How Can I install 60W/55W Halogen Bulb In My Bike?

[paul.1911]

I've read in forums that max i can get a 5 Amp from my alternator (i don't know how it has been tested). The stock Headlight bulb is 35W, I want to change that to 60W
It has 3 poles...one for ignition coil another two for charing battery and lightning up the bulb on AC.
Many people think that it is not possible without rewinding the coil (I agree).
Some have re-winded and 60W bulb working fine as i've read, but i have seen one guy re-winded his coil (shown in the forums with pictures) and got fail. He uses 20G wire as 19G is recommended (i dont know why)...u need a bigger magnet to get more power, don't do anything stay on the stock, he said.
Then i dont know how some peoples got working...

Impact on the Engine
also people say it'll have minor impact on ur engine that is so so negligible that u cant even recognize...on the other hand, some says u will loose ur pick up, as the load will increase and will start knocking on the upward direction....
I don't know who is correct....they are talking about the same displacement of engine.

What are ur opinions??
Is do it yourself is the only way for me?

The wire for battery from alternator have 5V more than lightning wire.
and i've got 35v at the speed of 70Km/h and 15v@20Km/h on battery line, reduce 5 for lightning wire.
I this really not possible?
I've also created my own regulator but haven't tested yet.
but let me tell u, ones i've tested a 55W bulb without any regulator and it was glowing pretty good, but haven't tested the ampere drawn by it.
I'll burn up my coil if i overload it ....and i don't want that

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I would suggest you can't do it without rewinding the coil, but then you have the problem that the original coil was self-regulating, so may need a regulator to not blow the bulb.

But even so, you will still have the same problem of almost no lights at low engine revs.

Obviously any extra load takes power from the engine, but it will be too low to notice the difference (can you tell the difference now when you turn your lights ON? - I never could).

I've always thought the solution would be to add a decent size battery, feed the headlight from that, and rewind to provide a decent charging current, complete with regulator.

 

[paul.1911]

I would suggest you can't do it without rewinding the coil, but then you have the problem that the original coil was self-regulating, so may need a regulator to not blow the bulb.

No original coil is not self regulating there is a regulator for 35W bulb. But When i try to use 60W through that regulator, it was glowing like a candle, therefore i tried directly. and stated in second last line.

I've always thought the solution would be to add a decent size battery, feed the headlight from that, and rewind to provide a decent charging current, complete with regulator.

My stock battery is 2.5A and the max i can get from my stator is 5 Ampere. Is this optimum to feed a battery?
I've to take several test because it will exhaust in low rpm.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

No original coil is not self regulating there is a regulator for 35W bulb. But When i try to use 60W through that regulator, it was glowing like a candle, therefore i tried directly. and stated in second last line.

My bikes with directly feed lights didn't have regulators, perhaps your's is more modern?.

My stock battery is 2.5A and the max i can get from my stator is 5 Ampere. Is this optimum to feed a battery?
I've to take several test because it will exhaust in low rpm.

A 60W bulb takes 5A, so you need more than a 5A alternator, which is why it needs rewinding.

A 2.5ah battery is obviously far too small - in my experience they struggled to keep the indicators flashing when you stop at a junction! (and you couldn't keep the brake light on for long) .

 

[paul.1911]

A 60W bulb takes 5A, so you need more than a 5A alternator, which is why it needs rewinding.

Yes i agree, that is why i got confuse, whether to go for re-winding or not, I dont know i'll see any improvement coz one guy has re-winded (shown in the forums) and got fail. Haven't seen any improvement, after consulting with a mechanic, he said u need a bigger magnet.
Is this true? There is room for more rotations, he used 20G wire instead of 19G, i dont know about the original gauge.

A 2.5ah battery is obviously far too small - in my experience they struggled to keep the indicators flashing when you stop at a junction! (and you couldn't keep the brake light on for long) .

Yes i know man the battery is given only for indicators, horn and back light. I cant even change the battery

 

[Diver300]

What bike is it? What is the battery voltage?

It won't have any impact on the engine power, unless it disturbs the ignition. 60 W is nothing compared to bike engine powers.

30 ish years ago I had a Honda CG125, with 6 V electrics. The generator lit the 25 W headlight and the 5 W tail light directly. That type of generator is limited by its inductance so the current is basically constant. When the headlight was turned off, a resistor was used to take current so that the sidelight bulb didn't burn out.

I changed the whole lot to 12 V. I fitted a 55/60W headlight bulb, with a 5 W panel bulb that in parallel with dip beam only. I moved the tail light to the DC circuit. As the current was much the same (60 W on 12 V is 5 A. 30 W on 6 V is also 5 A) the headlight was bright, although it did dim more at tick-over than the 6 V one did.

I added a regulator to hold the battery voltage at 14 V, and used the magneto coil on the alternator as an additional charging supply. I changed the magneto ignition to capacitor discharge, mainly to reduce electrical power consumption. I changed all 9 bulbs (headlight, sidelight, brake/tail, 4 indicators, neutral warning and main beam warning) to 12 V, and fitted a 12 V flasher from a car, that was far better than the stupid thermal / capacitor one from Honda.

I still don't really understand how Honda managed to get away with such poor electrics, when the mechanical parts were fine, and the cars that they were selling then had electrics that worked fine.

If your headlight is 35 W, 12 V you can't do much about increasing the power. I would nowadays go for LED lights, but you would need good smoothing and regulation circuits. White LEDs didn't exist in the early 1980s.

 

[paul.1911]

What bike is it? What is the battery voltage?

I've a 100cc CD Dawn bike from Hero Honda having 12v@2.5A battery used only for blinkers and horns.
Headlight bulb runs under AC volts via regulator.

If your headlight is 35 W, 12 V you can't do much about increasing the power. I would nowadays go for LED lights, but you would need good smoothing and regulation circuits. White LEDs didn't exist in the early 1980s.

white headlights are baned in most of the cities in my country also u will feel difficulty in driving while there is a smoke or fog, normal bulbs are better specially in yours (colder) countries in off seasons, it reduces the chances of accident.

I couldn't understand why I can't increase the power?

 

[Diver300]

The generator will only produce around 3 A, whatever load you connect to it. If you want to increase the current, you would have to reduce the number of turns.

You could see if you could find a replacement bulb that is made with yellow LEDs.

 

[paul.1911]

The generator will only produce around 3 A, whatever load you connect to it. If you want to increase the current, you would have to reduce the number of turns.

You could see if you could find a replacement bulb that is made with yellow LEDs.

I dont know whether LEDs headlights is available for my bike or not...most probably not.

I've read in most forums that more turns will give u more power but u r telling me reduce the number of turns...how?
I dont know how power is being generated by alternators & how to determine the gauge and length....if u pls clear me!

This is how my puny magneto looks like
**broken link removed**

 

[Diver300]

On LED headlights you would probably be looking for a bulb that fits the existing headlight. I would see what is available and then work out a circuit to rectify the alternator output, and regulate it. That is the best way to get more light from your headlight.

Most alternators are current-limited by the inductance of the windings. The open-circuit voltage (the voltage that the alternator produces with no load) is proportional to the speed of the engine. The inductance of the alternator windings is constant, but the frequency is proportional to the speed of the engine, so the impedance of the windings is also proportional to the speed of the engine.

The resistance of the bulb is small compared to the impedance of the windings, so impedance of the windings is what controls the current. As the engine speed increased, the open-circuit voltage increases, but so does the impedance, so the current, which the voltage divided by the impedance, stays the same.

The alternators in cars are current-limited in the same way. They have voltage regulators to stop the voltage getting too large when there is less load, but they don't have current limiters because they don't need them. When there were dynamos on cars, they did not limit the current, so the dynamo regulators had to contain devices to limit the current as well as the voltage.

If you increase the number of turns, the open-circuit voltage will go up, in proportion to the number of turns. If you have twice as many turns you get twice the voltage. However, if you have twice as many turns, the inductance of the windings will be four times as much.

(If you look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductor you will see that all of the inductance formulas have N[SUP]2[/SUP] in them, which is the number of turns squared)

So with twice as many turns, you get half the current. Similarly with fewer turns, you get more current. Of course, the engine will have to be going faster before you get full brightness.

That is what happened with my motorbike, which was similar, when I used a 12 V bulb on a 6 V system. The brightness at low engine speeds was poor, but at high engine speeds I was getting the same current with a 12 V bulb as with a 6 V bulb, because the current is controlled by the inductance of the alternator windings and not by the bulb resistance.

 

[paul.1911]

So with twice as many turns, you get half the current. Similarly with fewer turns, you get more current. Of course, the engine will have to be going faster before you get full brightness.

Thanks for the brief explanation.....but what about the power? What theory says, if u increase volts ampere has to be drop and vice versa but output always remain the same....
If i get more current with fewer turns the voltage will drop, hence poor brightness on low rpm. On the other hand if i increase the turns ampere will drop and again there is a problem. Am i right? If i want to increase volts i wud go for voltage doubler method
**broken link removed**
but that doesnt make any sense.

What about trying thinner gauge of wire?

 

[Diver300]

Thanks for the brief explanation.....but what about the power? What theory says, if u increase volts ampere has to be drop and vice versa but output always remain the same....

The output power, which is voltage multiplied by current, will not remain the same if you change the number of turns.

If i get more current with fewer turns the voltage will drop, hence poor brightness on low rpm. On the other hand if i increase the turns ampere will drop and again there is a problem. Am i right? If i want to increase volts i wud go for voltage doubler method
**broken link removed**
but that doesnt make any sense.

What about trying thinner gauge of wire?

The voltage multipliers won't help you increase the power. The wire gauge won't make much difference, but it you use wire that is too thin it will reduce the current and it might overheat.

You need more current, not more voltage. The standard 12V 35/35 W bulb takes about 3 A and that light up OK. When you tried a 55/60 W bulb, it was very dim, because the alternator was only putting 3 A though the bulb. I think that you measured 35 V from the alternator with no load at high engine speed, so you have plenty of voltage if the engine is running fast. However, you have too much impedance in the winding. You need to reduce the impedance by reducing the number of turns.

 

[paul.1911]

think that you measured 35 V from the alternator with no load at high engine speed, so you have plenty of voltage if the engine is running fast. However, you have too much impedance in the winding. You need to reduce the impedance by reducing the number of turns.

Yes I've measured 35v with no load, direct from the alternator.
Here is what I've measured....
I measured the output volts from two wires, one for headlight and another for battery
................headlight........battery
20Km/h.........10v ..............15v
40Km/h.........15v...............20v
60km/h..........20v...............25v
and so on.....
so battery wire have +5 volts than headlight one

This magneto produce max 5A (as i've read in forums, i dont know at what speed)
So if the half the number of turns the output will be 10A
which is enough for lightening up a 60/55W bulb

But what about voltage? To get 12v from battery wire i wud need to be drive at 60km/h to lightening up a headlight bulb

 

[Diver300]

I suggest that you measure the current that the alternator produces at the various speeds.

I don't think that you will get 5 A. The headlight only takes 3 A, and if the alternator can produce 5 A and 20 V it would blow your bulb.

 

[tcmtech]

Have you considered wiring in a common 24 volt center tapped transformer to your alternator output and use the center tap as a 2:1 voltage divider?

Given that it would be working in an auto transformer configuration the transformer would be only handling half the power so a common 30 - 50 VA size would be more than enough to power a 60 watt bulb.

 

[paul.1911]

I suggest that you measure the current that the alternator produces at the various speeds.
I don't think that you will get 5 A. The headlight only takes 3 A, and if the alternator can produce 5 A and 20 V it would blow your bulb.

That is not blowing because of a regulator....
and at the time of test i unplugged the regulator and performed the volt test....
also i ve tested 60W bulb without regulator and i was glowing pretty good, i'm not sure as many days have passed, but i think it was drawing 4 amperes at 20v.
I'll perform the power test again and will let u know.

 

[paul.1911]

Have you considered wiring in a common 24 volt center tapped transformer to your alternator output and use the center tap as a 2:1 voltage divider?

Sorry i could not understand about which transformer you are talking about??
a simple transformer with 220VAC input and 12-0-12 out on secondary winding?

Given that it would be working in an auto transformer configuration the transformer would be only handling half the power so a common 30 - 50 VA size would be more than enough to power a 60 watt bulb.

A 30 VAC transformer? what will be the output?

I normally drive at 40-50km/h and the output from alternator would be about 20v only

 

[tcmtech]

Yes a common 12 - 0 - 12 secondary or anything close to that.

VA is Volt Amperes which is how transformers are rated.

 

[paul.1911]

Yes a common 12 - 0 - 12 secondary or anything close to that.

VA is Volt Amperes which is how transformers are rated.

Thanks but how can i wire them?

If this is the systematic.......View attachment 65313 (forgot to add regulator )

pls i'm dumb in electric stuffs.

 

[tcmtech]

switch your ground and bulb connections around and you have it.