Precautions for Car Headlight Modification

January 21, 2022
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1. Do not install the ballast next to the heating element, wires and water tank. Generally, it can be installed on the bumper with good ventilation, which can better help heat dissipation.


2. The wiring of the ballast should be installed downwards. After installation, the relays and fuses on the wire set should be exposed to facilitate future replacement.


3. Do not wind the high-voltage line part of the ballast, so as not to generate an excessive magnetic field and affect other equipment on the car.


4. The bulb should be sealed after installation.


5. When installing the light bulb, the wiring of the special wire set should be fastened with cable ties, and should not be in contact with other components, so as to avoid the short circuit of the wires caused by excessive temperature in the future.


6. Each interface and fuse should be bundled with electrical tape to avoid poor contact due to looseness.


7. After the headlight is installed, adjust its position with the negative pole of the special wire group. If you encounter a car with a positive frame, the ballast must be covered with Jedi glue before it can work.


8. If there is no special line installed, in order to avoid the excessive current that will blow the original car fuse when the car is started, the original car control fuse should be replaced with more than 20A.


Types of car headlights


1. Halogen Lamp


The halogen lamp is a variant of the incandescent lamp, the biggest difference between them is that the glass envelope of the halogen lamp is filled with a halogen element gas (usually iodine or bromine). This gas creates a regeneration cycle inside the bulb, extending the life of the filament and increasing the brightness and color temperature of the filament. Halogen lamps are not only simple in production process, low in cost, good in color rendering, and have a service life that is almost 4 times that of incandescent lamps, but their luminous efficiency is still low, generally only 6%-10% can be converted into light energy, and the rest can be converted into light energy. are dissipated in the form of heat.


According to statistics, 60% of traffic accidents happen at night or in bad weather. Because the lighting effect of halogen lamps will be greatly reduced when the weather is unstable, which will seriously affect the owner's vision and double the probability of traffic accidents, it is very urgent to improve the performance of the lamps. At this time, the xenon lamp came into being.


2. Xenon lamp (High Intensity Discharge)


Xenon lamps replace traditional tungsten filaments with high-pressure xenon gas encased in a quartz tube, providing more focused lighting for vehicles. Because it is a beam of arc light formed by activating xenon gas with high-voltage current, it can continuously discharge and emit light between two electrodes, so its power is only half of that of ordinary car tungsten bulbs, which significantly reduces the burden on the vehicle power system. Secondly, the color temperature of the xenon lamp is between 4000K-6000K, and the light color is yellowish white, which can effectively improve the penetration of light and the driving safety at night and in foggy weather. Compared with the traditional halogen lamp, the current of the xenon lamp is only 3.5A, the energy consumption is 2/3 of the halogen lamp, the brightness is 3 times, and the service life is 10 times. However, due to the high technical content of xenon lamps, they are more expensive than ordinary halogen lamps and incandescent lamps.


The composition of the xenon lamp


Xenon lamps are generally composed of a lamp holder, an electronic ballast (ballast) and a wire group control box. First of all, the lamp head of the xenon lamp has no filament, because it uses the current to promote the collision of xenon molecules to produce light, so there is no problem of tungsten filament burning. Secondly, the function of the program-controlled ballast is to convert the 12V DC voltage of the battery through a series of conversion, control, protection, boost, and frequency conversion to generate a high-voltage lighting lamp head that instantly reaches 23,000V, so that the bulb can achieve high-brightness lighting. Effect. Finally, wire sets are generally made of flame retardant materials. It increases the cross-sectional area of the power cord and improves the ability of current passing to ensure the normal operation of the xenon lamp (part of the H4 type xenon lamp must be equipped with a relay line group for control).


Models of xenon lamps


The model of the xenon lamp corresponds to the halogen lamp one by one, that is to say, what model is the original halogen bulb, and what model is the modified xenon lamp.


H series: H1, H3, H4, H6, H7, H8, H9, H10, H11, H13, etc.; 90 series: 9004 (HB1), 9005 (HB3), 9006 (HB4), 9007 (HB5), etc.; D series : D1S, D1C, D1R, D2R, D1C, D2C, D3C, D4C, etc.; others: 880, 881


advantage


1. The color temperature of xenon lamps ranges from 3000K to 12000K. Among them, the color temperature of 6000K is similar to sunlight. This blue-white light can greatly improve the brightness of lighting.


2. The illumination brightness of the xenon lamp is 3 times that of the traditional halogen lamp, which has a significant effect on improving the visibility of driving at night and in foggy weather.


3. The efficiency of converting electric energy into light energy by xenon lamp is more than 70% higher than that of halogen lamp, and it has higher energy density.


Fourth, the power consumption is only half of the halogen lamp, which greatly reduces the burden on the vehicle power system.


5. Since the xenon lamp has no filament, there will be no problem of scrapping due to the broken filament, and the service life is much longer than that of the halogen lamp.


6. In the event of a failure, the xenon lamp will go out by gradually dimming (or lighting up quickly), so as to win the time for the car owner to pull over to the side in an emergency.


shortcoming


1. Insufficient concentrating and penetrating ability, high beams are not suitable to be converted into xenon lamps, it is recommended to keep the original halogen lamps.


Second, the price is higher.


3. The brightness is too strong and the light is dazzling. Turning on the high beam at night will stimulate the eyes of passers-by and drivers on the opposite side, affecting driving safety.


3. LED (Light Emitting Diode)


LEDs, also known as light-emitting diodes, are made of compounds containing gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N), and the like. It has a service life of more than 50,000 hours, and the output brightness of the light will not drop significantly during operation.


advantage


1. Energy saving, LED lights directly convert electrical energy into light energy by light-emitting diodes, the luminous efficiency is as high as 80%-90%, but the energy consumption is only 1/10 of the traditional lights, which can better save fuel consumption, Protect automotive circuits from being burned out by excessive load currents.


2. Environmental protection, LED lights have no radiation, low glare, can be recycled, do not contain mercury, and have no ultraviolet and infrared light in the spectrum. They are typical green lighting sources.


3. Long service life, there is no loose part in the LED lamp, and there is no filament burnout. Under the appropriate current and voltage, its service life can reach more than 50,000 hours, which is 10 times that of traditional light sources. It has the characteristics of one-time replacement and lifetime use.


Fourth, high temperature resistance, less heat.


5. Small in size, LED lights fully meet the diversified needs of automobile manufacturers in design, and successfully break the shackles of the lighting system on vehicle modeling innovation in the past.


6. LED lights are not easy to be broken, easy to store and transport, simple structure of components, good impact resistance and shock resistance, and can quickly adapt to various environments.


Seven, LED lights not only have high brightness, the light attenuation is much lower than that of halogen lamps, but also have high luminous purity, clear and bright colors, no need to use lampshade filtering, light wave error within 10 nanometers, very suitable for use as brake lights, turn signals and other warnings light.


8. The response speed is fast, no hot start time is required, and it can emit light within microseconds, and it can be quickly lit when used in tail lights and turn signals to achieve better warning effects. When used in headlights, it has a faster response speed than xenon lamps and halogen lamps, and has a better guarantee for driving safety.


shortcoming


1. The cost of LED lights is higher than that of ordinary lights, and the price is generally several to ten times that of halogen lights or xenon lights.


Second, the heat dissipation of LED lights is not good, and it is prone to light decay, which affects the service life of the lights.


3. Unlike halogen lamps, LED lights can only emit light through one surface, which is not suitable for car lighting.


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