Great score on EBAY

[Bob_VT]

Re: Great score on EBAY

I have to smile a bit and confess :redface: my little car has great headlights but I just purchased a small air horn off ebay....... my horn was anemic at best.... I don't want the horn to scare people .....just to get their attention so they can see my hand signals which normally follow

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Great score on EBAY

I bought one of those air horns for my motorcycle. I don't hit it often, but when I really need to wake someone up, it's great.

There are a lot of versions of these high-watt bulbs around. Something like the Silver Stars coming from a name-brand manufacturer is going to work a lot better than something out of China making crazy claims. I think the cheapies are going to be more of a problem for other drivers as they produce a lot of light that isn't useful to you as a driver. It's unfocused, so unless you need to see the possums above you, they won't do you much good.

The really bright blue ones aren't Xenons. They're HID systems. You'll see HIDs on many newer European cars, but they have a self-leveling system that keeps them from blinding other drivers. Kids put them on their Acuras and such without any leveling system and with lenses that aren't made to handle that much light, and they end up being completely blinding.

I have a general response to these lights when they show up behind me--a sort of indicator for the driver to show that the light is mis-adjusted. If you can see my upraised finger, your lights are aimed too high!

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Great score on EBAY

problem is. light is not measured in watts

And neither is current....but then again it was posted on eBay so it must be true!!

 

[Moody Blue]

Re: Great score on EBAY

problem is. light is not measured in watts

While that is true, most bulbs automotive and household, are of course rated in watts as a measure of energy consumed. That is how we as consumers have become accustomed to relating to brightness. The amount of lumens produced with that energy and how it is radiated is another story.

Look around at all the bulbs that put out more light with less watt draws !!!,
Are you that naive ??
That you don't have energy saving bulbs in your house ??. That gives more light at 22 watts rather then at 60 watts
Same thing goes for car bulbs too !!.

That is not a valid argument at all. You are talking about two completely different things. You are talking about a 22W bulb that generates the same luminous intensity as a 60W bulb. The 22W bulb draws roughly 1/3 the current that the 60W bulb draws, thus saves energy while producing the same luminous output.

Simple ohms law I(current)=P(watts)/E(voltage) shows that more wattage for a given voltage requires more current. So, if the bulbs are advertised as 100W bulbs then one of two things is true. Either they will draw twice as much current as the stock 55w bulbs OR they truly are not 100W bulbs as advertised and the seller/mfr is providing misleading information.

Now, if the ad stated that it was a 22W bulb producing the same light output as a 100W bulb then you would have something there. My statements are based on the info you provided and are 100% valid. Nothing naive about that. Being naive is believing everything you read on-line .

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Great score on EBAY

I posted a question regarding these bulbs on a car site I frequent. The feedback I got on these bulbs was not good.

Yup. There's a lot of misinformation out there about headlights. And some manufacturers captialize (literally) on that by tinting pretty standard filament-based bulbs blue in the hopes people think they are somehow getting High Intensity Discharge lamps that, until a few years ago, where strictly for high end cars. Sometimes they'd even inject a little real xenon just to be able to use the X word in bold letters.

With HIDS, the intense bluish white light is a byproduct of the ignition of the gases inside the light capsule, not by bulb tint. Also, there is no metal filament inside but rather metal halide salts which vapourize and ignite under the right conditions, producing an electic arc. Some HIDS throw more visible blue than others - it depends on the Kelvin rating.

It takes a significant amount of power to ignite these types of lights, requiring ballasts for each capsule which fire a high voltage ignition pulse on startup - like 15,000 to 20,000 volts high voltage. This ain't your dad's Oldsmobile headlight wiring...

Once ignited and warmed up, voltage requirments drop considerably, to I believe below a hundred and overall wattage requirements level off just under 40 or so. All the while producing several times the lumens than filament-based halogen units and burning at least a 1000 deg Kelvin hotter than halogen. I'd be interested to see if they actually say that "5000K" rating on the box is Kelvin. I don't see how it could be possible.

Anyhoo - no true xenon/halide capsule is going on ebay for six bucks...

Back when I had more time than sense (or cents...) I used to modify my highbeam halogens to run in my low beam sockets. It was a trick I learned from a BMW tuner site. The mod definitely increased light output, but sadly, they usually burned out in a couple of months.

 

[Stachi]

Re: Great score on EBAY

I bought one of those air horns for my motorcycle. I don't hit it often, but when I really need to wake someone up, it's great.

There are a lot of versions of these high-watt bulbs around. Something like the Silver Stars coming from a name-brand manufacturer is going to work a lot better than something out of China making crazy claims. I think the cheapies are going to be more of a problem for other drivers as they produce a lot of light that isn't useful to you as a driver. It's unfocused, so unless you need to see the possums above you, they won't do you much good.

The really bright blue ones aren't Xenons. They're HID systems. You'll see HIDs on many newer European cars, but they have a self-leveling system that keeps them from blinding other drivers. Kids put them on their Acuras and such without any leveling system and with lenses that aren't made to handle that much light, and they end up being completely blinding.

I have a general response to these lights when they show up behind me--a sort of indicator for the driver to show that the light is mis-adjusted. If you can see my upraised finger, your lights are aimed too high!

I point my rearview mirror right back at them,.....that way they get a taste of what they are giving...its a trick my Pop taught me when he was teaching me how to drive....

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Great score on EBAY

I point my rearview mirror right back at them,.....that way they get a taste of what they are giving...its a trick my Pop taught me when he was teaching me how to drive....

That's about equivalent of using a mirror and shining the light back at the sun...won't do anything. You are trying to reflect back a fraction of a percent of the light being put out by the headlight. Won't do anything!

 

[Stachi]

Re: Great score on EBAY

That's about equivalent of using a mirror and shining the light back at the sun...won't do anything. You are trying to reflect back a fraction of a percent of the light being put out by the headlight. Won't do anything!

oh yeah ? give it a try ,...ever look into a mirror you are reflecting the sun off of ?

 

[avenger79]

Re: Great score on EBAY

hey MPHY I see you are in Wis. Just so you know it is illegal here to change to those bulbs in a car that came from the factory with regular halogen lights.
just giving you the info so you know. I know of only one person who was tagged with the fine for it but it is possible. there is always a hero with a badge looking to make a statement. I got hit once for having light covers on at noon. they were the removable type. i offered to remove them, nope here's your 15 day warning take it to the state patrol headquarters to have inspected.

 

[lowkee]

Re: Great score on EBAY

Here are things I have experienced with several types of situation regarding head lights, as I was once a teenager and added this crap to my cars:

- Mis-aimed headlights blind everyone in ANY vehicle. I own a Neon with properly aimed headlights and I still get flashed by people. Bright is bright, and plenty of headlight reflectors diffuse the beam rather than direct it properly, making matters much worse.

- I use silver star bulbs and they are bright, white and similar in Watt rating to the factory bulbs.

- Higher Watt bulbs can and do risk melting your headlight lens (the clear plastic casing)

- The Xenon-colored (they are not Xenon) blue-tinted lights actually provide LESS contrast, therefore reducing focus on objects at night. It requires a much higher wattage blue-tinted light to provide the same contrast as a low wattage white light. An easy way to explain this is shining a blue light and a white light of the same wattage.. you can't see crap using the blue light because of the wavelength of the light. A blue-tinted light is a middle ground of "can't see crap" (blue) and "can see everything" (white). Why not just buy a white light?

- News flash! Those ultra-cool blue-tinted lights you bought are really coated with a super-thin layer of blue film. So, not only are you ruining your contrast of objects, you also lose brightness because you are going from a clear bulb glass which stop a negligible amount of light to a slightly opaque glass which stops a lot more light (and causes excess heat in the process). Yay for coolness!

- "Output of 100W, uses 50W" is a marketing ploy and nothing more. 50W != 100W no matter how many lawyers you hire. Light output is in Lumens, not Watts. No matter what inert gas you inject into a light bulb, it is still a glowing wire. The only time you change efficiency is when you replace the glowing wire with something else, like vaporized mercury or a spark gap.

- HID lights are popular because they are mounted in well focused lenses which aim the beam directly in front you, which means less light is wasted showing you the tree branches above your car. They are also very pure white light, which means contrast is maximized. They also cost roughly $1000 because of the super high voltage required to ignite them.

 

[Stachi]

Re: Great score on EBAY

I agree Lowkee...those HID sustems are expensive...replacement bulbs alone are over $80.00 wholesale.....the ballasts are much more...by the way ...nice boat ! mine is in my pic...she hasn't been in the water yet since I got her last June....sheesh..she was sitting on the trailer for the last 9 yrs before she was gifted to me...hopefully this spring I'll get the girl wet ........good luck with your project bro ...