Revisited: Want to make HID light.

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LEDagent

Flashlight Enthusiast
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After being inspired by Sway's HID LightForce Blitz convertion, i've been searching the web for low cost HID ballast and bulbs.

I found some nice ones on eBay. Most are offered as kits, with 2 of everything needed to install in cars. These usually go for 250-350 dollars. The lowest cost solution i have found was to buy 1 used ballast and a new D2S bulb. A used automotive HID ballast costs around 80-100 dollars, and a new bulb costs about 40-80 dollars.

My question is simple. Can you power these ballasts up with a simple SLA 12V battery? Is it safe to assume that the current HID spotlights (like the McColluch X990, Kenrad, etc.) use the same ballast technology as automotive HID ballasts?

I would like to mod my LSI spotlight to HID. I would mount the ballast inside the spotlight and somehow focus the bulb in the reflector. I would then use an external battery pack. My first mod would probably be very crude, but my aim is just to get it to work.

What do you think? Any pointers would greatly help. I am thinking about doing this over the summer while i have a lot of free time on my hands. If i succeed, I would have my very own HID spotlight under 250 dollars.
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

The auto HIDs on ebay come as a headlamp assembly (from a wrecked car) and can be had for 50-80 bucks (both ballast and bulb and smashed reflectors-which you don't need). Get a late model wreck since the HID bulb will be newer.

The ballast then hooks right up to a 12 volt battery and will run the battery right into the ground (it won't dim like a standard halogen). So, for good SLA battery life, either get a voltmeter to monitor things or don't run it into the ground. The ballasts run at around 9-16 volts and aren't very picky.

X990 is a 35 watt HID, and the Kenrad is 35 or higher output 50, but it seems to have some reliability issues. I would think an OEM auto HID should be pretty reliable, mine has, regardless of hooking it backwards to the battery, etc.

The HID bulbs are pretty long, so it may be a tight fit into a LSI.

Have fun,

cheese
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

THANKS cheesehead!

It sounds like the only problem I will face is the bulb fitment and adjustment in my current host. The LSI spotlight i have uses a H3 bulb, and i can't seem to pry it out (didn't have the guts to do it then). How long are the D2R bulbs? It looks like i have less than 5" from the base of the reflector to the Lexan lens. I know it isn't much to work with, but i'm guessing that if i have to align the filement as close as possible as the H3 bulb, i may have some of the bulb not actually in the reflector area, giving me some room to work with.

I don't plan on driving my batteries to the ground. It isn't safe for any battery (except maybe NiCD). I did notice that some ballast have a minimum Vin of 9.6V and a MAX of ~16 Volts. I don't think the veriation in power from a dying battery will effect the ballast too much.

You have your own HID mod? I remember you contributing alot to the the HID forum, but i can't recall which light you modified. I would like to know your experience with building your HID light. Any tips for this amateur?

I'm really excited to do this mod. It isn't that expensive at around $150 considering the cost of other manufactured lights.
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

I did a Thor mod, but had the ballast on the outside and it doesn't look anywhere as clean as the Sway mod of the blitz. Only tip I have is to be very careful with the polarities of the ballast (write it down) and work with insulated materials, first time I used metal to seat the bulb and that just made a puff of smoke. PVC seems to be working better. Price is good and it's fun playing around with it.

cheese
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

Okay...i'm revisting this topic again because i just finished my first HID mod with my Maglight. That was fun...now i want to move on to the bigger stuff.

Buying the stuff and putting it into a big spotlight is the easy part. What i might have big problems with is actually seating the bulb into the reflector.

The reflector I have and others that I have seen, don't have standard automotive connectors and usually use small H-3 lamps. What i have in mind is to bore out a hole large enoegh for an HID bulb to pass through. After that i would epoxy a PVC pipe to center and space the HID bulb accordingly. Since the pipe is epoxied to the reflector, i would assume that the only way for the HID bulb holder to attach to the PVC pipe is to epoxy it on as well. This to me sounds like the hardest part.

Cheesehead (and others that have done this mod), does this sound like the right solution? You said that you used PVC pipe to seat the bulb. Do you think you could give me specifics on this procedure?

I don't want to spend 200 dollars on parts and find out that i can't continue later on because of fitment issues. THanks!
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

Just keep poking around on ebay and you will find a single ballast on the cheep.

HellaHID is a good seller I got both of my Osram HID Light Engines from him for less then 40 bucks each shipped USPS Priority Mail.

What ever host you pick make sure you have over 1" of room behind the reflector for fit and focus for the D2S and socket...

Later
Sway
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

Just a F.Y.I you can get after market 35watt hid bulbs with a H3 base, The bulb is longer on the back side but this tends to place the arc tube in about the same focus spot for a reflector that was made for a H3 bulb. A friend of mine did this with a offroad driving light and it works very well, there was no need to carve out the socket or make spacers, the new hid bulb just fit right into place. The back of the lights housing needed to be opened up a bit to make room for the wires but it still fit well.
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

If you use the large Thor, you have lots of room to putz around. I just put a 1.25 inner diameter PVC connector (shortened enough to allow the HID bulb to be focused) into the Thor reflector base and epoxied it. It fits pretty snug and flush, no need to drill out anything. Then slop some 5 minute epoxy onto the HID bulb base, turn the light on and hold it for 5-10 minutes while it "cures" into a nice hotspot. Be sure before you start you have a nice white background at a good distance to focus the beam on. Monkey easy.

cheese
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

Look, there is an easier way.
There is a vector dual 6 volt battery spotlight at target.
Put a 12 volt batter in the lower compartment, take out the 6 volt battery from the head, and put in your ballast there.
Then take out the h3 halogen bulb and put in an h3 "foglight" hid bulb and presto!
You may still need to find a way to get the switch to stay put in the on position, or put in a different switch altogether.
Or just take your imagination with you to the store and find any nice oversize spotlight to be a host.

Or make a separate carrybox for your battery, and put in the ballast into any cordless spotlight's battery bay.
Pep boys auto may still have an empty corded spotlight with an empty battey bay for your ballast, run that cord to a battery carrybox, and there ya go.
Good luck.
Edit;
You can use a portable gelcell jumpstart kit from an auto center as the power source with it's built in spotlight socket. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

Have you done this? Aren't the HID bulbs too long to fit in a 2 head vector? Hmm, if it fits, then you could make a dual HID light.
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

The bulb may be a bit too long, if so, try another oversize host with a bigger, deeper reflector.
Good luck.
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

I have a dual battery vectorlight 118 and the reflector seems to be too shallow for a 35watt hid. I am currently looking into the feasability of a 10 watt or 21 watt hid for it. that way it's still a bit brighter but still has good runtime on internal batteries.
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

THOR! (i.e "oversize host with a bigger, deeper reflector.")

Eh, I was just hoping the H3 HID was short enough to make a double HID Vector. 70 watts of HID would be very nice.

The Thor from the lights I have (and I have a lot of the Vector and Dorcy spotlights) seems to be the easiest budget mod for an HID (budget, in the sense the HID assembly can be easily had from an semi-smashed Ebay car headlight-50-60 bucks, coupled with a 49 dollar Thor, so the whole light is about 100 bucks). Even with the Thor, the HID bulb and ignitor used up all the extra room in the body-pretty tight. To get the focus right, the HID bulb assembly really has to go back pretty far into the host's body. And the HID bulb itself also sticks out a lot, which precludes its use with small reflectored spotlights.

Last thought, the Thor, due to its relatively large battery will run 1.5-2 hours. Turn it on, set it down and forget it. Typical Vector light is half that or less.

eh, enough jabbering,
cheese
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

Draco,

I wasn't overwhelmed by the 35 watt HID. Sure, it was a good amount brigher and whiter than the 100 watt halogen, but it was no 600 watt aircraft landing light (my other favorite). So, a 10 watt or even a 21 watt HID will give GREAT runtime, but lumen output won't be that much more, if any, over a 100 watt halogen. HID give about 5 times more output, so a 35 watt HID is about 150-175 watts of halogen-although due to the HID's ballast, it stays very well regulated over the battery's output. Eh, on the other hand, runtime is very important, 20-25 minutes for a typical spot is very short when you actually need it for something.

cheese
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

Want a really easy option? Motorcycle conversion kits. My X-million candlepower lights all use H3 bulbs. If you can find one of these kits on sale, it might be worth it.

I'm looking for one now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif If not... I keep looking on eBay for single lamp/ballast combos.
 
Re: Help: Want to make HID light.

[ QUOTE ]
cheesehead said:
Draco,

I wasn't overwhelmed by the 35 watt HID. Sure, it was a good amount brigher and whiter than the 100 watt halogen, but it was no 600 watt aircraft landing light (my other favorite). So, a 10 watt or even a 21 watt HID will give GREAT runtime, but lumen output won't be that much more, if any, over a 100 watt halogen. HID give about 5 times more output, so a 35 watt HID is about 150-175 watts of halogen-although due to the HID's ballast, it stays very well regulated over the battery's output. Eh, on the other hand, runtime is very important, 20-25 minutes for a typical spot is very short when you actually need it for something.

cheese

[/ QUOTE ]

Nor was I when I had my first 35 watt HID bulbs, My quad when I modded it was not that mutch diffrent as I had an 80 watt halogen allready in it. The main draw now for Me is the lower current draw for longer run time. The Vectorlite is being the test bed for that. I would be willing to have the same light output and go with a 4 hour run time with a 13 watt and the 21 watt is still posible but I can't use the stock batteries due to the dang ballast /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif So I will try to use NIMH type batteries.
 
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