The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Thanks for your detailed reply crash! I look forward to seeing the results.

So if the DD pros are about 2.35x the instensity of the standard BD sports, and about 2x the instensity of the DD sports, would that make the DD sports more or less equivalent to the standard BD sports I'm currently running?
I have to admit those come in at a much more attractive price...

 

I'll let @crashnburn80 chime in, but you'll find that in the Diode Dynamics SS3 series fogs, the Sports have a much more well defined pattern / cutoff than the Pros. (I have the Pros BTW.) That makes the Sports much more "street friendly" for those that like to run with their fogs on all the time. Of course one needs to weigh that against the fact that the Pros put out more light. I try to run mine only when needed, but find myself going "Holy crap!" every time I turn them on. Still, you can't go wrong with the Sports.

 

Diode dynamics has a 15% off code on their website right now if that will help convert you to the not so dark side

 

Baja SAE 'fixed' optic comparison

Recall that when Baja launched their Squadron SAE fogs, they were not actually SAE compliant as advertised as they had too much spill above the horizon and the cut offs were not sharp enough. You can see my original review calling out this flaw with updates in post #964 here. Baja claimed the error was a result of only simulating the pattern output without actually running the product through a compliance test. They issued a fix kit to correct the pattern to their customers free of charge. This covers the difference between the original optic, and the updated 'fixed' optic.

Left is the original SAE lens vs right is the updated SAE lens, designed to reduce light spill above the cut off


These are the instructions included with the fix kit.


The aluminum block out plate insert already comes pressed into a new lens, so it seems odd they have the instructions showing installation of the block out plate into the lens. The fix kit does come with the new lens including the preinstalled block out plate, a new gasket and new mounting screw hardware.

Installed it may not be super apparent when not in direct light. But under direct light it is easy to see the block out plate behind the lens, even moreso on the white optic.


So how well does it work?
Photographing two wide angle patterns in the same shot side-by-side is challenging.
Left is the revised fixed optic vs right is the original optic.


There is a divider between the lights to minimize pattern overlap, even though it looks like one continuous pattern. If you look carefully, you can see the upper and lower panels outside of the main beam pattern have less light spill with the revised optic. So the new optic block out plates do reduce the light above and below the cut offs.

However, when measuring the output of the new revised optic, the main part of the pattern has also suffered significant losses. Based on my measurements, the new optic takes a 30-33% peak intensity loss, for white and yellow respectively. This places the revised Baja SAE optic output intensity as the lowest performing product in this thread. The next lowest was the dated PIAA LED fogs were 160 lux and for comparison OEM stock H11 halogen fogs were 203 lux. And compared to the best in class Diode Dynamic SS3 Pros, the SS3s are 4.5x higher intensity than the revised Baja.



What I was really interested in doing was quantifying the change in a way that was far more in-depth than peak intensity, as a peak intensity metric is a bit overly simplistic. I was able to obtain some compliance raw test data for both optics, allowing me to run my own analysis on the results. Engineers love raw data.

Below are my plots for the original optic output, the revised optic output and then using the computational plotting powers of Tecplot 360 I programmatically created a delta plot to demonstrate the losses sustained by the revised optic. I kept the contour scale consistent, so the plots are all relative to one another in contour intensity. Peak Cd values are all calculated programatically. The plots are fully interactive on my end to interrogate data at any point in the field.





This delta plot shows the losses from the revised optic expressed in positive values


According to these lab results, the peak intensity output loss is about 25% with the new revised optic. Within 5-8% of my readings.

What is interesting is based on my delta loss plot above, the largest losses occur within the heart of the beam pattern, not above the cut off as was intended with the revised optic. Spill above the horizon was reduced as intended, but the revised optic caused significantly greater collateral losses within the pattern. By my definition that would classify as a poorly engineered fix. Ideally you'd want to reduce the spill above the horizon while minimizing the harm to the output intensity of the main beam pattern. Hopefully they reconsider redesigning this product's optics with a more performant solution.

 

So they designed a "shield" made out of foam instead of fixing the flawed optics - which would have required a new lens mold to be designed and built. Makes sense from a manufacturing cost standpoint. Makes little sense from a performance standpoint. At least most of their other LED lighting products are really nice! Thanks for taking the time to do another exhaustive test!

 

Slight correction, the shield is metal not foam. I should mention that in my pot above. Edit: more specifically aluminum.

 

My bad. Thanks for correcting me. Still, who would think the addition of any type of shield wouldn't have a negative effect on light output? Especially when said shield looks to cover the majority of the original lens. It almost looks like the shields they used on headlights during WWII.

Maybe sometime in the future they'll design and build a new lens mold with proper optics built in. They can even call it a completely new model. Meanwhile, Diode Dynamics is going to sell a lot more fogs with a proper design.

 

It does very much resemble the black out headlights of WWII which were used to help prevent ground vehicles from being sighted by aircraft at night. Below are some photos I took at the local Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum of such WWII headlights.

 

Have to thank @crashnburn80 for all of his work. I’m a fan of data and independent testing, his work swung me to Diode Designs Sports yellow dogs and I couldn’t be happier.

Anyone on the fence, give them some serious thought.

 

Spot on! And just like the WWII design, the BD design (unfortunately) significantly reduces light output.

 

I bought early & went with KC’s before the DD’s came out. Still very happy with the purchase. Yes, a big Data Boy to @crashnburn80 for shedding light on these & other lighting mods. Well done, Sir.

 

I see what you did there.

 

It is a constant moving target as competition drives continuous new and improved products, the Selective Yellow SS3 Pros are the 7th fog configuration I've run on my truck. The 5000k KC G4s are still a decent foglight for white, even though their intensity performance numbers have been passed by newer options. They are also the only aftermarket fog that fits in the OEM mount and mounts flush to angle the fog to the sides for greater side area coverage.

 

The KC’s warranty still Rocks too.

 

Thanks again for all your hard work and research crash!

Looks like I'm just gonna throw my Squadrons up on the hood for ditch lights, so the only question left for me to decide is DD sports or pros. I realize the sports have a sharper cutoff, but how does that translate into inclement weather vision? Snow and fog is really my main concern at this point, as having the BD as ditch lights will be more than enough combined lighting when needed.

 

For snow I would go for the Pros. They are the hottest running SAE fog, which will prevent icing over. And for actual inclement weather use I would opt for selective yellow, so you don't get as much reflection back off the rain/snow/fog as you would with a 6000k light.

 

Thought I'd show off some shots of my DD SS3 Sports. These combined with @crashnburn80 's harness/bulb upgrade is insane. I used to hate driving at night, but now I'm always looking for an excuse to drive at night!






Fogs off, headlights only.


Fogs and headlights

 

Thats what I gleaned from your posts, why I went with Selective Yellow Sports. Not much in the way of snow to be worried about down here near New Orleans but plenty of rain and fog around the lake.

 

Yeah I'm definitely looking at selective yellow. I realize the Pro's have the higher temps, but what I'm unsure about is how that extra glare/spillover that you mention in the Pros will affect visibility in heavy snow, vs the Sports that have a much sharper cutoff on the top. Or is it negligible?
Coming from running BD WC as fogs, ending up with a big yellow wall when switching them on in snow has been the biggest issue for obvious reasons.