April 18th, 2012, 09:47 AM | #1 |
Ms. Personality
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LED Headlights
So.. I had the thought of putting some HID lights on my Ninja.
Then I had the thought of putting some LED lights in my Ninja. H4 Halogen bulb = ~1000 lumens HID = ~3000 lumens Cree XM-L = ~1000 lumens So a single LED will put out about the same light as a stock halogen bulb. However, If I put 3 of them together I am looking at something close to an HID set up. I am concerned about is the optics. A lot of flashlight guys use these emitters with some incredible results. I am thinking I can find a flashlight optic I like and stick it in the headlight housing much like an HID projector. They run different voltages, amperage, etc... but that is all determined by the driver selection. Of course I will need a 12v input. I am somewhat confused as to how many amps I will need to push the 3 LED's. Each LED can handle 3 amps, so I am guessing a 9 amp driver to get to the 3000 lumens. Another thing is the wiring. Do I have both headlights on with a dimming feature and a total of 6 LED's? One headlight with 1 LED and the high beam with 3 LED's? The stock setup, but with a total of 6 LED's. With 6 LED's and both lights on we are looking at something like 6000 lumens. Is that too much? The high beam we have is a higher wattage, right? It also points at a different angle, correct? Maybe I could use the stock reflector buckets? Anyways, these are just thoughts and I'm curious to see what people think of the idea. Cree XM-L http://www.ledsupply.com/creexml-nw260.php Cree XM-L x3 http://www.led-tech.de/en/High-Power...9_120_117.html |
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April 18th, 2012, 01:19 PM | #2 |
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I think it's a cool idea. I don't know how you'd get them to project light far enough and not blind everyone. The flashlight thing might work, but you need a wide angle of coverage and not simultaneously blind everyone in the opposing lane.
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April 18th, 2012, 03:12 PM | #3 |
Ms. Personality
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So basically my biggest ordeal will be the optics.
I'm curious what the similarities are between the light dispersion pattern of halogen/HID/LED With that said, would using less lumens work? Instead of the planned 3k lumens, just do 1k or maybe 2k per headlight bucket. |
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April 18th, 2012, 03:48 PM | #4 |
KThanksBye
Name: Kevin
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Let me dig up the thread that I talked about this a couple months ago. I'm slowly working on a all LED headlight but its not cheap and takes a good amount of work
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April 18th, 2012, 03:50 PM | #5 |
KThanksBye
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April 18th, 2012, 04:03 PM | #6 |
Ms. Personality
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LED in a projector housing? Methinks I need to start cobbling some parts together.
I'm thinking the project can be done for a whole lot less than the prices I'm seeing in Kevin's links. Really the money isn't the issue anyways. I figure if I'm going to have to put a projector in because of an HID I might as well do the lights I really want. |
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April 18th, 2012, 05:36 PM | #7 | ||
KThanksBye
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Quote:
Hmmm... Did you actually read what I posted? Quote:
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April 18th, 2012, 05:43 PM | #8 |
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Why not do a Halogen projector with a sharp cut-off with a Halogen bulb on one side as your low-beam, and then on the other side, do that triple (or double) LED setup that Kevin was playing with?
It might actually be worth it to check out the factory LED headlights that Harley is making to get some ideas. |
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April 18th, 2012, 05:46 PM | #9 |
KThanksBye
Name: Kevin
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I will mess with it when I get my projector set up. I was going to get a set of projectors from a friend but they deal fell through
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April 20th, 2012, 05:08 AM | #10 |
Ms. Personality
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The Harley lights look like they put a projector lens in front of the LED's.
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April 20th, 2012, 07:08 AM | #11 |
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^ that's what I noticed as well. I have a cool high-output LED flashlight, and it uses a projector as well.
You might look into the scatter patterns between Halogens, LED's, and HID's and depending on whether LED's are closer to halogens of HID's, you can experiment with one of those projectors. There's a DIY on how to install projectors in the 250. The trick would just be mounting the LED's |
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April 20th, 2012, 07:30 AM | #12 |
Ms. Personality
Name: CB
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I thought about using a flashlight lens, but I imagine it would be more of a beam type light than a flood light. That may not be a bad thing, though.
The lens in front of the LED seems like a promising option, except there is no cut off. One would have to use the entire projector housing. Really curious to see what a stock reflector housing would do just for kicks and giggles. |
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April 20th, 2012, 07:35 AM | #13 |
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yeah definitely try it!
remember that if the LED is your bright light, that's only on when the bright light is on. You wouldn't even need the cut-off thingy. In fact, you wouldn't want the cut-off plate. (the cutoff plate effectively isn't there when the "high beams" are on when using an HID retrofit) I would be more worried about getting a nice wide spread of light to see everything like HID's have. Heck, if the LED's spread well enough without a lens in front of them, you wouldn't even need the projector. Just get it setup in the headlight housing (this is all just assuming the LED's are only for your brights and that you wouldn't need to worry about bad glare because you turn off the brights for oncoming traffic anyways.) |
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April 20th, 2012, 07:40 AM | #14 |
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Imagine how badass of a set up you could possibly make.
On one side of the headlight you could have: (1) 35W 4500k HID retro-fit in a projector (this would work as high and low beams) then on the other side of the head light you could have: (3) pure white LED's (in projector or not, whichever works best) that are only on for the bright light. That would be awesome light output and you would have instant on/off brights! Not sure if just using (2) 35W HID's would give you more output though... |
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April 20th, 2012, 07:47 AM | #15 |
Ms. Personality
Name: CB
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That would be so much light...
Another thought was a 35w HID on one side and a 55w HID on the other side. Stock on one, LED on the brights sounds like a good idea. |
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April 20th, 2012, 07:51 AM | #16 |
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Light is a good thing. If you're already going to have the whole headlight opened up, you might as well have some fun with it and do the projector on the other side while you're at it
If I didn't have a bubbled headlight lens on the pregen, I would be rocking the 55W HID retro-fit because I don't like how little light I get out of my single headlight. |
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April 22nd, 2012, 05:46 PM | #17 |
Ms. Personality
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So if each LED can be run at 3000ma @ 3.7v then I need a driver that does 3000ma @ 12v to drive 3 LED's.
Or a driver that does 9000ma @ 3.7v? Parallel vs series circuit. I'm somewhat confused on this part. |
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April 22nd, 2012, 05:53 PM | #18 | |
KThanksBye
Name: Kevin
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Quote:
If you run it in parallel you will need a 9000ma driver @ 3.7v, if its in series you would need a 3000ma driver at @11.1 The easiest, safest and most efficient way to do it if you are running cree (or whatever brand) smd LED's is a driver per LED (or 3up) How do you plan on housing the LEDs? Or focusing them behind the projector? How do you plan on keeping the insane heat down? Now you know why this isnt a cheap project
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April 23rd, 2012, 09:53 AM | #19 |
Ms. Personality
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LED's
Driver option 1 Driver option 2 ~ $60 for the LED's and drivers. I've got tons and tons of heatsinks laying around so I'm not too worried about that. I'm still not sure about the optics but prices look to be less than $5 a piece. So I'm looking at $80 or so for both high and low beam. Cycle Gear has HID kits for $55 a piece right now, but to properly do that I'd also need to get some projector housings. Those look to be about $70 for 2. LED's = ~$80 HID's = ~$180 |
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April 23rd, 2012, 11:41 AM | #20 |
Ms. Personality
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Projector You'd have to bake and cut. I don't know of a way to make then without messing around with the stock headlight.
Though instead of Tri's tutorial I'd probably do a vacuum formed bucket ala: |
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April 23rd, 2012, 11:48 AM | #21 |
Ms. Personality
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Business op!
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April 23rd, 2012, 11:53 AM | #22 |
Ms. Personality
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FWIW I would probably end up getting some projectors at a local junkyard before I'd get them on eBay. I can pick up some up for like $10 a piece in either foglight or headlight form.
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April 23rd, 2012, 03:10 PM | #23 |
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fog-light projectors aren't going to have the ability to flip the gate up/down. They're just meant to have a sharp cut-off, so the gate is solidly attached.
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April 23rd, 2012, 03:58 PM | #24 |
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just glancing through the post... but maybe Momaru could help. He had a pretty cool DIY projector set up.
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April 23rd, 2012, 04:08 PM | #25 |
Ms. Personality
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Those look good.
I don't want projectors with a shield. Posted via Mobile Device |
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April 23rd, 2012, 06:25 PM | #26 |
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You could do his setup with the mounting plate, and then use the vacuum formed plastic like in the tutorial instead of the shrouds that others have used.
I'm pretty sure that the custom mounting plate is necessary to physically mount the projectors in a way that you can aim them. I think that was why that setup was made that way in the first place |
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April 25th, 2012, 06:49 PM | #27 |
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I'm pretty sure these projectors just install into your regular h4/h7 socket.
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April 25th, 2012, 08:59 PM | #28 |
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Yeah they do, but I've never seen it done that way. If you get it to work, post pictures!
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April 26th, 2012, 08:05 PM | #29 |
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i've been toying around with leds for a while, actually been working on led headlights. I'm also using the Cree XM-L for my setup. So far from my experiments, projector lenses are the way to go, don't worry about the reflector that comes with them. You won't need them with the cree emitter. Right now my setup for the low beam is 3 xm-l's, with one xm-l in the middle and two below it (like a triangle) and a cut off shield if front of them. I'm using a single 3 amp switching driver with led's wired in parallel. One problem I'm having is heat dissipation, another is light spill/beam pattern. I can get a tight spot beam but the spill is horrible and uneven.
currently waiting for some new xm-l's to replace the ones i've burned up. once their in i'll post some beam shots. |
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April 27th, 2012, 11:28 AM | #30 |
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Very interested in details. |
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April 27th, 2012, 11:35 AM | #32 |
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@alex.s Among all of the other projects I have going on.... I intend to make a vacuum forming machine so I can do the buckets like in the video. If I do I'll make a couple of extra buckets for people who want them.
I think I'm going to get those mini d2 projectors that bolt in and either do LED or HID's in them. Vacuum form a nice bucket and paint it black. I'm curious to see Asspire's contraption. |
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April 27th, 2012, 11:39 AM | #33 |
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making a vacuform box is actually really easy. just a box with holes in the top and rods that go up. attach the box to the vacuum, then the second piece clamps around the plastic sheet. stick that in the oven, then slide down the rods with the box under vacuum.
if you are cheap you can also just use a heat gun on extra high and set the acrylic over the part and keep heating it until it is plyable, then use a mit to push it down while its soft
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April 27th, 2012, 07:02 PM | #34 |
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Another way to go would be to use an sst-90, its hella bright but the only draw back is that it 9 amps of power that needs to be dissipated. I've tried Fresnel lens, but the light scatter is too much and would blind other drivers. I'm waiting on dealextreme for leds since jan. But will do a mock up with some cree xpg so you guys can see a proof of concept.
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May 28th, 2012, 02:32 PM | #35 |
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It seems like retrofitting LEDs into the stock projector is just too difficult. Try one of the 20mm housings from easy2led. You can use a XM-L, triple XP-G or for a narrower beam a triple XP-E. Don't try to max the power because the heat dissipation will not keep up if you are stuck in traffic. If you only use them when moving then even a small housing should allow you to put out some major light.http://www.easy2led.com/images/housing_small.jpg
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May 28th, 2012, 02:35 PM | #36 |
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If you go with a triple led on a 20mm board, there is also a elliptical reflector.
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May 28th, 2012, 03:34 PM | #37 |
Ms. Personality
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So its looking like HID's are much easier and less expensive at this point.
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June 28th, 2012, 09:12 AM | #38 | |
KThanksBye
Name: Kevin
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Quote:
I'm still going to try and do this, I know that I can, But I am still looking for a cheap projector to play around with
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June 30th, 2012, 07:14 AM | #39 |
Ms. Personality
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I got my hands on some television projectors. Looks like they may work. Kinda big, though.
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July 31st, 2012, 04:42 AM | #40 |
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how's the headlight quest going? You decide to use hid projectors yet??
I think an hid projector for the low/high beam and a halogen to assist on the high beam sounds like a sweet setup. Plus it will look all half transformer, half ninja Posted via Mobile Device |
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