Gauging interest: ACA Bi-xenon headlight conversion
02-24-2012, 01:30 PM
#22
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02-24-2012, 01:31 PM
#23
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Member Since: Mar 2002
Location: Queens, New York Life begins at 183 mph....
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St. Jude Donor '08-'09
Possibly. Having never owned a set of ACA headlights, I'm not exactly sure what that "bounce" is. From my experience, The bounce people are seeing is something that was always there, but with HID projectors (especially pop up units) is now noticeable because of the sharp cutoff pattern. This is inherent with the pop up design as well as the tight suspension of being a sports car.
I have a set of ACA headlights and the way I would describe it is more of "jiggle" Even at idle, you see the lights vibrating, when on the road, the lights bounce around. I did the fix that Patches posted up to tighten up the bulb housing but the poor design of the housing still leaves some jiggle.
I would definitely be interested in the conversion, the price sounds reasonable and if it offers any improvement to the jiggle problem and fixes the high beam issue (which we know it does already) it's a win in my book.
02-24-2012, 01:32 PM
#24
Your high beams (both in forward and flash2pass mode) would have both the halogen and bi-xenon for high beams. The halogen high beam at this point serving as more of a signal light than for actual output.
The alignment issue of the high to low will be compensated for and corrected.
The alignment issue of the high to low will be compensated for and corrected.
02-24-2012, 01:32 PM
#25
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3) The Kit i offer will come with a 55w HID kit. This is the same type of kit used on the mow legendary Light cannon and stealth light cannon headlights. With nearly 3 times the luminosity of the factory halogen bulbs, and with a projector housing specifically designed for this bulb, the result is the ability to see further in the dark resulting increased safety and reduced fatigue.
02-24-2012, 01:44 PM
#26
Thanks for the clarification. I thought ballasts and bulbs are included with the new kits only, since most people already have the ballasts with the old ACA lights. But in this case you are offering new ballasts and bulbs for both services.
02-24-2012, 01:44 PM
#27
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02-26-2012, 01:13 PM
#31
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Compare this to a dedicated high beam which offers a narrow beam that requires a second bulb and 100+ watts of additional power. Most High beam patterns turn off the low beams or augment the illumination of the low beams causing the driver to have to re-focus while driving. This can be especially dangerous if the high beams are halogen and the low beams are HID where color and light intensity play a considerable factor. Bi-xenon is defiantly the safer choice.
This is the Low beam pattern you'll see from a single projector:
This is the high beam pattern:
02-26-2012, 01:53 PM
#33
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02-26-2012, 03:49 PM
#34
Melting Slicks
count me in.
02-26-2012, 04:27 PM
#35
Burning Brakes
not technically, The ACA high beam will remain a halogen light source. The difference is the projector will offer a high beam pattern as well as the low. The benefit over the existing high beam is a Bi-x high beam pattern is wider, instant and requires virtually no additional power to create. It also does not affect the driver's foreground vision as light is ONLY added above the cutoff pattern.
Compare this to a dedicated high beam which offers a narrow beam that requires a second bulb and 100+ watts of additional power. Most High beam patterns turn off the low beams or augment the illumination of the low beams causing the driver to have to re-focus while driving. This can be especially dangerous if the high beams are halogen and the low beams are HID where color and light intensity play a considerable factor. Bi-xenon is defiantly the safer choice.
Compare this to a dedicated high beam which offers a narrow beam that requires a second bulb and 100+ watts of additional power. Most High beam patterns turn off the low beams or augment the illumination of the low beams causing the driver to have to re-focus while driving. This can be especially dangerous if the high beams are halogen and the low beams are HID where color and light intensity play a considerable factor. Bi-xenon is defiantly the safer choice.
Also, the ACA units I bought from JWMotoring during 2011 already have circuitry that leaves the low beam "on" when I turn on the high beam. Does that circuitry throw a monkey wrench into your upgrade?
The Lizzard
02-26-2012, 04:42 PM
#36
Team Owner
I have found that the "jiggle" or "bounce" being referred to is mostly a function of the stock headlight linkage and pivot slop that really doesn't affect the forgiving dispersion pattern of the halogens. It is, however, painfully accentuated by the sharp HID cutoff pattern. I have done some supplemental tightening of the pivot pins and the linkages alothough, one needs to be judicious in how much you tighten the assemblies as they will quickly lock up and jam the headlight rotation with a bit too much resistance.
The Sun Guns I got from JWM have a stabilizing feature in their design that serves to eliminate the slop in the assembly and is adjustable to different amounts of slack in the linkage and pivot to a certain extent.
These headlight assemblies were obviously not designed with HID's in mind so, some creativity - and tolerance for the limitations of the setup - are required to make them work satifactorily.
The Sun Guns I got from JWM have a stabilizing feature in their design that serves to eliminate the slop in the assembly and is adjustable to different amounts of slack in the linkage and pivot to a certain extent.
These headlight assemblies were obviously not designed with HID's in mind so, some creativity - and tolerance for the limitations of the setup - are required to make them work satifactorily.
02-26-2012, 09:16 PM
#38
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What is the bulb life for these Bi-x bulbs? Same as for any other HID bulb? More? Less?
The Bulb being used is normal HID bulb. the Bi-xenon part is part of the projector. The cutoff shield that produces the low beam pattern is moved out of the way and the light pattern changes. The bulb remains stationary inside the projector:
See this video for an in depth explanation of the projector being used.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFF2XoZJIBo
Also, the ACA units I bought from JWMotoring during 2011 already have circuitry that leaves the low beam "on" when I turn on the high beam. Does that circuitry throw a monkey wrench into your upgrade?
The Lizzard
The Bulb being used is normal HID bulb. the Bi-xenon part is part of the projector. The cutoff shield that produces the low beam pattern is moved out of the way and the light pattern changes. The bulb remains stationary inside the projector:
See this video for an in depth explanation of the projector being used.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFF2XoZJIBo
Also, the ACA units I bought from JWMotoring during 2011 already have circuitry that leaves the low beam "on" when I turn on the high beam. Does that circuitry throw a monkey wrench into your upgrade?
The Lizzard
looking to run the first group buy in late march/early April pending reviews from the Guinea pig
03-03-2012, 10:53 PM
#39
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Thread Starter
Just finished the first Retrofit on Evan70's lights. Here are the results:
The most noticeable difference was the increase in width of the modified lights. The modified lights had a beam spread of 76 degrees (the full width of a 16' garage door at 10 feet) compared to the original projector's 60 degree width.
ACA projector with 5000K 55w H9 HID bulb:
Modified projector with 5000K 55w HID bulb
The 16 degrees of additional width may not seem like much, but at a distance of 50 feet, the modified projector will illuminate an additional 10+ feet on either side!
You'll also notice that the modified projector focuses the most amount of light at the top of the cutoff while the factory projector has a distinctive hot spot in the center. This results in "tunnel vision" for the ACA projector while the Modified version illuminates in a more uniform pattern making the entire road light up.
Now on to the high beam alignment issue. This seems to be the most common complaint among ACA users. A the housing is a single unit, there's no real way to adjust the high and low beams interdependently. The test shows that the ACA high beam is aimed far to low to be of any use.
ACA low beam:
ACA high beam:
ACA Low and High beam
The High beam should be aimed dead center on the step of the cutoff or slightly higher. The current ACA kit has the high beam aimed below the cutoff which means on the road it will be useless.
The Modified projector solves this problem in 2 ways. First, the projector is tilted down slightly to compensate for the high beam's position:
Modified ACA low beam:
Modified ACA high beam halogen over low beam
The second solution is the bi-xenon mechanism which moves the cutoff shield on the projector down to allow for a full-spread of the light. As you can see most of the light in the high beam pattern comes from the projector. In this kit the halogen bulb will serve mostly as a signaling device to other drivers. Unlike other HID high beam setups, the Bi-xenon mechanism has zero warmup time, draws virtually no additional current and can be flashed repeatedly with no damage to the HID bulb.
Modified ACA High beam with Bi-xenon high beam
The last significant difference is the quality of the beam pattern. The ACA projector is a very simple design with a flat cutoff shield designed to be easy to mass produce. As a result the optics were only focused correctly at a small part of the beam pattern resulting in a skewed cutoff pattern:
ACA cutoff pattern:
The Modified projector has a curved cutoff shield that correctly focuses light across the entire width of the pattern and contributes to the useable width of the beam.
Modified ACA cutoff Pattern
It's also noteworthy that the modified headlights look exactly like they came from the factory in appearance:
Can you tell which one has been modified?
The most noticeable difference was the increase in width of the modified lights. The modified lights had a beam spread of 76 degrees (the full width of a 16' garage door at 10 feet) compared to the original projector's 60 degree width.
ACA projector with 5000K 55w H9 HID bulb:
Modified projector with 5000K 55w HID bulb
The 16 degrees of additional width may not seem like much, but at a distance of 50 feet, the modified projector will illuminate an additional 10+ feet on either side!
You'll also notice that the modified projector focuses the most amount of light at the top of the cutoff while the factory projector has a distinctive hot spot in the center. This results in "tunnel vision" for the ACA projector while the Modified version illuminates in a more uniform pattern making the entire road light up.
Now on to the high beam alignment issue. This seems to be the most common complaint among ACA users. A the housing is a single unit, there's no real way to adjust the high and low beams interdependently. The test shows that the ACA high beam is aimed far to low to be of any use.
ACA low beam:
ACA high beam:
ACA Low and High beam
The High beam should be aimed dead center on the step of the cutoff or slightly higher. The current ACA kit has the high beam aimed below the cutoff which means on the road it will be useless.
The Modified projector solves this problem in 2 ways. First, the projector is tilted down slightly to compensate for the high beam's position:
Modified ACA low beam:
Modified ACA high beam halogen over low beam
The second solution is the bi-xenon mechanism which moves the cutoff shield on the projector down to allow for a full-spread of the light. As you can see most of the light in the high beam pattern comes from the projector. In this kit the halogen bulb will serve mostly as a signaling device to other drivers. Unlike other HID high beam setups, the Bi-xenon mechanism has zero warmup time, draws virtually no additional current and can be flashed repeatedly with no damage to the HID bulb.
Modified ACA High beam with Bi-xenon high beam
The last significant difference is the quality of the beam pattern. The ACA projector is a very simple design with a flat cutoff shield designed to be easy to mass produce. As a result the optics were only focused correctly at a small part of the beam pattern resulting in a skewed cutoff pattern:
ACA cutoff pattern:
The Modified projector has a curved cutoff shield that correctly focuses light across the entire width of the pattern and contributes to the useable width of the beam.
Modified ACA cutoff Pattern
It's also noteworthy that the modified headlights look exactly like they came from the factory in appearance:
Can you tell which one has been modified?
