You need the flash?

FYI I'm running H3 high beam HID's.. I still happily flash them at motorists.. its all I really use them for. No need for 'High Beam' to see the road when you have H1 HID's as well for low beam.

No longer do I have to worry about people getting in my way in the right lane (Ok, it takes about 2-3 seconds before full brightness, THEN they move)

LOL NIIIIIIIICEE!! now to get me a set of H3 HID globes nar id like to but I dont like the risk of shortening the life of them with the on off all the time..

All them pics where taken during the day just seems one side of the old mans garage is darker than the other

Shorten the life from 20 years to 2 years.. no big deal

I'd save $300 worth of time a year getting those slow idiots out of the overtaking lanes- you dont understand what Sydney roads are like. LOL

haha, I've actually found I flash people less now with my HIDs fitted because I don't want to kill em.

I'm also saving for one of these
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NIB-Chrome-Tripl ... dZViewItem

Check out {DESCRIPTION}

Ahhhh dam your tempting me

I was referring to this quote. Why he needs to use the flash when photoing headlights?

With one of these, you no longer need to worry about anyone even remotely thinking of getting in your way.


Notice: they also come with OPTIONAL set of lights which can easily be convert to HIDs.

Turning Xenon bulbs on/off is not a matter of shortening the life span of the bulb by a specific factor. i.e. from 20 years to 2 years.

By rapidly turning on/off or flashing your HIDs you are risking to blow both your bulbs and ballast and in the worst case scenario frying your vehicles electrical wiring/system.
It happens all of a sudden due to the extreme surge of power that is going through the ballast every time to convert 12V to 21-25000V to feed the arc.
Therefore, you could be lucky and it takes 2 years for the system meltdown or it could happen just after 100 times.
Of course the systems are build with contingency for turning the system on/off as per usual usage.
The problem comes in effect when using rapid turning on/off of the system i.e. flashing your Hi beam.

A H4 has (or at least should have) approx. 1500 hours life span as Automotive HID xenon has approx. 5000 hours.
However after being used xenon bulb's Lumen start to decrease.
If you compare a NEW bulb and one that has done say a couple of hundred hours you can easily detect the difference with your eyes.

First of all try to use a ALL white and larger wall when you take pics of the beam pattern.
The entire beam pattern is not seen in any of the pics you have posted so far.
My worry is the other stray light I have marked on your pic.
Some of it could be reflection from the car but I doubt it.
Find a much bigger wall to take pics.
Delivery area at the backside of a warehouse, Coles, BigW, Target .........

was just going thu some old pics

Heres a good one comparing HID and Halogen:

 

 

Attachments:

HalVHid.JPG [ 28.2 KiB | Viewed 171 times ]

Here's a photo taken from a year ago

Left 35W 6000K H4 HID kit - Right 90/100w 4200K Halogen globes

The halogens when on their own look to be Superwhite ... but when comparing them to the 6000K HID they look brown.

Left car was CE Lancer coupe .... right hand car is a CE Mirage (same headlight housings on both vehicles .... so they have the same reflector housing in them.

Same vehicles look back at them from in front.

Attn Mavs:

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I no longer work, I quit so i have some more time to fiddle with my HID's now And by the look of that glare, seems i need to

Now I can see the beam pattern much better.
There is a lot more glare now than before.
It is the white background which you have used this time.
Gloss White reflects better than matt white or any other colour.

I am posting few pics which is from Lexus RX300 reflectors.
Of course they have been removed and trimmed for a future retro we are planning.
I have posted these pics as reference for everyone who has a HID installed in their Standard Halogen reflectors to see how a real HID reflector look like.
These reflectors are for Hi/Lo beam and differ a bit from a Lo beam only reflector.










First of all as we have already established, once you install a HID kit you MUST have a shield with nosecone to block unwanted and stray light that creates glare.
Whether you have a nosecone shield as standard or have none and need to manufacture one, YOU MUST have a nosecone shield.

Here is what to do:
Place the vehicle in front of a wall, turn on the lights with the Halogen bulb inserted and either draw on the contours of the beam patterns on the wall or take pictures of the beam pattern.

Then remove the headlight assy and remove its lens.

A short reminder of how to do remove the lens:
Remove the headlight assy from the vehicle.
Heat up the oven to 125°C. When the oven is 125°C, turn it off.
Place the headlight assy in the oven for 7 minutes.
Put on a pair of gloves or oven mitts, and remove the assy from the oven.
From the pointy end of the assy, insert a flat screw driver between the lens and the headlight housing (the black part) and pray open the lens from both sides.
Pull apart the lens and housing until the lens comes off.
The glue will take around 20-30 minutes to cool down so don’t rush things so you brake anything.

WHAT EVER YOU DO, DO NOT TOUCH OR TRY TO CLEAN THE CHROMED SURFACE OF THE REFLECTORS.

Reassemble the headlight housing (WITHOUT THE LENSES) back in the vehicle.

BE VERY CAREFUL SO YOU DO NOT COME IN CONTACT OR TOUCH THE CHROMED SURFACES OF THE REFLECTORS.

Insert the HID bulb and connect it to the ballast.
Turn on the headlights.

DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE HID BULBS OR THE REFLECTORS WHILST THE SYSTEM IS ON.

The way your parabolic reflectors are designed, when in Lo position, is that they do not reflect any light from the lower half of the reflectors.

When using Hi beam, light is reflected from the bottom portion of the reflectors together with the light reflected from the top portion.

So, most of our attention is going to be paid to the top portion of the bulb and the reflector.

The focal point for your standard reflector is designed for a Halogen bulb.
In our case, say a H4.

Look at a H4 bulb. Look at the Lo beam filament of the bulb (the one in front of the bulb furthest from the base).
As you see there is a shield under the Lo filament, blocking any light to reflect downwards and it has a 15 degree angel to the horizontal line corresponding with the extra portion on the reflector.
It also has a specific location in the bulb from it’s base.



The shield will look like a pipe. With the top end of it blocked. A cylinder with one end blocked.



The upper side of the cylinder wall, needs to be cut in a specific way to allow light out.

If you are only using your HID as Lo beam light source in this case the lower part of the shield/pipe has to be blocked so you don’t need to do anything to it.

Look at your reflector it gives you a lot of guidelines as to how big the opening where the light needs to come out should be.

It is 15 degrees more than a straight line that goes horizontally.
180 + 15 = 195 degrees.

Now we know where the sides of the shield need to be.

The length of the shield from the base to the top is equal to the length of the H4 Lo filament from the base to the top of the bulb where the painting starts.

We now have the sides, the length and need to work out the shape of the edge of the nosecone.



Here is where you need to do some testing and that is why you removed the headlight lens.

WITHOUT TOUCHING THE CHROMED SURFACE OF THE REFLECTORS.

You now need to cut different shapes to block the light that is going stray and is not wanted in the reflector. Use some thin aluminium from a can to cut the different shapes. As a ring which you thread on top of the shield pipe.

look at the beam pattern that is now on the wall in front of the vehicle and try to block and create a similar pattern as the one you initially had from the Halogen bulb.

After few attempts you should have the correct beam pattern and the shape the edge of your nosecone shield should have.

Do the same with the other side. Which requires a different shield pattern.

Reassemble the lens and the headlight assy to the vehicle.
You now should have a very good Lo beam pattern using HID bulbs in a Halogen reflector.

In some cases if you have a dual reflector system, you may need to sand paper some chromed parts between the reflectors. i.e. BA Futura headlight assy.