Automobile HID light

[TacStar]

Recently one of my friends totaled out his BMW. We snagged the undamaged headlight assy. from the drivers side, and it it has HID lamps. I was thinking of taking the lamp and machining a handheld light for it, and running it off of 4 CR123 batteries. Then I started to think about it some more, and realized that this might not be as simple as I originally thought. My biggest concern is whether or not the lamp requires a ballast. If so, it was somewhere else in the vehicle, not in the headlamp assy. Second I wonder how fast it will use up 123 batteries. Does anyone have any insight or suggestions on this matter?

 

[Timson]

If its HID it will definately have a ballast...Probably a separate switcher relay too and will all be located somewhere behind the headlights.

Follow the wiring back from the back of the bulb. This will lead you directly to the ballast which will be approx the size of a pack of cigs.
Follow the other lead that goes into the ballast. This will probably lead to a separate relay unit and ultimately back to the battery.

You'll need all of this.

Loads of wiring and boxes - Not to mention the projector lamp unit itself. ...So it's not going to be a compact light!

Automotive HID is 35W (Appx 3A when running....and a lot more on lamp strike-up) - So 4 Surefire's aint gonna cut it.


Tim

 

[TacStar]

The car has been towed away already. Well, I wanted to make something handheld and extremely bright. I guess I'll have to shelf this idea and try somethng else. Thanks for the info Tim.

 

[Kilted]

Hi, get a ARCO X990 it uses a 35 watt HID bulb.

http://www.brightguy.com/detail_int.php?Sku=ACRX990

suvlights has a sales thread in B/S/T I do not know if the entire package is still available. He also has a conversion socket to allow a standard automotive bulb to be used, like the one you already have.

=D~~ Kilted

 

[idleprocess]

Ah, but DIY could have been much cheaper (and possibly more satisfying) than buying new, especially given the low cost of (free) the otherwise-expensive components in TacStar's case.