# H4 Halogen Vs HID



## FRITZHID (Mar 28, 2012)

Hello Fellow Flashaholics!

I'm working on a new project involving duel Filament 100/130w Halogen H4 Bulbs as stock in a spot light and i am swapping it out for a 55w HID Bi-Xenon Automotive kit. from what i gather, this "Bi-Xenon" uses some sort of mechanical method of eather changing the focal position of the arc tube itself OR using a moving metal shield, changes the light pattern in the automotive applications (i'll know more when the kit arrives). the other "hi/lo" option for these bulbs are a duel unit using an aux Halogen as a High Beam. i chose the prior in hopes of better performance, thinking that the Halogen would get in the way of the beam pattern much like a return wire but worse. i'm in high hopes that the moving arc style will provide a "spot/flood" at the flip of a switch option, which would be Very useful!
SO i figured i'd ask if anyone here has had any exp swapping out H4 bulbs in Mods they've done. i've looked thru the threads and found a few instances of Filament to Arc position issues and wanted a little more detail on that and any other issues people have run into.
ANY info regarding this mod would be greatly appreciated, TY in advance. 
-Chuck


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## bshanahan14rulz (Mar 28, 2012)

It depends on who you bought your kit from. Usually they will try to keep the arc chamber close to where the low beam filament was. The low beam filament is the one that is under the cap in the bulb. Of course, all of these kits are made in China, so it is just as likely that they just take 35W tubes and stuff them into old H4 bases with no regard to placement. 

Generally speaking, you can tell by the output if it is focused or not by playing with the bulb spacing, i.e. using spacers between the bulb base and the bulb holder on the reflector.

the bixenon function sounds like it might be cool, but I have a feeling like it might just make a flood ring instead of a flood beam. If it does, then just don't use it ;-) 

Only bulb base for 35W HIDs that I've worked with is the P32d, but light is light.


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## FRITZHID (Mar 28, 2012)

yeah, these are the 55w kits. the stock bulb filaments are Both right next to eachother, which i found odd, thought one would be more forward then the other, but insted it looks like one is on the top and the other below it. was an odd set up imo.
i'm just hoping the kit isn't a total failure. at worst i guess i just buy different bulbs?


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## bshanahan14rulz (Mar 29, 2012)

So in stock form, both filaments are either lit or not, i.e. on and off, there isn't a spot and flood mode?

I'm thinking maybe they have two filaments just for extra output at the cost of less "focusability"

The reflector is probably still just a simple curve with a single focal point. You just have to hope that if the bulb isn't a perfect fit, that it goes too far into the back of the reflector, so that you can just use spacers to back the bulb out until it is focused the best that it will focus.

IIRC, the DL-50 were teh bulb of choice back in the day, but are very hard to find these days, and you would have to put a different base on the bulb or figure out another way of mounting it. I think someone on here bought a huge box of 'em a year or so ago. Perhaps someone will chime in on the general performance of generic 55W kit bulbs.


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## FRITZHID (Mar 29, 2012)

i'll post some pix in a few so u can see what i mean....

the H-4 12v 100/130w p34t bulb with filaments at equal distance from base



















I Tried to get it from a few angles so you could see what i mean.
the stock light doesn't have a flood/spot feature....yet
when i light the bulb, both filaments seem to be about the same wattage to my eyes tho, i don't have a meter to check lms. and it doesent seem that much brighter with one/other or even both at once. just a hair brighter with both infact... with **** poor run time (8 mins on 7ah SLA)
when i used my amp meter, both seem to draw aprox the same power, within 1/4 amp of each other. so.... 100/130w??
the focus does change slightly between them in the stock reflector (shown here)...













i'm hoping/pray'n that the new bulbs arc point is aprox the same as this stock bulb in it's "stand by" position, so it can be spot mode with out using any extra power for the mechanical device.


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## KuanR (Mar 30, 2012)

I have been thinking about doing the same thing with a Cyclops "18 million cp" Thor Colossus and an ebay 55w 4300k Xenon kit.
If I do this I would definitely swap out the lead acid battery and drop in a lipo battery from Lips. And since the thor is so much bigger it might even be possible to put in a larger one than this build (basically copying this build on an identical spotlight)

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?330331-100W-HID-Mod-Est-8000-Lumen-Est-Price-Just-over-200.00-USD

I even thought about removing the hi/low function and just run a single mode 100w HID kit on the Thor, but I'm debating on this because of 2 reasons:

1. I think being able to keep the hi/low function would come in very handy
2. I'm not sure if the 100w H4 single mode HID bulbs are going to be fixed on "hi" or "low"....would suck if it's only available in "low"


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## FRITZHID (Mar 30, 2012)

well, the HI/LO hid kits arn't like the halogen bulbs at all, the auto kits don't raise/lower the wattage to the bulb to control the light, they eather employ a 2nd halogen bulb next to the HID OR they move the HID bulb/shield in order to change weather its high beam or low beam. you can also select which leads u use on the ballast to chose weather or not you want to use the HID in high or low mode.
i'm hoping the the focal change on the hi/lo will work similar to the focus change in a Maxabeam and then people can have flood/spot at the flick of a switch.
the lights i'm modding are to be sold locally so i can't just put LiPo pack in them, or i'll have a mess full of lawsuits to deal with cause people have burnt their houses down  tho i may mod one for myself with a high Ah lipo pack


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## KuanR (Mar 30, 2012)

I might bite the bullet and just go with a single mode 100W HID...but since funds are not permitting (yet) I will definitely keep an eye out for how your mod turns out.

You're selling your lights locally? You should post them up later and let people here have first dibs


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## FRITZHID (Mar 30, 2012)

well, once the kits come, i'll be doing a full low-down on the whole mod from start to finish, of-course.
as far as selling them on CPF, the reason i was going to sell them locally was to avoid the shipping muck. i hate shipping things, lol... BUT if enough people are interested in them, i guess it wouldn't hurt to expand my sales area 
they will of-course still have the stock boxes they came in, including styro and whatnot, which will help.
i'll be making a new instruction sheet and all that to go with it as well as a BOLD WARNING of NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE (aside from the SLA in the back) and HAZARDOUS VOLTAGE INSIDE ect... ect.. ect...
if CPFers are interested, i may even include a Lipo model... on top of the 4 or 5 other models i have planned for this light. 35, 55, 75 and 100w(for the bold) and many other options to go with them, including (hopefully) a flood to spot mode, a LED walking light and perhapes a RED LED walking nightvision light as well. custom built to order of-course


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## bshanahan14rulz (Apr 1, 2012)

Those are definitely interesting bulbs, I think they just called them H4 because of the base. The filaments should be in line with each other and are usually arranged axially. Both those filaments look like the same wattage, as much as looks can judge...
On the plus side, the arc will be axial instead of transverse, should make a better spot. 

I'll tell you what I've always wanted to do is find some cheap, unpotted ballasts, and modify them for "multimode" use, i.e. throw a potentiometer in there in the right place to make it boostable. 

And as far as safety goes, I agree. If it works with SLA, stick with the SLAs ;-) Easier than teaching people about Li Ion maintenance.


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