Driving lights

[Ronje1]

Got a bit of info simplifying technology behind driving lights. Also used on vessels depending on the maritime rules in your state.

Used to use fixed lightbar on vessel to avoid hitting crocs and a h/held 70w HID spottie for long distance vision in NT's Roper River at night.

Also relevant for vehicles.

Put it up?

[gazza2006au]

Did u by chance see the haekesbury river a week ago? The containers that fell off the shipping ship had found there way into the hawkesbury river right up near the M1 bridge

So many people cruise thru that channel at 60kph imagine hitting one of those containers!!!!

I will have lights on my boat when i fo a T top but not old school 4wd halogen lights we have advanced a lot since those days

Think i will either use low wattage high intensity discharge or led lights i like the HID as they supposedly see thru fog the hawkesbury river is natorius for thick fog during the colder months and at night u cant even see a bank 3 meters in front of you

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[scottar]

Sure Ron. Why not.

[Ronje1]

Hello Scott.

For you Gaz. Basic Halogen, HID and LED plus watts/amps stuff that'll come in handy.

1st instalment.

Attachment 121571

[gazza2006au]

Ron pdf file not working

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[scottar]

Worked for me Gazza???

[gazza2006au]

Comes up like this for me Attachment 121573

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[gazza2006au]

Logged onto the website version and the pdf worked, interesting 100w i think incandecent is equivilent to 35watts of hid pretty hard to find hid lights of that low wattage in flood lights they are either car headlights or start at 100watts for spotties or flood

If i could find 4 tiny ones that would be wicked 25watts

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[Ronje1]

Gazz, 35 watts of HID is the standard size available.

HID is best used on long range spotties.

I've got a pair of 100 watt HIDs that I use on trips outback (anywhere west of Alpha for cattle, kangaroos and pigs. Plague proportions).

If they were halogen lights of 100w each they'd throw 3,600 lumens of light in total. Because they're HIDs they throw approx 20,000 lumens of light for the same total amp draw (16 amps).

The key isn't so much the light wattage or the amount of light.

Its the reflector used. THAT'S what makes a light efficient or not. The reflector.

I've also got 2 x 240 watt LED lightbars making 48,000 lumens of light. Total amp draw for them (from the calculations in that first article) = 240/12 = 20 amps each = 40 amps.

Total of 68,000 lumens. Yep. I can see alright.

The two lightbars stay on the ute permanently and the HIDs are put on and off for trips.

HIDs good for open road as they have exceptionally long reach.

The LED bars throw a wall of light about 400 - 600m down the road and off to the sides. Good for off road stuff in trees etc for closer work. Buffs, pigs and cattle.

I'll put the second instalment up shortly which deals with that sort of stuff especially reflectors.

Strange as it may seen LED bars have absolutely r.ts..t reflectors (they're called dishes/cups in LED language).

THAT'S what makes them useful for throwing a wall of light (but you need "grunt" to do it).

AND its also why LED circular spotlights will NEVER compete with a HID spotlight.

[scottar]

Have you actually measured the current draw of you bars Ron?

[Ronje1]

Attachment 121575Attachment 121576

Yes, Scott.

35 watt HID (left) is a Ironman Supanova and the 55 watt model (right) is a Lightforce.

Wanted to make sure for myself that the claims made actually stacked up.

Interesting to watch the effect of the in-rush current and how long it took for the light to settle down and stabilise.

That little delay was a bit of a distraction for me in areas where there was a bit of oncoming traffic (mainly within 300km of coast on main highways). So I turned to LEDs with instant "on".

P S. Just realised that these are HIDs but did the same things with a couple of lower powered led bars of 150 w.

[Ronje1]

Instalment 2

Attachment 121577

[scottar]

You can find that some bars wattages are at the LED's operating voltage. Depending on how they are arranged internally this can mean a substantial difference in the power consumption at supply voltage. A bit like sounders with some publishing peak to peak power ratings and others RMS.

[Ronje1]

That's true and why we still see heatsinks on higher powered SMD leds.

They might generate some waste heat but nowhere near as much as a conventional halogen bulb. You can feel the heat from a 100w halogen radiating 1 metre of more in front.

Converting amps into light with much better efficiency means less waste in the form of heat. Hence the heatsinks on high power models like 3 - 10 watt SMDs.

Might not be exact, but Its a significant saving in amp draw to obtain a much better desired result.

A bit like sounders with some publishing peak to peak power ratings and others RMS.

And generators with KVA?

Ron

[catshark]

some heavy theory but quite digestable , thanks for sharing some science behind the light . awesome