FAQs

If a hub dynamo causes a rattling noise, its axle is not clamped well in the fork. The reason may be sluggish threads that lack grease or wrongly fitted small parts. Please follow the instructions for the skewer or quick release or ask a specialist to show you how to mount the front wheel.

A lot of grease on a 5-mm or 15-mm skewer may block the pressure compensation system. Nevertheless, to avoid corrosion, we recommend a slight film of oil or grease; best idea will be applying some spray wax. In any case contact areas at screw head and thread need some grease.

For average use corrosion resistance of SON hub dynamo materials will be sufficient. Cyclists who cycle a lot throughout the year in all weathers and expose their hubs to salt water should apply spray wax to skewer and hub housing before each winter.

SON Nabendynamo bearings are sealed on both sides; they are lifetime-lubricated grooved ball bearings. Normally they run maintenance-free for many 10 thousands of kilometers and need neither lubrication nor adjustment. Should a fault nevertheless occur the bearings will be replaced by the manufacturer.

New grooved ball bearings have about zero play. During longterm-use the play may increase within a few hundreths of a millimeter. At the rim you may feel a small movement to the right and to the left then. Even when you continue cycling with a lot of bearing play no damage will occur.

It is hardly possible to feel power consumption/sluggishness of a hub dynamo at the axle. A better idea is to spin the normally fitted wheel and observe its stopping behaviour. When lights are switched off spin the wheel with some impetus. It should do a few revolutions. If it stops after one revolution something has gone wrong.

Either the skewer was not fitted correctly or the hub dynamo has become sluggish. Please check if the connections on the hub dynamo or the connections on the cable are damaged as soon as the axle is mounted well in the fork.

When neither headlight nor rear light shine, the reason is hardly a faulty hub dynamo but more likely the headlight or the wiring. Systematic troubleshooting will make sense.
You may check if there is power output on the hub dynamo by doing the short-circuit test: spin the wheel and short-circuit the spade contacts with a screw driver. The wheel will slow down. When interrupting the short-circuit you will see small sparks.

Like practically all hub dynamos the SON hub dynamo supplies alternating current. None of the poles (spade connections) has ground connection, so that you may interchange connections deliberately.

Nominal values are 6 volts and 3 watts. They are achieved at moderate speeds depending on wheel size and generator type. The real values depend on the electrical load to a large extent indeed. Running with no electrical load results in remarkably higher voItage. At high speeds and with suitable electrical load you may use significantly more power.

Nominal power of a dynamo-powered headlight normally is 2.4 watts, the dynamo is 3 watts. The remaining 0.6 watts are intended for use of a rear light. A high-end LED-headlight tolerates 3 watts easily, though, and will thereby shine brighter. With lightbulbs that was not possible.

Yes, with a suitable axle-adapter that is certainly possible. The fork will need to be of 100 mm width , of course.

All current SON hub dynamos do not have a defined sense of rotation. On a SON 28 klassik (year of manufacture until 2011) the connections must be on the right side, so that the threaded lid does not come loose.

Although nominal power on the Edelux II is 2.4 watts, it tolerates the complete electrical power supplied by a 3-watt hub dynamo. Powered with 3 watts light output is a bit higher.

A short circuit may occur due to a faulty rear light or a wrongly connected rear light. If the rear light has ground connection the conductors must not be interchanged: the Edelux ground connection (eyelet connector) must connect to the ground connection on the rear light.
The spade connector female at the Edelux must completely be covered with heat shrink tubing to avoid a short circuit with the Edelux housing.

There is a special version for upside-down mount. A standard Edelux II fitted upside-down would have a very bad light distribution.

The sensitivity of a light sensor is a matter of taste. For safety reasons we decided for high sensitivity, so the light may switch on in cloudy conditions. Due to the light sensor‘s mounting position showing diagonal downwards the sensitivity of the light sensor also depends on a possible wide and dark mudguard below.

In contrast to headlights with bulbs, it doesn‘t make sense to run 2 Edelux II on a hub dynamo in general. You may connect 2 headlights in series, but only at very high speed there will be significantly more light.

Edelux II for hub dynamo is not suitable for DC current. There are two versions for DC current, though (6 to 8 Volts and 6 to 75 Volts). Those must not be powered by AC current on a hub dynamo.

No, the LED is always firmly fitted into a bike headlight and will last forever, given that it is adequately cooled. Changing to a more modern LED-Type is normally not possible for another reason – the different radiation angle will requires a different mirror.

No, SON currently offers neither internal USB chargers nor external ones. But we provide several products, that split cables and thus help to connect charging devices easily (see also wiring).

Yes, you can power a SON Rear Light on a Pedelec 25 with regulated 6 Volt output or on the rear light connection of an Edelux II DC 6 to 75 Volt.

Yes. Conversely you won‘t have standlight with a Supernova rear light connected to an Edelux.

No. The SON Rear Light has very wide but not very high beam angles. When mounted vertically this would be vice versa resulting in poor visibility from diagonal back.

Yes, you can. You will need a charging device that regulates the alternating current from your dynamo to constant direct current. We recommend "USB-Werk" from Busch&Müller for USB-devices that work with little power consumption.
Modern smartphones with permanently switched on displays consume 2-4 watts. Not many charging devices are efficient enough to work well with those. Highly effective at any speed are „Forumslader V5“ and „NC-17 AppCon GT1“.
CAUTION: permanently connected USB-cables may damage the charging socket of your phone on bumpy roads. When a cable is connected your device is not waterproof any more. Take care not to get distracted from traffic by your smartphone or GPS device.

Most charging devices do not charge if the headlight shines at the same time; some of them might work with a small fraction of their nominal power. It makes sense to switch the light off when powering a USB-charger. You may connect an Edelux II DC 6-75V and a navigation device to the 12 V output on a „Forumslader V5“. If the buffer battery of the Forumslader V5 is well-charged you can power the light and your device at the same time.

Most simple charging devices supply no more than 400 to 500mA at their USB-output. Modern devices, such as USB-Werk may supply 800mA (which corresponds to 4 watts). Even when using efficient charging devices you will need to go significantly faster than 20 km/h to achieve such high power output.

Smartphones like those from Samsung or Apple require constantly high charging power. This will be difficult to achieve without a buffer battery. On your leisure GPS device warning messages may appear as soon as you stop at traffic lights due to lacking power supply. A buffer battery will help.

Classic mobile phones and GPS devices work with economic power consumption. You can power them with a suitable charging device and a SON 28 or a SONdelux just as well. If you would like to charge a power-hungry smartphone at speeds lower than 20 km/h you should rather go for a SON 28. At speeds higher than 20 km/h you may charge a modern smartphone by using a SONdelux together with an efficient charging device.

Connect charging devices to a hub dynamo in parallel with the headlight, n o t at the rear light output of a headlight. We recommend to crimp 4.8 mm piggy-back connectors to the feedcable of a charging device. The headlight cable connects to the tongues on the piggy backs. If you connect and disconnect the charging device frequently our Coaxial Junction Box will be a good choice.