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[YT]

Getting back on topic (although it was great to talk about another sort of life!) i was going to order a pair of these :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321895792749?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

but they sold out at the weekend.

While trawling fleabay i found these :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172085313008?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Call me cynical if you like but both sellers are in Portsmouth, both Chinese and both items are the same pictures, same specification and only the words vary a bit in the description! In other words i think it's the same seller with 2 (or maybe more) different accounts.
The good thing (for me anyway) is the second lot i found were £7 cheaper. Ordered a set for the Jeep, i'll see how they go and maybe order a set for my other beasts too.

Once i've got them fitted in the XJ, i'll report back on their performance, hopefully with pics as well.

Look to have a nice amount of offset between the 2 chips.

[LairdScooby]

That's what i thought as well. They arrived pretty quickly too, not had a chance to try them in a vehicle yet - just on a power supply. They work either way round (earth-switched or conventional +ve switched) and when switched to full beam both LED chips light. This means you get the added benefit of gaining the dipped beam pattern on full beam.

I will of course report back once i've tried them in a vehicle (or two!) with some photos of before and after for comparison.
Hopefully hey will be another set of LED headlamps we can add to the list of "worth buying"!

[YT]

Both chips on main is how it should be. With  halogen, and the old tungsten bulbs, the dipped filament stayed on with the high beam. The LEDs should be the same as the standard bulbs, but bright white instead of orange. lol

[LairdScooby]

With  halogen, and the old tungsten bulbs, the dipped filament stayed on with the high beam

I beg to differ on that one i'm afraid - every car i've ever worked on (with a few minor exceptions) switches between high and low beam filaments on the headlamp bulbs, whether an H4 halogen or the older tungsten filament bulbs. The wiring diagrams also verified this.
Some exceptions were cars with separate main beam headlamps such as Mk3 Capris, Rover P6, Triumph Dolomites etc and there was no high beam filament in the outer pair of lamps. The cars mentioned above don't necessarily do this, i'm using them as an example to point out what i mean about separate main beam headlights.
Virtually everything else i've ever seen switches between high and low filaments although i've known a few cars modified so dipped beam stays on with full beam.

If i could find the "Paint" program on this computer (since it's upgraded to Win10) i would upload the diagram for the XJ headlamp circuit and you can clearly see it changes between low and high beam or dipped and main if you prefer.

[Mike Pavelin]

Werd.

Dip extinguishes when main is selected.

[LairdScooby]

Werd.

Dip extinguishes when main is selected.

 

[bgbazz]

If you are talking about vehicles with single headlights (one on each side) and dual filament bulbs, you are both correct. However, if the vehicle has four headlights and is using single filament bulbs....low beam is usually the outer light and works as required in LO....select HI beam, or use the flasher and ALL the lights are on. My Golf is set up like this and according to my recently aquired service manual, this is how they are supposed to work....the only PITA is that HI and LO require different bulbs...one is H4 and the other is H7...both are single filament!

The secret, apparently, is in the reflector.

[LairdScooby]

If you are talking about vehicles with single headlights (one on each side) and dual filament bulbs, you are both correct. However, if the vehicle has four headlights and is using single filament bulbs....low beam is usually the outer light and works as required in LO....select HI beam, or use the flasher and ALL the lights are on. My Golf is set up like this and according to my recently aquired service manual, this is how they are supposed to work....the only PITA is that HI and LO require different bulbs...one is H4 and the other is H7...both are single filament!

The secret, apparently, is in the reflector.

  That's what i was referring to when i said the outer pair of a 4 headlamp system often only provide the low beam which stays on with high beam. However some cars have the outer pair set to toggle between high and low beam, with the inner pair generally being referred to as driving lamps, rather than high beam.
On my Rovers, although it's only a 2 headlamp system, they have inner reflectors and bulbs to give a driving lamp set-up but both outer lamps toggle between high and low beam.
Conversely on my old Series III Jag, the outer pair only ever worked as dipped beam and the inner pair were the high beam. A friend of mine also had a Series III at the time and he added relays and some wiring to provide high/low beam on the outer pair and changed the inner lamps to enable him to have high and low beam on them as well so all 4 headlamps switched between high and low beam. Apparently improved his night time vision no end.

[bgbazz]

I think we are reading the same hymn sheet...that's how mine work anyway and apart from wanting a little brighter light, I'm pretty happy with the set up. These old eyeballs have served me well over the years, but after 68 years, don't perform as well as they did when they were new. Any help is well regarded.

[LairdScooby]

Brighter light is always useful - you're a little older than me and aside from a car falling on me when i was about 20 which banjaxed my night vision, my eyes have also served me pretty well. That said, the standard XJ lights, even with the 100/80W bulbs in aren't that good. I really noticed the difference last night as i drove one of my Rover 827s last night which has 60/55W bulbs (still the blue Xenon bulbs, so a good comparison) and i can see more on dipped beam in that than full beam on the standard XJ lights, even with the 100/80s in them!
I have got a set of auxiliary driving lamps oon the Jeep running 55W bulbs which help on full beam but dipped beam is like driving by candlelight! 

[bgbazz]

 


I still believe that the secret is in the reflector setup/shape...My Nissan had awesome lights, even when sticking with the stock standard/legal bulbs...I only fitted the 20" light bar for a very wide/ foglight effect and it worked very well. My Golf has lights which work quite well...nice and bright, but no real distance coverage (and I've tried all sorts of adjustment)...the Nissan would light up about 300 metres...the Golf would be lucky to give you more than 150!

Imagine driving down a country road, on a dark night, cruising at around the 70mph mark...cow, camel or horse laying in the middle of the road (very, very common where I come from) ...it's really hard to see it and stop in time. In Bulgaria, the situation is also common...only the animals are different and may even be a person....but the result will be the same!! No such thing as too much light!!

[LairdScooby]

I can imagine the animal situation very easily - deer are very common in my neck of the woods (including muntjac) as well as foxes, badgers etc and only rarely do we find bodies in the road.

The big thing is having plenty of brightness as well as range, that takes some doing though!

[bgbazz]

As I've said before...you and I are reading the same page. Phil (YT) knows which way we are heading too!! 

[YT]

With  halogen, and the old tungsten bulbs, the dipped filament stayed on with the high beam

I beg to differ on that one i'm afraid - every car i've ever worked on (with a few minor exceptions) switches between high and low beam filaments on the headlamp bulbs, whether an H4 halogen or the older tungsten filament bulbs. The wiring diagrams also verified this.
Some exceptions were cars with separate main beam headlamps such as Mk3 Capris, Rover P6, Triumph Dolomites etc and there was no high beam filament in the outer pair of lamps. The cars mentioned above don't necessarily do this, i'm using them as an example to point out what i mean about separate main beam headlights.
Virtually everything else i've ever seen switches between high and low filaments although i've known a few cars modified so dipped beam stays on with full beam.

If i could find the "Paint" program on this computer (since it's upgraded to Win10) i would upload the diagram for the XJ headlamp circuit and you can clearly see it changes between low and high beam or dipped and main if you prefer.

Ah fir fuck sake ! Your 100% correct ! I'm sufferin brain fade recently, ONE of my bikes had the 'dipped stays on' set up, and that'd got stuck in my head.
The LEDs should work very well for your dodgy eyes, my eyes are also a bit 'second hand'. With the LED headlights I noticed a LOT less eye strain than with halogens. I'd also say the 12.5/30w Cree LEDs where at least a match for the full HID headlights on the Nissan xtrail I'd had before the Jeep.

[LairdScooby]

We all have moments like that and i'm no exception! 

[YT]

Another convert to the God CREE.

[LairdScooby]

Another convert to the God CREE.

I was already converted Phil, i just hadn't found headlamp bulbs that did what they said on the tin! Very pleased with them so far but it has shown that my headlamp reflectors (currently fitted the bulbs to my 827 Sterling) are FUBAR and the new ones i ordered turned out to be out of stock, the only reasonably good second hand ones i had have siezed and/or broken adjusters (broken to the point i can't even transplant the reflectors into my old lights) but the LED bulbs definitely out-perform what was in there before :





Dipped then main, for comparison here's my Jeep in the same spot with 100/80Ws and a pair of 55W driving lamps, again dipped first :





Even with FUBAR reflectors, the LED bulbs outperform the 100/80s on dipped and main - the Jeep lights are in pretty good condition (like near new when i got them from a breakers yard last year) and although the driving lamps are about 4 years old, they only had about 6 months use before going on the Jeep and have been on about 6 months so about a year old.

I suppose i'd better get another set for the Jeep now................

[YT]

PB links ain't working for me, but it could be my end as our internet people been acting a fuckin maggot all afternoon !
 The new convert I ment was MrBrown, his Jeep has just had an upgrade in the lighting department.

[LairdScooby]

Ah i see! I suppose you can add me as a convert as i've only just added the CREE headlights - that said i've been using a CREE headtorch which has the same (or very similar) chips as the headlight bulbs inside it for a couple of years now so i've been waiting for car headlight bulbs to catch up.

The PB links are working for me and showwing the pics on the thread, maybe try refreshing your page might work?

[YT]

Yeah, they're showing for me now, it was definetly our internet, it's just sorted itself out in the last 15 mins. Halogen lights just don't hold up to LEDs, and you can see more car adds with them now. Seat where first, they where the first WRC team to use led bars on their cars too, I'd LED headlights & bars 7-8 months before them. lol

[LairdScooby]

What makes me laugh is i have 2 yellow spots somewhere up the road where full beam lands - got a pair of H3 CREE LED bulbs to fit once the new headlamps land - finally found a pair from separate sellers and ordered them today so should be able to get even better results with decent reflectors.

[bgbazz]

What makes me laugh is i have 2 yellow spots somewhere up the road where full beam lands - got a pair of H3 CREE LED bulbs to fit once the new headlamps land - finally found a pair from separate sellers and ordered them today so should be able to get even better results with decent reflectors.

I'm sure you will see quite an improvement with decent reflectors.

I'm still waiting for some decent weather so I can dismantle the front of my car...just to get at the bloody headlight units!! 

[YT]

60" of bars + headlights, and that's a minimum of 1km throw.



You could drive as fast as you can slow down for bends, or get round them !

[LairdScooby]

What makes me laugh is i have 2 yellow spots somewhere up the road where full beam lands - got a pair of H3 CREE LED bulbs to fit once the new headlamps land - finally found a pair from separate sellers and ordered them today so should be able to get even better results with decent reflectors.

I'm sure you will see quite an improvement with decent reflectors.

I'm still waiting for some decent weather so I can dismantle the front of my car...just to get at the bloody headlight units!! 

I certainly hope so! I ordered a pair of lights from one seller the other day only to be told two days later they only had the left hand light. A couple of days later the right hand appeared from another seller and lo and behold, the left hand appeared again from the original seller. So 3 orders in total, third time lucky i hope!

60" of bars + headlights, and that's a minimum of 1km throw.



You could drive as fast as you can slow down for bends, or get round them !

Not sure round here i could find a road with 100m without a bend, never mind ten times that!