Brightest LED headlights?

[magnum70383]

Just found this brand called VLED.

http://www.vӀеdѕ.com/hеadӀightѕ/Ӏеd-hеadӀightѕ/cxa-Ӏеd-hеadӀightѕ.htmӀ

Making 2000 lumens per bulb. Can anybody let me know if these are the brightest to date? Thanks!

 

[Optical Inferno]

Have a look through the rest of the posts in the automotive section regarding LED headlights. As you will find, these type of "headlights" are illegal and unsafe.

There are legal alternatives for certain vehicles from manufacturers like Hella, JW Speaker, Phillips. What vehicle are you planning to work with?

 

[magnum70383]

Have a look through the rest of the posts in the automotive section regarding LED headlights. As you will find, these type of "headlights" are illegal and unsafe.

There are legal alternatives for certain vehicles from manufacturers like Hella, JW Speaker, Phillips. What vehicle are you planning to work with?

That's weird, why are they illegal? A friend just bought a Lexus LX450H with OEM led headlights. The new corolla uses led headlights. Why are these led headlights illegal?

I'll be installing them on my 2011 subaru 2.5i

 

[AnAppleSnail]

That's weird, why are they illegal? A friend just bought a Lexus LX450H with OEM led headlights. The new corolla uses led headlights. Why are these led headlights illegal?

I'll be installing them on my 2011 subaru 2.5i

Safety, legality, liability, and responsibility.

Shine a flashlight at your garage door next to your car headlamp beams. You'll notice that there is a definite shape to the car headlight's beam. These blobs and shadows light the shoulder, the road near your car, the middle distance, the far distance, and overhead highway signs, without blinding many drivers. Your flashlight would give a broad wash of light, either not lighting the road nearby or failing to reach far away, blinding all the drivers, and over- or under-lighting the shoulder.

Vehicle lighting is a safety device - For you to be seen, for you to see with, and for you to NOT blind others with. There are definite laws and requirements in all civilized countries. Vehicle makers (Lexus, Toyota) do a lot of testing to make sure their lights are safe. At least $20,000 in testing (Photometric study, weathering&aging, durability & electrical) is done on every headlamp design. The photometric tests are valid for one car, one type of lamp cover (The clear bubble over projector-type lenses), and one mounting location. Changing any of these invalidates the testing and means YOU are taking into YOUR hands a guarantee that your lights are at least pretty likely to not cause excessive glare, fail suddenly, or fail to light the road well. Lots of studies show that drivers' opinions of their headlights are often opposite real performance. Bright light nearby is comforting and detrimental to driving reaction distance.


If a shady part-seller is lying to you about these things, you can be assured they won't show up when you get tickets, fines, or insurance liability for tampering with vehicle safety equipment.

Buy good OEM headlamps. Use clean lenses.

 

[-Virgil-]

Putting the wrong kind of light source into an automotive lamp is illegal and dangerous. This is true whether we're talking about putting an "HID kit" into halogen headlamps, or an "LED bulb" like the ones you found into a halogen or HID headlamp. Headlamps aren't just floodlights or spotlights; they are precise optical devices designed around a specific kind of light source (one particular kind of halogen bulb, one particular kind of HID bulb, one particular array of LED emitters...) to focus and distribute the light precisely as required by the applicable legal regulations and technical standards, which in turn are based on physiological needs for minimum amounts of seeing light and maximum amounts of glare light in a long list of very specific angular directions relative to the headlamp. Each different type of headlamp light source has a specific size, shape, position, orientation, and luminance distribution. With the wrong kind of light source, the beam pattern (distribution of light) cannot be correct, and the result is an unsafe situation both for yourself and for everyone you share the road with. Don't do it!

 

[BigRiz]

I understand they are probably illegal, however I have to say they're the most promising design I've seen yet. What's so special about halogen? As far as I know, it's simply the precise placement of the filament, and the small reflector right under the filament to point the light to the headlamp reflector. If these replacements are designed in a good enough way that the light is pointed in the exact same direction, then I don't see why they should not work properly. They might even be able to get them certified (although that's probably way too expensive so it won't be done)

 

[-Virgil-]

I understand they are probably illegal, however I have to say they're the most promising design I've seen yet

That's an interesting perspective, but please explain how a bulb that causes a headlamp to abjectly fail to perform effectively or safely is "promising" at all.

What's so special about halogen?

What's "special" about a halogen bulb is that it's the one and only light source that allows a headlamp designed for it to perform correctly, safely, and legally.

As far as I know, it's simply the precise placement of the filament

...and the size, shape, orientation, and luminance distribution of that filament...

and the small reflector right under the filament to point the light to the headlamp reflector.

There is no "small reflector right under the filament" -- it sounds like you're maybe talking about the shield under the low beam filament of an H4, which is just one type out of many different types of halogen headlamp bulb. And that filament shield's job is definitely not to "point the light up to the headlamp reflector".

If these replacements are designed in a good enough way that the light is pointed in the exact same direction

They are not, and they can't be until the state of LED technology permits a very small diameter, very high luminance cylindrical emitter surface -- which is not even on long-range radar.

I don't see why they should not work properly.

That is because you don't appear to understand what you're looking at.

They might even be able to get them certified (although that's probably way too expensive so it won't be done)

This argument "Oh, it's fine, it's great, it's just not certified because certification is expensive" is based on total ignorance.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

I understand they are probably illegal, however I have to say they're the most promising design I've seen yet.

I've heard better promises from political candidates.

What's so special about halogen? As far as I know, it's simply the precise placement of the filament, and the small reflector right under the filament to point the light to the headlamp reflector.

There's no "small reflector right under the filament". The filament is in direct view of the reflector. In multi-filament bulbs, that's not a reflector, it's a shield.

If these replacements are designed in a good enough way that the light is pointed in the exact same direction, then I don't see why they should not work properly. They might even be able to get them certified (although that's probably way too expensive so it won't be done)

They can't be designed good enough as yet, perhaps if ever.

In the US, they don't need to "get them certified"; they themselves do the certification that it complies with the appropriate laws.

 

[BigRiz]

Wow.. OK I give up
seems like I don't know much about halogen lights.. so thanks for explaining

 

[Unicorn]

A halogen assembly is a system. Bulb, reflector, and lens. It's designed that way. Change any of it, and the system is screwed up. The same for HID or LED assemblies. They are made to work as a system from the ground up. You can't safely put a halogen lamp into a HID assembly either. Different characteristics that screw up the system.