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Old 1st April 2008, 20:44   #1
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Intelligent Light Booster System For Car Headlight

Came across this listing on ebay.in today.

The product claims to help generate 2x more light with existing bulbs and wiring. It comes with a digital display to control the output.

Any views guys, seems good but no clue if it works!

eBay India: INTELLIGENT LIGHT BOOSTER SYSTEM FOR CAR HEADLIGHT (item 380010900484 end time 02-Apr-2008 18:28:40 IST)
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Old 1st April 2008, 20:47   #2
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I'd be very very wary of ebay.in products. It's somewhat of a dumping ground for raddi chinese maal.
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Old 1st April 2008, 23:49   #3
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my 2 cents

Hi
Quote:
Originally Posted by ankitahuja View Post
Came across this listing on ebay.in today.

The product claims to help generate 2x more light with existing bulbs and wiring. It comes with a digital display to control the output.

Any views guys, seems good but no clue if it works!

eBay India: INTELLIGENT LIGHT BOOSTER SYSTEM FOR CAR HEADLIGHT (item 380010900484 end time 02-Apr-2008 18:28:40 IST)
It can be, probably has a step up converter and then drive the bulb with PWM to avoid filament burning... Just guessing... But personally I do not think the bulb life will be long.

Ciao

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Old 2nd April 2008, 01:32   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ignazio View Post
It can be, probably has a step up converter and then drive the bulb with PWM to avoid filament burning... Just guessing...
Sounds like a very good guess!

Guys, check out the bit about "voltage drop" affecting output in this post >
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...html#post51069

cya
R
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Old 2nd April 2008, 09:15   #5
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You can get the same effect of proper voltage of 14V at the bulb using proper wiring etc., for around 500rs for the relay kit.
This product I think boosts voltage to 15-16V and this will mean very low bulb life
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Old 11th January 2009, 23:46   #6
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Variable brightness headlamp?

Folks,

Is it possible to have a variable brightness headlamp?

I was thinking of something like this.
Say a 100/130w lamp in combination with a regulator/dimmer (like your fan regulator) to control the brightness (by controlling the voltage).
In normal city use, let it run at say half intensity...so that it looks like a normal lamp.

When you're on the highway increase it to like 80W or so, and when u want to get that Volvo guy to dip his lamps, blast it on bright at 130W.

Is this not possible? Considering that it's just a halogen bulb, I think it's very much possible...but never seen this idea put forward anywhere.
What say?
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Old 12th January 2009, 03:20   #7
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Dont know if this is possible, but the low beam and high beam does the thing for me..

OT: I like your handle Welcome to T-BHP!
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Old 12th January 2009, 06:58   #8
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http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...headlight.html
something like this ?
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Old 12th January 2009, 21:24   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greenhorn View Post
Yeah...more or less like that. My post has been merged with this thread now anyways

Main difference between this headlight booster, and what I suggested, is that instead of boosting the voltage and burning the crap out of the poor bulb, I was thinking of getting a higher wattage 130/100 bulb and reducing the voltage given to the bulb (or use a dimmer - the triac thingy). That way the bulb shouldn't burn out.

BTW the links in the article arent working now, but I googled and found the product. Guess it is this one
Intelligent Light Booster System for Car Headlight (H4) - China Light Booster, Super Bright, HID xenon light sys in Other Lighting Fixtures

Quote:
Originally Posted by 16v100bhp View Post
Dont know if this is possible, but the low beam and high beam does the thing for me..

OT: I like your handle Welcome to T-BHP!
Well..I want low beam, high beam and dip-your-light beam!!
Thanks for the welcome..I have been a member for some time now...mostly lurking around and going through the various forums. This site is an amazing treasure-trove of information. I hope I can contribute something here.

Yeah...the handle usually gets me some response from true mallus
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Old 12th January 2009, 22:45   #10
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Theoretically it can be done by lowering the voltage of a 100/130 to 6v to get 50/65 brightness, but cant tell without trying it out. may be you can connect two wires to any of the two wheeler 6v battery and see if it is bright enough for practical use, if it is not yellowish and filament heats up to give usable light. Then its possible to use a circuit to control voltage. may be you can make it auto/manual turn on with brightness control with the light outside.
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Old 13th January 2009, 23:47   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gigy View Post
Theoretically it can be done by lowering the voltage of a 100/130 to 6v to get 50/65 brightness, but cant tell without trying it out.....
Gigy,

Running a 12v 100w bulb at 6v will not yeild an equivalent of 50w brightness. It doesnt quite work like that.

As Ignazio mentioned - the way it is done is PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)

What that means is - a circuit/microcontroller switches the headlight on-off-on-off-on-off at a very very fast rate (could be 10-100 times a second).

So for example, if the 100w bulb was switched on and off 60times per second, and within that second it was on for 50% of the time and off for 50% of the time -- it would provide an output similar to 50watts.

Similarly, if it was on for 75% of the time - it would be similar to a 75w output.

cya
R

Last edited by Rehaan : 13th January 2009 at 23:49.
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Old 14th January 2009, 10:19   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rehaan View Post
Gigy,

Running a 12v 100w bulb at 6v will not yeild an equivalent of 50w brightness. It doesnt quite work like that.

As Ignazio mentioned - the way it is done is PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)

What that means is - a circuit/microcontroller switches the headlight on-off-on-off-on-off at a very very fast rate (could be 10-100 times a second).

So for example, if the 100w bulb was switched on and off 60times per second, and within that second it was on for 50% of the time and off for 50% of the time -- it would provide an output similar to 50watts.

Similarly, if it was on for 75% of the time - it would be similar to a 75w output.

cya
R
Rehan you are quite right , however when we are using PWM or Pulse width modulation it doesnt switch on or switch off intermittantly, what it does is to combine a carier frequency ( preferably a saw tooth waveform) on the standard sinusoidal waveform and thereby resulting in a stepped sinusoidal wave ( which averages out to be a sinusoidal wave). The voltage as well as frequency can be varied by controling the carrier frequency. ( basic principle of AC drives)
For better understanding of PWM refer the attached document
Attached Files
File Type: doc PWM.doc (38.0 KB, 469 views)
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Old 14th January 2009, 10:56   #13
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PWM or whatever you may do if you over run a bulb its life will be shortened significantly. Power dissipation is i^2*R. If you run the bulb at a lower overall voltage (as with PWM!) then the output will be reduced. Also, as the output and efficiency are functions of the filament temperature. A 50W bulb run at say 40W will have an output far below 80%. If you under run a bulb you get less light but long life. If you overrun it then you get more light with a (possibly severe) penalty on life.
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Old 14th January 2009, 13:24   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vebmetal View Post
I'd be very very wary of ebay.in products. It's somewhat of a dumping ground for raddi chinese maal.
I second that. After 2 buying experiences with ebay.in and thier callous customer care,I've sworn off the site. And my 1st and only experience with rediff shopping was no better.
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Old 15th January 2009, 00:09   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sgiitk View Post
PWM or whatever you may do if you over run a bulb its life will be shortened significantly. Power dissipation is i^2*R. If you run the bulb at a lower overall voltage (as with PWM!) then the output will be reduced. Also, as the output and efficiency are functions of the filament temperature. A 50W bulb run at say 40W will have an output far below 80%. If you under run a bulb you get less light but long life. If you overrun it then you get more light with a (possibly severe) penalty on life.
Well it seems that halogens can be used with dimmers. However halgons are designed to operate at a particular optimum temperature where the tungsten that evaporates from the filament automatically gets deposited back on the filament due to the heat (converting tungsten halide back to tungsten). If the bulb is operated at a lower temperature, this process of depositing back the tungsten may not happen, so it is recommended to run the bulb on full power once in a while.

Link below has some good explanations:.

The Great Internet Light Bulb Book, Part I

So it seems dimming the bulb is very much possible (provided the bulb is run on full power occasionally), however the efficiency would suffer as sgiitk rightly pointed out.


Another (possibly stupid) question - Is it possible to put a high power (say 130W) bulb into the fog lamps and use it for flashing? May need some reworking on the fog lap's focus and angle of course. Since it will be used only for flashing on very rare occasions I dont think overheating will happen, I remember seeing a car which had really bright (and annoying fog) lamps - so I think it's possible


Fog lamp on my car is kind of vestigial anyway - never had any real use for it. We dont get fog conditions in kerala
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