HID Ballasts Mod
Bringing it back from the dead....
Anyone done anything with this? I still have my ballasts laying around. I can't find a small enough soldering iron in my area.
Fuller sells one but it's ~500 bucks...
Soariso's site is down or moved...
Anyone done anything with this? I still have my ballasts laying around. I can't find a small enough soldering iron in my area.
Fuller sells one but it's ~500 bucks...
Soariso's site is down or moved...
When doing this mod make sure you employ the most useful Philips DL50 bulbs. If not, you will melt the chrome right off your bowls!
As with the increase in wattage, your bulbs life is cut down drastically.
As with the increase in wattage, your bulbs life is cut down drastically.
Pole Position
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 291
Likes: 0
From: Nightmare on Elm St.
Ok, just to let you guys know how to do this mod and give you an idea as to how difficult it is,
The idea is to bipass a SMT resistor located underneath the circuitry in the ballast. Two soldering connections are needed.
For someone who is very good with SMT circuitry and soldering this ranks at around 11 on a scale of 1~10 difficulty lol .
The ballast in question
Cover taken off, I have circled the area in question
^^ In that picture the resistor is located right underneath the two big legs of the silver capacitor. Notice that there is a gel like substance all through out the ballast and it needs to be cleaned up thoroughly before trying to get to the resistor.
Close ups, notice the gel and the two big legs of the capacitor, in one of the picture you can see the resistor beneath the gel.
Now i havent done the mod on denso ballast yet but have done it on Bosch gen 2 ballasts, its very easy to mod a bosch using two solders around the resistor and a potentiometer.
Bosch
Notice the two solders around the resistor
Here is a close up to give you an idea what you are working with , the resistor in question is the one numbered 2612
The idea is to bipass a SMT resistor located underneath the circuitry in the ballast. Two soldering connections are needed.
For someone who is very good with SMT circuitry and soldering this ranks at around 11 on a scale of 1~10 difficulty lol .
The ballast in question
Cover taken off, I have circled the area in question
^^ In that picture the resistor is located right underneath the two big legs of the silver capacitor. Notice that there is a gel like substance all through out the ballast and it needs to be cleaned up thoroughly before trying to get to the resistor.
Close ups, notice the gel and the two big legs of the capacitor, in one of the picture you can see the resistor beneath the gel.
Now i havent done the mod on denso ballast yet but have done it on Bosch gen 2 ballasts, its very easy to mod a bosch using two solders around the resistor and a potentiometer.
Bosch
Notice the two solders around the resistor
Here is a close up to give you an idea what you are working with , the resistor in question is the one numbered 2612
Here is output
35 watts
75 Watts (actually its close to 90)
Now the problem with doing a mod like this is that you would damage the chrome on the projector bowl/reflector, you also need a HUGE heat sink kind of like the following to keep the ballasts cool.
Plus as emo said the best way to use these is with DL50 (50 watt) phillips D2S bulbs but even with them you will be generating a lot of heat.
35 watts
75 Watts (actually its close to 90)
Now the problem with doing a mod like this is that you would damage the chrome on the projector bowl/reflector, you also need a HUGE heat sink kind of like the following to keep the ballasts cool.
Plus as emo said the best way to use these is with DL50 (50 watt) phillips D2S bulbs but even with them you will be generating a lot of heat.
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I'm not sure what you mean... but anyway, here they are:
$190: http://www.retro-solutions.com/55watthighoutput.html
$250: http://lightwerkz.net/prod_hidkit.htm
$190: http://www.retro-solutions.com/55watthighoutput.html
$250: http://lightwerkz.net/prod_hidkit.htm
My concern is not the kit or the OEM ballasts' quality. I have seen a couple of member toast the inside of a good projector running boosted ballasts and that is the only thing holding me back from using a boosted ballast with an expensive set of projectors such as LS430/S2k/TLZKW.
