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Insane overengineering of a car headlight
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james_s:

--- Quote from: ace1903 on February 13, 2022, 11:30:50 am ---I see this as "just because we can" approach.
99% of the drivers drive on well lighted towns and urban neighborhoods. Even in my country which is the poorest in the Europe all roads are designed to be nice to drive with 30+ years old car.
Where you need to drive your car to see advantages of this level of technology? I understand that is beneficial for lorry drivers in rural Australia, but 2000$ headlamp to take your kid from kinder garden is overkill. I know it LEDs consumes less current and are sold as eco friendly but when I saw pile of headlamps at local junkyard I think they pollute much more than average H4 lamp in lifetime of the car.

--- End quote ---

I wish I could say that about the roads I drive on, I rely very heavily on my headlights. The stock US-spec headlights on my car were total garbage, dangerously bad. I was fortunate enough to be able to source a pair of European spec H4 headlamps that are drastically better, although still not quite as good as what a lot of modern cars come with.
Fraser:
Eric ‘O introduces the modern world of GM LED rear light clusters…… you can replace the reversing lamp…. But anything else…. Fit a comp,etc cluster at over $700 !

https://youtu.be/5T3hQTGxfK0

Fraser
Gyro:
A couple of general comments / random observations from reading back through the thread...

- As with all things, I'm sure the pattern forming LED headlights provide superior illumination and hopefully, reduced glare when new. Gradual clouding of the outer polycarbonate lenses of headlamps seems to be almost inevitable at some point as the car ages, either from Solar UV or from cumulative impact or road grit, probably both. At that point you will end up with extremely bright light sources with diffusers in front of them. No matter how well the beams are controlled, this is bound to greatly increase the dazzle factor for oncoming drivers. Yes, of course this is a factor in halogen lamps too, but the lower brightness and colour temperature probably makes this less objectionable. We may end up with a situation where sealed headlamp systems start failing vehicle inspections much sooner than we are accustomed to.

- Given that the life of halogen bulbs is typically rated in the low hundreds of hours, the suggested LED lifetime figure of 15k hours is very dubious. The number of halogen bulb changes in the lifetime of a typical car can usually be counted on the fingers of one hand. I'm sure that manufacturers will prioritise brightness (and phosphor light output decline) over lifetime, to bring it more in line with the expected life of the rest of the car. Clocking up 15k hours of accumulated driving time, spread over any number of cars, makes it almost inevitable that driver will die the wheel - assuming a very pessimistic 50:50 day:night ratio, that comes to somewhere between 1 and 2 Million miles!

- For those with a sensitivity to the glare of high colour temperature lights, HID or LED, polarized light yellow tinted driving glasses make things a lot less painful. Yes, there must be some minimal light attenuation, but the reduction in dazzle offsets this, it takes the edge off blue tinted oncoming headlights while favouring the colour temperature of your own halogen headlights.
G7PSK:
In the 70's and 80's I drove tens thousands of miles with vehicles fitted with sealed beam units, only ever had one fail and that was when a stone broke the glass. You could also replace a Rolls Royce unit with one that fitted a Mini for a fraction of the price of an original the only difference was there was no RR moulded into the lens. I found that the sealed beam units were more than up to the job when driving on dark twisty country roads even in fog, just did not expect to do eighty miles an hour. 
Monkeh:

--- Quote from: Gyro on February 15, 2022, 08:50:26 pm ---Gradual clouding of the outer polycarbonate lenses of headlamps seems to be almost inevitable at some point as the car ages

...

We may end up with a situation where sealed headlamp systems start failing vehicle inspections much sooner than we are accustomed to.
--- End quote ---

It's a good thing they're readily polished then?
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