LED astray

[pilninggas]

Just stuck some H7 leds in the Duster:

 

 

Seem pretty good, went for a quick run. the light in the middle ground is much better, cleaner and crisper.

 

No one flashed me and the cut off seems perfect. I wonder how long they will last, they are fanless and the heatsink is touching the lamp access boot.

[pshome]

Why?

[pilninggas]

Why?

Better quality of light. Brighter, whiter, more even.

 

Seems to work well.

[Tamworthbay]

Fuck I am losing it, I read that as LED ashtray and was trying to work out what the fuck the pics were showing.

[purplebargeken]

Not the only one PMSL

[captain_70s]

Same here...

[LightBulbFun]

Ditto 

 

I was expecting some bigclive style hack of someone putting an LED of some kind in one of those flip out ashtrays you see in cars...

[Remspoor]

Smoking!

[Zelandeth]

There are some pretty good ones out there these days which actually do work well with the existing optics. Which given the difference in the geometric properties of an LED versus a tungsten filament, is quite an achievement.

 

Have to admit to being quite curious to see how well they could work with a nice big reflector rather than the tiny ones you usually see these days. Lada has really good headlights even with standard simply because the reflectors are massive by modern standards.

 

Need to have another poke around eBay at some point as I'd like to get a set just to experiment with. If the beam quality up to scratch could be good for the Invacar, given it's got a pretty low output charging circuit...

[LightBulbFun]

being fan-less and cheap id also be worried about the LED degrading over time, the cheap stuff tends to dim out pretty quickly or just have bond wires fail and then the LEDs start to flash on and off as they heat up and the contact breaks cools down reconnects etc like a bimetallic switch not that fans help much as they just gum up after a while and stop working resulting in everything overheating anyway.

 

theres so much cheap LED crap out there, that while I dont have anything against LED in theory, in practice I do take issue to LEDs because of how crap most of them are (and on top of that, they get horribly miss-used too)

[Zelandeth]

being fan-less and cheap id also be worried about the LED degrading over time, the cheap stuff tends to dim out pretty quickly or just have bond wires fail and then the LEDs start to flash on and off as they heat up and the contact breaks cools down reconnects etc like a bimetallic switch not that fans help much as they just gum up after a while and stop working resulting in everything overheating anyway.

 

theres so much cheap LED crap out there, that while I dont have anything against LED in theory, in practice I do take issue to LEDs because of how crap most of them are (and on top of that, they get horribly miss-used too)

Aye, I'd *definitely* make sure I kept a spare set of standard lamps in the boot or glovebox before going out anywhere using those in case they randomly decide to fail on you.

[pilninggas]

Aye, I'd *definitely* make sure I kept a spare set of standard lamps in the boot or glovebox before going out anywhere using those in case they randomly decide to fail on you.

Ahead of you.

 

I went for these, as along with one other chinese brand they get decent reviews with good feedback on longevity.

[rainagain]

The set in my 307 were originally in my Volvo and I transferred them when I sold the Volvo. I think they’re great and have passed two mots with them no problem. Annoyingly in the Volvo I had to fit some resistors in parallel to put off the failed bulb warning.

[Richard]

If they are still working today they've already lasted longer than conventional H7 bulbs.

[rainagain]

If they are still working today they've already lasted longer than conventional H7 bulbs.

They are indeed and they are used all the time as I turned on drl on the 307 via Peugeot planet so all my lights are on whenever the engine is running. It’s funny how much you miss having your lights on after having a Volvo.

[AMC Rebel]

Where will the race to blind each other at night end up?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Where will the race to blind each other at night end up?

In a head-on collision.

[Jim Bell]

ITS A DEAD HEAT

[martc]

 

they are fanless and the heatsink is touching the lamp access boot.

 

[pilninggas]

post-14842-0-05858100-1464021773.jpg

 

12068250146_f87f391f01_b.jpg

to be fair i stuck the old infrared thermometer on there and the heatsink was at 42C, so pretty low. Feverish/

[robinmasters]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I use LED bulbs for side lights and tail lights. As a former Volvo owner I like to leave my lights on all the time, and LEDs use considerably less of my tiny battery's limited power. 

 

They don't have to be blue and pointing in the wrong direction.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

being fan-less and cheap id also be worried about the LED degrading over time, the cheap stuff tends to dim out pretty quickly or just have bond wires fail and then the LEDs start to flash on and off as they heat up and the contact breaks cools down reconnects etc like a bimetallic switch not that fans help much as they just gum up after a while and stop working resulting in everything overheating anyway.

 

theres so much cheap LED crap out there, that while I dont have anything against LED in theory, in practice I do take issue to LEDs because of how crap most of them are (and on top of that, they get horribly miss-used too)

 

 

It's the same for stage lighting.  My rig at work has high-quality LED Chauvet PARs and they're fantastic.  Good quality of light, decent angles, reasonable dimming curve (for an LED) and they're bright.  Not only that, they're also built properly and have good fittings, etc.  They should for around £400 a pop.  Works well alongside the incandescents I use, which are of various provenance - although I'm particularly fond of an old set of Strand Fresnels I have.  I recommend the Chauvets to anybody that asks, provided they've got a proper DMX 512 Universe...

 

The cheaper stuff in the main hall - which isn't my rig but is one I operate is a lot, lot cheaper.  Runs off G-Type plugs with captive power cables (no issue with G-Types, no need for 30A for LEDs...) and they really are nasty.  They've been up there about 3/4 years (before my time) and some of them flicker and have fairly major issues with their control inputs and channel crossover.  Bad dimming curve, too.  In short, they're probably going to be replaced.  Would have been better just to get some Chauvets to begin with - but then when they were bought the first time around they needed to buy fast and cheap.

 

The cheapish movers are basically fine, although I hate programming them on a laptop trackpad.

 

Totally irrelevant, I know.  I just wouldn't buy a cheap LED anything for any kind of production or automobile reasons...

[uk_senator]

I`ve tried various LED & HID`s in several of my shitters, but still not found a decent H4 replacement. 

HID`s have great output, but cause too much scatter, LED`s have better than halogen output, but more dead zones.

None have good high beams, several you can barely see a difference between high & low beam.

I usually convert tail & brake lights to LED`s though, using flexible red LED strips (the reds last, the whites don't), 48 SMD `dome` panels in parallel & high output 382`s.I also use 2" ally duct tape to improve the rear reflectors on my Fiats, as from factory they are plain black plastic, so the silver tape instantly improves them whatever bulbs your using.

Obviously you can only use dome panels in some light units, ones where you cant remove the lens restricts you to traditional style LED bulbs, like my Jags. In single filament applications, they can be ok, but I've not yet found a twin filament (380) replacement that I`d be happy to use on the road.

My Mk1 Uno, done last month, improved output massively:

 

[dozeydustman]

I converted my Scimitar to LED lights when the technology for car fitting LEDs was in its infancy, around 2003ish. Had to get a solid-state relay for the indicators though, which given it didn't tick and the stalk self-cancel packed up, wired a small beeper to the tell-tales in the dash.

 

Back then the LED replacement bulbs weren't much better in terms of output over the equivalent filament. Given how much LED technology has improved in the last 15 years, thinking about retrofitting them to the Corolla.

[stonedagain]

Aftermarket HIDs are fine when fitted to headlamps which have projection lenses, e.g. B5 Passat, Vectra C, etc. The lens corrects the beam pattern.

[dozeydustman]

Aftermarket HIDs are fine when fitted to headlamps which have projection lenses, e.g. B5 Passat, Vectra C, etc. The lens corrects the beam pattern.

 

 

Do they not have to be self-levelling to be legal though?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

I`ve tried various LED & HID`s in several of my shitters, but still not found a decent H4 replacement. 

 

HID`s have great output, but cause too much scatter, LED`s have better than halogen output, but more dead zones.

 

None have good high beams, several you can barely see a difference between high & low beam.

The technology isn't there yet to adapt to reflectors that were only meant for halogens. The closest so far are the Philips Ultinon H4s, and they're about 120 quid a pair. The trouble is that people are using whatever aftermarket LED headlight equivalents they can find, sticking them in, falling for the pure white glow and thinking "that'll do".

 

I usually convert tail & brake lights to LED`s though, using flexible red LED strips (the reds last, the whites don't), 48 SMD `dome` panels in parallel & high output 382`s.I also use 2" ally duct tape to improve the rear reflectors on my Fiats, as from factory they are plain black plastic, so the silver tape instantly improves them whatever bulbs your using.

I swapped the tail clusters on the diesel Borat for direct LED equivalents by FK-Auto. The indicators are the Cree LED 581s (front) and 382s (rear), and the indicator relay PCB had to be tweaked to not detect them as a "bulb failure". I haven't had to change a bulb since.

 

Obviously you can only use dome panels in some light units, ones where you cant remove the lens restricts you to traditional style LED bulbs, like my Jags. In single filament applications, they can be ok, but I've not yet found a twin filament (380) replacement that I`d be happy to use on the road....

For twin filament, try these. I use them in the CX tails. They work and do a pretty good job.

[uk_senator]

Indeed. 

I did get some projectors that fit inside old skool headlights a while back. They fit through the H4 hole in the old headlight, & use a H1 HID bulb. They are half masked with a solenoid powered shield, cutting the light from the bottom of the reflector, when you flick the main beam, the solenoid pulls the shield away, allowing the light to hit the bottom half of the reflector, giving you a 360 degree full beam.

Sounds great, in theory.

The problem is the lens. Obviously projectors arent designed to project through a patterned old-skool lens, & I`m not into blinding people, so, I need to form clear lenses for the old skool lights I want to put them in.

Its that or adapt quad headlights into the cars (my Uno`s), from an E30 or similar with projectors already. I have thought about Polo 6N2 projectors, I think they could be made to fit inside my Mk2 Uno`s headlight housings.

All that's way down the "to-do" list though..

 

The technology isn't there yet to adapt to reflectors that were only meant for halogens. The closest so far are the Philips Ultinon H4s, and they're about 120 quid a pair. The trouble is that people are using whatever aftermarket LED headlight equivalents they can find, sticking them in, falling for the pure white glow and thinking "that'll do".
 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

...The problem is the lens. Obviously projectors arent designed to project through a patterned old-skool lens, so, I need to form clear lenses for the old skool lights I want to put them in....

This is why aftermarket "headlight" LEDs are unlikely to gain any ECE-approval for some considerable time - probably never, as existing halogen reflector design is simply too wide.

[uk_senator]

Its more the optics of the reflector, any imperfections in the reflector get amplified (with the massively increased light output with HID`s, or the restricted direction nature of LED`s)..

Halogen lights are designed to have a tiny section of filament projecting light from a very exact position within the reflector bowl, no HID or LED can replicate those exact dimensions, at this stage anyway.

Maybe if those clever chinese can make those 360 degree output household candle type `strand` LED`s to precisely copy to size & position of a traditional halogen, the problem would be sorted.
 

This is why aftermarket "headlight" LEDs are unlikely to gain any ECE-approval for some considerable time - probably never, as existing halogen reflector design is simply too wide.