that cut costs.

 

[oldandslow]

The Spanninga rear light on my Brompton has failed. I've put a meter on it, and I suspect the wiring rather than the light itself, so I'm going to try a new loom first, though I may buy in a light as well just in case. Apart from the front light, which I've replaced (twice), the system has done about 13 years, so no complaints.

I'm trying to figure out the connectors in the rear light, which I have opened up. They disappear into a spade a bit like this one, but my light is not an Arcus. I'm not sure whether that spade is removable, and the wires themselves don't seem to have metal spades, so I'm trying to see how to get it apart - I don't want to break something by forcing it. Any idea what Spanninga light Brompton used around 2012? It's marked "Brompton by Spanninga".

Or maybe I should just replace the lot. I'd like a "switch" because of the railway station issue discussed here, but the SJS reviews for the Toplight LIne Plus are not that encouraging.

Any experiences welcome!

 

[silva]

Found a pic showing the as-sold loose parts of the connection:

Inside there are 2 spade connector sockets.
That plastic "spade" through which the wires go, looks like having on top in the middle a hook, so maybe a screwdriver to push it downwards, then the plastic "spade" should come loose, allowing to see the inside, to check whether or not the metal connector spades are still fixed on their sockets.

 

[oldandslow]

Thanks. That's not my light though. I've got the one in this article.

In the end, I've ordered a Toplight Line Plus for its "off switch", and a new wiring loom.

 

[silva]

Thanks. That's not my light though. I've got the one in this article.

In the end, I've ordered a Toplight Line Plus for its "off switch", and a new wiring loom.

It was an example light that had a similar cable passing part as on your picture, to find out how to disconnect it without cutting wires / losing a distance. It could be that one of the inside spade connectors just got shaken loose, which may be repaired by carefully pressing the metal abit more together, or, molest it from the wire, and pressing a new spade connector on it.