Standlight in a new Topllight Line Plus not working

[DavidBent]

Hi All,

I have just bought a BM toplight line plus and I tried to fit it on my recumbent bike.

The bike has a SON dynamo 20 and a headlight Lumotec Oval plus halogen.

I have bought a loudspeaker electric twin cable and applied at one end two female spade coonectors.

I have inserted these two female spade connectors to the two male spade connectors that are located on the Lumotec Oval plus (in the lumotec oval there are 4 male spade connectors and those which seem right to use are those on the right side)

I have inserted the other ends of the cable directly into the two holes of the rear light, securing them with the plastic switch lever.

When I switch on the stainless steel lever in the headlight and I start pedalling the rear light switch on as expected and keeps working as long as I ride.

However, even after 15 minutes of pedalling, when I stop the standlight doesn't work.

I would like to know where the problem is, if it is a wiring issue or a faulty rear light (which I just bought new).

Thanks for your help

David

[MikeF]

I'd say it was a faulty Toplight. Wasn't there a similar recent post where the poster said the capacitor was loose in one of these? The capacitor is visible through the rear of as a circular object looking like a button cell. Is it loose? If it's not it still doesn't mean the light isn't faulty. The stand light on my Toplight works very quickly and quicker than Philips Saferide, but that maybe because the Saferide always has to charge from flat as there isn't an off switch.

As a test you could connect the rear light directly to the generator without the front light. All you would need to do is just spin the hub for a short time eg 30 seconds to a minute.

Edit - Found the post http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=90091

[DavidBent]

Thanks Mike for your help. The capacitator was OK inside so I tried applying spade connectors to the rear light insted of inserting the twin wires into the holes. Finally it was working ! The standlight was effective after 1 second of pedalling. Next step will be (probably) the edelux.

Cheers!








The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine ~John Howard

[edocaster]

Very interesting. Were you applying spade connectors to the same holes as the bare wires? I don't enough about that light model to know if there's more than one set of holes.

But I do know that the standlight coming on after 1 second means it was actually already charged. The Line Plus has a fancy system of switching the standlight off (some button which shorts a contact), and on again when current flows to the light via some kind of latching switch circuit. It could be that the original wiring somehow didn't engage the switch circuit properly to turn the light on, or shorted the very contacts which switch the standlight off.

[colin146]

I think you will find the light to be 'polarity sensitive". By re terminating you probably switched the wires around. Look carefully at the body moulding by the spade connectors and you should see a moulded + and - . Match these with the equivalent on the headlamp unit