Dynamo-Powered LED Light Circuits for Bicycles

LED light systems offer exceptional reliability and superior light yield vs standard
bicycle light systems. This is an evolutionary tutorial on how to power such
systems from a dynamo. As you read, you will come across a variety of circuits
that can be built at home.
The basics get you started quickly
Adding a tail light improves your safety
Adding "boost" maximizes the performance
More LEDs increase the power output
A voltage doubler helps with low-speed performance of multi-LED systems
Automatic mode selection adds convenience
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Getting started
A word about Power LEDs and Lumens
The following projects heavily use power LEDs. They are typically made by
manufacturers such as Philips-Lumileds, Cree, Seoul Semiconductor. At the time
of writing, these LEDs are subject of rapid improvement. In 6 months from now, a
new model of power LED will probably make todays most advanced LEDs look
dim. There could even be new manufacturers pushing on the market with superiour
LEDs. Due to this, I never recommend any specific part number for the LEDs. The
driver circuits are not affected by the type of LED used, as long as it has the typical
forward voltage of a white LED.
You might want to know what sort of light output to expect from the circuits on
this page. Well, you will only find LED power here. To know the Lumens, you
have to download the datasheet of your LED of choice and look up how many
Lumens it delivers for the Watts you feed it.
In order to build a bright light, you have to pay attention to three parts: The driver
circuit (better if it delivers more power), the LEDs (better if they produce more

Lumens per Watt), and the optics / reflectors / lens (better if their efficiency is
closer to 100%).
Circuit 1 - a basic LED headlight
Positio
Alternativ
Value
n
e Value
D1

1N400
1N5818
7

D2

1N400
1N5818
7

D3

1N400
1N5818
7

D4

1N400
1N5818
7

LED1

White Power LED

(Luxeon, Cree..)

Dynamo, bridge rectifier and a single power LED. This is all you need for an LED
bicycle headlight !
How it works:
The AC from the dynamo passes a full-wave rectifier and feeds the single power
LED of the headlight.
The LED current is reliably limited by the dynamo to about 500..600mA. Be sure
that the LED can take this.
Silicon diodes (1N4007) do the job, while Schottky diodes (1N5818) minimze
circuit losses.
This circuit works for both bottle dynamos and hub dynamos. It produces a little
over 1.5W of LED power.
Above circuit has one little issue: The light flickers at low speed, particularly if
powered from a hub dynamo. Here's what to do about it:
Circuit 2 - less flicker at low speed

Positio
Alternati
Value
n
ve Value
D1

1N400
1N5818
7

D2

1N400
1N5818
7

D3

1N400
1N5818
7

D4

1N400
1N5818
7

C1

1,000 .. 10,000uF
@ min.4V

White Power
LED1 LED (Luxeon,
Cree..)

A smoothing capacitor reduces flicker at low speed and generally adds a tiny little
bit of brightness. The higher the capacitance value of C1, the less flicker.
C1 needs to withstand at least 4V and there's no upper limit to its capacitance.
Well, cost and size are somewhat limiting factors.
The circuit works both for hub and bottle dynamos while hub dynamos require a
larger capacitor to reduce the flicker.
A word of caution: C1 should be mounted inside the headlight enclosure where it
must be properly connected to the LED. Should the LED disconnect from the
circuit, C1 charges to a rather high voltage (can be 100V when going fast). This
could not only be dangerous to a person's health but upon reconnection to the LED,
a dramatic peak current most likely decolors or destroys the LED. This is valid for
most circuits on this page.

Adding a tail light

If you prefer to use a battery-powered tail light, skip this section
Circuit 3 - a basic tail light added to the headlight

Positi Valu
on
e

Alterna
tive
Value

D1

1N40
1N5818
07

D2

1N40
1N5818
07

D3

1N40
1N5818
07

C1

1,000 ..
10,000uF @
min.4V

White Power
LED1 LED (Luxeon,
Cree..)
Red Power
LED or
LED2
min.15x
SMD-LED

The tail light LED takes the place of one of the rectifier diodes. Consequently, it's
driven at half the current of the headlight LED. With red LEDs having about half
the forward voltage of white LEDs, the tail light power is 25% of the headlight
power.
The use of multiple red low-power LEDs (e.g. 15x Osram LS T676) in a parallel
connection is an alternative to a power LED.
Any tail light LED has to withstand 5V of reverse-voltage.
To turn the tail light off, shunt it with a rectifier diode.
Circuit 4 - an alternative tail light

Positio
Value
n
D1

1N400
7

D2

1N400
7

D3

1N400
7

D4

1N400
7

C1

1,000 ..
10,000
uF @
min.4V

R1

47R
0.25W

White
Power
LED
LED1
(Luxeo
n,
Cree..)
Red
SMD
LED2. LEDs
.5
(Osram
LS
T676)

Now here's an alternative way to connect a tail light. Unlike circuit 3 where the tail
light power is 25% of the headlight power, it is now adjustable by R1. With this, it
is possible to dim the tail light to a current low enough to be taken by a few SMDLEDs.
Another interesting feature is this: The tail light is directly wired to the dynamo
terminals, so that a cable that may already be there from a traditional bicycle light
can remain attached to the dynamo.
Disadvantages of circuit 4 are the need to define a resistor value, the lower
brightness of the tail light and the fact that the tail light is damaged should the
headlight disconnect.
In the partlist above, a value of 47 Ohm is suggested for R1. The actual value
depends on the LEDs used. It's best to build it and measure the tail light current,
then correct the value of R1 if a lower or higher LED current is desired. The

reverse-voltage of the LEDs is unritical in this circuit.

To turn this tail light off, disconnect it.

Adding some "boost"

Circuits 5 & 6 - a tuning capacitor increases the power at moderate speed
Circuit 2 for reference

Circuit 5

What is the difference between circuit 2 and circuit 5 ? Capacitor C2 has been
added between the dynamo and the rectifier.
See how this affects the LED power vs speed curve, as the value of C2 varies:

While there's not a big difference at very low and very high speed, the boost in the
middle is real nice to have.

Unfortunately, this comes at a price: C2 has to be a non-polarized part and its value
is somewhat critical. With a typical bottle dynamo C2 = 220uF works well, with a
hub dynamo its capacity would have to be a monstrous 1500uF. The required nonpolarized capacitor can be hard to find, real large and somewhat expensive. Circuit
6 gets around this by using two regular (polarized) capacitors instead. Each of
these has twice the capacity and should be a low-ESR type, as typically used in
switchmode power supplies. Resistor R1 is uncritical, it merely biases C2 and C3.
Value
for
Value
Positio
bottle for hub
n
dynam dynamo
o
D1

1N581
1N5818
8

D2

1N581
1N5818
8

D3

1N581
1N5818
8

D4

1N581
1N5818
8

C1

2,200u 10,000u
F@
F@
min.4V min.4V

C2

470uF
63V
lowESR

3300uF
35V
lowESR

C3

470uF
63V
lowESR

3300uF
35V
lowESR

R1

47K
47K
0.25W 0.25W

Circuit 6

LED1

Multiplying the power

Circuit 7 - driving more than one LED

White Power
LED (Luxeon,
Cree, ..)

The dynamo is more or less a constant current source, so when connecting two
LEDs in series, the total power output of the system (nearly) doubles. Why not
connect 3, 4 or more LEDs in series ?
To make the best of it, the tuning capacitors from circuit 6 have been maintained.

Depending on how many LEDs and what type of dynamo are used, the component
values vary widely. Refer to these tables:
Bottle Dynamo
1 LED

Hub Dynamo

2
3
4
LEDs LEDs LEDs

1 LED

2
3
4
6
LEDs LEDs LEDs LEDs

Total
Powe 1.6 W 3.0 W 4.6 W 5.8 W
r

Total
10.5
Powe 1.6 W 3.4 W 5.2 W 6.7 W
W
r

D1..D 1N581 1N581 1N581 1N581

4
8
8
8
8

D1..D
1N581 1N581 1N581 1N581
1N5818
4
8
8
8
8

C1

2200u 2200u 2200u 2200u

F 4V F 10V F 16V F 16V

C1

10,000u 4700u 4700u 4700u 2200u

F 4V F 10V F 16V F 16V F 25V

C2,
C3

470uF 220uF 100uF 47uF

50V 63V 100V 100V

C2,
C3

3300uF 1500u 1000u 470uF 220uF

35V
F 35V F 63V 100V 100V

R1

47K 47K 47K 47K

0.25W 0.25W 0.25W 0.25W

R1

47K
47K 47K 47K 47K
0.25W 0.25W 0.25W 0.25W 0.25W

LED1

Power Power Power Power

LED LED LED LED

LED1

Power Power Power Power Power

LED
LED LED LED LED

LED2 N/A

Power Power Power

LED LED LED

LED2 N/A

Power Power Power Power

LED LED LED LED

LED3 N/A

N/A

Power Power Power

LED LED LED

LED3 N/A

N/A

Power Power
LED LED

LED4 N/A

N/A

N/A

Power Power
LED LED

LED4 N/A

N/A

N/A

Power
LED

LED5 N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Power
LED

LED6 N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Power
LED

A Busch & Mller Dymotec6 bottle dynamo (8 magnetic poles) and a Shimano
DH-3D71 hub dynamo (28 magnetic poles) were used to determine these values.
Different dynamos of the same type are expected to perform very similar. Please
check if YOUR dynamo contains a zener diode that is intended to limit the
output voltage for use with light bulbs. If so, you need to remove it.
Now enjoy the power curves below. It's amazing, a 3W hub dynamo can feed more
than 10W into a string of LEDs ! Well, again this doesn't come for free. Whenever
you get out more, you are putting in more energy with your legs.

Note that the higher output curves not just require more calories to be put in, they
also produce very little light at low speed. A 6 LED hub system e.g. puts out zero
light at 8 km/h, something that is often not acceptable. Why not jump to a different
curve at low speed ? Read on.

Mastering high power and good low-speed performance at the same time
Circuit 8 - inclusion of a voltage doubler
Circuit 7, when used with a higher number of LEDs, suffers from poor power at
low speed. This can be seen from the power curves above. Should it be an issue for
you, there are several ways to address this:
1. Some of the LEDs can be bypassed and different tuning capacitors be
switched in, so the circuit can be changed into one with fewer LEDs that
performs better at low speed.

2. Parallel installation of let's say a 6-LED and a 3-LED version. A switch

selects the one that is more appropriate. The 6-LED light engine could have
a narrow beam for far projection while the 3-LED light engine would have a
wider beam for lower speed.
3. Switching the bridge rectifier to a voltage doubler, making the circuit
behave like one that has half the number of LEDs.
Solution 1 requires complex switching and appears odd with some of the LEDs off.
Solution 2 is probably the ultimate one but requires extra LEDs and optics. Still it
is straightforward to build. Solution 3 adds little cost and complexity, while
running all LEDs no matter what mode. This is the one I will go into here.
What you see here is circuit 7 redrawn and a Greinacher voltage doubler on the
right. Circuit 8 below combines both in one. A simple switch changes between the
two modes.

This circuit (minus R1, C2, C3) used to be popular in computer power supplies. On
the primary side, it accomplished the 115/230 V selection.
Here's the list of component values for different configurations of circuit 8. Single
and dual LED systems are not covered, as their low-speed performance is naturally
good and circuit 7 is sufficient.

Bottle Dynamo
Total Power

Hub Dynamo

3 LEDs

4 LEDs

3 LEDs

4 LEDs

6 LEDs

4.6 W

5.7 W

5.2 W

6.7 W

10.5 W

D1..D4

1N5818

1N5818

1N5818

1N5818

1N5818

C1

2200uF 16V 2200uF 16V 4700uF 16V 4700uF 16V 2200uF 25V

C2, C3

100uF 100V 47uF 100V 1000uF 63V 470uF 100V 220uF 100V

C4, C5

100uF 63V 47uF 63V

R1

47K 0.25W 47K 0.25W 47K 0.25W 47K 0.25W 47K 0.25W

SW1

120VAC 2A 120VAC 2A 120VAC 2A 120VAC 2A 120VAC 2A

LED1

Power LED Power LED Power LED Power LED Power LED

LED2

Power LED Power LED Power LED Power LED Power LED

LED3

Power LED Power LED Power LED Power LED Power LED

LED4

N/A

Power LED N/A

Power LED Power LED

LED5

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Power LED

LED6

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Power LED

470uF 35V 470uF 35V 220uF 63V

These are the performance curves. The lower curve of each color is the voltage
doubler mode. Note how this mode is superior at low speed while above a certain
speed, the bridge rectifier mode wins. The ideal cross-over frequency can be read
from the second graph.

Let's look at some interesting variations of circuit 8:

Circuit 9 - a variation of circuit 8

Above circuit has the same performance and nearly the same partlist as circuit 8.
The main difference is the switch: It not only selects between low speed mode
(doubler) and high speed mode (bridge rectifier), it also has an OFF
position which is very useful when powering the light from a hub dynamo. SW1 is
a 1P2T switch with an isolating center position. These switches are commonly
available.
Another feature of circuit 9 is the tail light. Unlike in circuit 8, LED1 is red.
Circuit 10 - one more variation of circuit 8

Bottle
Dynamo

Hub Dynamo

3
4
3
4
6
LED LED LED LED LED
s
s
s
s
s
Tota
l
4.6
Pow W
er

5.7
W

5.2
W

6.7
W

10.5
W

D1.. 1N58 1N58 1N58 1N58 1N58

D4 18 18 18 18 18
2200 2200 4700 4700 2200
C1 uF uF uF uF uF
16V 16V 16V 16V 25V
C2, 100u 47uF 1000 470u 220u
C3 F
100V uF F
F

100V

63V 100V 100V

47K 47K 47K 47K 47K

R1 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25
W
W
W
W
W
120V 120V 120V 120V 120V
SW
AC AC AC AC AC
1
2A 2A 2A 2A 2A
Powe Powe Powe Powe Powe
LED
r
r
r
r
r
1
LED LED LED LED LED
Powe Powe Powe Powe Powe
LED
r
r
r
r
r
2
LED LED LED LED LED
Powe Powe Powe Powe Powe
LED
r
r
r
r
r
3
LED LED LED LED LED
Powe
Powe Powe
LED
N/A r
N/A r
r
4
LED
LED LED
Powe
LED
N/A N/A N/A N/A r
5
LED
Powe
LED
N/A N/A N/A N/A r
6
LED

Circuit 10 eliminates 2 of the 4 tuning capacitors but instead adds a more

complex switch. This is useful if large capacitors are required while space is tight.
Similar to circuit 9, a switch with an isolating center position may be used so that
the light can be switched off.
Circuit 11 - the voltage quadrupler
If you like to dig a bit deeper into the concept of voltage multiplication, check out
my draft of a combined doubler / quadrupler / bridge rectifier.

Automatic mode selection

Circuits 8 to 10 achieve high power while still maintaining reasonable brightness at
low speed. This is accomplished by switching the bridge rectifier to a voltage
doubler when going slow. While this works well, it requires constant user
interaction. Some users may like this sort of control, as it enables them to run the

light on low while going fast. Most users however just want the maximum light
output they can get and rather not mess with the modes of their light while riding.
They need automatic switching. It can be done in two ways:
1. Mechanical coupling of the switch to the shifter / the shifter cable.
Depending on the gear chosen, the light operates either in doubler mode
(low gear) or in bridge rectifier mode (high gear).
2. A speed switch reading the dynamo frequency selects doubler mode at low
speed. This is what circuit 12 does.
Circuit 12 - automatic mode selection

Circuit 12 boasts automatic switching between modes. It consists of 3 basic parts:

1. Power stage: Dynamo, rectifier / doubler, tuning capacitors, LEDs,
MOSFET switches Q1 & Q2 with their drivers Q3 & Q4
2. Overvoltage crowbar T1, D5, R17

3. Speed switch IC1 (LM2907) with mode indicator LD11 and hysteresis
switch Q5
Again, the power stage is being switched between bridge rectifier and voltage
doubler just like in circuit 8. Due to the specific requirements of the MOSFET
switches, it's not exactly the same circuit but it does the same and it performs the
same. The LED string stabilizes the voltage for the speed switch IC1 and the
overvoltage crowbar is there to short out and thereby protect the circuit should the
LEDs accidentially disconnect.
The speed switch IC1 contains a freqency-to-voltage converter (f2V) and a
comparator. The input of the f2V block is the AC waveform from the dynamo. The
switching frequency is set by R15. The output transistor of IC1 controls the base
current of the MOSFET driver transistors Q3 and Q4 as well as the indicator LD11.
Q5 slightly shifts the reference voltage of the comparator to induce some
hysteresis. This is needed to avoid instability near the switching point.
Circuit 12 achieves the same power curves as circuit 8 and it can drive from 3 to 8
power LEDs in series. It is compatible with both bottle dynamos and hub dynamos.
Due to this circuit's complexity, I have made a simple PCB for it. It has been
optimized for manual fitting, no SMDs are used. Mechanically, it fits into a 1 1/8"
steerer tube with the tuning capacitors C1..4 located off the board (going into the
tube first). Smoothing capacitor C5 is meant to go into the headlamp assembly. To
learn more about this circuit, download the full documentation and the CAD files
(CadSoft Eagle format).

Here are 2 variations of circuit 12. They also sense the dynamo frequency to select
b/w voltage doubler and bridge rectifier mode. They were created to avoid the
current surge that occurs in circuit 12 when switching from bridge rectifier to
voltage doubler mode. These circuits exist on paper only, they have never been
built and component values are either a first bet or rightaway missing. I provide
these here to share 2 cost-effective ideas of driving a MOSFET when its source

potential is continuously changing vs the driver potential (switching of an AC

load).
Alternative concept no.1 for an auto-selecting voltage doubler / bridge rectifier.
Not tested, component values undetermined. For electronics wizards only.
Alternative concept no.2 for an auto-selecting voltage doubler / bridge rectifier.
Not tested, component values undetermined. For electronics wizards only.
Let's move on to an earlier design (bottle dynamo only) that does the automatic
mode selection in a slightly different way:
Circuit 13 - a different approach to automatic mode selection

Unlike circuit 12, this one doesn't sense the frequency (speed) but the current
driven through the LEDs:
A standard dual OpAmp is being used for measuring the LED current. The other
half of the dual OpAmp makes a nice low drop regulator for a tail light (optional).
The optimum transition current is set by the 470R potentiometer. The transition
current is just below the point where the doubler output current remains constant
while speed increases. Ideally, this alignment is done while the dynamo is at
operating temperature (where it delivers a little less current than when it's cold). At
the transition point, the circuit alternates between both modes. If the transition

point is chosen correctly, both modes yield very similar power at this point so that
the transition appears smooth.
The power stage of circuit 13 differs from circuit 12 in a way that it uses a Villiard
voltage doubler, not a Greinacher voltage doubler. While this reduces component
count and simplifies the circuit, flicker at low speed increases. With a bottle
dynamo (this is what circuit 13 has been made for), the flicker is not an issue. With
a hub dynamo though it is not acceptable. Now that hub dynamos are becoming
dominant, I've decided to retire this circuit.
If you like to build circuit 13, I'm not going to stop you. Here's a photo of the
assembly, a clean schematic, the PCB and the placement guide. The PCB has been
optimized for manual fitting, no SMDs are used. In this version, C07 solders
directly to the pins of IC1. Component values have been chosen for 3 white
headlight LEDs and 4 red tail light LEDs powered from a Dymotec6 generator.

For the mechanical aspect of your project, take a look at a single LED headlight,
a triple-LED headlight and a tail light all built from common parts.
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