I'm somewhat of a newbie on CL and don't know if this has been done already but I made up a composite pic of an HID installation I did on my Honda motorcycle as I was installing it. I installed one HID on the low beam, my high beam has a modulator. (BTW, the modulator is the first thing I've seen that actually causes a deer to try to get out of your way...consistantly!)

I ordered my HID set out of Hong Kong to get a mismatched set just for comparo and a lot of guys on the bike remailer were curious about the visible differences. This way I was able to get two different lights and measure them under controlled conditions inside my closed garage.

The bike was on the center stand with a board under the front wheel to regain a level configuration, engine running.

The top pic is with the OEM H7, 55 watt lamp.
The middle pic is with the 4300K HID lamp.
The lower pic is with the 6000K lamp.

The lower temperature'd HID does appear to throw more lumens out in front of you. I was a bit surprised to see that the 6000K HID put out less light than the OEM Halogen. These tests were repeatable and results were within 5% of each other.

The voltage readings were taken across the photo voltaic cell. These readings were not representative of any 'absolute' value, only a 'relative' value as desired. The bulb envelopes and light source within 'seemed' to be quite similar and I believe the focal point of the reflector was basically unchanged.

While I believe having the HID on a non-HID approved street vehicle is technically illegal, I've never been questioned by a LEO, but have had a couple say the HID made the bike much more visible.

Whit

 

just clearing things up..

the.. OEM is HID's right? or is it halogen...

nvm i just read ur.. title..

soo how did the Halogen burn BRIGHTER than the 6000k HID? and burn ALMOST the same as the 4300 HID?

 

Something is wrong here. 4300k is supposed to be at least 3 times brighter than halogens. And 6000k supposedly has about 80% of the lumens that 4300k puts out.

 

hmm since u said u bought it from HK...

AND.. u did buy two sets of these...

... did u get REAL HID's that comes with the ballast and bulbs.. and yea..? or just the "HID bulb.. xenon replacement" things...

 

They're labeled McCullough. They came with two lamps, the 4300 and the 6000 because that's the way I ordered them. I didn't want to order two sets, at $200 each and wind up with four sets when I only wanted two. And I couldn't find any other sources that would sell mismatched lamps, except the source in Hong Kong.

I assure you they are real HID's. They came with two lamps, two igniters, two ballasts and two harnesses.

Whit

 

I hadn't seen that the 4300K is supposed to be 3X brighter than halogen.

The 6000K DOES look to be about 80% of the 4300K. My calculator says about 84.5%...close enough for government work.

Whit

 

Halogens are really quite bright. The 6000K was 84.5% of the 4300K which I don't doubt.

As far as 'exacting' details, I dunno, maybe the photo cell isn't exactly linear in freq/temp response. This wasn't calibrated lab equipment for a NASA mission, it was just what I had to demonstrate the RELATIVE differences... like I said.

Whit

 

Is there a way to move your lumens read across the light pattern to find the brightest lumen output to get a 'better' reading? maybe just to signify how much more out put and where it is. you know what i'm trying to say?

 

Sorta... ;->

I was careful, even to the point of chalk marks, to maintain the same position throughout the crude 'tests'.

I thought about optimizing the center of the illumination on the photo cell for each reading, then decided it might compromise the 'relative' results by relocating the reflector's focal point. I wanted to keep it as 'real world' as possible, and keep everything the same as possible.

As it was I don't think the 'relative' readings would have changed, percentage-wise anyway. Maybe yes, maybe no.
Someone else might want to do some bulb swapping experimenting with actual Lexus headlamps to see if there are any significant disparities from my results.

Whit