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Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors

Discussion in 'Lighting' started by crashnburn80, Oct 6, 2016.

  1. May 13, 2021 at 5:36 AM
    #181
    BenSkiv

    BenSkiv Well-Known Member

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    Imma still run LED’s regardless
     
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  2. May 13, 2021 at 8:09 AM
    #182
    Too Stroked

    Too Stroked Well-Known Member

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    So what you're saying is that you'll continue to blind oncoming drivers - damn the science. To each his own.
     
  3. May 13, 2021 at 8:18 AM
    #183
    hyrule_trd

    hyrule_trd It’s a Secret to Everybody

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    What did those drivers ever do for me?? They prolly have LEDs in halogen housings too! /s
     
  4. May 13, 2021 at 8:51 AM
    #184
    BenSkiv

    BenSkiv Well-Known Member

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    Exactly, I’ve been blinded more times then I can count. Time for my revenge! That said, I am looking into buying a set of oem housings and doing a retrofit down the line. Just need to do more research, for now itll work though. The cutoff on the high beams is perfect, the low beams scatter like a mofo though.
     
  5. May 13, 2021 at 8:56 AM
    #185
    BenSkiv

    BenSkiv Well-Known Member

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    Pretty much. I haven’t been flashed a single time yet and I’ve had them in over a week now
     
  6. May 13, 2021 at 9:01 AM
    #186
    0xDEADBEEF

    0xDEADBEEF Trash Aficionado

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    Some of us have given up on flashing people. There's so many people running around with shitty LEDs or just their regular high beams on that I'd be constantly flashing people.
     
  7. May 13, 2021 at 9:03 AM
    #187
    BenSkiv

    BenSkiv Well-Known Member

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    I gave up on it so I just bought LED’s to blind people back ‍♂️
     
  8. Jun 2, 2021 at 8:10 PM
    #188
    Yodastacotruck

    Yodastacotruck Well-Known Member

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    Haven’t been on this thread in a while has crash found a better drop in led bulb than the Amazon hikari bulb yet? Anyone have good luck with that bulb say has it lasted more than a year? Thanks guys
     
  9. Jun 2, 2021 at 8:54 PM
    #189
    crashnburn80

    crashnburn80 [OP] Vehicle Design Engineer

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  10. Jun 2, 2021 at 9:34 PM
    #190
    Yodastacotruck

    Yodastacotruck Well-Known Member

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  11. Jun 2, 2021 at 9:48 PM
    #191
    crashnburn80

    crashnburn80 [OP] Vehicle Design Engineer

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    Hikari Ultra is still the highest output intensity. Morimoto 2stroke 3.0s have the smallest design for best focus, and have a unique sealed cooling system to isolate from engine bay contamination, but are about 10% less than Hikari, though the hot spot is better placed. Latest Gen of Philips ultinon LEDs do well too, about 10% less peak than Morimoto.

    For further clarification/questions, I’d suggest posting in the 3rd Gen thread.
     
  12. Jun 2, 2021 at 11:59 PM
    #192
    Yodastacotruck

    Yodastacotruck Well-Known Member

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    Thank you
     
  13. Jun 3, 2021 at 1:10 AM
    #193
    mosccat

    mosccat Well-Known Member

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    Tell me about it, over here in Hawaii there are soo many 6”+ lifts on Taco’s and 4R’s and they all have LED bulbs in their headlights and fogs. Guarantee they don’t adjust the headlamps after the lift. The fogs are the worst.

    I put LED bulbs I my wife’s Rav4 fogs, the direction and spread was awful, went everywhere. I took them out and returned them.

    Ive actually put a smoked tint over my fogs (and tss sensor) to get rid of the chrome, don’t ever use them anyway :)
    9369E2E7-2643-44CF-B5D4-60404D814E89.jpg

    1AEEFBE4-5527-4DB4-AE5E-1AFCC0FE3027.jpg
     
  14. Jun 3, 2021 at 1:56 AM
    #194
    RedWings44

    RedWings44 Well-Known Member

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    It has been about a year for me (minus winter) and I have yet to get flashed a single time with mine. I got flashed all the time with my stock halogens in my GMC Canyon, however. Stock setup as well. I owned that from 2016-2020. Although, to be fair, this thread is referencing reflector housings. My LEDs are in the projector housings currently and, in my opinion, work very well in that setup.
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2021
  15. Aug 23, 2021 at 5:59 AM
    #195
    slowlane

    slowlane Well-Known Member

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  16. Aug 23, 2021 at 8:02 AM
    #196
    crashnburn80

    crashnburn80 [OP] Vehicle Design Engineer

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    Definitely avoid. They have no glare guards, meaning they will be glare monsters and output will look like the Opt7s in the original post.
     
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  17. Aug 23, 2021 at 8:45 AM
    #197
    slowlane

    slowlane Well-Known Member

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    Awesome thanks!! I was assuming this would be on the same level as the Hikari ultra, just "newer" and "better". Appreciate the feedback!
     
  18. Aug 24, 2021 at 9:52 AM
    #198
    Steve Armstrong

    Steve Armstrong Well-Known Member

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  19. Aug 24, 2021 at 11:39 AM
    #199
    heyadam

    heyadam Member

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    Curious about this as well, is the difference this little plastic extrusion on the Ultra's?

    [​IMG]

    Fwiw, this guy on Amazon directly compared the two and shared an output image:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2021
  20. Aug 24, 2021 at 12:38 PM
    #200
    crashnburn80

    crashnburn80 [OP] Vehicle Design Engineer

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    Sorry, since this is a reflector thread I thought you were referring to the H4/9003 version of the product which doesn’t contain the glare guards it should like an H4 bulb has. There are no glare guards on an H11.

    However the Acme product is still designed incorrectly and not recommended. To have proper focus an LED must mimic the size and location of a halogen filament. Notice the Ultra has a single row of emitters, which does an ok job of mimicking a filament in 2 dimensions (still too wide in the 3rd). The Acme product has 2 stacked rows of emitters, which doesn’t mimic a halogen filament. The oversized emitter area results in loss of focus and a shift to more non-desirable foreground light. It isn’t correct at all for the optics of a headlight and is more like poor LED designs from many years ago. Seems odd to go backward in design, I wonder if having the hot driver integrated into the LED base reduced the thermal capacity of the unit for LED cooling (as LEDs heat up, output drops hence why hot drivers are typically separate as that keeps the heat away from the LEDs allowing for greater output) and with reduced output they added a second row of emitters to make up for for the performance loss. So it seems they through out their reasonable focus for a very dated design just so they could bundle the driver onto the LED. Most people don’t really know what to look for, so it’s possible they thought the integrated driver feature would sell better than the headlights actually working like they are supposed to.

    Note that in a projector like the 3rd Gen low beam, the projector will produce the same cut off with almost any light source, which is often mistaken as the LED being good when it has nothing to do with the LED and is entirely the projector. Unfortunately that Amazon review is way to washed out in the pictures to make valid sense of the comparison.
     

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