The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
Technical Discussion => BMW Technical Q&A, Primarily R65 => Topic started by: Justin B. on February 04, 2008, 09:21:13 PM
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I installed an HID conversion kit in my '95 RT over the weekend, it's BRIGHT!!!
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What bulb? What kit? I love HIDs.
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http://www.xenonlink.com/index.php?cPath=69_70
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That's not bad. Can you figure out from the packaging how much current the thing draws? Not any claims of "90 watt output" or the ilk, but just how many watts it uses?
Also, and I know this goes in a different section, but do you think that would work with a positive ground system?
Can you see good both with the shielded low beam and the high beam?
Thanks,
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Did you run a complete new harness for the HID, and then use the OEM wiring to activate the relay for the HID ?
I'm kind of curious what kind of bulb life to expect out of a motorcycle installation, my average for the PIAA halogen H4 bulb is about 24 months.
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Ed, I have not personally installed an ammeter in line with the ballast but the web site states they draw about 35% less than the bulb. So, if the low beam H4 dissipates 55 watts that would work out to about 4.3 amps. So lopping 35% off that would leave you with a 2.75 amp current draw for the HID.
Bob, it comes with a fused wiring harness and relay that you hook directly to the battery and the headlight connections are just used as control signals. As far as life, who knows... The web site claims up to 10x longer life than a bulb...
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Are those the lights that make me curse oncoming traffic?
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Maybe, but I didn't go with the obnoxious blue ones - pure white... ;D
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What color did you get the 5000 degree Kelvin, bulb ?
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Yes, Bob, very happy with the color of the light.
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5K is the color I got for my car too, as it was the closest to the Sun's color which I believe is around 4500. White, basically, though it looks blue compared to yellow halogens.]
Now I hope you'll let us know how long that moving part (the shield that switches you from high to low beam) lasts.... That's my only concern with the H4 versions.
And would positive ground make any difference?
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Yeah, the moving part.
Any idea how that works?
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I sent the company an email, on what moves the shield to switch from low beam, to high beam.
See if I get a response.
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Yeah, funny you should mention that. :-? My shutter operation has turned somewhat erratic so after following some troubleshooting steps provided by the vendor it appears they will replace the bulb. The "shutter" seems to be actuated by a little solenoid (or tiny gizmo like a door-lock motor) and in the at-rest position it is in the "low beam" position. On mine sometimes the shutter doesn't actuate unless I provide a wee bit of a tap to the rear of the bulb - seems like the mechanism is sticking or binding, or something...
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I recieved a reply from the company, and it states that 'there is a motor in the back of the bulb that moves the bulb up and down to get the high and low beam'.
Sounds kind of interesting, can you get a picture of this Justin ?
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I recieved a reply from the company, and it states that 'there is a motor in the back of the bulb that moves the bulb up and down to get the high and low beam'.
Sounds like the person that answered your email is not the same one that wrote the copy for the website...
"The H4/9003 Bi-Xenon bulbs in the bi-xenon kit stay fixed and there is a shield that covers and uncovers the capsule of the xenon bulb as you switch from low to high beam, thus changing the beam pattern."
short link (http://www.xenonlink.com/product_info.php?cPath=69_70&products_id=87&osCsid=bcfd38e45829eaea4ea9c131f1683621)
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Yeah, the web site is correct. The gizmo moves the shutter/shield and I can feel a bit of a burr somewhere when I manually cycle the shutter with my finger - probably the cause of my intermittent condition... I can personally vouch for that! This is a pic from their web site:
(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xenonlink.com%2Fimages%2Fh4bixenonb.jpg&hash=d55356785f71f658184b4507f8a26e81ebdef0b0)
Here's some pix of one of my bulbs at various angles and at rest plus me holding shutter open:
(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suraklyn.com%2Fyabb%2Fpictures%2FHID%2FHID%2520005.jpg&hash=92170bdc5f3f232246c7c1950b243827b0173c31)
(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suraklyn.com%2Fyabb%2Fpictures%2FHID%2FHID%2520006.jpg&hash=986468f8a6815b038a5beab44c11bf30c9520047)
(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suraklyn.com%2Fyabb%2Fpictures%2FHID%2FHID%2520007.jpg&hash=3971dd64dc7fd5330affa04f83a9888c72949e7a)
(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suraklyn.com%2Fyabb%2Fpictures%2FHID%2FHID%2520008.jpg&hash=24e737ca8eff102a63a51120b756960c0c51fae5)
(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suraklyn.com%2Fyabb%2Fpictures%2FHID%2FHID%2520009.jpg&hash=75de8e5fdd04461cbcb2d42efdb3f6ac6a73fb7f)
(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suraklyn.com%2Fyabb%2Fpictures%2FHID%2FHID%2520010.jpg&hash=70fb8f8eeab1ed234fc27cf907ff6da1ca036e1f)
(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suraklyn.com%2Fyabb%2Fpictures%2FHID%2FHID%2520011.jpg&hash=821d67c27183a0b70d6d9bf617297bbf360f890c)
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Is there any sign of lube on those rods the shield slides on? I bet they need it, but anything that gets on the bulb's glass could cause it to break from the heat. Is the mechanism (motor or solenoid or what ever)
inside the base? Grr, I want these to work! >:(
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No lube that I can see. I swapped in my "spare" so hopefully this failure wasn't the norm...
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They have an on-line RMA process. I logged in, created account and specified the problem, and was then given RMA number and address to send defective part to. I e-mailed this info to the guy who had assisted with troubleshooting and he assured me they would send a replacement bulb as soon as the other was received. So far the customer service has been pretty good.
Through a restructuring (or something) at the college I am attending all of the afternoon classes I am taking are being rolled into the night classes ( so next week I should be able to start giving it a good test as long as the weather holds out. In the low 70s today and the same for the weekend!!!
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Is there any sign of lube on those rods the shield slides on?
I was initially under the impression that the shield rotated. I like the in-out movement, better. (clean up your mind!)
Ed, it looks like the shield is fixed to the rods, and the rods slide in/out of the plastic housing. Correct, Justin?
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Yes.
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Justin, keep us posted on your experiance with this setup. I'm sure we all lust after better headlight performance. I've also heard of some HID conversions that move the bulb instead of a shield. Anyone had any first hand experience with other HID conversions?
Also considering upgrading the tail light / brake light system with Hyper - lites.
http://hyperlites.com/
Any thoughts?
Thanks, Ed ;)
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This is a pretty neato cool upgrade!
Thanks for posting all the pics and stuff!
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The other bulb has been in several days and so far this one has not given any problems. I mailed the defective bulb back to Xenon Link on Monday and was assured they would ship me a new replacement as soon as the defective bulb was received.
Observations:
I rode to school last night which is about a 40 mile round trip on semi-rural roads. Overall impressions were that the headlight "seemed" much brighter, illuminated the road better, and apparently was not to obnoxious because nobody flashed their brights at me. ;D One thing I noticed is that the headlight on 90% of the other vehicles on the road looked very yellow, my light appeared to be a pure white, and I did notice the assorted "bluish" tint vehicles. 8-)
When switching from low beam to high beam there is no difference in brightness, the only noticeable difference is the beam pattern. This makes sense due to the High-beam only being a different shutter position. On low beam the pattern is pretty much the same as with the H4 bulb but the "notched out" portion in the upper l/h quadrant of the bulb does not have as "crisp" a change from light to no light. The notch is still there but not as crisply defined. The low-beam did not seem to project high intensity light into the car interior when following behind cars in traffic and also the "notch" did appear to do it's job by cutting down on the light cast into the oncoming lane.
I think I will angle the headlight assembly "up" another couple of degrees until I find the spot where I start irritating people and then turn it back down a notch from there. ;)
I am hoping my defective bulb is just a case of infant mortality as all-in-all I am reletively pleased with the results. A nice side note, installation of the kit requires no existing stock wiring to be cut or touched in any way. The HID harness (with fuses and relay) hooks to the battery positive and a chassis ground, you remove your H4 bulb, and then plug a section of the HID harness into the existing headlight bulb socket. The kit gets all of it's juice from the battery via the relay and all the existing wiring does is to supply a signal to the relay to turn on and the high-beam wire is sampled through a diode and is routed to the shutter actuator. Notice the interior of the headlight bucket on the later model R100s. No more fuses, circuit board, and wiring rats-nest! :D
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So you bought the car kit to get the $30 discount on the "two-bike" price?
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I was going to split the kit with somebody but once the second wiring harness is added, and additional shipping, it wasn't worth it so I have a "spare" system... :P If somebody wanted to do two bikes for themselves they would save about $15 doing it that way... But whether I tried to save a couple of bucks is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things as the same bulbs are used in both kits so that had nothing to do with the premature failure of the first bulb. :-/
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Actually I thought the 2nd one was planned for one of the other bikes that sees regular use.
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Not originally but it may go into the black R100 if it will fit in the overstuffed headlight bucket AND I can figure out where to hide the ballast... Or the LS, if I ever get a good reflector and lens for it...
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Hey Justin,
Howabout an update? Is it still working?
TTFN,
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The company replaced it with an assembly that has an quarts and HID in the same package and it's been fine. I had the second one replaced about a week ago with the newer Bi-Xenon but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. It will most likely be going into the Junkyard LS.
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Thanks, Justin.
we all want better lighting and appreciate you pioneering the upgrades to make it easier for us to follow in your footsteps.
[smiley=clap.gif]
Ed
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I installed the HID kit into the $12 generic headlight assembly I put in the LS. The new bulb seems to be made just a bit differently and the "shutter" cycles with gusto. The LS is perfect for HID as the ballast can be hidden behind the "nosecone". I'm going to "sandwich" the ballast between a couple of pieces of foam rubber to keep it from knocking/rattling around. The mounting bracket is rather flexible...
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COOOL!
Just what I'm looking for (when I pay off my Christmas bills)
Keep us posted.
Thanks,
Ed
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considering upgrading the tail light / brake light system with Hyper - lites.
http://hyperlites.com/
Any thoughts?
Thanks, Ed ;)
Ed,
The fat man left me a set of Electro Pods which are really bright LEDs like the hyper lights that mount external to the tail light. Haven't had a chance to mount 'em yet but they are bright.
rich
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Yeah Rich,
I put a set of the Hyperlites inside the tail light to keep it more "stock" looking. They are definitely brighter than the stock brake lights, but would be better left outside the housing.
Next will be the headlight and "running" lights upgrade. Of course this will be after January credit card bills are paid in full. Gonna be a lean month after that happens.
Fat man left me a set of silver Olympia mesh riding pants (Birthday/Christmas combined). Haven't ridden in them yet, but they have a separate waterproof/insulated inner pant as well as adjustable armor pads at the knees and hips.
WAY COOL!
Ed