Has anyone made a spotlight from a led head light

Homer35

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Feb 26, 2017
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I have been thinking of making a spot light from a 252W 25200LM PHILIPS LED Headlight Kit. I was wondering if anyone else has tried this. If so could you let me know some pointer like is this one ok or are there a better one ect. ty for any help

 

FRITZHID

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i tried one similar to that a few years ago, they do not work well. spotlights preform better with a point light source in order to project a bright point in the distance, these LED headlight (garbage imho) are a very large light source with multiple points of light causing a floody, ugly beam in spotlights.
 

Dr. Mario

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I agree with FRITZHID, it would be quite ugly in term of beam quality. Needless to say, I am glad I went with automotive 35 Watts Metal Halide HID setup. You will get WAY BETTER beam quality with 35 Watts Metal Halide bulb, not to mention it's a bit more efficient than 252 Watts LED setup because like FRITZHID mentioned, LED has a large surface area which the light escape from (in this case, the Cerium : Yttrium Aluminum Garnet phosphor - the yellow stuff on the LED die), compared to 0.9 - 6mm arc length in the Metal Halide bulb which behaves as a fixed point light source.

I have built such HID spotlight, I didn't regret the $300 spent on such spotlight a bit (and I would recommend going with protected Lithium-ion battery pack; I use Bioenno Power 12 Volts - 6.6 Amps hour Lithium : Iron Phosphate battery pack and 35 Watts HID spotlight lasts 2 hours on a charge. HID setup tend to do better on Lithium-ion battery pack compared to Lead Acid battery - Li-ion cells tend to take ignition current inrush punishment quite well, and it lasts much longer than Lead-Acid battery).

However, if you want to stick with LED headlight, be my guest; you would be surprised when you compare the LED and HID bulbs in a given reflector. Just be careful with HID kit, however, since high voltage's involved.
 

Homer35

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Feb 26, 2017
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Ty that was what I was thinking to about the led head lights I have few 35 watt hid lights to I just upgraded one 35 watt hid to a 55 watts HID and for some reason the 55 watt seems dimmer than the 35 watt not sure whats going on
 

Dr. Mario

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It's not that the 55 Watts HID kit that's dimmer than 35 Watts one; it's the shift in color temperature. If you drive the 6,000 Kelvins 35 Watts metal halide bulb quite hard, let's say the 55 Watts ballast hits it with 49 Watts of electrical power, it will "red shift" to 5,000 Kelvins. Of course, and the bulb life expectancy will also be compromised too.

I'd recommend to stick with the 35 Watts HID kit, unless you want to keep the 55 Watts HID kit, then I would recommend to go with General Electric or Philips metal halide bulb (ceramic metal halide will works just fine too, however the color temperature option will be limited, from 3,000 to 4,200 Kelvins) - just go with about 50 Watts version, bi-pin version (like G6) for the 55 Watts HID ballast and it will be all good as they're of better quality compared to what you get in the HID kit. You'd have to fabricate the bi-pin socket holder to focus the bulb in the reflector. I have been wanting to try to do General Electric CMH in the spotlight, as they last ridiculously long (15,000 hours to 70% chance of survival regarding the lifetime failure mode).
 
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