LED Lighting Archives - Better Automotive Lighting

High quality low beam distribution

HID Lighting, LED Lighting, Uncategorized

Decode of wall shot, translate into road illumination

What is good low beam pattern?

This is ultimately a timeless question amongst the headlight enthusiasts community. To understand which are truly critical qualities we must first learn to evaluate the information obtained from wall shot image, how we can apply to road illumination. This is the goal of this article..

To start, I would like to display the below 3 samples of projector beam patterns: The kind is most commonly seen in internet forum posts and everybody’s favorite, “full beam wall shot”

Given conditions as of this starting point are

Peak intensity
Where is that peak at in (x,y) position
And of course, lowered exposure wall shot image to observe how hot spot zone looks like

Thanks to much more popularly available lux meter on the market nowadays, we now can obtain objective information to make, “objective evaluation”.

**All of 3 projector beams are aimed identically.

Projector 1: HID projector

Peak beam intensity = 61,500cd at (0.5, -0.3)

Projector 2: Projector 1 + Foreground limiter plate

Peak beam intensity = 61,500cd at (0.5, -0.3)

Projector 3: LED low beam projector

Peak beam intensity = 59,500cd at (0.5, -0.3)

And all has about -40 to 40 degree horizontal beam span.

Using given information, which is your most favorite beam pattern and what is the logic behind your selection?

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Best Headlight Upgrades for the 15-17 F-150

LED Lighting, Vehicle Specific

The 2015-2017 Ford F-150 Headlights are among the trickiest headlights to upgrade due to space limitations. Not only are the headlights a tight fit but they are among the worst when it comes to the light output from the factory.

The guys at Headlight Revolution have found the absolute best lighting upgrades for you. All the upgrades are completely plug-and-play, which makes installation easy!

Are Morimoto XB LED Headlights DOT Approved?

Headlight Housings, LED Lighting

You need to get the proof!

You should be concerned whether or not your LED headlights are DOT approved: According to the FMVSS108 legal document that regulates automotive lighting – what the manufacturers can and cannot offer to customers – there are a lot of rules and regulations that need to be adhered to in order for a new headlight product to be considered “DOT Approved” or “DOT Compliant” or “Street Legal“. Therefore a lot of headlight products on the market today are not DOT compliant. In fact, a bunch of headlight upgrade products are stamping their packaging or products with the infamous DOT logo in hopes that nobody questions them…

LED Headlights for cars and trucks

If you’re looking for an LED headlight upgrade for your Ford F150, Mustang, Chevy Silverado or other popular car or truck you need to be careful that what you’re buying actually has the appropriate legal requirements to back up their DOT approved claim.

What it comes down to is this:

If they tell you it’s legal or DOT compliant, just ask to see the proof! The last thing any of us need is to be caught at an inspection point to find out the headlights we’re running are illegal… In other words, if you are driving with non-compliant headlights you could get a ticket or a fine.

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Headlight Bulb Cross Reference

HID Lighting, LED Lighting

Have you ever looked up a bulb number for that HID or LED headlight conversion install you were doing and the bulb size didn’t match any part numbers? Here is a list of the most common bulb bases that you’ll need to cross reference.

9003 is the same as H4

HB2 is the same as H4

HB1 is the same as 9004

HB3 is the same as 9005

HB4 is the same as 9006

HB5 is the same as 9007

9008 is the same as H13

9145, 9140 is the same as H10

800, 891, 889 series bulbs are the same as 880

9012 is the same as 9006

H16 is the same as 5202

H8 and H9 is the same as H11

Best headlights for a Jeep Renegade.

LED Lighting, Vehicle Specific

Headlight Revolution tested all the top brands of 7″ Round Headlights to find the very best of the best for the Jeep Rengade.

There are many factors that go into determining whether a 7″ Round Headlight performs well or not, the most important being beam pattern and brightness. In order for a headlight’s performance to be great, it must have a good combination of beam pattern and brightness.

Do I have CK or Standard Wiring?

LED Lighting

CK Bulb Socket vs. Standard Bulb Socket

CK also knows as SCK, SACK, or SRCK like this: 3157CK, 3157SACK, 3157SRCK

Only a handful of vehicles made in certain years, from a few manufacturers use a CK wired socket. Sometimes different car and truck manufacturers will change the type of wiring configuration they’ll use to power certain turn signal and brake light bulbs. Normally you would have Positive and Negative terminals on either side of the bulb, but the “CK” type wiring is different.

A CK/SRCK is like the traditional sockets you see in most Japanese, and American vehicles except it’s wired like this: