As You Might Know Me and My Friends: A Moped's Electrical Conundrum

I'd like to share with you a personal story about my friends and me, who are passionate about riding our old motorcycles on mopeds that have been with us for over 30 years. As you can see from the photos, they still work without any issues. However, one of them has an unusual electrical system.

The problem lies in the fact that this moped uses 12-volt AC RMS for its headlights, while the rest of the electronics is powered by a 6-volt DC battery. The issue with this setup is that 6 volts isn't very useful if you want to connect modern appliances, as most devices require 12 volts. In order to make it work, we would need to install a conversion kit, but that would be expensive.

In this video, we're going to explore how the electrical energy in these mopeds is created. We'll find out how to easily replace the old 6-volt system with a 12-volt one using readily available parts.

To begin, we removed the mounting screws on the right side of the engine block, revealing the electric generator of the moped. Now, let's start and accelerate with the faulty level and see how the red part of the generator starts spinning. The insights, which appear to consist of three coils, stay in place.

The red part of the generator, which I've labeled as the magnet wheel, consists of six magnets positioned in a circular order. To understand the principle of the generator better, let's take a closer look at it.

I also created an example coil by winding enamel copper wire around a ferromagnetic material after a few dozen turns. Let's connect both sides of my new coil to the oscilloscope and then place it inside the magnet wheel, which I'll rotate as you can see on the oscilloscope, we have AC voltage proportional to the revolutions per minute of the magnet wheel. This is no wonder because the induction law states that a voltage is induced into a coil if there's a changing magnetic flux going through it.

Now that we've understood how the generator works, let's move on to replacing the old 6-volt system with a 12-volt one using readily available parts. The process is quite straightforward and requires some basic tools and knowledge of electronics.

Firstly, we need to connect the coils in series to increase the voltage. We'll then connect them to a rectifier bridge to convert the AC voltage to DC. Next, we'll use an adjustable voltage regulator, such as the LM317, to regulate the output voltage.

The next step is to design and build the circuit using readily available components. I've added epic dummy loads and an input voltage of around 16 to 20 volts DC to test the circuit. As you can see from the photos, it's working properly.

Now that we have a functional prototype, let's secure the circuits onto the moped and connect the wires for the battery and the electrical system. The setup is ready, and we're excited to see how it works.

In conclusion, this project has inspired me to take matters into my own hands when dealing with electrical issues on my motorcycle. I hope that this small conversion project will inspire you to maybe fix a problem on your own instead of relying on expensive professionals.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enAs you might know me and my friends love riding our old isms on mopedswhich as you can see after over 30 years of usage still work without a problem, butThe electrical system of one of them is a bit weirdSince it uses around 12 volt AC RMS for the headlightsWhile the rest of the electronics is built around the six volts DC batteryThe problem is that 6 volts is not very useful if you want to connect modern appliancesBecause 12 volts is nowadays D standardNow, of course, we could buy ourselves a more or less easy to install 12 food conversion kits, but that is a bit expensiveso in this videolet's find out how the electrical energy of such a mopeds is createdlets do easy to find parts to convert the old 6 volt system into a 12 foot oneLet's get startedThis video is sponsored by jl CPCBThis a new full automatic PCB batch production factory is being used since aprilThey produce600,000 square meter of PCBs per monthat low price $2To start offwe removed the mounting screws on the right side of the engine blockThus reveal the electric generator of the mopedsnow mo-bet is start and accelerating with the fault level we can see how the red part of the generator starts spinningWhile the insights which apparently consist of 3 coils stay in placeThe red part of the generator which in my example here is black is called a magnet wheelWhich lightly name applies consists of 6 magnets?positioned in a circular orderTo understand the generator principle a bit better thoughI also created an example coil by winding enamel copper wire around a ferromagnetic materialAfter a few dozens of turns I cut the wireLets connect both side of my new coil up to the oscilloscope and thenplace the coil inside the magnet wheel which I then rotated asYou can see on the oscilloscope. ac voltage is comeproportional to the revolutions per minutes of the magnet wheel andthis is no wonder because the induction law states that a voltage is induced into a coil ifthere is a changing magnetic flux going through its which it is because of the six moving magnets anddisconnect my oscilloscopeconnect led let check , it workWe can create electrical energy just like the moped doesSo for the next stepsI firstly got myself a circuit diagram of the Sims own to find out that we got one coil for the headlightsOne coil to charge the battery and power the back lights and one for the motors ignition pointsThose coils feature one common star point tied to ground and their wires luckily color codesThat means it was time for me to unpack the oscilloscope turn off the headlightsDisconnect the battery charger and hook up decoy virus as as the ground points to the oscilloscopeAs you can see we got two not nice-looking AC sine waves which are out of phasewith outer loads the headlight one features a maximum of sixty volts AC RMSWhile the battery charge one only goes up to half of that voltageWhich is not what we want anymoreIn order to switch over to 12-volt systemWe need to replace it with a 12 volt coil, buy from onlineto accomplish this exchangeWe firstly removed the nuts of the magnet wheel and then used a special toolTo remove it completelyNext we removed the two holding brackets and pulled the back plate offAccording to the wiring colors we D soldered the wires from the battery charge coilunscrewed its nuts to pull it off the back platesAfter then inserting the new coil, we pretty much reversed all the working stepsI just listed in order to restore the original state of the generator andBy once again connecting the oscilloscopeWe can see that this time. We got two terrible-looking sine wavesNow, of course we could use the AC voltage of one coil to power the headlights and use the other coils rectifiedvoltage inCombination with a battery charger circuit to charge the new 12 volts 9 amp hour batteryWe got for the mopedsBut my friend wanted to replace the standard 35 watt headlights with a 55 watt oneAnd thus he wanted to combine the power of the two coils to power the headlights and charge the batterySo I am removing light control componentWhich is labeled in the wiring schematic as the battery charger circuitsThis component only uses an inductor to reduce the voltage at high rpms and a diodedirector by the AC voltageWhich is truly an old-fashioned way to charge a batterybut before creating our own DIY charger circuitsLet's add this full bridge rectifier will float to the two coil wires. Like it's shown here andlet make sure ground all componentsSince that would partly short the coils and thus result in a terrible looking output voltage and the possible destructionof your cablesIn Stan's create a separate - after the rectifier, which you can safely use for all the electrical componentsBut anyway on the output of the rectifier we can see that the voltage is now purely DC andSince the resistors were getting quite hot as well. This setup apparently are also the Levites sufficient energySo with this rectifier we more or less combined the power of the coilsBut make sure to use a full bridge which is rated for the high current flow at this pointIt was time for me to think about a simple battery charger and what came immediately to my mind was the lm317Adjustable voltage regulator who stayed a sheet even features a battery charger circuits on its first pageaccording to the voltage out and short current formulasI decided on a zero point 1 ohm resistor for the short current and a172 ohm resistor and 2 kiloOhm resistor for the voltage divider in order to achieve an output voltage of fourteen point four five voltsWhich should be suitable for the battery after?Building up the circuits with the dead buck soldering styleI added epic dummy loads and an input voltage of around 16 to 20 volts DCwhich as you can see created a stable maximum output voltage offourteen point three volts with a maximum current flow of around 1.5 ampsWhich is limited by the IC itself?The only thing I forgot is that the IC you require heatsink since it is converting the excess power in two heatsso after adding that I was happy with my prototype andThus started soldering all of the required components onto a piece of perf boards and afterwards to one anotheraccording to the here shown final schematicAs soon as the circuit was completes. I tested it once again in order to confirm that it was working properlyWhich it is while charging at leastsbut after removing the input voltageI noticed that the bed we discharged with a current value of around seven millionWhich would eat to a depleted battery and only at 53 daysThe reason are the low value resistors on the outputs and adjust pin of the regulatorWhose values I could increase but to keep it simpleI just added a diode and Sirius to the outputs which might decrease the battery voltage a bitBut keeps the battery from drainingSo next after securing these circuits to the mopedslets connect wire in battery and circuitnow the setup is readyWithout a problemWhich means this project was a success?Tidying up the wiring will be done by us on a later date, but for now, I hope that this small conversion projectInspired you to maybe fix a problem on your ownInstead of relying on expensive kids. IHope you like this video.If so,don't forget to Like share subscribe and hitting thenotification bellStay creative and I will see you next time