LED Headlight or not?

[Emanuel]

I was absent from the forum for a while, but at least I can now show you what I've been working on during this time.

The photo is untouched and these are high an low beam LED lights taken to extreme.

I want to see Hella's Cadillac SUV LED Lights installed here - I guess even Miami's CSI won't be able to find all the pieces after a one mile ride.

Well, I know that I sound stange, but this is what happens when I see the result of 6 months of around the clock work.

Anyway, this is one more proof that LED headlights are very close to become a fact and even more good news, the possible price of a civilian version in mass production will be a surprise.

 

[tebore]

What am I looking at exactly? It's some kind of tank.

 

[LukeA]

APC?

How many emitters and what kind?

 

[Emanuel]

Well...

tebore, I still smile after reading your reply - it reminds me that photo with a nice girl almost naked on the beach and below the question "how many people paid attention there is an ocean in the photo?".
Anyway, my intention is to show the front headlights. This is the first time LED was used in such an application which requires a really heavy duty construction and yes, they are installed on a tank.

As to your question LukeA, we used a custom made ceramic and aluminum body encapsulating 12 chips with a total of 30W and 1300 lm for each lamp (one high beam, one low beam on each side).
I designed a special elliptical reflector for the low beam and make use of aspherical lens.
For now the headlight is not street legal as we don't use it for roads, but the whole design was done with this consideration in mind - I mean, there is no reason why it won't pass the SAE test if one day this will be required.

 

[Ken_McE]

Why did you go with LED rather than HID for the headlights?

 

[baterija]

For the first time on CPF I will say it...
that light is built like a tank!

I'm pretty sure it's a Namer heavy IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle). It's based on a Merkava tank chassis but has the turret removed. The infantry rails on the hull, the vision block on the left rear, and the shape of the armor package give it away.

Guessing, I would say the reason for LED over HID was at least partly based on durability. There's nothing like an armored vehicle to stress a piece of equipment.

 

[Emanuel]

baterija, men you are good - this is a Namer indeed.
Answering Ken McE, the LED decision was made not only because of the resistance to shock, vibration and rest of mechanical stress. Usually, in such equipment lights are often added after everything is built. After all, there is no combat situation where headlights are used.
In this project, everything was built with the lights in mind from the beginning.
Although the headlights were part of the design the space and shape allocated were tight and complicated, it was impossible to even think of using some sort of regular HID assembly.
Anyway, the project involved all internal and rear illumination based on LED technology but the headlights were the real task.