waterproofing dynamo charging set ups?

[Ledburyjosh]

Have any of you came up with any way to route dynamo cables inside a drybag/handlebar bag like the ortlieb ulitimate 6 E one does?

Once I decide on what handlebar bag to get for our camera, I would like to be able to charge it of our dynamos whilst keeping it all waterproof.

The dynamo set up is the next thing to start looking into for us now. so may have a few questions to see what solutions people have come up with..

[composite]

Here's my blog post about related things from several years ago.
https://www.composite-projects.co.uk/20 ... the-trail/

I used to run the cable up the fork leg into a top tube bag. The bag has a flap that the zipper should be tucked under which would cover the end of the zip where the wire went it, so the rain didn't go in the bag. I would then have the reservoir battery and sinewave in a small dry bag for double protection. I then ran a second wire back out the battery pack to my Garmin. I used this for many years in horrendous weather and never had a problem.

I'm just back to riding again and so haven't used the setup just recently but I'm intending to use it again soon and I'm not planning on making any changes as it was always exactly what I wanted it to be.

[whitestone]

Most bags with a "charging" or hydration port simply use an overlap of material to create a sort of tunnel. This seems pretty effective in that I haven't heard of anyone moan about it but having a "drop loop" of cabling both outside and inside this tunnel to stop water running along the cable might be a good idea. Also have the charging socket on the camera positioned so that the cable runs up to it. Doing all this means that you'd actually have to be submerged for some period of time before water got to the important stuff.

There's quite a bit on here about dynamo systems in various threads so a search might answer most of your questions. I wrote a blog post about my experiences racing/touring in France last year - http://bobwightman.blogspot.com/2018/08 ... onics.html including use of a camera. Generally I charged a powerbank battery during the day then charged whatever devices needed it at night when I bivvied. I took two batteries of 10,000mAh and swapped between them. Having two meant that if one broke or got wet I still had something to work with.

[jameso]

I have the Ortlieb bar/accessory bag mainly for it's WP qualities, and a dynamo charge set up. I just don't charge electronics when it's raining. In bad weather everything stays sealed up and dry. The problem is that the USB jacks don't always stay put reliably* so it's easier to charge stuff while it's accessible and I can check the connection from time to time. Exception to this is the Garmin, it's fitted in a way that moves with the steering and the cable stays put, generally stays plugged in and kept at 100%, only unplugged to charge other devices.

*Been looking at those magnetic connectors to solve this .. but still, rain = sealed up bags and unplugged electrics inside

But to answer the Q, I expect buying a set of B+M connector cables (The 6E bag looks to use the same jacks as the B+M USB Werk, a great USB charger ime) and some careful cutting and seam-sealing would do it. If the wire went into the base of the bag it shouldn't be an issue even if not a perfect seal. You can buy the cable kits as spares -

[Mart]

I used my Igaro on the Highland Trail through some very shitty weather
It was cable tied to the top tube but the connector fed into the toptube bag to keep the connection a bit drier
Worked fine charging either battery pack or if charging direct run cable from there to the unit

[BigdummySteve]

I’ve found the weakest link to be the cashe battery used. One thing I now do is to give them a good blast of WD40 or similar into all the entry points such as the USB ports, seems to be working.

Batteries live in the left pocket of my revelate tangle with wires fed through the hose port (drip looped) I’ve melted a hole through the divider to pass the wires through.
A bigger killer is vibration to the micro USB port I’ve contemplated going to usb c input batteries which I suspect would last better, my only reservation is that most USB c ports are input/output and I’m afraid of killing another sinewave beacon.

At some point I’m going to rip a battery apart and replace the micro usb with an exposure sized barrel connector, the exposure charge cable could then be used to change the battery pack. Once I’ve done this I’ll epoxy fill the electronics and hopefully have a waterproof solution.

[BigdummySteve]

I’ve also thought of wax dipping the standard electronics which would possibly be a big step forward.