Laser Driving Lighta

Looks like Baja Designs has released their laser/led hybrid bars. Throwing around some big claims. 350% farther than their prexiating led only models.

Is there any tangible objective data on these yet?

wow, a 50" bar is $4,099.95

Sadden said:

Looks like Baja Designs has released their laser/led hybrid bars. Throwing around some big claims. 350% farther than their prexiating led only models.

Is there any tangible objective data on these yet?

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Considering that weltool released their w3 laser excited phosphor light not too long ago, and BMW has been developing LEP for years now, I would not be surprised if the light bar really performs as claimed.

Btw the weltool w3 reportedly hits 180kcd, in a form factor not unlike a typical 6p.

if the pic they have on their site is of actual beam than yea, it's awesome as far as throw, i've seen dozens of light bars installed in our shop, different brands, none of those were real spot, regardless of what the box said, most are flood, in best case narrow flood. i'm sure in time we will install these too, people spend tens of thousands, to dress up their wranglers, more than any other car or suv. i wanted to get one myself, but after driving one for few days i decided not to, i got 2018 pilot, much more room, better ride, but headlights are not that great at all. but i wont be jumping on light bar bandwagon yet, i'll try h9's first

I have seen them in person. They are using small laser diodes that look like LEDs, nothing like the converted emitter system used on Audi/BMW vehicles. The advantage is a smaller emitting area, even though the output is much lower than an LED of equivalent size. The intensity is similar to any lightbar that uses "projector" style optics with small spread, such as the Rigid Hyperspot. The Baja salesperson didn't know the intensity, but I very much doubt it was more than 60-80k candela. It looked nothing like the photos online.

There is great potential to the technology, and to the laser chips themselves, but it isn't really put to good use with these optics. With Baja's optical design (large parabolic reflector) there is very little benefit to the increased intensity and smaller focal point. Nothing is focusing the light at all from the laser - in fact, much less of the light is interacting with the reflector to be focused. This is also the case with the new "high intensity" emitters they "upgraded" to... this is not an upgrade if you are using large reflectors to focus the light.

I think the main benefit in the Baja Designs product here is marketability. "Ooooo, lasers!".

-Virgil- said:

I think the main benefit in the Baja Designs product here is marketability. "Ooooo, lasers!".

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It's cheaper to hire a good marketer than a good engineer.

Thanks for the good info Paul. Very sad for the salesmen not too have any usefull numbers for such a new product. Looks like these wont be my next purchase.