Bike-Rich wrote:So to confirm, even on your bike the lights are going from the 'lights output' on the e-werk? Was splitting the cable (front and rear light) difficult?
No, the E-Werk only produces DC for the electronic devices you want to charge. On my setup I take two wires from each terminal of the dynohub. One pair go to the front light and the second is the power input to the E-Werk. To get the two wires from each terminal you can get special connectors which allow a second spade connector. Something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Trade-Direc ... +connector However, this is the wrong size for a dynohub but you should be able to get the idea from the picture. I just couldn't find a link to the correct size quickly.
For the feed to the rear light you should find there is a second pair of wires coming out of the front light. This is where you connect the wires for the rear light.
Bike-Rich wrote:Why is the lights treated as a separate output? I could understand it with older type lights but surely with modern efficient ones they all have buffer batteries in and are low-use comparable to things like smart phones?
As above, the lights are not fed from the E-Werk. Modern LED lights will often have capacitors (not batteries) in them so they can continue to produce some light output when the bike is stopped, for example at a junction. The light output at the rear is probably going to be pretty much at full strength but on the front you will probably just get a couple of small LED "sidelights" running, you only get full beam when peddling.
In my experience the dynohub will not really produce enough power output to do much charging of electronic things when you have the lights on. This shouldn't be a problem unless you plan to do a lot of night cycling. In poor weather having a front light which has a "daylight running" setting is very useful as it will take less power, give you a bit of light at the front so people can see you and still have power left over for electronic charging.
I have a standard E-Werk together with the separate cache battery and find they work fine for me but the new USB-E-Werk is a good alternative but the battery in it is there simply to ensure your electronic devices get a smooth voltage which isn't interrupted when you stop at junctions - which can upset some devices, but not by any means all. The separate cache battery is much bigger and can actually charge devices when you are stopped.