The future of automotive lighting.

[mr.niftie]

I was at a high end Osram/Sylvania lighting seminar today in Toronto and I'll paraphrase what some of the Big Kahunas said "off the record":
- HID will continue in limited numbers on high end vehicles. It is cost prohibitve to mass produce on low end cars. The extrememly high current required for an instaneous hot arc re-strike (ie. turning your lights of-off-of again in rapid sucession) is very hard on the ballast and realistic life is 2,000 hours. Sound good? Not really if you consider normal MV high bay lighting has a life 10x that!
- HIR has some niche market (ie. aftermarket) applications. Lumen output is higher but lifespan is lower compared to a traditional Halogen.
- The future? LED. Most major players (esp. DC) is looking hard and is apprenetly close to getting this technology to work as a headlight. No ballast (just a power supply). Runs cooler. Very directional. Colour spectrum can be preciesly tweaked.

Interesting, ehhh?

[Ghostface Mag]

Thanks for the info.

[Nightshade]

I've seen some 5 watt LED's that if combined in a cluster behind a lens would make a superb headlight. but they generate considerable heat. As someone said to me one time, they get hotter than a two dollar pistol.

You can read about some of the stuff Visteon is doing on this.

http://www.visteon.com/products/auto...lighting.shtml

And for a nominal output of say 900 Lumens, you need to have nearly 28 high output LED's in place.

I would say it's definately the future.. just not the near future.

I was at a high end Osram/Sylvania lighting seminar today in Toronto and I'll paraphrase what some of the Big Kahunas said "off the record":
- HID will continue in limited numbers on high end vehicles. It is cost prohibitve to mass produce on low end cars. The extrememly high current required for an instaneous hot arc re-strike (ie. turning your lights of-off-of again in rapid sucession) is very hard on the ballast and realistic life is 2,000 hours. Sound good? Not really if you consider normal MV high bay lighting has a life 10x that!
- HIR has some niche market (ie. aftermarket) applications. Lumen output is higher but lifespan is lower compared to a traditional Halogen.
- The future? LED. Most major players (esp. DC) is looking hard and is apprenetly close to getting this technology to work as a headlight. No ballast (just a power supply). Runs cooler. Very directional. Colour spectrum can be preciesly tweaked.

Interesting, ehhh?

[Cdn_Magnum]

One more article..... LED lighting

[lowriderman3]

Very interesting. Thanks for the links.

[ZMagnum]

My interior lighting is now LED. I can see LED headlights working in a few years. I bet they will look a lot like HIDs.

[Super T]

LED's are definitely the way to go but they're going to require insane reflectors or projectors to direct their light... their falloff is pretty bad. I've never noticed any kind of high heat output from an LED as compared to a halogen. Power consumption is a fraction of what halogens take, too.

[hondaman9468]

led are the wave of the future.....

[SmoovC]

In the first post it says: "it is cost prohibitive to mass produce (HID's) for low end cars."

OK, but they are OEM on a Toyota Prius??!!

[da BoMM]

I've never noticed any kind of high heat output from an LED as compared to a halogen. Power consumption is a fraction of what halogens take, too.

You are correct --heat is directly proportional to wattage: 1 watt = 3.41 BTU's of heat. So the total "systemic" heat is significantly lower for LEDs than it is for halogen, because they produce more LPW (lumens per watt).

The heat issues mentioned, however, must be localized on the small boards that these LEDs are mounted on. Heat is the enemy of all electronics over time.

[PaulFix]

I have several led flashlights and they are all limited for long range use, except the one with a single led facing backwards and pointing at a mirror which focuses the light and projects it forwards. It is as good as a similar regular flashlight but the batteries last a lot longer plus it has a blueish tint so it looks neat.

Leds in lights usually emit UV light which is absorbed by flourescent materials in the led that re-emit the light multispectrally as visible light that we see..

[Super T]

You are correct --heat is directly proportional to wattage: 1 watt = 3.41 BTU's of heat. So the total "systemic" heat is significantly lower for LEDs than it is for halogen, because they produce more LPW (lumens per watt).

The heat issues mentioned, however, must be localized on the small boards that these LEDs are mounted on. Heat is the enemy of all electronics over time.

Yep... and at a 20 degree delta T it takes 1 CFM of air to cool 6.4 watts of load :-p Anyway, good point about the heat being localized. I guess the only way to solve that would be to actually wire the led's vs. putting them on a PCB, but that'd be just plain stupid in terms of cost effectiveness. I can picture it now... headlight housings with a 48 LED array facing rearward into a reflector, and a cooling fan stuck in the side

[BrilliantBlackHemi]

Well until all that happens, I will continue to cherish my HID lighting.

[mr.niftie]

Once perfected, they should be able to do the LED headlights without tricky optics as they are much more directional than incandescents. You can really pinpoint the light beam and get the exact colour temperature you want. The power supplies will more than likely be remote mounted. Instant on and should run cooler than a ballast.
Anyone seen the new LED Yorkdale sign yet?

[tbyrne]

I believe some vehicles are using LEDs for marker and taillights now? Alot of people don't like HIDs coming at them but they do a great job displaying the road for the driver that has them!