Kickstarter Thoughts?

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I imagine the lifespan of the lights would suffer, but I guess they are LED...so maybe not.


https://www.kickstarter.com/project...y&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=51dsa.fnd.to

 

I think it's a great idea ... might even get a set for fogs so you can change color as needed

Probably not enough lumens for low beams tho

 

I don't know. This is from their website...

 

Specs on paper is irrelevant. Need @crashnburn80 to test out these suckers

 

Totally agree.

 

Really tempting, but for 2 reasons I'm gonna hold off...

1. They are LEDs and still think you'd get the degradation and glare that would come from putting these into projector housings meant for halogens, including the sharp cutoff I HATED about the Xenondepots
2. I've had about a 20% success rate on Kickstarter projects. There are almost always issues with the first batches of this kind of product as they scale up production and begin to learn the manufacturing issues and use cases where the concept gets a little challenging. Most of them will eventually get there, but I'm not holding my breath...

I've gotten a bunch of junk of kickstarter projects, then after they iterate, what happens? ANOTHER kickstarter for a new and improved version. tired of being beta tester for shit that doesn't work

 

I looked at some bulbs like this, my biggest problem with them was having to turn on then off the lights to change modes (the 2 color versions)

With 4 modes, I would like to see a 4 button switch instead of having to flash my lights a bunch of times to get the mode I want.

 

I can see your point, but I like have the option to not have to mount ANOTHER switch. I emailed them for some info, we will see what they send back.

 

Those Opt7 bulbs which supposedly have a higher lumen output sucked pretty bad for the 2 days that I had them installed in my truck...

 

Don't waste your money.

LEDs are awful performers in a halogen assembly, because the light source is not correctly aligned with the optics of the halogen assembly. Many manufactures now align them in the correct X and Y location, but are unable to make the light source as small as a filament, meaning they are still off in the Z location. Being off in the Z dimension eliminates the hotspot so your beam has no distance projection or 'throw' as people like to call it, because all 3 dimensions need to be aligned for focus, and focus drives distance projection. On top of that, the LEDs are only pointing to the sides, and LED light is directional (unlike halogen that is omni-directional) so the entire housing is not uniformly lit, so you end up with an inconsistent beam pattern that is not saturated. Basically dark sports in the pattern where there should be light but isn't. On top of all that, you see the design uses 2 sets of LEDs to support amber vs white? This means that the LEDs will not even be in the correct Y location, because you cannot have both sets of LEDs positioned correctly, causing the lighting optical geometry to be even further off than bad LEDs. If this is the design, the beam pattern will be a disaster.



The specs are likely overinflated, while they actually reduce the competitors specs claims in that spread sheet. Opt7 claims 7000 lumens, funny the list them as a little over 4000. You'll also not that some of those competitors they compare to are very old dated designs, like Opt7.

This is all awful marketing BS of the aftermarket drop-in LED world. Don't be fooled by these poorly designed products.

Those Opt7 bulbs that by their own specs claim are better, perform awful. You can see them and a bunch of other LEDs compared to halogen here. Also note how there are portions in their pattern that have barely any light.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

If you want dual color fogs, I would suggest two properly engineered alternatives.
1) Use a snap on amber cover like Rigid offers for their SAE fogs. Yes, it is not as cool or convenient as clicking a button. But it is a real high quality fog light pattern with proper focus and distance projection. The cover just filters out the bluer light. Baja is also launching one in January, and typically their pods have interchangeable colored lenses, not as convenient as a snap on cover, but another upcoming option.
2) Run 2 sets of fog lights. An amber set and a white set. One mounted in the stock location and another pod set in the lower valence. Then run the color most appropriate for whatever the conditions are, or both.

There isn't an existing alternative for easy multi-color headlights, unless TRS/Morimoto was going to try an build it into their new from the ground up LED Tacoma headlight assembly, which isn't going to happen.

I know it isn't as exciting as changing the light color with a click of a button, but LEDs are well documented to not work correctly in a halogen housing, despite a bunch of vendors wanting to sell you product otherwise. Unfortunately I'm sure many will be drawn to these types of products. I've seen other companies launching them as well. Next time you are driving down the street being blinded by some uninformed individual running his drop in LED headlights causing blinding glare while reducing their own distance visibility, ask yourself if you want to personally support and fund yet another company launching yet another hack of a lighting product on the uniformed public, while trying to sell if as 'safer'. I hope the answer is no.

 

lol don’t f*k with @crashnburn80

 

terrible.

 

I thought 3rd gens had projectors in them?

 

Low beams are projector. High and fog are reflector.

 

As mentioned they do in the low beam. While the projectors have light shields that control glare, they still need things to be aligned correctly internally to project light correctly. This purposed LED design is worst than most because of the 2 rows of chips making everything even worse aligned that existing LEDs. If you look at the link I posted earlier and scroll down to the bottom of the original post there is a section on LEDs in the Tacoma projector. You can see how being off in one axis effects the beam. These lights will be off in 2 axis.

 

Seems like so many idiots upgraded their headlights over the summer ... so fucking annoying

 

They are going to send me a set to test out. @crashnburn80 , you want to run them through your tests?

 

When vendors/manufactures try to send me free products to evaluate, I typically turn them down if I believe the product will perform poorly as it is then a waste of everyone’s time. But that is when the vendor/manufacture asks. I can certainly take a look if you guys want, report results and send the product back to you. I’m assuming it is an H11 product?

 

I would assume so. I will let you know when they come in.

 

I just got these in yesterday. PM me your address and I will send them out to you for testing. I'm assuming they will not be totally consumed in the process?