Low Beam Projector Experiments with LEDs, Xenon Strobes, Torches etc.

[bhvm]

Hello everyone, I had a Toyota fortuner Headlight assembly lying around. I had to go for a new one as this one had broken mounts and I could not adjust the aim properly. Today I decided to open it up and play around with the Projector with various Light sources.

*Spoiler*= No matter what the light source, Projector manages very accurate cutoff!!
With 10W and 25W LEDs available in the market.... My brain goes Vrooooooomm!

I'll let the pics explain you better-

Xenon Camera Flash-

Samsung Note LED Torch-

Sunlight!!
(I could have gotten better focus but Holding cam in one hand and I was all sweaty and hot)

Warm white LED spotlight 1W

Warm White LED torch

Some random Artifacts when focusing sunlight-

Shields-

Some Disassembly pics -

is anyone willing to build a true led low beam on the same principle?

 

[bhvm]

no one??
I'm waiting for inputs!

 

[Viru]

What if you build a makeshift corn-type bulb of many small LEDs mounted on circuitboards?

 

[bhvm]

What if you build a makeshift corn-type bulb of many small LEDs mounted on circuitboards?

cutoff will stay the same. however I'm doubtful about lumens of those corn bulbs. most of them are under 500 lumen. an 35w hid on the other hand, throws in the likes of 3000 lumens.

 

[Viru]

cutoff will stay the same. however I'm doubtful about lumens of those corn bulbs. most of them are under 500 lumen. an 35w hid on the other hand, throws in the likes of 3000 lumens.

Well yes, not much can stand up to discharge lamps, but even if you manage to make an LED bulb with around 900 lumens output you can use focusing to make it sufficient for low-beam. A separate high-beam lamp and that's a sorted LED headlamp setup!

 

[bhvm]

Well yes, not much can stand up to discharge lamps, but even if you manage to make an LED bulb with around 900 lumens output you can use focusing to make it sufficient for low-beam. A separate high-beam lamp and that's a sorted LED headlamp setup!

That Could be a nice idea.
However, Low beams are the Most used. And when you face a Misaligned, High wattage Blinding Moron, You need pretty GOOD low beams to see where are you going (Uness you go Tit-for-Tat and Blind him with your Highs as well)

In My Dictionary, Low beams are more important and should be atleast 2000~3000 Lumens PER side.

For the LEDs, Take a look at CREE XML U2.
Cree XLamp XM-L2 LEDs

These little Monsters are capable of About 1000 Lumens PER die. if you can keep them sufficiently cool, a couple of these on each side could easily discharge enough lumens. However, being close to the very very hot Engine bay does not help much. Perhaps a branch of AC system could keep these babies cool?

 

[Viru]

That Could be a nice idea.
However, Low beams are the Most used. And when you face a Misaligned, High wattage Blinding Moron, You need pretty GOOD low beams to see where are you going (Uness you go Tit-for-Tat and Blind him with your Highs as well)

In My Dictionary, Low beams are more important and should be atleast 2000~3000 Lumens PER side.

For the LEDs, Take a look at CREE XML U2.
Cree XLamp XM-L2 LEDs

These little Monsters are capable of About 1000 Lumens PER die. if you can keep them sufficiently cool, a couple of these on each side could easily discharge enough lumens. However, being close to the very very hot Engine bay does not help much. Perhaps a branch of AC system could keep these babies cool?

True, but usually when you're being blinded by direct lights in your eyes your own lights aren't very easy to see no matter how powerful! Best way is to make his eyes bleed with your own full-beams, assuming there are no other road users affected by that

They are important, but I think if you exceed 2000 lumens it might become difficult to adjust between objects in the light beam and those outside the beam such as overhead signs and obstacles past the cutoff.

Those are impressive! 20W giving 2000 lumens! But wouldn't it need a bespoke reflector since the standard one would be redundant?

How about a condenser-style housing for the LED which is connected to the radiator of the car? Liquid cooling would be effective. The AC thing is a good idea but the Freon is under pressure which might damage the LED in the long term...

 

[bhvm]

>Of course, Modding with LEDs means you WILL need new Lenses, Reflectors and Diffusors. The Current Housing will act just as a weather shield and not much more. That's how HID projector mods done on Swift/Lancer. They put a small, Optically matched Projector inside the factory Housing.

>Connection to car radiator does not help.
Its already at 60~80.C and this will quickly destroy the LEDs. We may need a seperate Heatsinks and radiator for the same.

>I'm not talking about letting loose a stream of R134-A at the LEDs, but just cool air from the AC system.

>If you are into PC modding and Overclocking, have you seen the CPU Waterblocks that Overclockers use?

 

[Viru]

Oh, I was trying to think of a way of recycling the old reflector, I guess that's not possible then....

Actually I was referring more to using a separate water supply and connecting that to one of the ancillary tubes some radiators have. They are less effective but good enough for a couple of lights.

But that would require a huge amount of extra parts and effort, which unfortunately means there is a lot more stuff that can go wrong! How about a forced air-cooled system like what we used to find on old VW vans and bugs?

Not really, I've heard of liquid cooling on high performance PCs such as Alienwares but I haven't actually looked into how they operate.

 

[bhvm]

A forced air cooling system will be good. But we have to devise a way to Suck cool air from Outside, Otherwise the Hot enginebay Air will cause problems.

In old days, Cars had only 1 cooling system- Engine radiator.
Now we have Radiator, AC Heat exchanger, Turbo Intercooler, and soon... LED cooling! ha ha!.

 

[Viru]

A forced air cooling system will be good. But we have to devise a way to Suck cool air from Outside, Otherwise the Hot enginebay Air will cause problems.

In old days, Cars had only 1 cooling system- Engine radiator.
Now we have Radiator, AC Heat exchanger, Turbo Intercooler, and soon... LED cooling! ha ha!.

Actually some old cars came with transmission oil and steering fluid cooling radiators too.

Yep, I think in future cars 50% of the weight will eventually be attributed to cooling systems!

 

[stingray91]

no one??
I'm waiting for inputs!

What a unique thread..
Intrested to watch the output.
First of al i need to know what you are trying to attain? Using led?
In projectors or reflectors?

 

[Prads]

In My Dictionary, Low beams are more important and should be atleast 2000~3000 Lumens PER side.

For the LEDs, Take a look at CREE XML U2.
Cree XLamp XM-L2 LEDs

These little Monsters are capable of About 1000 Lumens PER die.

Although description says so,product list shows 460 lumens max meaning they have 4 odd watt leds(i mite be wrong) ,Last when i checked they had 24 ,33 watt LEDs which produced less lumens to watts,they were metal halide replacement.

I am interested in project of mounting leds with custom heatsink(have to trouble some people),maybe distil water cooled like game pcs. Obviously using projectors is the only option.

@Bhvm can you recommend some 10 watt above LEDs with good lumens to watt ratio & having colour temp between 3500k to 5000k

 

[stingray91]

Guys you are entirely wrong.
Even if you make custom light sources.
You have to concentrate all Lamentations to one small point .where focal point of projector lens tends to be.
Also it must be 360' degree transparent. Not like one side die and heat sink..
Or you guys have any other idea of clipping the led pls reply ill to join

 

[bhvm]

What a unique thread..
Intrested to watch the output.
First of al i need to know what you are trying to attain? Using led?
In projectors or reflectors?

The experiment has 2 objects
1) to try various light sources and test the extremes of the projector or How it manages a good beam pattern with strange light sources

2) to develop a Proper LED low beam with Road optimized pattern and which can be fixed into stock vehicles.

Although description says so,product list shows 460 lumens max meaning they have 4 odd watt leds(i mite be wrong) ,Last when i checked they had 24 ,33 watt LEDs which produced less lumens to watts,they were metal halide replacement.

I am interested in project of mounting leds with custom heatsink(have to trouble some people),maybe distil water cooled like game pcs. Obviously using projectors is the only option.

@Bhvm can you recommend some 10 watt above LEDs with good lumens to watt ratio & having colour temp between 3500k to 5000k

1) Could not get Your point, What 460 Lumens? Thats not even DRL catageory. Are you referring to Led CORN bulbs? man stay away.

2) For 10W LED if you want point source, go for Cree XML2- U bin
Other option is 10W osram COB led (diffused source)

All of these are 100~120 Lumens per watt, provided you keem them cool. A better option would be to Buy 25W COB led and underdrive them to 10W.

Guys you are entirely wrong.
Even if you make custom light sources.
You have to concentrate all Lamentations to one small point .where focal point of projector lens tends to be.
Also it must be 360' degree transparent. Not like one side die and heat sink..
Or you guys have any other idea of clipping the led pls reply ill to join

The halogen lamps provide a 360 deg output.
This was a disadvantage.
I can't stress that enough. Soon, Parabolic reflectors where invented that would "Gather" the light from all sides and shoot it into the Front.
In Cars, Theres a large reflector in the behind, and a "cap" at the front to help focus light properly. Effectively, you are wasting some of the light Output this way.

If you want to play LED, Why Take the Long route?
LEDs offer a Lambertian beam pattern, Which means that most of the output is already concentrated in The front. We can use this as an advantage and skip out the reflector completely! We just need the Projector in Place to provide a Cutoff and shapely beam pattern.

If you still want to use the reflector, Luxeon had some of the rare 'Batwing' Side emmitting LEDs that served as replacements for Halogen-designed Police torches.