Review: LED Headlight Conversion Bulbs For Cars & Bikes


Thread Starter #32

bhvm

Honoured Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,289
Likes
4,818
Location
Some Village
I own a small School in village, mandar.

Manish,
yes it's very much possible. you'll have to make ac- dc Voltage rectifier just the way I did. no leds or HID work on ac directly.

my pics are there on 1St. or 2nd page I think.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Dec 17, 2014
Messages
489
Likes
271
Location
hitler ruled country
I own a small School in village, mandar.

Manish,
yes it's very much possible. you'll have to make ac- dc Voltage rectifier just the way I did. no leds or HID work on ac directly.

my pics are there on 1St. or 2nd page I think.
Ok, Can you give me the wiring diagram how to make these rectifier. Will Hid work now if i add rectifier because Currently I have a Hid kit in home!!
 
Thread Starter #34

bhvm

Honoured Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,289
Likes
4,818
Location
Some Village
1. me and mandar have already discussed rectifiers on page 2..please check. wires from vehicle go to ac input, then DC output is provided to the bulb. you need 2 rectifiers, one each for high and low beam.

2. I do not recommend HID for budget 2 wheelers as high startup draw tends to weaken battery and electronics. Electricals on bikes sold in India are horribly underdone.
 
Joined
Jul 17, 2015
Messages
66
Likes
19
Location
pune
dear bhvm,

yesterday i got a cyclops style led for my motorcycle. This is just for study, so was not wanting to spend a huge amount of money. Could you tell me how the light from these 3 led bulbs is, actually? As i saw it on your activa in the earlier post. Will it be better than my present halogen?

Now i might take some time to build the rectifier cause i need to go to the market and buy the rectifiers[:)]. and also get some time from my daily chores. but would definitely get some snaps of the light completed

regards

mandar
 
Thread Starter #36

bhvm

Honoured Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,289
Likes
4,818
Location
Some Village
1> If your cyclops LED is something like with all 3 LED pointing forward with Torch like reflector, The beam will be well... Torch Like. There is no True High or Low beam in These. Output will be quite narrow and unsafe.

2>Look for lamps with LEDs pointing upwards in Reflector (low beam) & Other LED pointing Downwards or side. This is High beam.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2016
Messages
29
Likes
14
Location
Chennai
hi bhvm,

nice informative thread! im in this constant dilemma over whether or not to switch to LED's as headlamps or stay with the stock lighting on my motorcycle. The current light output is dismal with the AC. i was however able to get some more spread on the low beam by adjusting the headlight's reflector to point it at its lowest level but light doesnt seem enough...
i started playing with these led bulbs (on a smaller scale) - replaced the Parking/position/pilot lamps on my bike from the 5W stock to
1) 1.5W T10 5 * 5050 type LED bulb
and later to
2) 3W T10 6 * 5630 type led "projector" bulb.
"projector" because they had these small lens type thing at the end. (and yes these were bright!!)

1) cost me 30 rupees each(local shop) and 2) cost me ~ 80 rupees each (ebay)

I used the 1.5W leds for a week or so..nothing happend and then i replaced them with the 3W ones, and replaced the tail license plate light ( running on DC) with one of the 1.5W bulbs.

I was like [cheers] after the swap.. becos i did not do any wiring change.. just plug and ride..
2 days later one of the LED's stopped working. [frustration]
i took them both out and found that the plastic housing had a hole generated on one side (happened for both LEDs, but one of the led's was still working)

im confused how this happened...

Was it because :
1) the heat from the LED's melted the plastic directly?
if so, why was the plastic melted just at one location and not uniform?

i went a bit further and took out the plastic housing and found that the rectifier had become tandoori-rectifier

so,

2) maybe, since AC current is being fed, and for half a cycle the LED's were not going to function during this time,
--> the resistor was being overloaded with the extra current (or voltage?.. pls correct me),
-------->and so the resistor burnt out first causing some plastic melt..
------------->, and then caused the led's to draw more current causing more heat leading to more plastic melt, till the led's themselves failed?


i'll post some pics of the bulbs a bit later, but just want to know if i do the coil rewinding and convert my bike to full DC and use the same set of pilot bulbs, will i run into the same problem?... was the problem with the nature of voltage input being AC? or the build quality of the bulbs with lack of proper heat sink?
[confused]
thanks
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2016
Messages
29
Likes
14
Location
Chennai
btw, about the bridge rectifier that you used, i read from this source that for small voltages, the bridge rectifier would be a bit inefficient due to the voltage drop across the diodes..

pardon me if i've missed out something..:P
 
Thread Starter #39

bhvm

Honoured Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,289
Likes
4,818
Location
Some Village
rg27,
Let me reply you one by one.

1. All the LED commercial Products available are Crappy (Bhangar) In design. India is a Hot country, In this case we need very nice heavy heatisnks for these to work. problem is, manufacturers are using plastic to save money & Weight.
I have designed LED lightbars for home use (on solar 12v). Entire Body is made of Aluminum heat sink. The design life is about 60~70 years. 10 years have already elapsed with zero faults.

2> Perhaps the culprit is AC current. Which means the inbuilt diodes were working very hard to block the flow one way. A diode drops about 0.7v when doing this. The losses are converted to heat.

3> Second issue could be poor quality or Faulty voltage regulator. Perhaps you won't feel much on Incandescent bulb, but LEDs are very sensitive to voltage. Many product designers forget that Automotive "12v" is actually 14~14.8v and NOT 12v. If your bike voltage goes above 14v when revving high, it could fry the LEDs.

4> Bridge rectifier is slightly inefficient (Well, any converter is). But its nothing as you have converted from 35W~55w halogen bulb to 10~20w LED. you actually saved some power in reality.
0.7v at 1.5A (1.5A @ 13.2v=20w LED) comes to 1w of losses. [roll]

5>I'm having good success with the cree Genuine LED bulb. Thanks to custom rectifier & Capacitors.
 
Thread Starter #40

bhvm

Honoured Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,289
Likes
4,818
Location
Some Village
Drove 3 hours continious with CREE LED h4 bulb on my i10. The performance is good and beam pattern is accurate. I am assured about the quality & Reliability of these bulbs.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2016
Messages
29
Likes
14
Location
Chennai
Drove 3 hours continious with CREE LED h4 bulb on my i10. The performance is good and beam pattern is accurate. I am assured about the quality & Reliability of these bulbs.
hey bhvm, could you throw some light on the amount of glare caused by the led bulbs? will adjusting the angle of the reflector help?

Im planning to buy the 30W led for my Suzuki gs150r after going on with the coil rewinding.. just want to make sure that i dont cause trouble for oncomming riders at night.
 
Thread Starter #42

bhvm

Honoured Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,289
Likes
4,818
Location
Some Village
Joined
Jul 17, 2015
Messages
66
Likes
19
Location
pune
dear bhvm,
my led's are not like a torch with all led's pointing forward, buy two of them point upwards like ^ and the third is pointing downwards _ . like a triangle.

I was just saying that the beam throw is not what i expected to be, it is no doubt good but it falls in a round pattern or rather like a donut "O". So i think i need to adjust the position of the lamp to/fro to see if i can get a better beam. I havent tried to adjust but when done will post the results. I want the beam to be like a normal high beam with all the led's lit up[evil].

regards

mandar
 
Thread Starter #44

bhvm

Honoured Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,289
Likes
4,818
Location
Some Village
yes., you appear to be using the cyclops m3 leds. you can check the pics in 1st page. top 2.leds are low beam, lower 1 is high beam. due to the design of low beam.led at an angle (sideways) the beam pattern is roundish with a black hole in the middle.

I'm afraid I had to return the cyclops as I couldn't get the beam Right. only cree provided dependable beam pattern.

you may try adding washers to adjust the position of the bulb.
 
Joined
Jul 17, 2015
Messages
66
Likes
19
Location
pune
dear bhvm,
you are right up to the point to what i was wanting to say about the black hole in the headlight pattern.[:)]. but as you said i would be trying to use washer or some spacers to get the beam right.

As you already said the shilan gives you a good beam quality, that's good, but i was not wanting to spend a whole lot of money on the led bulb. so i went in for the M3 type.

well happy with the light output this bulb is giving me.

regards

mandar
 

Top Bottom