Hella halogen projector lineup

[John_Galt]

I've been searching posts related to Hella's various sealed 50/60/90mm offerings in Halogen, and I was hoping for some clarifications on their performance. Halogen, specifically due to their lower costs in relation to the venerable HID and modern LED offerings in the 50mm and 90mm lineups.

Hella's catalog offers aerial view "beam plots" which are mostly referred to as "fanciful" marketing tools, rather than a reflection of reality or otherwise relaying useful information. This is an understandable move by Hella, if unfortunate, as it really does muddy the waters of what their products actually offer prospective customers.

-50mm lineup:
I don't believe there's been any discussion here about these.

-60mm lineup:
Have been referred to as Hella more wanting to offer a low cost product marketed for the ATV/UTV market, rather than a high performance headlamp for primarily on-road vehicles. When I've inquired about these with rallylights, they started off by stating they are "much improved with a suitable HID" kit. Seeing as they are not designed for hid burners, that's clearly a non-starter, although based on web searches this course of action seems to be what most people who use them for lamps do with them.

Using 9005, they presumably see some benefit from upgrading to 9011. The question is, does this alter their status as a "meh-tier" road compliant option to a level of performance more inline with what could be deacribed as more-than-adequate for primary headlamps? Are these in any way comparable to the 90mm halogen lamps?

-90mm lineup:
My question relates to the models for Left hand traffic. "What is best" is too broad a question without some qualifiers, so I believe I am right to also ask, if the information is known, "what model has the best ability to be improved with performance bulb options?"

-Virgil- you have expressed, for example that the Performance H1 model has the furthest reaching high beam. Is that with a standard H1, or with a performance/higher wattage H1 bulb? In other threads you have stated that your overall favorite is the ECE spec H7 lamp (presumably with a Vosla 65w rebased H9? Or is this the best overall pick even with a standard H7?). There's the Classic SAE using an H9 bulb (so besides picking a high quality H9, there's no real ability to improve its performance), which presumably does not have the "euro" style stepped cutoff.

The 90mm lineup is offered in a few flavors, as either a lowbeam only or a bi-halogen function. Speaking specifically to the low beam performance of these lamps, is it fair to assume that the lowbeam only models can offer higher performance than their bi-beam brethren, given they are not designed around as complex a task?

Hella seems to be paring down the halogen lineup with their newer LED and Bi-LED models becoming available, so I am hoping for some insights while their full lineup might still be found on retailers shelves.

 

[-Virgil-]

-50mm lineup

There has been. These are too small to give more than bare-minimum performance.

-60mm lineup:

Inexpensive, and a bit better than the 50mm lamps.

Using 9005, they presumably see some benefit from upgrading to 9011. The question is, does this alter their status as a "meh-tier" road compliant option

Their beam distribution is reasonably good, and the HIR1 bulb will make them brighter, yes. Their mounting and aiming setup is not very sturdy/robust.

I've inquired about these with rallylights, they started off by stating they are "much improved with a suitable HID" kit.

As you know, that's wrong/bad advice. Shame on Rallylights for giving it.

-90mm lineup:
My question relates to the models for Left hand traffic. what model has the best ability to be improved with performance bulb options?

The H7 models.

-Virgil- you have expressed, for example that the Performance H1 model has the furthest reaching high beam. Is that with a standard H1, or with a performance/higher wattage H1 bulb?

Either. It's focused for long beam reach, though its beam spread/width isn't as wide.

In other threads you have stated that your overall favorite is the ECE spec H7 lamp (presumably with a Vosla 65w rebased H9

That's correct.

There's the Classic SAE using an H9 bulb (so besides picking a high quality H9, there's no real ability to improve its performance), which presumably does not have the "euro" style stepped cutoff.

It has a Z-beam type of cutoff. It's inefficient (not much beam output for your power input), the H9 bulb has short life and can't be upgraded, and this lamp is not available in a left-hand traffic configuration (though it could possibly be disassembled and the cutoff plate flipped over to create a left-hand traffic version -- it has been quite a few years since I took one of these apart, so don't quote me on that beyond "could possibly be").

The 90mm lineup is offered in a few flavors, as either a lowbeam only or a bi-halogen function. Speaking specifically to the low beam performance of these lamps, is it fair to assume that the lowbeam only models can offer higher performance than their bi-beam brethren, given they are not designed around as complex a task?

The high beam function is the (relative) loser in the bi-halogens; the low beam is more or less the same.

Hella seems to be paring down the halogen lineup with their newer LED and Bi-LED models becoming available

If they are doing that, I haven't seen evidence of it...all the halogen 90mm lights still appear in the latest catalogs.

 

[John_Galt]

As it happens, I realize I mixed up the rht/lht pattern. So actually regarding "*Right*" hand traffic...

Hellas site is not so straightforward either... and what it referred me to for catalogues I suppose was more appropriately a brochure, barely an appetizer. The multiple catalogs I downloaded all showed a handful of 90mm offerings, compared to some older ones I had saved which listed "classic," "Premium" and "Performance" models with their part numbers. This led me to assume that with their LED models coming out they were offering fewer halogen/HID models.

That out of the way, I'm surprised at your suggestion of even the "possibility of" opening such a projector and modifying it. Seems to go counter to the usual "don't do this at home narrative." Not that's my goal. I'd rather fabricate a reasonable mounting solution for a lamp, than try to disassemble one to stuff into another.

-Per the 50mm lineup, I suppose given the size there are limitations...

-Per the 60mm's, despite all my searching, I have yet to find more than one photo of the highbeam model in action, and the one I did was a terribly overexposed too-close garage door shot with a potato cam and no details about bulb choice. Seemed very "spotty," based on that image. Any chance you have any data on typical peak candela? There's plenty of wallshots of people with the lowbeam module stuffed with 6-8000k HID burners. The step-cut off appears rather tall, and (perhaps just as a result of the burner not being focused properly) the beam seems to bend downward to the left and right extremes of the edge.

-90mm bi-halogens... what an array of differing part numbers. Between left and right hand traffic and 12v/24v, some listing ECE markings, some "CCC, ECE, SAE" what's the part number of the H7 model you recommend?

And perhaps this is a stretch, but are there other offerings on the market for sealed-unit halogen/bi-beam projectors? Any competitors in this market that offer a superior product?

And, if you have any test data you could share, it'd be appreciated. Even a comparison of peak intensities between standard H7 and rallye H7 would be useful.

 

[-Virgil-]

One of the more comprehensive Hella 90mm module catalogs is here. You can check availability with the Hella Online Catalog here (just put the Hella part number in the entry blank at the top of the page). You're looking for "Article status: Normal" (versus "No Longer Supplied"). I didn't put in each, every and all of the part numbers from the 90mm catalog, but every one I did put in came up "normal".

I don't have photometric data on all these modules. The data I have on some of them is not sharable. My recall of the 60mm high beam is that it leans towards a flood pattern without very high intensity in a central spot.

The original 90mm modules (such as the US H9 low beam, and its rest-of-world H7 counterparts) can readily be disassembled without ruining them. They're held together with screws and you can separate their component parts. The cutoff shade plate is flat stamped sheetmetal, held to the magnesium reflector with two or three screws. But none of this matters if we are really talking about RH-traffic lights. You've got me curious, now, to see how the ECE H7 low beam module would perform when fitted with the cutoff shade plate from the US H9 low beam module and a 65w H7 bulb. I'll add "dig up the box of 90mm projectors" to my project list!

"ECE" = most of the world. "European" (now called UN) regulations.
"SAE" = USA and a few other countries that accept US-spec headlamps.
"CCC" = China. Chinese regs are the ECE regs, but a few revisions behind.

As far as which bi-halogen to choose, I would lean toward the ECE H7 unit 1AL 009 998-001, with the 65w bulb, and aimed as per the US "VOL" specification.

There are some other makers of 90mm modules in these same mount patterns. As far as halogen units go, most of them are cheap junk, significantly inferior to the Hellas. The situation may differ with LED modules; I haven't surveyed lately, but it's possible the JW Speaker modules (for example) might be worthwhile.

 

[John_Galt]

The link you have for the 90mm catalog is giving me a 500 server error code, but I'll check again with a non-mobile browser.

I might pick up a 60mm high beam unit just to see how it is, subjectively. Amazon has a pretty forgiving return policy.

For just the highbeam units, I saw H1 and H9 models. Is one significantly better than the other?

Hmmm, I thought they would be sealed more permanently than that. And if they're that easy to disassemble I'm surprised I didn't find more threads on hidplanet about "tuning" them, as they seem to like for lots of other projectors. Perhaps the price and lack of thread-mount kept people away?

Do you have acess to a goniophotometer through your work, or just trying to compare things at home?

The various LED offerings are interesting. Amazon keeps pimping morimotos 90mm led/bi-led units. There's a video review/comparison from, iirc, lightwerkz, but their lightmeter isn't accurate with non-incan lightsources, so even knowing the rough measured distance doesn't lend to trying to calculate a cd number for comparison.

I'd prefer to stick with halogen, for various reasons. I can deal with high color temperatures for driving lights which can be switched on/off, but until there's some move towards lower color temp LED use, I'll avoid them for this project.

This is a screenshot of the only 60mm highbeam pics I have seen posted. As you say, doesn't seem terribly tight.

 

[-Virgil-]

Amazon keeps pimping

That, right there, I consider as a valid reason to give an otherwise unknown/untested product two strikes against it. Have you seen those reports on how often the products hyped up as "Amazon's Choice!" are junk/counterfeit/otherwise undesirable?

 

[John_Galt]

[I'm sure you would agree with me here] I tend to be pretty defiant when things get pushed on me. Add to that the repetitive history of amazon's not giving one iota of a care about whether their co-mingled inventory is real or counterfeit, and I have no reason to pursue a purchase on amazon for pretty much anything.

Morimoto seems to be trying to source more legitimate products to bring to market, but their lack of transparency and veiled "independent" dealers not even being able to accurately test and compare products is further offputting.

I do want to repeat the highbeam-only 90mm model question. Between the H1 and H9 models, which has better performance to speak of? If it's the H1, are there any high(er) than original wattage bulbs that make any sense to source/use?

 

[-Virgil-]

The H9 90mm high beam gives a wider beam, whereas the H1 90mm high beam gives a longer beam (though still with good width). I think I'd probably go for the H1, with a premium H1 bulb. We're talking about a small reflector, here, and the smaller bulb hole for the H1 bulb vs. the bigger bulb hole for the H7 or H9 bulb makes an effective difference. But in a way we're splitting hairs here, because all three of the 90mm high beams (H1, H7, H9) are really pretty good for their size.

 

[John_Galt]

Ordered a set of the H7 ece bi halogens and contacted Stern about bulbs. I will hold off on the high beam reflector lamps for now. Thank you foe the discussion, virgil.