Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
Back when I was at the Airventure Airshow in Oshkosh, WI a few years ago, I noticed a lot of the newer planes had LED landing lights. I wonder if some of these could be retrofitted for automotive use?
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/...g_landing.html
http://www.aeroleds.com/products/lan...erimental.aspx
Kinda steep on the price though.
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
sooooo expensive!
im really going to look into these. i need some good, wide flood lights to use as area lights.
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
the price for home made is good. It will be ~$130 for what VisionX is asking MSRP: $711.25
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
new driver looks nice. drives 4 XML at ~3amps on auto voltages for $15.00
http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S020121
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
Not bad. I would recommend throwing a capacitor inline before the regulator though. It is rated for 18V max and automotive electrical systems are notoriously spiky. A capacitor would help absorb those and make it last a little longer.
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
I agree. I'll have to break my books out to figure out the minimum value to be reasonabley assured. I'm sure the driver can handle some flucuations but probably not what a auto can spit at it. I am close to ordering the parts for the project. I think it has a pretty good chance of being very good, but the low point is still the optics avalible. Nothing can really mimic the throw of a good hid spot light with LED yet.
XML LED's on stars are going as low as 6 bucks these days. Drivers range $10-$30 for a 3x3 or 8x8 set up. Optics are $.50-$2.50 per LED. Heat sinks are still the wild card and the hinge point of the project.
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
Are you still considering building a lightbar?
I love seeing new LED products hit the market, but so much of it uses low quality chinese LEDs with awful color. I'm a huge fan of Cree LEDs though and have them spread all over my belongings.
Some of the packaged 1 watt LEDs with simple Carlco optics are bright enough to meet FAA regulations for landing lights on newer aircraft.
http://www.swanairllc.com/resources/IMGP2672.jpg
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
Yeah it stinks. It seems like the chinease are the only ones trying to meet consumer demand and they use 10 year ols leds with marginal results. The 5k light bars have steped up to good leds but will not or can not produce them at reasonable prices. I see them as stobes/nav lights on aircraft now too. Why aviation is adopting them faster then auto is beyond me since componet price is no longer a deal breaker.
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
If you could build reliable lightbars for a good price Id buy one. My electrical fu isnt strong enough to make something like that myself.
Re: if your looking at lights you might want to wait a bit
Quote:
Originally Posted by troyboy162
Why aviation is adopting them faster then auto is beyond me since componet price is no longer a deal breaker.
Component price is still a problem. Something like an incandescent domelight, for example, utilizing just two contacts and a $1.50 bulb, and you're done. LED costs $5 per 1W chip plus I'm paying $13 for the driver. (I listed retail prices for both, obviously bulb has a bigger savings, but the relative cost difference is still there.) It's the additional markup beyond retail prices on LED products that is ridiculous.