Car modding, Luxeon Headlights

[koala]

Lets forget the electrical requirements first and consider this question.

Is a 1watt side emitting luxeon a possible replacement for a car lowbeam headlight? Replace bulb that emitts the *lowest* lumens. IMHO, 5watt is overkill but I don't own any 5watters before and I haven't check the lowbeam bulb rating under the hood yet. Fitting a 5watt will require extra care of heatsinking and the life is not long, that's what puts me off.

Maybe I should put it this way, how many lumens does a headlight lowbeam on average puts out? I know it differs for each car.

Sorry I am not sure what that beam is called, need to check the manual. I am sure a standard car is prefitted with three types of beam. Not including fog lights.
NB: Not the mainbeam or highbeam bulb.

Vince.

 

[Entropy]

Won't work - Even lowbeams have a LOT of wattage. I think the low/high ratio is something like 55/80 or 45/80 or something like that.

You'd need multiple 5W lights to provide lowbeams.

Although (I haven't gotten around to doing an actual experiment with this), a single 5W on each side might be enough for daytime running lights, where the idea is not to provide illumination, but to attract attention/increase visibility of the car to other drivers.

Also, one guy has modded his marker lights and turn signals with amber Luxeons. Again, they're much lower wattage and hence more practical.

 

[Azreal911]

i thought there was a rule for lowbeams at night for cars need to output within the range of 900-1500 lumens?? so a 5 watt luxeon wouldn't even be close to the task to even the cheapest automotive bulbs. 55watt lowbeams is Alot to match with a LED. someone know more about this?

 

[marklein]

I don't have the exact numbers, but I can confirm that even the weakest automotive headlamp is WAY brighter than a Luxeon. You would need many many LEDS to equal the brightness of a basic halogen headlight.

Audi did a concept car using Luxeons for headlights. Notice how many they used! DOZENS!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif (16 per side, I think) Let's see... 32 5watt Luxeons at $30 each... only $1000. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[TrevorNasko]

those were 1 watts not 5watts

 

[koala]

I don't know what are daytime running lights(no much use in australia) but I know there are a bunch of people out there has converted their daytime running lights to leds.

So after some research on the daytime running lights, looks like what I wish to say is modding the daytime running lights which has the lowest wattage. Definitely not the 55/80 or the 45/80 mainbeam/highbeam bulbs. Leave those to HID conversions.

My nissan from Japan has three bulbs in the headlight. Low beam(possibly daytimerunning), mainbeam and highbeam. On the farside is another amber bulb for signal.

My first 1980 honda has only two bulb. One lowbeam bulb and one mainbeam/highbeam bulb which has two filamen in a bulb.

Sorry this is turning in to a car mod discussion but there aren't much car modders who knows about luxeon. They only know what is led nozzles which is rather annoying to me imho.

Vince.

 

[highlandsun]

Check my post in the General Forum
Luxeon Turn Signals

Since there are no 5W amber parts, you need a cluster of 1W. If you use white, I would use at least 2 5W on each side.

 

[hotbeam]

Nukiez
I presume you are referring to the "parking light". Usually the first turn when you turn on your lights? I'll check mine today (Sat AM) and let you know.

 

[yclo]

Funny about this thread, I was just talking to my friend last night about modding his headlights.

Me drives an old BMW 3-series and he bought this "kit" which gave him light-rings similar to the ones on the 5-series. Looks like this:

Of course his isn't the real thing, it's just 4 round plastic tubes with 2 5mm leds each, not very bright. I was suggesting replacing the 5mm's with LS's, car voltage is 12v, so that's no problems. But if I drive the LS's more than 250ma, then they'll probably need heatsinking. And I'm not sure what I can do there.

 

[koala]

hotbeam - Yeah that's the one! First step when you turn on the lights. I think cars in the US are somewhat different for the auto dtr lights.

Yclo, that's really cool looking lights. I am sure 250 is fine if it's a star, cause an emitter can go 100ma without any heatsinking. Where did he get the 4 round plastics? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif