Author Topic: After market LED Headlight units  (Read 27626 times)

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Bert Remington

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Reply #75 on: November 29, 2018, 10:34:54 pm
No the Yellow headlight flasher bypasses the headlight switch (and in your case the jiumper).  Trace through the attached schematic for UCE (AVL probably similar).
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Adrian II

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Reply #76 on: November 29, 2018, 11:41:52 pm
OK, I dug out my old Wipac 7" reflector unit, the distance from the bulb holder at the very back of the unit to the lip round the outside of the lens where it sits in the (outer) headlamp rim is 62mm or 2&11/16" as accurately as I can measure it.

Any help, gentlemen?

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Superchuck

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Reply #77 on: November 30, 2018, 03:30:53 am
Bert, thanks for the schematic.  My AVL diagram does not have the zoom-in's of the switches. 

Adrian, many thanks.  Here is my headlight.  When I measured it earlier I was mainly measuring to the back of the heat sink, which was just under 90mm (starting at that same back edge of the ring where it touches the motorcycle's inner ring.  Didn't see your message at the time or I would've taken more measurements.  It looks like the unit I have might also be of the shallow bowl variety.

Not sure if this Flickr image link will work or not, but here's a photo of me measuring my headlight unit:




The mad science experiment was a success and a failure, but mostly a success.  More info to come.


Superchuck

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Reply #78 on: November 30, 2018, 03:35:31 am
Sorry, that was the wrong photo...
Here goes... I think you can click it for a full sized view.  Keep in mind it is a cell phone photo, and cell phone photos pretty much all have a slight fisheye lens, which skews the perspective:




Ergyd

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Reply #79 on: November 30, 2018, 10:37:13 am
Looking forward to hearing about your success/failure in due course Chuck!

My setup seems to look the same in terms of dimensions - I've taken a few different approx measurements just out of interest.

Bulb length (tip to rear of heat sink) - 90mm
Depth of headlight unit (rim to rear of bulb mount) - 80mm

Depth of full setup from headlight rim to rear of heatsink - 120mm


Adrian II

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Reply #80 on: November 30, 2018, 01:15:57 pm
Ergyd, what make of headlamp unit are you using? Superchuck's Autopal definitely has a deeper bowl than the Wipac. Your measurement of 80mm from the back of unit without bulb to outer face of the outer rim corresponds to the 62mm I measured, less the thickness of whatever gauge of metal the rim is spun from. That effectively would give you nearly 3/4" extra clearance. That pus a wider (deeper) inner headlamp rim must be some help.

Glad I don't have casquettes on any of mine!

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Superchuck

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Reply #81 on: November 30, 2018, 04:09:57 pm
Alrighty folks,

Here's the rundown of last night's shenanigans.  Overall I would say a lot of things went right, and it feels like a big success, but it still isn't an ideal solution. 

So here goes:



Another shot of the headlight with my Superbright LED H4 and its big long heat sink sticking out the back.




A pic of the bulb hole.




I realized that I could trim just a little bit off the circular part of (what I'm calling the) H4 mounting plate on the bulb.  This was a fantastic eureka.  With just this little bit of modfication to the bulb I can then finagle it down inside the headlight hole, but if this crazy experiment doesn't work, I am still able to use the normal 3 mounting tabs, so I haven't destroyed my $40 bulb.




A shot showing both sides trimmed off.  This is all the bulb modification I did.




Dry-fitting it.  Looks like it'll work, but because of those small metal tabs sticking up, the bulb didn't marry up that snug with the hole.




So what I did is bent those few metal tabs down with some needlenose pliers.  I also then put a few small pieces of gorilla tape against the contact points on the bulb hole edges.  The thought here was that the tape would make a thin pad which could possibly help prevent the bulb from squirreling itself free, or spinning, etc.  I initialy used a metal wire of about 1.5mm diameter to try and secure the bulb, but it was too bulky to work with.  So I opted for this green Christmas Wreath wire which I looped over top a number of times to basically tie it on.  The bulb can wiggle a tiny tiny bit, but it is not noticeable at all when riding.


So, success right?  Well, we'll see...


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As I believe Adrian warned, the beam pattern is now totally sucky... with moving the bulb forward (probably 25mm?) it screws with the geometry (trigonometry?) (physics?)  I dunno... but there's a big dark spot right in front, where as a true night rider you would least want it to be.  However...




When I flip to hi-beam, it is much brighter, and covers a ton more of the surrounding area, but there is still a glaring (or lack there-of) dark spot right in the middle.  Plus, having the hi-beam on like this will dazzle the heck out of oncoming drivers, and is not safe in that regard.

So back to the drawing board.  But luckily, I also was planning on mounting up those 6-LED flood light clusters to my handlebars.  Here's a pic of that:



Low-light, hard to see shot of my Ennie with one of the LED clusters mounted (I have yet to mount the second one).




Here's a pic of the hi-beam, without the flood cluster.  As you can see, you don't really need headlights to drive in the city at night.  I had to ride all around until I found that dark industrial area for my previous photos.




And here's a photo of the hi-beam with the one flood cluster on.  It's a pretty diffused beam which does not project strongly in the straigh-ahead direction, but it does help.  Notice the garage door and the front of that red car as compared to my previous photo.


Synopsis:

Do I feel like my experiment was a success?  Yes.

Do I feel this suits my purposes of increasing my own visibility to other drivers, specifically on the highway during rush-hour?  Yes.

Is this an ideal solution?  No.

Is this useful for night-riding in urban areas?  Yes.

Is this useful for night riding on back roads, where things are actually dark?  No.

Is this useful for daytime riding on back roads, so other cards will notice you?  Yes.  But I would still dim to my low-beam for oncoming cars (that will also black-out my flood LEDs).


Where do we go from here? 

I have yet to mount the second LED flood cluster.  That will help as well for my central dark spot, but I still think the center part of my beam will be dimmer than a normal bulb with a proper bulb position.

Also, I think I moved the bulb farther forward than it really needed to go in order to clear the speedo cable.  My theory is the farther back I can push it (closer to stock H4 positioning) the better my beam pattern will improve.  I am thinking I may cut a big thick washer shaped piece out of some dense closed cell foam I have laying around, which I'll put between the headlight bulb hole and the heat sink.  That will push the bulb back a bit, hopefully improving my beam pattern, and will also have some give in case it crams right up against the speedo cable.


So there we have it.  We have learned some and the mad science continues.

« Last Edit: November 30, 2018, 04:48:28 pm by Superchuck »


Superchuck

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Reply #82 on: November 30, 2018, 07:45:51 pm
Food for thought...

Here's something else I noticed today on my lunch break.  See that big dark blotch in the center of my headlight reflector?  I'm pretty sure that is the black plastic 'H4 mounting plate' of my bulb.

That could be another culprit for the big darkness in the center of my beam.  I realize my problem is most likely due to the forward bulb position and math things, but this also can't be helping. 

Seems that although I was able to do this experiment in a non-destructive way to my bulb, the fact that I left most of that black plastic disk intact may also be hindering my potential results.

Anyone have any suggestions / ideas?


Adrian II

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Reply #83 on: November 30, 2018, 08:57:00 pm
If you were in the UK or Australia this is the dip beam beam pattern you would want:



So for the USA I presume what you want is a mirror image of that!

Picture: http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com/whats-new.php

A.
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Superchuck

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Reply #84 on: December 11, 2018, 05:00:18 pm
Haven't made any more adjustments yet, but I plan to.  I've ridden it a number of times within the city at night, but if I try and get out to some dark roads where a headlight is actually needed in order to see, my current setup is not very good.

Bert, have you mounted your rear truck lights yet?  Care to share a photo if so?

Cheers,
Chuck


Bert Remington

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Reply #85 on: December 11, 2018, 05:08:54 pm
Superchuck -- not yet.  Temperatures have dropped to high-50s and we got a bit of rain last week so too cold and wet to work. ;D  Also, in the midst of SB/GHG engine upgrades so haven't been hurrying.  I just received my metalastic bushings and new exhaust pipe so gotta stop making excuses and get ready for when the engine is back together.  I'll post pictures.
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Bert Remington

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Reply #86 on: December 14, 2018, 05:00:58 pm
I just bumped into this LED H4 bulb at Adv Rider (http://stores.advmonster.com/native-h4/).  The heat sink is inside the headlight shell so the overall depth should be the same as an incandescent H4.  Fitting the heat sink into the shell might be a bit tricky.  I've read that some judicious filing of the opening may be necessary.  I'm sticking with my amber incandescent H4 but thought the community might be interested.
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heloego

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Reply #87 on: December 14, 2018, 11:22:22 pm
Hey, if it holds up better than the cheapo H4 LEDs I bought last year (low beam always fried too soon) I'd be very interested.
And $37 ain't bad, either!
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Bert Remington

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Reply #88 on: December 15, 2018, 03:54:49 am
heloego -- yeah you go first.  I'll catch up later.  https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,25794.msg301075.html#msg301075  ;D

But they were cheap.  If you weren't interested in actual illumination.
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heloego

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Reply #89 on: December 15, 2018, 12:31:01 pm
I inspected one of the cheapos and it's the bad soldering done during manufacture. Minimal support of the LED housing didn't help, either.
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