55w ebay kits?

[s13tsilvia]

Hi Guys

Was looking at doing a spolight upgrade and have been reading various threads on the topic etc, now i was also looking around on the bay at the kits and you can now get single 55w hid kits for around $40 bucks.
What sort of configuration should i get? or is there anything i should know before buying one?

Obviously look for a 4300k globe, but what about pin configuration or anything else?

Only want to put it into a handheld spotlight for hunting/ shooting foxes and rabbits etc.

Cheers

 

[Richie086]

Hi there S13tsilvia,

If you don't mind me asking a question; are you referring to taking one of those 5 or 10 million candle power quartz halogen spotlights and removing the guts and upgrading it to HID?

If so, I'd love to do the same thing to a very large Thor-X, 10 million CP quartz halogen spotlight I have, which is powered by the typical 12V 7Ah battery.

 

[s13tsilvia]

Yup, but i only want to do a handheld model, ie lightforce style as opposed to the thor style as i will be hanging onto it for hours at a time, not short bursts.

 

[M@elstrom]

The ballast mounting will be your biggest challenge, I do recall a HID 'LightForce-ish' spotlight that had the ballast unit mounted horizontally outside the reflector body directly above where you hold the handle, while it doesn't sound too great it should give a reasonably balanced feel to the end product :thumbsup:

 

[Norm]

My advice is to go for a 35Watt slim ballast kit the ballast are nice and compact and you will still have all the light you want as well as longer runtime. Buy you host first so as you can order the correct base on the globe.
Norm

 

[s13tsilvia]

Thanks for all the responses guys, i have the light in hand and have already ordered my 55watt kit, delivered for $105 bucks, if the first light i make is a success i shall be able to sell my other ballast and globe set to some mates no problems at all.

The light is some no name brand, it could be a coleman but im not sure.

Anyway it has a 7" aluminium reflector and runs on a h3 globe, thus ive ordred a h3 globe and kit.

It has ventilation fins all the way around so no problems with overheating and luckily the back of the light is only slightly rounded so i should be able to mount the ballast directly to the back of the light which will be handy. Just have to put a new switch in

Some pics while i wait for the ballast to be delivered.

 

[s13tsilvia]

mmm i hate having to wait for things, my parcel is enroute! its taking foreever for my kit to arrive!! arrrrhhhhhh

 

[Richie086]

Hi S13tsilvia,

Can you tell me what the red wire connected to the rear of the reflector is for in your photo below? I was wondering if you're using the reflector as a ground or something. The reason I ask is because I wanted to add an illuminated On/Off switch to my POB HID spotlight, but it seems the switch needs to be grounded somehow in order for the switch illumination to work. I have no idea where inside the light I'd ground the switch off of. Thanks.

Some pics while i wait for the ballast to be delivered.

 

[s13tsilvia]

hey mate, im not sure, thats how the light came from the factory, i havent modified it in any way, as you can see from the other photo, it just seems to ground itself on the reflector, so im not of much help sorry dude.

 

[M@elstrom]

hey mate, im not sure, thats how the light came from the factory, i havent modified it in any way, as you can see from the other photo, it just seems to ground itself on the reflector, so im not of much help sorry dude.

The wire to the reflector is a grounding lead, H3's only have 1 connector and rely on an earthed mounting point, this really doesn't matter as you'll be using a HID bulb which DOES have 2 connectors (on flying leads)


FWIW you'll also need to craft a new bulb retaining clip as the original H3 style isn't sufficiently wide enough to accommodate the HID bulb's girth :thumbsup:

 

[Norm]

Hi S13tsilvia,

Can you tell me what the red wire connected to the rear of the reflector is for in your photo below? I was wondering if you're using the reflector as a ground or something. The reason I ask is because I wanted to add an illuminated On/Off switch to my POB HID spotlight, but it seems the switch needs to be grounded somehow in order for the switch illumination to work. I have no idea where inside the light I'd ground the switch off of. Thanks.

I hope the connections on your switch are similar to the switch I used. The switching is done by the two bottom contacts (positive) and the side connector is earth for the LED in the switch.
The earth can come from any part of the negative circuit in your light, all the negative wiring is always at the same potential (voltage).
Positive from the battery goes onto one of the bottom connectors and the positive to the ballast goes to the other, if your LED stays lit when the light is turned off swap the two positive wires on the bottom of the switch.
Norm
P.S. the veiw of the back of the reflector shown above is a bit confusing the red wire appears to be negative and the black/blue wire with the spade connector is positive. In this light the negative is being switched.

 

[Richie086]

I hope the connections on your switch are similar to the switch I used. The switching is done by the two bottom contacts (positive) and the side connector is earth for the LED in the switch.
The earth can come from any part of the negative circuit in your light, all the negative wiring is always at the same potential (voltage).
Positive from the battery goes onto one of the bottom connectors and the positive to the ballast goes to the other, if your LED stays lit when the light is turned off swap the two positive wires on the bottom of the switch.

Hey Norm,

That was the problem, thank you :thumbsup: I updated my original thread to show the new switches on my POB's.

 

[s13tsilvia]

woohoo lookie what turned up at work today!

cant wait to get home and hook her up!

 

[Richie086]

woohoo lookie what turned up at work today!
cant wait to get home and hook her up!

Hi S13Tsilvia,

Looks really sweet. Can't wait until it's installed to see your beam shots. When I look at the specs for my 35W POB HID, I see there is quite a bit more power required for a 50W setup. I bet it would be worth sacrificing some battery run time for 50W though. I'll consider a kit like yours to upgrade my latest upgrade project, my THOR-X - 10 million candle power halogen I just started working on.

 

[s13tsilvia]

Well thanks to everyone who helped me out, turns out it was some dodgy wiring that needed fixing. Anyway it fired up and away we go, no nightime pics yet as its not quite dark enough! but build pics! she is ugly but it does the job

 

[s13tsilvia]

Quick beamshot in the garage after moving the globe back about 2mm with a steel washer.

and this beamshot was taken last night with my camera phone, crappy quality, the dead tree is 217meters away and stood out a heap brighter than the pic shows, im going back tonight to do another comparison and with a better camera.

 

[toby_pra]

WOW that looks awesome! nice beamshot!

 

[s13tsilvia]

well after testing my spacer it is no good, the it needs to go back to where it originally was. which is good as i dont have to modify anything