Projector Lights

[Javier]

One thing we must remember is that there are lighting technologies that are 'dimmable' and others that are not.

CCFLs for example... you just can't attach a rheostat and use it to dim the light. But let's assume we are talking of LED technology. LEDs are dimmable.

I used 'calibration' to refer to the task of adjusting the photocell so the whole install ends up producing the desired brightness level at midday of a sunny day and also producing the desired brightness level at midnight on a moonless night. My guess is that achieving those results wouldn't be trivial.

Why would one want automatic dimming? Just because I'm lazy and don't want to have yet another control knob in my car life's too complicated as it is.

Newer models don't seem to have this automatic dimming nor need it, so perhaps just attaching a resistor somewhere in the circuit would be fine. I'll try some of that and post results here for you guys to judge if it is worth the minimum effort it would take.

BTW, congrats for being just 16 and already having realized there are bad cars, good cars, and bimmmers, E36 bimmers to be accurate.

[beemerscreamer91]

what are CCFL's?yeah i understood what you meant by calibration, just not how you went about doing it...but i suppose ill go to wikihow for that

ive always loved bimmers, and the E36 is within the budget...after all these years it's still one heck of a car, inside and out

[Javier]

CCFLs a.k.a. neon lights

There are some brands out there... Predator Chromiums are CCFLs for example. They look niiice but they need ballasts to operate. LED AAs don't need ballasts.

I hate ballasts. You can't avoid them if you want HID lights for your low beam or your fogs though. But that is an entirely different issue.

[beemerscreamer91]

ok one thing's for sure, i definitely wont be doing any of this on my own...

i think it'll look really odd if you've got LED halos but use halogen bulbs for your high and low beam, so switching to HIDs will mean i have to deal with ballasts...

why do you hate them?

[Javier]

I've seen some predator orions advertised as 4300K (yellow-white). The first that came to market are 6000K (white-blue)... maybe with the new version you could use halogens.

BTW, you don't use HID on the high beam You need to switch them on and off repeatedly, specially when driving on the highway. Ballasts don't like that.

I hate them because I had two of them go dead on me since I installed my HIDs. And they were Philips, not some unknown/generic brand. Ballasts are weeeeeeek.

[beemerscreamer91]

dont the E36 headlights have 3 levels of brightness?when i said high beam i didnt mean the one you use to flash other drivers or on really dark roads, i meant one step higher than low beam...

so is there an alternative or do you have no choice but to put up with ballasts if you want HIDs?

[Javier]

3 levels of brightness? I don't quite get what you are talking about... beware English is not my mother language.

If you want 'whiter' lights, currently there is no alternative to HIDs... you could try one of these bulbs with bluish coating, or some blue lamin-x, but believe me, they don't come close to 6000K LEDs. Perhaps they do match 4300K LEDs.

[pmulc07]

I have HIDs and I still couldn't get a perfect match. Although, I got one set of Lumincs bulbs @ 6000k for the low beems and I am prettty pleased with the look. (not street legal in the US )

On the brightness of the angel eyes, I would have to agree that these bleed too much in low light but I wouldn't say that they are too bright. From more that 50 yards out they bleed reeaall bad. But up close they are stunning! Daytime is when they really shine. The first set of angel eyes I had were nice at night, but non-existent during the day time, even in low light. It was pathetic.

I upgraded to the 60+led rings about a month ago, and I am 100% satisfied. I admit that they bleed quite a bit at night, but I think the intensity of the glow really makes them pop and when people see them they know they are looking at something special.

Personally, I am really not a fan of the latest BMW made angel eyes, and I feel like too many undeserving yuppies have been rockin' them lately. IMO they are too dull and yellowish. So I really like the fact that mine are super-bright and the color.... They really are in a league of their own.

I agree that we can improve the bleed factor and make the angels eyes more crisp in dark lighting, but dimming them was not what I had in mind. I had an idea of some how putting 'blinders' around the rings, but I can't really think of a way to apply this with out affecting appearance.

I also think that if the plastic molding that houses the leds has a more angular shape as apposed to rounded that it would produce a crisper light at the same brightness, but I guess we have to leave that up to the guys that are making them.

If you ever do get around to making them adjustable I would be interested to see how you did it, but I'm not very electrically inclined and I'm kinda scared to mess with them. Plus I need to get my fog lights working first!


I took a couple of low light pics on my phone the other day so you guys could see what they look like. Angels are 6500k, Bulbs are 6000k. The one on the right shows the output of the angel eyes alone.
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3059/2969677001_27c24ffb03.jpg?v=0[/img][img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3288/2970519106_195e5f6bf0.jpg?v=0[/img]
(Keep in mind that the light tends to bleed a lot more than normal when photographed)

[beemerscreamer91]

sorry ill explain, when you first turn your headlights on its at low beam rite?after which if you turn the stalk again, or whatever you have to do to turn it up, it goes to high beam...isnt there an even higher beam for when you have to flash people?yeah i know that sounds funny but you know what i mean

what exactly is bleeding?

[Javier]

pmulc07: thanks man! that confirms 60+ LED AAs are super bright.

I love the way mine (30 LED version) look during the day. I just think they shine too much at night. I think they would look superb if I could dim them a little. I've seen some pictures that tweak the exposure and don't capture the bleeding. You can see the full halo is lit, but can also distinguish the individual LEDs, although in a subtle manner, and I find that effect very beautiful. It is SPECIALLY beautiful with the 60+ LED version.

That kinda explains the effect I would like to achieve by dimming the angels.

beemerscreamer91: I think I get what you are trying to say. In my bimmer the 'light switch' has 3 positions: 'position 0' means lights off, 'position 1' means DRLs on (those lights that let you be seen more easily by other drivers, but can't really be used to light the road), and 'position 2' which turns on the low beams (for normal city drive at night). To activate the high beams (the lights you use to have a longer distance view of the road, and that can also be used to flash other drivers, mainly used on the highway) you need to push a lever behind the wheel.

Is that what your question was referring to?

'Bleeding' means the light of your angel eyes make the halos seem too thick, because they shine too brightly.