The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

@Baja Designs just in case you're interested in Q&A, these are the q's I have.

1. Does your third party testing indicate that your Squadron SAE product meets J583 standards regarding cutoff?
2. Would you be willing to share any information on which third party provided the numbers for your products you've quoted?
3. Why did it take 1.5 years to redesign and reach the prototype stage? That seems like a rather long time to me but I'm obviously not privy to all of the work involved.
4. Any rough outline of what has changed? optics, emitters, control circuits, housings, everything?
5. Do you consider it ethical to continue to offer a product for sale which you plan to have a replacement for in the near future without any indication on the product page of this change? If you consider this ethical, do you consider it good business practice? Seems like you could save yourself some trouble on your stated offer for free swap by just clearly indicating this information to potential buyers thereby avoiding the return process.
6. Is the plan to just eat the returned product (if any) or re-use it as giveaways (can you give away used product?) Or recycle it for parts and use for refurbish/repair? This is more curiosity than anything.
7. Do you observe any defensiveness or braggadocio in your posts when you re-read them? Do you think your overall tone is ideal for the goal of expanding your customer base? Specifically with the statement that "people posting information in this thread are choosing to pick and choose what they are crossposting".
8. What exactly does "The scientists of lighting" mean to you? I would be surprised to hear a scientist use words like heritage and energy or refer to Navy Seals, rally racing and Lean Six Sigma. Those references are clear indication of a sales background rather than a science background. I would expect a scientist to cite sources and provide an abundance of data, to supply facts without color or bias.
9. Have you considered perhaps a product name change to help differentiate between Squadron Sport/Pro and Squadron SAE? Given that a typical consumer may not be familiar with SAE and might primarily wish to know if a light is street legal or off road only? Seems like the word "street" might be significantly better than the acronym "SAE" to aid your customers in selecting the proper product.

Separately, since this is the fog thread and this question isn't specific to fogs in any way but just in case you're willing to answer it

10. Could you give some rough indication of why your rock light is $65? Is the emitter cost 25%, 50% or 75% of total cost? I realize this is marketed as a premium product but I'm trying to understand aside from stated robustness of the form factor what specifically makes it such a premium price point at more than double the cost of a KC cyclone. Your product page is quite sparse on this item and it's not clear to me how important output intensity is for this type of product beyond a certain level.

I've read-read the Tundras thread several times and I think the gist of OP's question was "why is the BD fog light twice as expensive if DD is better" along with what seems like clear confusion between Squadron Sport vs Squadron SAE (or perhaps no awareness of the Squadron SAE product at all.) Honestly, I have roughly the same general question about all your products, why do they cost twice what I think they should? Additionally, were it not for crash, I'd likely be rather confused about which of your products to consider for a specific purpose.

@Diode Dynamics Do you have any plans to produce a small form factor rock light in the next 12 months or so?

 

Yes

 

Oh shoot - Thank you for pointing this out. I will edit the previous post with the correct plot.

 

Driving in a heavy wet snow this morning, guess what stayed cleaned off? Hint: DD SS3 PRO
KC G4’s, not so much

 

Impressive!

 

Those updated plots tell a much different story than the original plots did

 

Yes, we appreciate Crash catching it. The third party test facility had scaled these automatically and we did not catch the variance when posting. Honest mistake and definitely not planning or expecting to pull a fast one on Crash with how detailed he has been with all the data


@daveeasa I need to catch up on some other projects before I log out for the week, but we will get your questions answered ASAP. Thanks for giving us the chance to share what we can.

 

Responses in bold. Hopefully this is helpful information. Please let us know if any answers fall short.

Have a good weekend guys. Hope you all get some seat time and fresh air out on the trails this weekend. I know we are looking forward to some.

 

I really hate that you posted this because the Amber g4 was my plan for stock bumper fog location. I really like the true amber rather than the yellow of some others. reconsidering... making it difficult again lol

 

They’re good for additional DRL’s!

 

As nice as that would be, since I'm about to go off to college if I buy aftermarket fogs I'll need them to be do it all. If anyone has a suggestion for a true amber fog that can go nicely in stock bumper that will perform well as far as light ouput and in snow please chime in. I may lean toward rigids ambers now. Can anyone speak on the color of the DD ss3's? Whether its a true amber or more of a yellow.

 

The SS3 (and nearly all other quality fog lights available in colors other than white) are selective yellow rather than amber. Sorry for crossposting crash's response from another thread, but may as well in case he ever gets tired of repeating himself:

Besides sciencey stuff, I'm fairly certain that white and yellow are the only legal colors to use on road. Amber lights are to be used for signaling only. Not sure how KC gets through.

 

Frankly, out of any of the criticisms that folks have for BD, I don't think that price should be one of them. They're not gouging bread at the grocery store, they're selling a premium niche product. And a damn good one at that.

As I said before, the question you might be asking instead is: how can Diode also sell their (different but also great) range of products for less money?

 

*Before reading. Understand the camera can pick up more light than the human eye, especially in foggy conditions. It’s actually much more foggy

Spontaneous foggy night drive to test the SS3 Max.

Cutoff is great as one would expect. If you’re coming from the Pro’s it will seem like there is less light but in actuality the light is more focused with the higher output.

Seeing the beam pattern in the fog makes me wonder if I actually need to raise them up

If you have seen the SELECTIVE YELLOW Pro's you'll definitely notice the greener color in the fog. Doesn't feel "golden warm" but still very clear.

Having said all that I need to throw one of the pros back in for a better visual. Partly because I do miss the blend into the low beams.

Note: Cars will follow you like Rudolph when you have solid lights
And wtf is going on with my passenger side low beam pattern??

 

Very nice fogs!

i think your passenger headlight is aimed really really low?

 

Thank you sir.

Double checked to make sure nothing crazy happened. Looking closely, the hot spot isn't as strong as the Driver's side. Might tear the light apart to make sure no streaks are on the lens from an old condensation issue I dealt with.

 

Oh you think you're a nerd huh? Check this out

 

You win with the christmas lights. I'll have to get off my ass and install the SS3 Ditch lights and Stage series 40 light bar to step up!



Also, Cheers to another 4Runner on here in Tacoma land!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvHCD0i317w

Won't let me upload videos from the iPhone so here is a video demonstrating the cutoffs in the fog. Higher quality is still loading so check back in a bit for better definition.