Another Data Point for Inexpensive HID Lights

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Brantel
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Another Data Point for Inexpensive HID Lights

Post by Brantel »

I bought a pair of 35W HID lights from Ebay to replace the bulbs in my 55w Duckworks kit that was a set of fog lights converted to use with their brackets. I got the 6000K H3 bulbs because I wanted white white light. The 55w halogens always looked very warm in color. The HID kit was advertised as a "Digital" ballast kit. After looking at a million sites selling these things it seems that almost all of them are clones of one another and or made by the same shop in China. The kit I bought was ~$37 delivered for the pair. I did open the ballast after I received them and they do appear to be mostly electronic but there was a small transformer in there. The inside was sprayed/potted with a rubber coating so it was hard to tell what was really in there.

Anyway....I mounted the ballast to the back of the Duckworks bracket using the mounting bracket that came with the kit. I did modify the bracket somewhat to cut off extra that was not needed. The wiring was simple as pie.

After mounting everything and turning them on, I can honestly say that these things are at least three times brighter than the 55w halogens. Here is a comparison, the left side is the HID, the right is the 55w halogen:

Image


Here they are straight on with the beam:

Image

Image

Same shot with the old 55w:

Image

I had to leave the airport before it got dark so I did not get any other pics.

One thing...I tried to wig-wag these after they warmed up but that was a no go!!! They will not wig-wag with the NAPA flasher relay!!! Maybe they would with one of the solid state wig-waggers but they won't with the NAPA relay. It just buzzed and sounded like it was going to fry itself so I stopped trying after a second or two.
Brantel (Brian Chesteen),
RV12-IS, #121606, N912BC - Building Now!
RV10, #41942, N????? - Project Sold
RV-7/TU, #72823, N159SB - SOLD

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hydroguy2
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Post by hydroguy2 »

Nice improvement. I don't fly at night very often, so went with the simple single wingtip 75w halogen. BUT, now am wondering if I could get a HID conversion to replace the MR16 lamp I currently have.
Brian
Townsend, MT

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bruceh
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Post by bruceh »

I can imagine that the 55W HID's would really light up the runway. I'm going to plan on getting some of those to mount on my leading edges. Amazing how the costs have come down. A year ago when I was looking into this HID's were over $100.
Bruce Hill
RV-9A N5771H flying over 1100 hours!
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Blog at https://flyingoverthehills.wordpress.com/
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Vlad
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Post by Vlad »

Wow! These are bright. How hot they are? Any possibility of melting plastic/burning paint?
RV-9A N666BK flying 4,500+ hours since 2011

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bullojm1
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Post by bullojm1 »

Vlad wrote:Wow! These are bright. How hot they are? Any possibility of melting plastic/burning paint?
Vlad,

HID lights run a lot cooler than halogen lights do. That's how they are able to give off a lot more light with less energy. With a 35W HID light, probably 30+ Watts is going to light output, and 5 or less watts is being dissipated in heat. With halogens, My bet is it is closer to 50%.

I have two 50W HID lights in each wingtip and the temps are very reasonable.
Mike Bullock
http://www.rvplane.com
RV-7 | Superior IO-360 | Whirlwind 200RV
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Brantel
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Post by Brantel »

Here is an iPhone Video of my new inexpensive HID's wig-wagging with the new flashed I installed. Works better than great!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY7UcK6XD2s


Here is where I got the solid state flasher...
http://bestwarninglights.com/
Brantel (Brian Chesteen),
RV12-IS, #121606, N912BC - Building Now!
RV10, #41942, N????? - Project Sold
RV-7/TU, #72823, N159SB - SOLD

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hydroguy2
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Post by hydroguy2 »

nice job Brian
Brian
Townsend, MT

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dons
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Post by dons »

Anybody right in front will certainly have an excellent chance of spotting you, I really like the idea of the wigwag for being seen, nice work Brian.
Don Sinclair
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RV-7A (Fuselage)

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Brantel
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Post by Brantel »

To finish the story on my inexpensive HID lights, after flying with them for some time I did notice that they reflected a ton of high frequency noise back onto the power lines. This is clearly evident when listening to the background noise on any non-active com channel with the squelch in test mode or open.

This noise also caused my Dynon's DSAB bus to drop out...really bad in Wig-Wag mode...

The HIDs initially give a pretty good "bezerp" when they ignite and then they settle into just plain old static. The noise threshold is obvioulsy increased quite a bit.

The Wig-Wag mode only exacerbates this issue. If they are warm, the Wig-Wag does not bezerp each time they come on, they ignite instantly with no "bezerp" but the noise floor is still elevated.

Those that know a little about radio will understand that just because you can squelch out background noise, it is not desirable to just mask the issue since an increased or high noise threshold can cause your AGC circuit in the radio to automatically reduce the sensitivity of the receiver resulting in poor performance.

That being said, Here was the fix:

I installed a Ferrite Core as close to the HID ballast as possible. I wrapped the power and ground wires thru the core three times each. Ferrite cores act as a choke to high frequencies basically blocking them at the source before they can do any harm.

I also installed a .1uF capacitor across the power and ground wires right behind the ferrite core. This capacitor functions as a decoupling capacitor and will shunt any high frequencies that get past the ferrite core to ground before they can travel back up the power wire.

The ferrite core I used is similar to this one:

Image

The results are complete elimination of the noise reflected back onto the aircraft's systems. No noticable noise floor increase, no Dynon DSAB dropouts!!! Could not even tell I had switched them on and the Wig-Wag only results in some very slight clicks over the intercom.
Brantel (Brian Chesteen),
RV12-IS, #121606, N912BC - Building Now!
RV10, #41942, N????? - Project Sold
RV-7/TU, #72823, N159SB - SOLD

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dons
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Post by dons »

Excellent Brian! Scary, I understood what you were wrote :oops:.
Had to do a lot of that kind of thing when I was putting transmitters/radios in my car, a few well placed filter components can do wonders.
Don Sinclair
CYKF
RV-7A (Fuselage)

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