H4 LED + other LED lighting

[Chuck 1,204]

7 hours ago, luhbo said:

Yep. I feel safer when I ride as if I were invisible. Or as Docc correctly wrote: they pull out in front of 'full bright' fire trucks anyway. Besides that this attitude makes me feel as if I could safely  ride on in my dark riding gear: waxed muck over black Dainese leathers

That's the first thing I tell new riders. Pretend you are invisible. If you expect a car to slow down or swerve to miss you, you are seriously screwing up.

[docc 2,676]

On 10/13/2019 at 5:21 PM, docc said:

Pretty sure the cheap Cinese LED unit needs replaced after 2 1/3 years and just over 10,000 miles/ 16.000 km. I see my lo-beam now looks brighter than the hi-beam. Not sure what's up, but time to open it up, have a look, and replace the cheap unit with the external driver with this from VintageCars:

 

 

 

Not sure why, but this unit has hesitated to come on a few times at start-up for a moment or two. I am running power back through the two front relays instead of a dedicated power/ground, but I didn't see any other signs of relay failure. Just inspected the connections in the bucket and all seems fine. I decided to take an IR heat reading on the LED unit's base after three minutes on hi-beam. Hottest spots I found were 100ºF/ 38ºC. I thought that very acceptable.

[docc 2,676]

On 12/15/2019 at 2:30 PM, docc said:

Not sure why, but this unit has hesitated to come on a few times at start-up for a moment or two. I am running power back through the two front relays instead of a dedicated power/ground, but I didn't see any other signs of relay failure. Just inspected the connections in the bucket and all seems fine. I decided to take an IR heat reading on the LED unit's base after three minutes on hi-beam. Hottest spots I found were 100ºF/ 38ºC. I thought that very acceptable.

Seems I have Starter Relay (#1) trouble after running the headlamp current back through the relay stack. Could be connectivity. Could be that even a High Current OMRON Best Relay will only last so long when it ain't "Livin' Easy."  Trying to figure out why my tach is not affected; something to do with the way the Speedhut is fed.

But it is definitely not the VintageCars LED unit failing.

[OldButNotDead 4]

I was recently inspired to try and improve my headlight.  Didn't succeed, but thought my experience might be useful to share.  The deflector inside my original shell came loose some years back, and though I've been able to wire it back in the sort of vicinity of its proper location, the output and pattern is silly poor.

I tried a 7" Grote sealed beam from Summit Racing (https://www.summitracing.com/parts/gte-90941-5), hoping it could be adapted without too much fuss.  I found that some fuss would been needed.  I may eventually go that route, if I can convince an engineer buddy to design and 3D print an adapter.  In the meanwhile, I'll be sticking to daylight riding.  I would be happy to hear of a source for a fully intact OEM unit.

 

 

[AvrilPress 1]

Hello..based on my observation If you go the LED bulb route, the Phillips Ultinons seem to be the preferred route, albeit the most expensive on the market. The LED light source is designed to match the filament location of the halogen bulbs, complete with the low beam shroud for a stock like cutoff. Are they leaps and bounds better than halogen?

[al_roethlisberger 105]

1 hour ago, AvrilPress said:

Hello..based on my observation If you go the LED bulb route, the Phillips Ultinons seem to be the preferred route, albeit the most expensive on the market. The LED light source is designed to match the filament location of the halogen bulbs, complete with the low beam shroud for a stock like cutoff. Are they leaps and bounds better than halogen?

 

Here's some info on the Phillips bulb:

https://www.philips.co.in/c-p/12953BWX2/x-tremeultinon-led-headlight-bulb#see-all-benefits

It doesn't seem to mention the actual wattage though, whether less than the halogen or not.

 

I've tried to steer clear of the no-name LED bulbs of various application as they just don't seem to hold up or perform well, and it's taken years for Sylvania and Philips to start making LEDs for many of the automobile, etc applications.  But they've started to do more in recent years, so I may have to check them out.  It would be great to have a cheaper bulb solution than an entire light assembly swap, especially if the bulb is just about as good.

Here's one review I found, and one might wonder if the heat sink would fit in the LeMans bucket.