[mkcpu]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Apart from the solenoids, the only other thing in the projectors you are buying that will be sealed in your housings are a projector lens and the reflector bowl, which are immoveable, stationary non-electronic objects. What reliability are you concerned with?

Unless you somehow mess up the epoxy putty (which will affect genuine morimoto's and generics alike), they will need absolutely no maintenance at all. The components that can/will fail and will need maintenance over time - the bi-xenon HID bulb and the ballast - will either be mounted outside of the housing or removeable through the access cap in the housing.

So back to the solenoids, which are for the high-beam functionality. I assume, like me, you are doing a quad biX set up. A quad set up will be throwing out such a ridiculous, insane, over-the-top amount of light, that i was seriously contemplating whether or not i even needed high-beam functionality. So even in the worst case where for some reason the solenoids fail, i wonder if i would even care? Your headlights wouldn't look any different - to you or anyone else. In the 10 months or so i've had my car, i've not used high-beams even once. With quads will you ever need high-beams? And i say that just in case they fail, but in most cases, they wont.

But just to play along, TRS said that when you get your projectors, you should hook up the solenoids to a 9v battery and activate them like 40-50 times. If they open/shut for that many times, you should be fairly confident they will not fail. I went like 150 times just to make sure



This is what bienarcis told me:



I wish the epoxy would be sold in econo sizes, because i've only found small quantitites available. But he pointed me here.

As far as the BR, I haven't sealed my headlights yet, but i'm guessing 4.5m of butyl rubber will be way more than enough to seal 10 headlights

So how much of the wires do you think you can hide in the housing ?

[a803sgo]

Originally Posted by mkcpu

So how much of the wires do you think you can hide in the housing ?

You'll notice there's loads of space once you've got them apart, I'm mounting my ballasts on the outside as from experience these break so there's not a lot to go in the headlamp for me anyway.

[squidlyboy]

the physical diagram i posted earlier shows which wires i plan on keeping inside the housing and which ones are outside the housing - nothing has changed. i wanna keep all the stuff that can break outside as much as possible .. or at least accessible.

[mkcpu]

I got the HIDs from TRS, and it seems to have too much crap with it. I am sersl;y thinking about going down to doing only one of the projectors instead of quad.

[a803sgo]

Originally Posted by mkcpu

I got the HIDs from TRS, and it seems to have too much crap with it. I am sersl;y thinking about going down to doing only one of the projectors instead of quad.

Most of that you can hide behind the bumper under the headlamp, I would keep the ballasts easy to reach though, like I said before these will break.

What projectors did you get?

[mkcpu]

Originally Posted by a803sgo

Most of that you can hide behind the bumper under the headlamp, I would keep the ballasts easy to reach though, like I said before these will break.

What projectors did you get?

I got the one from iJDM TOY.
2.5" Mini H1 Bi-Xenon HID Projector Lens with Shroud For Headlight

[squidlyboy]

Originally Posted by mkcpu

I got the HIDs from TRS, and it seems to have too much crap with it. I am sersl;y thinking about going down to doing only one of the projectors instead of quad.

Whats that hanging on the input side of your ballast? Is that a CANBUS resistor circuit? I had asked TRS if it was needed and the answer was a little vague ...

[mkcpu]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Whats that hanging on the input side of your ballast? Is that a CANBUS resistor circuit? I had asked TRS if it was needed and the answer was a little vague ...

It is a capacitor link as described by TRS. (anti-flicker capacitor link) it was optional. I am not sure if is necessary, but i bought it just in case.

[mkcpu]

I just realized after I cut the beam alignment to fit the projector, that I forgot to see/mark where the light of the halogen beam points...

[squidlyboy]

Ah... interesting.

That relay harness i mentioned in an earlier post had one attached as well. I took apart the relay to test it this weekend and noticed that it had a capacitor attached between the power and ground lines - the whole thing was hidden under this huge heat shrink tube that was covering up all the lines. Usually they put those there in case there are unwanted fluctuations on the line - the cap smooths out the signal to keep the lights from flickering. I'm not sure if its needed, but i guess it can't hurt.

Btw.. after testing that relay harness this weekend, its not good as is. I found that the wire gauge is slightly too small for my comfort, so i'm going to have to beef up the wires (14 awg) to provide some margin. Sorry.

[squidlyboy]

Originally Posted by mkcpu

I just realized after I cut the beam alignment to fit the projector, that I forgot to see/mark where the light of the halogen beam points...

All is not lost.. there are a tons of ways to do it. Doing it on a rig is just convenient because it doesn't involve your car being taken apart, since for most of us, its our DD.

You could take your car out at night and mark where your current halogens hit the garage or any flat vertical service, and mark the reference point on the ground/road where your car is sitting. Then when you take off your bumper and mount your new lights - while the putty is still setting, and the lens is still off, point your new lights at the same spot while your car is in the same position, and check it that way.

Obviously, doing it like this is going to be a lot less convenient as you will have your bumper off, while your lights are still being worked on, so you'll need to plan it out well. At that point, everything else will have need to be done except for the putty to set and your lens to be sealed.

Or instead of doing it against the garage, you could have another car in front of you and make sure your new lights are positioned low enough that its not blinding the person in front of you or an oncoming driver. Again, not the best or most convenient way to do it, but i'm sure you can come up a bunch of other ideas as well...

[mkcpu]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

All is not lost.. there are a tons of ways to do it. Doing it on a rig is just convenient because it doesn't involve your car being taken apart, since for most of us, its our DD.

You could take your car out at night and mark where your current halogens hit the garage or any flat vertical service, and mark the reference point on the ground/road where your car is sitting. Then when you take off your bumper and mount your new lights - while the putty is still setting, and the lens is still off, point your new lights at the same spot while your car is in the same position, and check it that way.

Obviously, doing it like this is going to be a lot less convenient as you will have your bumper off, while your lights are still being worked on, so you'll need to plan it out well. At that point, everything else will have need to be done except for the putty to set and your lens to be sealed.

Or instead of doing it against the garage, you could have another car in front of you and make sure your new lights are positioned low enough that its not blinding the person in front of you or an oncoming driver. Again, not the best or most convenient way to do it, but i'm sure you can come up a bunch of other ideas as well...

Do you have the headlights installed on your car ? (the quad ) seems very white n bright

[squidlyboy]

Originally Posted by mkcpu

Do you have the headlights installed on your car ? (the quad ) seems very white n bright

No, those are my current GP thunder halogens - they are close to 6000k color temp though. I'm just going to use those pics as a secondary (sanity) check to approximate that the new beams are at about the right height.

[a803sgo]

The ebay seller has got hold of the correct size rings and they're on the way to me, heres some pics of them he sent me...





If anyone else has been sent the wrong rings it might be worth contacting him.

[mkcpu]

Originally Posted by a803sgo

The ebay seller has got hold of the correct size rings and they're on the way to me, heres some pics of them he sent me...





If anyone else has been sent the wrong rings it might be worth contacting him.

I spoke with him and he is sending me the correct ones too. can't wait

[ForbiddenLimits_F30]

Interested in the angel eyes alone. Pm me the price please. ��

[a803sgo]

Originally Posted by ForbiddenLimits_F30

Interested in the angel eyes alone. Pm me the price please. ��

I got mine from here...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261942278432

Make sure you ask him for the 120mm and 128mm rings, I would save my money next time and buy them from squidlyboy.

[mkcpu]

Originally Posted by ForbiddenLimits_F30

Interested in the angel eyes alone. Pm me the price please. ��

PM squidlyboy... he will get you a pair.

[rnbguy]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Oh, you mean just for rapid prototyping? heh - like i mentioned earlier, its all smoke and mirrors baby ... Don't try this at home Btw... most cheaper lab bench variable dc power supplies like what you find on ebay will NOT work trying to get a single bi-xenon HID bulb to ignite, let alone multiple ones. A converted ATX power supply is best, but you need one that can pump some serious current needed to ignite the xenon gas

Note: But when its all said and done, it should just be the wires for the ballasts coming out of the housings, like what you see bienarcis did for CharlieVu (i think Charlie posted some pics of his housings earlier in this thread, where just the ballast input/output wires come out the middle of the low-beam cap)

Looks nice, how'd you get the mini h1 to sit so low. Mine protrude out too much.

[a803sgo]

Originally Posted by rnbguy

Looks nice, how'd you get the mini h1 to sit so low. Mine protrude out too much.

I'm sure squidlyboy will chime in but you need to go through the black housing as well not just the silver reflector in order to get the projector back far enough.

a pic from squidlyboy that show the holes...

[a803sgo]

Theres a company over here in the UK who've started doing F30 retrofits...

Dreadful.

[ForbiddenLimits_F30]

Originally Posted by a803sgo

I got mine from here...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261942278432

Make sure you ask him for the 120mm and 128mm rings, I would save my money next time and buy them from squidlyboy.

Originally Posted by mkcpu

PM squidlyboy... he will get you a pair.

Thanks guys 👍