$14 L.E.D. Headlamps

[mcrews]

what part of you last comments have ANY THING to do with ILLEGAL and UNSAFE????
Did you really read what I wrote????
you could double your mpg and it'e still ILLEGAL and UNSAFE.

Hello.......I'm taping on the screen.....anybody home........

[mcrews]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

You are better off running HID lamps. You can get em for about the cost of the 4 bulbs on Ebay, and they draw 70w total. Most importantly, they give off more light which should make for a safer trip as long as they are adjusted to not blind oncoming drivers.

you have no idea what you are talking about.




hot spots are in dirrent location.
hid runs in projector lens not reflector lens
all the light is glare when you put hid in halogen lamp.
That is why REAL hid lamps have a cut off line

it;s a shied built into the lamp.

It's illegal

it's unsafe.

I dontcare how many plug n play kits are on ebay....

[Josh8loop]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

You are better off running HID lamps. You can get em for about the cost of the 4 bulbs on Ebay, and they draw 70w total. Most importantly, they give off more light which should make for a safer trip as long as they are adjusted to not blind oncoming drivers.

I agree, HIDs are amazing as far as light output vs electrical input. They are among the most lumens per watt out there. This is also why most warehouses and large areas use a similar technology like mercury vapor etc. Startup current on the HID's will be around 10 amps for a brief second until they normalize around 3-4 amps. By the way, quality in HID matters. Yes there are kits for $40-$70, but often the ballasts or bulbs go out prematurely. High quality ballasts and bulbs are a good idea.

..

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by mcrews

...Headlamps are designed by computers SPECIFICLY for the hotsopt of the bulb that is in them. PERIOD.

I forgot that headlights had not been invented until after the advent of computers.

Originally Posted by mcrews

you could double your mpg and it'e still ILLEGAL and UNSAFE.

I feel a bit of deja vu here; as if we have had this discussion before. Your pet peeve must be those jerks on the highway with purple HIDs that blast your rearview mirror. It annoys me too...

You bring up a good point about legality. It's something that doesn't concern me so much, but probably does others. LED bulbs have the same problem of legality as well.

The second point that it is unsafe is only true if the HIDs are implimented in an unsafe manner, which is very subjective. I have increased safety on my motorcycle by using HIDs, and LEOs have not written me a citation for them in years of riding.

I suggested HID because LEDs at half the lumens seems unsafe to me. Further, I suggested they not be implimented haphazardly, but thoughtfully.

[ps2fixer]

Light vs watt... I would say below spec driven LEDs would be more efficent.

Latest news I can find about cree (one of the most efficent brands)
CREE |Cree 231 Lumen Per Watt LED Shatters LED Efficacy Records

And a good read about Led efficentcy vs watt usagage etc.
White LED lumen testing

Seems the newer Cree leds should be at or above 100lm\w at say 350ma-400ma draw.

Side note on this, there is a graph in that thread (somewhere around the 9th page) which shows date vs led efficencies with a good up trend for best, and worst being almost flat lined.

I tried to do a quick search on HID LM output vs W usage I found a like on this site! Another great read. All in all, I think correctly designed LED application should be the best bang for power usage and $ with some fab skills.

EcoFit Lighting

Oh and one more thing to remember with "raw" LEDs, you must limit current in some way. Resisters are simple but lowest efficency while a dc to dc constant current driver is probably the best you get (80-90% max). I do not know if HID lights are measured with or with our their power drivers, more research is needed >,<.

[Josh8loop]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

Light vs watt... I would say below spec driven LEDs would be more efficent.

Latest news I can find about cree (one of the most efficent brands)
CREE |Cree 231 Lumen Per Watt LED Shatters LED Efficacy Records

And a good read about Led efficentcy vs watt usagage etc.
White LED lumen testing

Seems the newer Cree leds should be at or above 100lm\w at say 350ma-400ma draw.

Side note on this, there is a graph in that thread (somewhere around the 9th page) which shows date vs led efficencies with a good up trend for best, and worst being almost flat lined.

I tried to do a quick search on HID LM output vs W usage I found a like on this site! Another great read. All in all, I think correctly designed LED application should be the best bang for power usage and $ with some fab skills.

EcoFit Lighting

Oh and one more thing to remember with "raw" LEDs, you must limit current in some way. Resisters are simple but lowest efficency while a dc to dc constant current driver is probably the best you get (80-90% max). I do not know if HID lights are measured with or with our their power drivers, more research is needed >,<.

HID's operating principle requires high heat to work so there is no need to limit it. As the HID bulb temp heats up, it's current draw goes down. LED's on the other hand require special attention to thermal management. This is not impossible, but can be very difficult. Methods employed are the use of light tubes or lightpipes to get the light right where you want it while keeping the LED in a location where heat can be effectively removed. Heatpipes can also be used to remove heat from the LED while having it in an area that's not conducive to heat rejection. LEDs are neat in the fact that they can be driven by pulsed supplies at higher average wattage than they were designed for to get lower heat output, and can be driven at frequencies that look constant to the naked eye.




..

[mans]

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

a beauty in my opinion...

this makes a very powerful beam, just look at the photos in the listing.


it may need to have a tube in front of it to cut out light spillage to the sides and any light spillage that goes too high .

it would be installed with a tiny cooling fan at it's rear as well.
DC 12V 2 Pin Brushless Cool Cooler Fan For VGA Graphics | eBay

[jakobnev]

mans: Are you paid by the click or something?

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by mans

when u are trying to lower your electrical load so you can run without an alternator then 24w total draw instead of 110w draw from your headlamps is a major accomplishment. (alternator delete= 8-10% increase in mileage)

converting a car to ALL led's is the first step. ...

That's all well and good, seemingly good logic on its own.
Please see the post by mcrews further back, here. The real deal is very well stated there.

Headlamps, both bulbs and reflectors, is no hack science. Those things are designed and manufactured to tolerances you can't even think about measuring without lab equipment, and I don't mean a ruler or caliper. Let alone statements that "it will fit" and "it should put out enough light". Yikes. All those high tech efforts are done for good reasons - so you can see, and so the other guys ahead of you ALSO can see.

I've seen some halogen bulbs (by Sylvania??) that claim to use somewhat less current - now there's an idea!! There ARE aftermarket halogen bulbs that will increase headlamp brightness, often legal in Europe but generally not in the US. Then there are HID assemblies, complete with optical system. But I'm convinced that many of the less expensive HIDs have sloppy optical systems that spray lots of light where it doesn't belong. I see them on the road every day. I'm so glad those drivers get a nice strong blue-white light while ignoring the needs of other drivers on the same road. Oh yes, I get that nice strong light too - right in my eyeballs.


Would you decide to decrease weight and rolling resistance by running on four spare tire donuts? Many of those are rated for 65 psi and thereabouts - think of the savings!

How about the weight savings you can achieve by removing the safety glass and substituting Lexan? Big savings there. Sorry, it's not as clear as glass and makes nasty sharp daggers when broken in an accident. Nobody will mind, I'm sure. Remove the spare tire and jack and wrench, and don't bother carry a weighty can of Fix-A-Flat either. Just call AAA if you get a flat. Remove the fuel tank, it's metal and quite heavy, just substitute a fuel cell from the racing universe. What, it won't hold enough fuel to do normal driving?? The weight savings of all the above will get you enough mpg so you won't have to worry about how far the fuel cell will take you, it will be much further than you would think.

[Ragnarok Warrior]

Originally Posted by brucepick

But I'm convinced that many of the less expensive HIDs have sloppy optical systems that spray lots of light where it doesn't belong. I see them on the road every day. I'm so glad those drivers get a nice strong blue-white light while ignoring the needs of other drivers on the same road. Oh yes, I get that nice strong light too - right in my eyeballs.

I installed a set of HID lamps in my friend's Mustang (in December, at nite!). As strong headed as he can be about the Stang, he did do some research. The lamp setup he bought cost somewhere around $125 (not the cheapest but not bad either). They had dual beams. This allowed for a regular incandescent low beam so as not to blind oncoming traffic, and an HID high beam which was very bright. The lower the HID number the whiter the light, his I think were around 6000k which was only a tint of blue/violet. When I get the money, these are going in my Ranger.