Forum

[Scalyback]

The switches are just on-off-on, and they seem to work when power applied, dropping when power disconnected.

As Before, I not drilling my bike, but would mount on the rear of the number plate. I'll see what happens If I manage to get a pair. Lucas SF80 look to be the most likely.



Hand signals not too bad in France. The other drivers have this pleasing way of paying attention to their driving, which improves the odds somewhat. Might look for yellow fluorescent gloves with reflective stripes though...

[jefrs]

Do you mean the bulb is wired to the lift armature? Models may vary. If yours flop down then it will take a fair amount of power to raise and keep them raised, far more than a relay. To lift the mass of the arm will require a certain amount of power (amps x volts). Force to lift mass is units Newton through a given distance gives units Newton metres which is Joules, for how long is Joules per second is Watts.
So making them consume less power may mean they'll fly at half mast. I have tinkered with them on old cars, I had access to a coil winder, one lad at college had an old London taxi. I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to have current constantly applied. I think I can just make out the spring mechanism in the picture, that is supposed to hold them up. To make the bulbs flash you'd also need an external flasher relay.

Does your armature (motor) move outwards when the flag is raised? If it does then it pulls to raise and pulls to lower.

[Scalyback]

The painting of a thousand word picture...

[Scalyback]

[center]



This shows the flashing LED lamp! just plug in.



It from Classic Dynamo Regulator Conversions

[Scalyback]

[jefrs]

That looks cool, and a very simple mechanism but it is going to need some power to fold the flag up. Do you know the current draw? Run it through an ammeter? Don't overload the generator, can the battery supply the current? Have fun.

[papasmurf]

Useful info here:-
http://www.austin7.org/Technical%20Arti ... emaphores/

[Scalyback]

[center]

Jefrs, I assume Kevin can handle it, He has been upgraded to 12V electrics, and the headlamp has a 65W bulb in it, and the ammeter shows ok when headlamp on. I have not changed the tail to LED as the one I ordered did not work with positive earth, and could not modify the circuit board in the lamp to do that.



I do a lot of stuff with relays and solenoids and it should be ok, have not got them yet, so cannot take a reading. Volts, amps and watts are one thing, but we go into Gauss, inductance and reluctance here and that works more on the magnetic field strength with number of turns and current. Have a Lithium-ion battery, so it should be able to run the Thames barrier for short periods!


Thanks Papasmurf that is the sort of thing I was thinking of.

[PeteF]

Ah, my first job in the automotive world. The indicators on my dad's Austin would not cancel. It was my job as back seat passenger to open the window and flick them down.

[jefrs]

That's why I didn't suggest measuring the DC resistance, coil inductance etc usually depends on the work it is being asked to do. Your battery will do just fine. Provided the battery can provide any excess current it won't overload the generator (you might see that as volts dropping). But you've already upgraded the system, it's nice to have lights of seeing rather than 6V Toc'h lamps that absorb visible light.