Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0 LED Bulbs: The New Benchmark

Proud to announce the arrival of these bulbs in stock and to our many dealers worldwide.

- The best output of an LED bulb, based on proper optical design and hotspot intensity
- No additional glare over stock
- Fits H11, H9, and H8 sockets without modification
- Smallest base design
- Ultra reliable PCB / active cooling design




https://www.theretrofitsource.com/h11-led-headlight-bulbs-morimoto-2stroke.html

Prefer videos?

2Stroke 2.0 vs 2Stroke 1.0 vs Diode Dynamics SL1



2Stroke 2.0 vs stock Tacoma highs/lows



Thoughts?

 

Had the stock halogens and didn’t like them. It was difficult to make out objects on the road in a lot of conditions.

Went with Opt7x based on some recommendations and while the color temp is better they have almost zero throw. They were better than the halogens though.

I thought about getting a HID kit but don’t want to mess with all the wiring or replace bulbs frequently. Never cared for the warm up either although I do understand that the light output is better.

So I wanted lights that have decent throw, last a long time(quality), and is plug and play. Came across these and they come from a reputable manufacturer, have the lastest led tech, and review looks decent. I was going to purchase the XenonDepot leds but decided that maybe getting the newest bulbs you can get at the moment might pay off. Bought a set today and want to try them out. I’m guessing they will be better than the opt7x they are replacing I just hope that the throw is pretty good.

I didn’t see anything conclusive about how these work in the high beam reflectors so I only purchased one set. Any advice on this?

 

for us older trucks how is the output on a reflector setup? in the past they have all had some funky hotspots

 

Maybe @crashnburn80 will review them for inquiring minds.

 

The second video in the OP shows exactly the output of a 2016+ Tacoma with 2Stroke in both low and high beams. It's pretty solid!

Another shot from LightWerkz doing independent testing:

Stock H11
H9 Conversion (Halogen)
2Stroke 2.0
35w HID

 

That's actually a 4runner projector, but close enough. Still doesnt touch a legit HID setup!

 

The second video above is a 2016+ Tacoma headlight. The LightWerkz comparison is the 4Runner side entry.

Correct, they're not as good as HID, nor as involved to install.

 

Opt7x is a dated LED. The diodes do not try to mimic a halogen filament other than rough approximate position. The result will be loss of beam pattern, loss of hot spot, and loss of distance projection, aka throw.

Fortunately the 2Stroke 2.0 H11 LED diodes are not aligned in the orientation shown in the OP, as that would be very poor for an H11. Clicking through the link they are appropriately aligned in parallel with the length of the bulb rather than perpendicular to it and you can see the diodes more closely resemble a filament shape than the Opt7s which will improve performance.

@TRSAndrew the test results in the OP video and the above tests performed by LightWerkz are not accurate, they are both using an Extech LT300 which is a standard light meter, which while it is a nice meter, it is unable to accurately measure LED light and will produce inaccurate results for LEDs. To measure LED light you need to use an LED calibrated meter like the Extech LT40 or Extech LT45, other LED specific calibrated equipment, or higher end full spectrum equipment. You can check it out on Extech's site.

The Extech LT300 is good for measuring incandescent light though, but the numbers seem off in these readings, an H9 should be 65-70% higher output than an standard H11, so it seems odd that it is only coming in at 30% higher. They could be using a high efficacy H11 bulb, or the light sensor may not be appropriately positioned, or the side-entry TR4 projector could just be that bad.

It is worth noting that the 4Runner side entry projector is more favorable for the bi-directional LED design, as the LEDs are aligned in the direction of projection and directly back into the projector bowl to reflect forward, vs the rear entry Tacoma projectors where the LEDs are facing perpendicular to the direction of light projection. The perpendicular bi-directional light source does not illuminate the rear upper portion of the housing like an omni-directional light, which helps with hot spot and distance projection.

The thicker and LED is, the more the lighting geometry has changed. People talk about placing the LEDs in the correct X and Y position, but not as often in the Z position which is also important. A wider light source is going to produce less beam control and more glare. This is cleaned up in the 3rd Gen by the projectors. In earlier trucks with a reflector H4 design it would be up to the design of the glare guards on the LED to try and clean it up.

Hotspots can be a problem. The LED should not be 'adjustable', it should lock the LEDs in at precisely the right position and depth at 3 & 9 O'clock, otherwise all sorts of bad pattern optics occur. The 2Strokes appear to lock in, in a fixed position, which is good. The thicker the LED the more diluted the centralized hotspot responsible for distance projection becomes, this causes the pattern shifts toward the driver and away from distance projection. For best distance projection LEDs, the thinner the distance between the LED chips the better. Though the best LED headlight upgrade by far will be the new one TRS is building from the ground up for the 3rd Gen.

 

Exactly right, it's an 880 bulb if you can't tell by the base (hell I can't tell bases all the time myself). The only size in the lineup that has the perpendicular arrangement.

 

Another great example from LightWerkz in a Subaru Forester reflector:

H11 halogen
H9 halogen
H11 2Stroke 2.0

 

We use the same meter here. Admittedly it's not designed to be the end-all technical definition of what a certain bulb is capable of, however it is perfect for relative comparisons.

Since we're using the same meter at the same location, the same distance, the same environment, and using the same housing, it can still be confirmed that one is better than another given all other things are constant. Agreed?

 

The cutoff changes with the 2Stroke glaring upwards on the sides. Probably not a problem on a Subaru but at truck height it's an issue, at least for everyone else on the road.

 

While it may seem that all things are constant, in the view of the meter they are not. The standard lux meter operates on the assumption the light spectrum slope is constant between sources, because all incandescent lights have almost identical relative linear slopes. But the spectrums are completely different between LED and incandescent. A standard lux meter will sample a small number of points in the light spectrum and apply a spectral sensitivity curve fit on the assumption that the spectrum is a linear incandescent slope and use this to calculate total lux. But the LED light spectrum is very different potentially throwing off this calculation depending on where the sampling points are measured in the spectrum, and what the LED spectrum curve looks like. Margin of error might be small or it might be significant, but the point of taking a measurement is to have accurate credible data.

Measurements I've taken using a digital spectrometer to show spectrum differences:



(Anything past 700nm is just IR and not factored in lux.)

A meter like the Extech LT45 allows you to calibrate the meter based on the light source and LED color for accuracy. I use an Extech standard meter, the Extech LT45 and a full digital spectrometer, the later having an advantage of not having to set anything or worry about light source composition because it measures the full spectrum, I'm not sure what I would measure HID with otherwise.

Anyway, apologizes for the thread derail. But as a lighting company who specializes in LEDs, I would recommend you invest in an LED meter for accurate measurements, especially in product demos.

This is an artifact of the light source geometry change due to the increased LED cross section compared to a smaller halogen filament.

 

In the grand scheme, it's a perfectly presentable comparison.

 

In the grand scheme you are off by roughly 22.5%, which is a very large margin of error. If you take my advice, this could actually help you.

Measuring an LED headlight in a 3rd Gen projector:
Extech LT300 (standard meter) vs Extech LT45 (LED calibrated meter)




And just to demonstrate it isn't the placement of the photo detector, I swapped their position:




You can see the spectral sensitivity spec chart from Extech for the LT300 below, and see that it the meter response is deficient in the short wavelength spectrum. If you compare that deficiency to the spectrum profile of your Morimoto XB fogs I posted earlier, you can see that you are missing out on including a non-trivial amount of light output in the measurement from the short wavelength high amplitude spike. The LT300 is calibrated to light sources of 2800k as it is for incandescent lights, if you are measuring a source significantly outside of that color temperature, it will be inaccurate.




Use this information for your benefit or disregard it altogether, but it is important to use the right lighting tool for accurate data which I would expect of a lighting company and their independent testers.

 

@CrashN'Burn you're looking pretty good here. Haha. Thanks for the info !

 

I received these on Thursday from @TRSAndrew and installed them(quick shipping thanks!). Super happy with the results. Didn't know what I was missing out on when I was using those older OPT7X led's.

I'm not an expert on anything besides eating hamburgers so this is just my opinion on them. The packaging is pretty good, comes with everything you need and TRS gives you the input adapters. The fit when installing is super tight, not going to break something tight but more "wow that's a solid fit someone knows how to make these fit" tight. Some real confidence inspiring stuff. The footprint on these are tiny! The base is super small and easy to maneuver and the LED regulators are also super small. There is no obnoxious dongles all over the place that need to be plugged in. Just LED and Regulator--->Adapter---->OEM harness. The throw on these is probably 3-4x what I was getting before and I can actually see the road. The light just seems to be more centered with good "flood" on the sides. Color temp is very good, easy to distinguish objects and such. The only downside(if that) is the fans are kinda loud, not obnoxious though. You cant hear the fans on the outside of the vehicle but only in the cab for some reason. Gonna stick with these and order another set for the high beams.

I appreciate the input from @crashnburn80. In general, I just take what other people say for granted or how many "5" star Amazon reviews a item has. I didn't know that the orientation of the LED's on the PCB would matter or that even the thickness would either but thankfully I do now. It honestly makes sense after its described to you why something should work a certain way. Not quite sure why I never thought about it that way before. I think I am just used to a "awe yeah billy said it looks great must be gewd" type of thinking.

In my opinion, for whatever its worth, this is a great replacement for stock halogens. I'm not super interested in the cost nor the work involved on doing a retrofit or of having to wire up HID's and the headaches that can be caused by them. My previous 3 vehicles all had HID's and I just didn't want to mess with them anymore. Bulbs burning out, temps being off between bulbs, warm up times, higher cost, shaking, and numerous other headaches. Totally understand the reason why people would though and hats off to them, just wanted to try something a little less involved this time around. These 2Stroke 2.0's are simple plug and play and much better performance than the stock halogens. Thanks!

 

Just bought these to replace opt7 leds..... the right opt7 stopped working so here i am. Ill let everyone know how they are!!

 

How do these 2stroke 2.0 match up against the Morimoto HID elite kit? I have the Morimoto HID Elite 35w 4500k in the factory2018 Tacoma projects and they are decent. Want to see my options before doing a RX350 retro...

thanks

 

There is no comparison between HID and LED. HID has drastically more output, while also providing a better hotspot for better distance projection than LED.