Has anyone hard wired a light into their Levo?

[grantini]

Spent a fair bit of time on the phone with the ebike product manager for Lupine today and ordered a light, should be here by Monday or Tuesday....

 

[rsilvers]

I took it off, and all you need is an 8mm socket. Anyway, I got this all done with internal routing.

 

[rsilvers]

The wire has power when the bike is on. The bike works. When I plug in my Gemini light, the light’s power button illuminates green. When I actually turn on the light, it comes on for a few seconds. Then it turns off. Then the bike display blinks red. I assume this means my light was drawing too much current? That is surprising if it can’t drive my small light. Any ideas?

 

[grantini]

The wire has power when the bike is on. The bike works. When I plug in my Gemini light, the light’s power button illuminates green. When I actually turn on the light, it comes on for a few seconds. Then it turns off. Then the bike display blinks red. I assume this means my light was drawing too much current? That is surprising if it can’t drive my small light. Any ideas?

I think there are some issues with the new Brose motor

 

[gipsy]

I got the Lupine cable today. It is $20, not $12 once you include the mandatory shipping.

Now I need to get my crank off. The video in this thread does not explain how to do that and skips that step.

The only video I can find only shows how to remove the drive side crank.

For the non-drive side, I cannot tell if you also turn the 8mm socket counter-clockwise, or if it is like a pedal removal and must be turned clockwise.

Counterclockwise on NON drive side, needs quite a strength to undoing it, it is constantly hard until the end...

 

[Mcharza]

The wire has power when the bike is on. The bike works. When I plug in my Gemini light, the light’s power button illuminates green. When I actually turn on the light, it comes on for a few seconds. Then it turns off. Then the bike display blinks red. I assume this means my light was drawing too much current? That is surprising if it can’t drive my small light. Any ideas?

How much amps the Gemini light takes? I f I remember right, max. from Specialized is 2A

 

[rsilvers]

Not sure but 2 amps at 12 volts is 24 watts. That is a lot of watts for an LED light. So I doubt it uses that many.
My lights normally run on 7.2 volts. Bike outputs 12 volts. Do I need a voltage converter ($6) or can these lights run on 12 volts also?

 

[grantini]

Not sure but 2 amps at 12 volts is 24 watts. That is a lot of watts for an LED light. So I doubt it uses that many.
My lights normally run on 7.2 volts. Bike outputs 12 volts. Do I need a voltage converter ($6) or can these lights run on 12 volts also?

serfas told me no, 12 volts will burn it up

 

[grantini]

Counterclockwise on NON drive side, needs quite a strength to undoing it, it is constantly hard until the end...

That's what she said... (sorry)

 

[rsilvers]

I ordered this from Amazon ($7.55): "6 Pack Mini MP1584EN DC-DC Buck Converter Adjustable Power Step Down Module 24V to 12V 9V 5V 3V (6 Pack) "

You can put this inside the top tube where the main bike power button (on the 2019 or 2020) is, or leave it outside on the handlebars.

 

[rsilvers]

Confirmed that it is counter-clockwise on both sides, and not like pedals which are different on each side.

On a 2019 or 2020, you remove the top LCD bike power button and run a snake into the frame and come out where the rear shock is. Once you get the wire there, you snake it again into the motor area. Then you push the other end out where the brake cables go into the frame near the handlebars.

 

[grantini]

I ordered this from Amazon ($7.55): "6 Pack Mini MP1584EN DC-DC Buck Converter Adjustable Power Step Down Module 24V to 12V 9V 5V 3V (6 Pack) "

You can put this inside the top tube where the main bike power button (on the 2019 or 2020) is, or leave it outside on the handlebars.

Interested to see how this works

 

[rsilvers]

A 20 watt light will run for 35 hours on a 700 Wh battery.

 

[rsilvers]

 

[grantini]

View attachment 21080

Does it work

 

[rsilvers]

I called George at Lumpine North America.

He said that they never intended to sell their cables for people to use light heads other than their own, so he didn't know how to help me.

He also said that for their own light heats, the "older" one worked well, and the newer more powerful one was having issues with some versions of the bike (with certain Brose motors).

So to me, the logical explanation is that the bike outputs X number of watts, which is ok for the less powerful light, but not always for the more powerful light. For some reason he didn't see it that way and didn't seem to agree with me.

I asked him how many watts the old vs new light head drew, and he didn't know. My theory is that my light head is above the limit, and so is their newer and brighter light head, and the solution is to use a less powerful light. I just don't yet know what the limit is, or even if my theory is correct. I can try to drive something less powerful to find out.

 

[grantini]

And the older light is out of stock so I ordered the new one. We will see if it works!

 

[rsilvers]

I think one needs to order the old one and wait for it to arrive. It seems to be within what the bike can support.

 

[salko]

I called George at Lumpine North America.

He said that they never intended to sell their cables for people to use light heads other than their own, so he didn't know how to help me.

He also said that for their own light heats, the "older" one worked well, and the newer more powerful one was having issues with some versions of the bike (with certain Brose motors).

So to me, the logical explanation is that the bike outputs X number of watts, which is ok for the less powerful light, but not always for the more powerful light. For some reason he didn't see it that way and didn't seem to agree with me.

I asked him how many watts the old vs new light head drew, and he didn't know. My theory is that my light head is above the limit, and so is their newer and brighter light head, and the solution is to use a less powerful light. I just don't yet know what the limit is, or even if my theory is correct. I can try to drive something less powerful to find out.

The limit is 2A@12V = 24W on latest Brose Drive S Mag motors ...

 

[grantini]

I think one needs to order the old one and wait for it to arrive. It seems to be within what the bike can support.

worst case it won’t work and I’ll send it back.

 

[rsilvers]

24 watts sounds like a lot, but I have no idea what my Gemini Duo draws.

 

[rsilvers]

He said he was meeting German Brose engineers tomorrow to figure it out.

I told him to find out the watts of each of his lights in advance of the meeting, but he didn’t seem to agree that was relevant.

But if the old light was 16 watts and the new one was 24 watts, that would perfectly explain why the old one always works and the new one sometimes works.

 

[grantini]

He said he was meeting German Brose engineers tomorrow to figure it out.

I told him to find out the watts of each of his lights in advance of the meeting, but he didn’t seem to agree that was relevant.

But if the old light was 16 watts and the new one was 24 watts, that would perfectly explain why the old one always works and the new one sometimes works.

Yes but it really depends on the output of the motor connection.

 

[rsilvers]

I connected the Lupine wire to a 12v USB adaptor, and then used a USB headlamp that claimed to be 1200 lumens (which is probably not true). I measured the power consumption at 5.89 watts. So I have verified that the 2020 Turbo Levo can support at least 6 watts.

 

[rsilvers]

Ordered four different LED heads and will try combinations of them. Something will work decently.

 

[TMS]

Max power is 24 watt by specialized, no need to examine that. I have Lupine light max 16 watts. I think you can't draw 24 watts when convertig the voltage to USB level. If depends the specs of converter. Maybe only 10 Watts and 1.5-2.0 A.

 

[rsilvers]

Specialized saying it is 24 watts doesn’t mean you can draw 24 watts.

I have tested a lot of 6 amp power supplies and you can‘t draw 6 amps from any of them. You usually use 60-80 percent of the claimed rating.

 

[TMS]

You are right, have not tested it myself. Also different software version might kill the output earlier than some other. There has been problems even with Lupine designed for Brose because of inrush current.
Unused ports on 2.1 motor? - EMTB Forums

 

[rsilvers]

Great link.

They say the startup current exceeds the 24 watts. Startup current is always part of the deal. So that light is just too much. It sometimes works though, so it must be right at the threshold.

 

[rsilvers]

My sense is you won’t hurt anything by using it. It is possible the bike will kick out an error code in the future, in which case if that happens you can use something else later.