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One never knows how deep the rabbit hole is, I just appreciate your attention to detail and wanting to get it 'right'. And I want to help you amortize the cost of the Shopbot.... I've had a pair of H4s on the shelf for oh, 7 years, have never been motivated to put them on the car but being able to do a set of LED bulbs 'right' is a strong motivator.
Hmmm... I just realized that I could be taking slices out of 90° angle stock rather than using flat stock. Opening those up by 10° or so would be easy.
I need to go mow the lawn, which is timely, because that's when I do some of my best thinking...
Edit: and even better... I found some pre-fab aluminum brackets that might just work. Will look into this further when I have more time.
Last edited by Ed Scherer; 05-13-2017 at 07:45 PM.
Nice work Ed, and thanks for walking us through the prototype process. Once you feel like you are ready to release this to the wild, please let me know, I am definitively interested in upgrading my plywood prototypes. Yours are a substantial improvement.
It would also be interesting to know the dimensions of the LED driver modules. If we're lucky, they're the same size as what I've already designed the brackets for: a module sized 36 mm by 62 mm, with M3 screws at 56 mm apart on the long dimension and 28 mm apart on the short dimension. I have yet to see a photo or diagram of the bottom of those modules, though, so I don't know if they even have screws.
It appears that supporting these would just involve making the inside hole in the cap 25 mm instead of 22 mm, as I've done so far. Shouldn't be a problem.
Remember the brackets I mentioned in post #62? I got a few last week and they look like they'll work out just fine. I'm almost done with minor modifications to the design to accommodate them and then I'll make another cap and see how it works out. This is getting very close.
Ed,
any idea if those of us with factory headlight adjusters will be able to use this as a solution? The adjuster is at the bottom of the lens so probably has a significant impact on the clearances in the area of your driver holder.
any idea if those of us with factory headlight adjusters will be able to use this as a solution? The adjuster is at the bottom of the lens so probably has a significant impact on the clearances in the area of your driver holder.
Myles, I think it's going to work. I started thinking about the adjusters a while back (see post #44). That's what caused me to reduce the size of the cap. It's still thicker at the bottom (7.0 mm for prototype #3 cap vs. 3.5 mm for stock cap) and very slightly larger in diameter (90.0 mm for prototype #3 cap vs. 87.4 mm for stock cap), but I'm pretty sure it will work unless the adjusters pivot the reflector assembly way more than seems reasonable. If that turns out to be the case, I'll reduce the diameter a few mm and maybe machine off a little of the top around the perimeter.
I'm hoping I can find a volunteer here in the U.S. (not to mention names, but are you there, Jim Corenman?) who has headlight adjusters who would try out my next prototype — #4 — to assure that it will work with the adjusters.
I expect to make a few units of prototype #4 (using the latest brackets I mentioned above) within the next few days. These will be for H4 bulbs with 22 mm barrels, unless somebody convinces me that I need to do the 25 mm barrels first.
I probably need to make two identical ones for myself pretty soon, because I'd like to at least get my own car taken care of ASAP so I can close up the headlights and start using the car again.
Thanks, Glen. Can you tell me about the screws? Probably flat head. Hoping for M3. Length?
Also, when you get them fired up, it would be interesting to get a temperature of the barrel and heat sink braids after they're on long enough to reach steady-state.
I'm hoping I can find a volunteer here in the U.S. (not to mention names, but are you there, Jim Corenman?) who has headlight adjusters who would try out my next prototype — #4 — to assure that it will work with the adjusters.
Haven't seen him
Sure, I'm happy to try out a prototype. I PM'ed my address and contact info.
05-13-2017, 05:39 PM
