Hitchcocks Forum

Any smartie out there who can help, I have the Flea wired up with 12 volt coil ignition, no magneto, and led lights using a total loss setup which all works very well but the issue I am having is the opening and closing of the points is causing pulsating of the headlight, which is no big deal but I would like to see if there is some way to smooth it out if anybody has any ideas

A simple solution would be to use a seperate battery for the points... It would have the side benefit of increasing your range
a little too. 2 batteries should double your chances of getting home in the event of an electrical fault that drains a battery.

Thanks Zippy, I had already though about that one, but I just bought a Motorbatt battery and mounted it inside the seat so it couldn't be seen, not sure if I could fit 2 batteries in there

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I would have said to install a 4500 microfarad 30V capacitor as a 'reservoir' to smooth out the drain from the points. Anyone know of best value and if a limiting resistor is needed?


Er, is your headlamp dippable, or just a non dippable 'daytime running' lamp? As I am on the lookout for a good LED replacement for my bullet.



As my mate Vic would say, "If the flashing gets worse, turn the radio up!" Good old Vic.







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Scaly it has 2 light beams one is much brighter than the other and it is H4,never tried it at night to see how far you can see with them

YAY! I want one! What's it called?



Will bypass my charging problems hopefully!

Scaly, I know where you are coming from re. that smoothing capacitor, but I don't think 4500 microFarad would be anywhere near big enough due to the high currents involved.



If I did out my college notes I could probably work out how big it needs to be (although it will never completely remove the flicker). But my gut says that a 4700 (I think that's what you meant) microFarad capacitor won't be enough.



Certainly no need for a limiting resistor, due to the internal resistance of the battery. Especially if you leave it connected to the battery all the time, which is what I'd do.



I think the most elegant approach is zippy's: fitting two batteries.



If that really can't be done, then another approach would be to use a DC-DC converter, which will take in any voltage in a range around 12V and generate exactly 12V. I don't know if you can buy these with a high enough current rating, though. Perhaps Norm could tell us how much current the lights draw?

Scaly, I just googled up the led headlight I think it was Ebay UK but if not it would be Ebay Au, one I saw was item number 181214058080 $6.90 US for 2 of them

NORM: I tried your bearing removal trick on the bullet roller bearing yesterday. It worked a treat! I managed to get the crank trued to 3.8 thou runout as well - So we're making progress!

Zippy, glad to hear you are making good progress