Just bought a Nean front and rear light set along with a bottle dynamo. No cable?

[Lovacott]

Hi all,

Just bought a Nean front and rear light and although there is cable to connect the Dynamo to the front light, there is no cable supplied to run from the front (master) light to the rear (slave) light?

Both front and rear lights have two spades each which are supposed to couple them up as a pair (the dynamo power goes to the front first via the supplied cable and the rear light slaves off of it).

But with no cable supplied, how are you supposed to do it?

I could go out and buy some twin core cable and solder it to to the spades at each end, but I would have thought that there would be a proprietary cable available with push on connectors at each end to make connection (and removal) a lot easier? I've hunted high and low on Neans website, Amazon, Ebay etc. but to no avail.

Help!!

 

[Cycleops]

As you say easy enough to buy the connectors and wire. Here's a video to help you out:

View: https://youtu.be/Qps9woUGkvI

 

[Lovacott]

As you say easy enough to buy the connectors and wire. Here's a video to help you out:

I've found a decent length of cable on a DC adaptor I had chucked away in the cupboard (from an old modem).

I can solder the cable direct to the front light spades but the rear light spades are only accessible through a small slot underneath the light (it's a sealed unit).

Looks like I'll have to go to Screwfix later and buy some stupid pack quantity of connectors!!

 

[Pale Rider]

It appears dynamo lights may use spades of a standard size.

Something like this should fit, although one end is bare, so you will have to do some soldering/connecting.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Union-DO...anic&brand=Union&_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1

 

[Lovacott]

It appears dynamo lights may use spades of a standard size.

Something like this should fit, although one end is bare, so you will have to do some soldering/connecting.

Cheers, I've just ordered four of the spade connectors from the link you suggested.

Meanwhile, I've connected up the lights by poking the wires through the tiddly holes in the spades and giving them a bit of a twist (very temporary measure)

However, I've Just spent a couple of hours thinking I had a dud Dynamo. It has two pairs of connectors on the bottom, which I assumed was one for the front and one for back light. As only the front light takes power from the Dynamo and rear is a slave of the front, I figured I only needed to use one of the Dynamo terminal blocks.

I assumed that each pair of connectors had a positive and negative so I wired the lighting rig into one of the connector pairs. Nothing.

So I tried the other connector pair and again nothing?

So I then wired up the rig to 6 volts worth of batteries and the lights worked fine.

I was about to give up when it occurred to me that maybe the pairs of terminals on the bottom of the Dynamo were one pair positive, one pair negative.

Tried again and hey presto. Lights from leg power.

It would help if the Dynamo came with even the most basic of wiring diagrams, but it just arrived on a bit of card with nothing.

There aren't even any + or - signs next to the terminal blocks to give you a bit of a clue.

Still, I got there in the end.

 

[Pale Rider]

Cheers, I've just ordered four of the spade connectors from the link you suggested.

Meanwhile, I've connected up the lights by poking the wires through the tiddly holes in the spades and giving them a bit of a twist (very temporary measure)

However, I've Just spent a couple of hours thinking I had a dud Dynamo. It has two pairs of connectors on the bottom, which I assumed was one for the front and one for back light. As only the front light takes power from the Dynamo and rear is a slave of the front, I figured I only needed to use one of the Dynamo terminal blocks.

I assumed that each pair of connectors had a positive and negative so I wired the lighting rig into one of the connector pairs. Nothing.

So I tried the other connector pair and again nothing?

So I then wired up the rig to 6 volts worth of batteries and the lights worked fine.

I was about to give up when it occurred to me that maybe the pairs of terminals on the bottom of the Dynamo were one pair positive, one pair negative.

Tried again and hey presto. Lights from leg power.

It would help if the Dynamo came with even the most basic of wiring diagrams, but it just arrived on a bit of card with nothing.

There aren't even any + or - signs next to the terminal blocks to give you a bit of a clue.

Still, I got there in the end.

I'm no expert, but if the bottle dynamo is mounted on the rear seat stay as some are, it could make sense to run what would be a short feed to the rear light and a separate longer one to the front.

If the dynamo is on a fork leg, the wire to the front light would be shorter.

The modern lights you have are designed more for a front hub dynamo.

A slave wiring scheme makes much more sense for that installation than running two pairs of wires on the fork leg.

 

[Lovacott]

The modern lights you have are designed more for a front hub dynamo.

A slave wiring scheme makes much more sense for that installation than running two pairs of wires on the fork leg.

Because I have an MTB with disc brakes, there was no place on the front to mount a dynamo bracket so I had to go for a rear mount.

The setup I have, has a cable running from the dynamo at the back of the bike to the light at the front of the bike and then back to the light at the rear of the bike.

Double handling on acid as far as I am concerned.

But it works and I have to say, It's bloody good.

The bottle Dynamo (although a tad noisy) offers up no noticeable resistance when peddling.

Chucks out a decent bit of light as well.

I'm reasonably pleased.

 

[Lovacott]

I'm no expert, but if the bottle dynamo is mounted on the rear seat stay as some are, it could make sense to run what would be a short feed to the rear light and a separate longer one to the front.

I just did a test run along a dark lane about half a mile from home using just the Dynamo lights. Pretty impressive and I now understand why the rear slaves off the front.

The system is activated by either having the dynamo engaged and generating power, or, failing light.

There is an ambient light sensor built into the top of the front light.

The modes are...

Good daylight, dynamo disengaged, lights switched to off = both lights off
Good or bad daylight, any switching position, dynamo engaged and generating = both lights on full
Poor daylight, dynamo disengaged, any switching position = rear light on (using reserve power from the storage cell in the front light).
Good daylight, bike stationary, front light switched to parking mode = rear light on (again, using battery reserve).

After my 15 minute test run and with the dynamo disengaged once I got home, the rear light was still on 10 minutes later.

Pretty cool really and the whole setup cost me less than fifty quid.

 

[Pale Rider]

The switching on the German lights is almost too complicated for its own good.

My rear Busch and Muller dynamo Toplight had a button to dump the reserve, and a switch to turn off the light entirely - leaving the front on.

Hard to see why you would want to run a dynamo set with only the front light on.

Both functions, I believe, are for use on railway station platforms where it is more than frowned upon to show a red light.

The on/off switch was tiny.

I only found it after I threw it by accident with my cleaning rag.

Cue 15 frustrating minutes wondering why my rear light had stopped working.

 

[Lovacott]

The switching on the German lights is almost too complicated for its own good.

The on/off switch was tiny.

I only found it after I threw it by accident with my cleaning rag.

Cue 15 frustrating minutes wondering why my rear light had stopped working.

I haven't tried all combinations yet.

The switch on the front is a slider with three positions. On the far right is a light sensor which the switch covers to enable the rear light to come on using the reserve during any conditions. On the far left is the off position which is overridden whenever the dynamo is generating power. The mid position made no difference to anything when I was riding in the dark with the dynamo engaged but it must have a purpose?

Tea making mode maybe?

 

[silva]

My rear Busch and Muller dynamo Toplight had a button to dump the reserve, and a switch to turn off the light entirely - leaving the front on.

With that "reserve", do you mean the capacitor load of a stand light?
If so, that's interesting, something that German producent Son should have provided with their "Edelux" light set, that just stays lit after parking for a shop or so, something I hate because especially in the dark it draws attention to the bike. I want the choice, and without switch, there isn't one.
Even better would be a switch that just interrupts the led(s) from their power / capacitor, then the capacitor load is preserved and when returning from shop there is some energy>light available to search keys etc.
Back then, I asked Son why no switch, and they answered that is a switch is failure prone.
Something I'd rather deny, since on my previous bikes I had such switchable light and never had problems with buttons, for like a decade.