Help me add cornering lamps to my car

[Alaric Darconville]

Thanks!
(BTW-- it displayed just fine for me, since I was viewing on a 24" widescreen monitor at 1920x1080.)

 

[-Virgil-]

you seem to suggest that a set of "fog" lights turned outwards might do the job and, I assume, legally. So, I have question. In your opinion, is this viable and legal?

With the caveats already stated regarding aim, placement, hookup, intensity, etc. -- yes.

location marked with yellow oval

You might look at using one of Narva Australia's LED reversing lamps, such as the 94150VBL or 94836V.

I'm pretty sure I could set up sensors for steering movement

If you do this, please take pictures and write it up here on the board!

 

[NFT5]

Ok, thanks. Will start to do some investigation...

If you do this, please take pictures and write it up here on the board!

Will do. Had a look at the vehicle today and I can see two ways of doing it.

 

[kwak]

My Audi A3 has cornering lights and to be honest it makes very little difference on dark mountain roads.
My first priority would be decent driving lights and high beam first as in my experience these make more difference than lights that swivel when you go round corners.

If i had a 4x4 or pickup and lived in a rural area though i would certainly mount extra lights on either the front or on the roll bar.

When i used to rally on night stages these extra lights made a VAST difference, plus they're constantly pointing in that direction so it doesn't matter where to steering wheel is pointing (often in the opposite direction when rallying).

So in my experience adaptive lights are a gimmick and although my current cars has them i wouldn't bother me in the slightest if my next car didn't, and this from a guy that has to do a fair bit of driving on unlit poorly surfaced roads.

 

[lumen aeternum]

Those Narva lights are the sort of thing... one of them is only 1 1/2" thick. OTOH if I mount lights in the plastic bumper housing, I could cut a big hole and have a lot of a housing behind the panel -- but its plastic so I would need a lightweight assembly.

 

[ken33]

Hi,

Regarding the legality of cornering lights, here is a link I foud on the California DMV page.


http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d12/vc25107.htm


Hope this helps.

....Ken

 

[Hamilton Felix]

I wonder of CA is like Washington. You can easily read the traffic laws, but every light has to be approved by the Commission On Equipment. And it's much harder to find out what they approve or don't approve at any given time. I think the bottom line, the way that CA law is written, is go ahead with reasonable cornering lights, just don't blind anyone.

With all the "retro" styled cars coming out, they just need to style for a few years earlier yet. Then we could resurrect the Pilot-Ray steerable driving lights of the 1920's and 1930's. After all, we can't go out and buy a Tucker with a steerable center light.

 

[-Virgil-]

I wonder of CA is like Washington. You can easily read the traffic laws, but every light has to be approved by the Commission On Equipment.

Sort of, but not really -- that's regulatory text left over from before the 1968 advent of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108, which superseded all state standards on vehicle lighting equipment. You'd be hard-pressed to find a state that still has a Commission on Equipment or its equivalent.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

Thanks. In that case, I guess I'm safe if it meets FMVSS 108. Most of the good name stuff is going to be OK.

 

[-Virgil-]

But FMVSS 108 doesn't regulate cornering lamps or fog lamps, so you'd want to look for lamps that meet SAE or ECE standards.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

OK. And just in general, no obnoxious glare. Sometimes the "Toolman Tim Taylor" approach of "More Power!" is not appropriate.

(Gotta admit I like big old lighting history, though. If I had a 1942 or earlier carbon arc searchlight of my own, I'd have to fire it up once or twice a year just to commemorate those pre-radar beasties. And I still have a 110v 5,000 watt bulb somewhere.)

 

[PLhonda]

I added them to my Honda Accord by simply using those headband-mounted LED "worklights" they sell at Home Depot. These particular ones have machined aluminum flanges and look less silly on a car than some of the newer (and cheaper) plastic models, but they were still only about $20 a piece. I wrapped 10W resistors and a zenor diode into each wiring harness I built to get a 4.5V supply, and made sure to put a tie-wrap at the loose end of the electrical-tape-wrapping. The good thing about the LEDs is that they won't strain even a well-loaded circuit and don't need periodic replacement, so they also avoid any socket connections that might get corroded. These have given me no trouble after about 3 years. I mounted them in the lower half of the grille (more of a "mouth" opening on Hondas, where they are well protected), angled out at a little more than 45 degrees, then added shrouds to limit the upper half of the beam, so they won't annoy other drivers. The controller is just a big capacitor and relay for each side, which gave me about a 13 second delay, so they stay on though the whole turn; they are activated by the turn signals and also come on with the backup lights, which makes it much easier to judge the distance to the adjacent cars while backing out of a parking space. I also connected them to the standard Honda fog light switch, which I added (the car did not originally have them); being very much against clear-night fog light use, I only use them this way on rare (wet) occasions, but they actually seem more effective than the usual American spec fog lights I've had on other cars; seeing the side of the road (as well as any pedestrians) makes a bigger difference in dense fog than one might expect. If I ever get around to it, I'll add switches to make them come on with sharp steering angles, but they work very well the way they are. I've made every effort, to the extent of my knowledge, the keep these things legal, but I don't claim to be an authority on that and wouldn't advocate anyone installing anything they know isn't. The only feature I wish they had would be an additional timer to turn them off while stopped at a long traffic light; I assume the control modules for factory cornering lights already have such a feature. I never understood why anyone considered cornering lights a gimmick; it only makes sense to direct the most light in the direction in which the car is turning, and have it come on only when needed. While this may not suite everyone's needs or expectations, I hope some of it will be helpful to anyone interested in doing something similar.

 

[PLhonda]

One other thing that may help anyone who doesn't want to mess with building circuits out of capacitors, diodes, transistors and relays: They sell pre-built time-delay relays with various levels of program-ability, the simplest are just a heater and a bi-metal strip (as used in many Lincoln Town Cars). Just Google "time delay relay 12v" too see some of what's available.

 

[gf0012-aust]

I ran Hella DynaViews for a while and ended up removing them.

Nice lights but no great advantage IMO

 

[gf0012-aust]

I added them to my Honda Accord by simply using those headband-mounted LED "worklights" they sell at Home Depot. These particular ones have machined aluminum flanges and look less silly on a car than some of the newer (and cheaper) plastic models, but they were still only about $20 a piece. I wrapped 10W resistors and a zenor diode into each wiring harness I built to get a 4.5V supply, and made sure to put a tie-wrap at the loose end of the electrical-tape-wrapping. The good thing about the LEDs is that they won't strain even a well-loaded circuit and don't need periodic replacement, so they also avoid any socket connections that might get corroded. These have given me no trouble after about 3 years. I mounted them in the lower half of the grille (more of a "mouth" opening on Hondas, where they are well protected), angled out at a little more than 45 degrees, then added shrouds to limit the upper half of the beam, so they won't annoy other drivers. The controller is just a big capacitor and relay for each side, which gave me about a 13 second delay, so they stay on though the whole turn; they are activated by the turn signals and also come on with the backup lights, which makes it much easier to judge the distance to the adjacent cars while backing out of a parking space. I also connected them to the standard Honda fog light switch, which I added (the car did not originally have them); being very much against clear-night fog light use, I only use them this way on rare (wet) occasions, but they actually seem more effective than the usual American spec fog lights I've had on other cars; seeing the side of the road (as well as any pedestrians) makes a bigger difference in dense fog than one might expect. If I ever get around to it, I'll add switches to make them come on with sharp steering angles, but they work very well the way they are. I've made every effort, to the extent of my knowledge, the keep these things legal, but I don't claim to be an authority on that and wouldn't advocate anyone installing anything they know isn't. The only feature I wish they had would be an additional timer to turn them off while stopped at a long traffic light; I assume the control modules for factory cornering lights already have such a feature. I never understood why anyone considered cornering lights a gimmick; it only makes sense to direct the most light in the direction in which the car is turning, and have it come on only when needed. While this may not suite everyone's needs or expectations, I hope some of it will be helpful to anyone interested in doing something similar.

without knowing where you live, I suspect that most vehicle inspectors would take a dim view of the mod (roadworthy issue)

but, the way that the Hella Dynaviews work is through an inertia/g sensor mounted in the middle of your car (eg inside grille or on bumper bar). As you go around the corner the inertia sensor relative to that corner triggers the cornering beams

on the Gen 1 Hella Dynaviews the light is a dual parabolic. The lower half is a direct throw 55w spotlight, the cornering lights are 55w in an offset parabolic in the top half of the light. So the bottom light still shines ahead while the cornering light then triggers its beam into the corner (only one beam switches on into the corner).

You could possibly achieve the same effect with mercury switches triggering relays on each corner - but again, I doubt that a vehicle inspector/police would look too kindly on it

 

[-Virgil-]

lumen aeternum, you're free to laugh all you want. We have rules here. Everyone has to follow them, including you.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Rules of foreign countries don't concern me at all.

No, but the rules of this board should.

 

[-Virgil-]

More to the point, the rules of this board do concern you. You may follow them, or you may discontinue participation on this board. Those are your two options, lumen aeternum. If you expect to continue participating in this board, go read the rules of this board and follow them—paying particularly immediate attention to rule #4, which bans trolling, which is what you are doing.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

I don't know where he's located, but I'd be surprised if he can find a country with no vehicle lighting laws.

 

[PLhonda]

without knowing where you live, I suspect that most vehicle inspectors would take a dim view of the mod (roadworthy issue) but, the way that the Hella Dynaviews work is through an inertia/g sensor mounted in the middle of your car (eg inside grille or on bumper bar). As you go around the corner the inertia sensor relative to that corner triggers the cornering beams on the Gen 1 Hella Dynaviews the light is a dual parabolic. The lower half is a direct throw 55w spotlight, the cornering lights are 55w in an offset parabolic in the top half of the light. So the bottom light still shines ahead while the cornering light then triggers its beam into the corner (only one beam switches on into the corner). You could possibly achieve the same effect with mercury switches triggering relays on each corner - but again, I doubt that a vehicle inspector/police would look too kindly on it

Thanks, but living in the Boston area, I have to say, for better or worse, that anyone making this kind of modification has little to fear from the authorities. My car has passed inspection each year with no questions asked, and unfortunately, I've seen cars on the road with some pretty horrific add-ons , like aftermarket HIDs that blind everyone in their path, multiple sets of fog lights, blue colored lights that are too dim to light up the inside of a refrigerator, etc. If these cars are not scrutinized, I doubt that mine will be. When anyone does get ticketed here, it's usually for having too little light or causing a public nuisance. I have had a couple of people ask me if my lights were cameras, they do look a bit sinister. Anyway, I've made a point of aiming them carefully, and trying to avoid any un-necessary glare; it makes no sense to **** off other drivers for no reason, regardless of any legal implications. I thought of using inertia sensors, but I suspect that they would kick in too late for my purposes; my biggest complaint with "plane jane" headlights is that, with the mediocre street lighting we have in suburban and rural areas, you can't see the lane markings in the roadway into which you are turning, so activating them with the turn signal would light up that area the earliest (before actually starting a turn). I owned a couple of 1960s Cadillacs that worked this way and was happy with the arrangement (most of the newer US-spec. BMWs I've seen activate them with the turn-signals, as well as steering angle). As I wrote, this setup may not work for everyone, in every jurisdiction, but some elements of it might be helpful, even to those with different restrictions.