permanent solution to dim commando headlight

I currently have an LED H4 replacement bulb in my Commando. It is super bright and draws a lot less current than the Halogen bulb did.
Here is what I bought"






I selected this one because I wanted a true high/low beam difference and as you can see the location of the top and bottom LEDs is actually off set. I felt like this showed that someone was actually thinking when they designed it so it had a chance of having the correct focal length in the reflector. Here are the specs:
Item Specifics & Feature:
LED quantity: 2pcs (one bulb has two LEDs)
Power input: 12V-24V vehicles
Material: Aluminum
Socket: H4/9003/HB2 H/L
Color: Xenon White 6000K-6500K
Power: 36W
High Beam Lumens: 3200Lm
Low Beam Lumens: 2600Lm
Beam Angle: 360°
Lifespan: > 30,000 Hours
Low Voltage Protection, High precision Constant Current Driver Chip
Great for ANY Application
Built in IC Circuit (Current Regulator)-Prevents LED Damage from Voltage Variations & Spikes

On high beam it does light both LEDs but must back off on something since the current does not double. I have measured the amps and will post that information later. If you unplug the heat sinc fan the current to the bulb drops way down and the brightness is reduced but it would probably safely operate that way.

This one might be as good or better:





Voltage: DC12~24V
Power : High Bulb: 40W/Bulb, Low Bulb: 30W/Bulb
Lumen: High Bulb: 4500LM/Bulb, Low Bulb: 3500LM/Bulb (The product's power and lumens for reference only, if you demand higher actual power and lumens, please think twice before you make order)
Size: As the Picture Show
Waterproof Rate: IP 67
LED Type: CREE-XML LED Chip
Color Temperature: 6000K White
Beam Angle: 360
Life Time: 30000 Hours Above Life Time

This one has the power circuit built onto the back of the bulb, has the off set length for high and low beam, says "waterproof!" It also draws 40W and says 4500LM instead of 3200 like the one I bought. The only thing I would be a bit concerned about is the 360 degree vs. 115 degree but that would have to be tested in a headlight to see what difference it makes.

Find it at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/371223209463?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT
Dan.

I've just been doing some re-testing of my headlight bulb. I have the one that is in my first post in this thread, the silver one that says 3200 LM.

On High Beam it draws 2.28 amps at 13 volts, 2.43A at 12.5V, 2.55A at 12V.

On Low Beam it draws 2.31A at 13V, 2.41A at 12.5Volts. The controller also gets a lot hotter on low beam so that explains the current being about equal while only one LED is lit and the advertised lumens drop to 2600.

Disconnecting the cooling fan power gets an immediate lowering in light output and the current drops to 1.67 amps at 13.5 volts. The light out put is still pretty good so that might be something to do on purpose by putting a switch in the fan circuit.

That is 29.64 watts on High Beam at 13 volts and 30.375 watts at 12.5 volts. The light does not diminish as the voltage rises so maybe it is just more efficient. Low beam runs almost the same wattage as high beam so I guess the manufacturer measured the wattage at the bulb with out the controller. It is super bright and a very nice shape beam and I am happy with it. I am using a Lucas "dips right" 7" automotive H4 reflector.

Dan.

Has anybody had long term experience with the 7" Truck Lite LED's? I have installed one in a Harley and one in my Norton. They work great, not polarity sensitive, are military grade and give an impressive white light. Due to some surgeries, I have not been able to put many miles on either installation. They are a shade over $200 but worth it if they are lasting.
Mike

Hm has anyone seen animal eye reflections from LEDs? I know the eye tint colors of various critters to know when to freak out or not. If they are red orange yellow like the all the evil movie characters = predators that stay put or turn away, its white blue teal green ish eyes that send spikes up my groin. I can't tell ya how much more ease I have a night when reflective can pop tops became obsolete. Blue drive way reflectors give me a startle. Have ya run a 100 yrd away from LED to see how oncoming sees you?

hobot said:

Hm has anyone seen animal eye reflections from LEDs? I know the eye tint colors of various critters to know when to freak out or not.

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Not yet experienced it, although, based on what it does to reflective stripes and signs, I have to assume it'll do equally well with beady eyeballs. I'll start riding early morning come next week. With the heavy raccoon population around here, we'll find out soon enough.

hobot said:

Have ya run a 100 yrd away from LED to see how oncoming sees you?

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Yeah, it's obnoxious on high beam! My reflector gives a great cut-off, so, as long as I keep the headlight properly adjusted, it shouldn't cause too many irritated drivers.


Nathan

mikie3117 said:

Has anybody had long term experience with the 7" Truck Lite LED's? I have installed one in a Harley and one in my Norton. They work great, not polarity sensitive, are military grade and give an impressive white light. Due to some surgeries, I have not been able to put many miles on either installation. They are a shade over $200 but worth it if they are lasting.
Mike

Click to expand...

I have 2 of them, one on my XS650 I have used quite a bit. I am very happy with the light output, and it survived a crash.

Here's another light to try...Truck-Lite P/N 27270C. This is a plug and play and fits right in a standard 7" shell.

I put one on my Commando and it makes the dark go away. It looks a bit different but it works great.

I am planning on two more for for my other bikes.

Craig

Fifteen hundred miles later, and still running strong. Unfortunately, the link I originally posted back on page 2 no longer comes up as the same item currently in my bike. The one piece that led me to this one in the first place was the fact that it was not polarity sensitive. IIRC, it was built to be compatible with the late-model Toyota vehicles. 'Something to keep in mind if you go looking.

Nathan

A reasonable headlight is the standard round automotive GE Halogen sealed beam. Nothing fancy, but it works well (like an H4) and you don't have the aging reflector problems of non-sealed beam H4s. Cheap and totally plug-and-play.

Compared with my other bikes ( a 82 GS 1100E with that giant H4 headlight, and a Bandit 1200 with those one-eyed-cat crotch rocket projector lights, the sealed beam in the Commando is pretty good. Certainly better than that Lucas P.O.S.

The downfall of all motorcycle headlights is they are useless in corners. Even if you can go 100mph on the straight, throw it into a corner and you may as well have driven into a coal mine.

The only rig I've come up with to drive twisties at night is a pair of driving floods mounted on the engine guards, pointing out 20' and up 30' (major fiddling needed to get the angle right). I wired them into the high beam circuit so I could kill them with the dimmer switch because they are lethal for oncoming cars. I considered wiring them to a turn signal switch so I could alternate them in the corners, but the project ran out of steam.

Hi manxman.
My headlight lens projects forward of the chrome shroud and provides peripheral lighting upright and cornering.
Your set-up may benefit from tilt switches and relays to automatically activate the lights as the lean into corners increases.
Ta.

needing said:

Hi manxman.
My headlight lens projects forward of the chrome shroud and provides peripheral lighting upright and cornering.
Your set-up may benefit from tilt switches and relays to automatically activate the lights as the lean into corners increases.
Ta.

Click to expand...

Hi Needing.
Good Idea. I wish I could figure some automatic gadget to do the job. I don't know how to sense the lean angle of the bike without using a gyro. The steering angle is no good. Maybe iPhone has an app for that ????

Back when the world was young I read a bike magazine article about a guy who solved this problem on his MotoGuzi with a gyroscope. The whole reflector/bulb assembly was mounted on a bearing inside the headlight shell. The reflector was rotated by a gyro and a linkage which would do Rube Goldberg proud. The reflector kept horizontal when the bike leaned. It was a beautiful thing, all hidden inside the shell. Unfortunately, it is beyond my McGivering skills.

Fortunately, my country road route home has fun 80km/hr corners and very little traffic. The setup I describe worked well on my road, but likely wouldn't be good for other folks on other roads.

With all the technology being wasted on silly crap (OMG: a BMW electro-hydraulic centre stand !!!!) I wish some clever geek would solve this problem. I'd buy him a beer.

Manxman

Newest BMW has Laser light that aims where cycle is headed and senses on comming head light to shut off beam in that moving area, which is filled with oncomming light so not noticed by cyclist but appreciated by cage drivers. Mercury switch would be tricky d/t air craft like coorindated turn which most cyclist and cycle do automatically-naturally so may not sense direction changes well as force would still be mostly down in line of wheel plane, similar to vertical cruise. I had crisscrossed driving lights on Peel but found the close up glare-reflections bothersome so removed them. When I get my deer hunting helmet set up with hi pressure bb zip gun I intend to have twin LED lights on either side to aim where I look and togle on/off by switch for RH to work and triggle to scattle critters or shoot bottle and cans- though the dual blunderbluses will be fork/cycle aimmed to put out paintballs like mines going off.

Hoping someone with more electrical/LED experience will help me out.
I bought this LED headlight replacement system on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Car-Motorcycle- ... 19ebc1548e
It has 4 LEDs, 2 on each side of a center rail.
When I plug it into my 74 850 3 prong female headlight socket and turn on the low beam 2 of the LEDs light, when I flip the high beam swith on the handle bar those 2 LEDs turn off and the other 2 turn on.
The problem is that both sets of LEDs appear to be the same brightness. To be more sure I turned out all the lights in the garage and could still not see any difference in brightness.
This leads me to think that either something is wrong with the system or both sets of LEDs are supposed to be on for high beam.

The ones I have bought work this way, in both -ve or +ve earth systems, ie low beam is one set of leds and main beam add extra leds and all the low beam stay on. So maybe try your in a -ve earth system to see which way it works, the fault may be in their universal circuitry and its not 100% compatible with +ve earth.

Having a read of the ebay description it may be working correctly

High\Low beam lumens: 2400 Lumens

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in other descriptions the lumens for high beam is higher than low beam, in this its the same so 2 leds for each circuit sounds right.

The beam spread should change though as the leds are in a different position.

Thanks kommado.
I tried it in my old truck which is negative ground. It worked the same way, 2 on for low beam, the other 2 on for high beam.
The 2 LEDs closest to the front (unit/vehicle) are "low beam" the 2 "high beam" LEDs are back towards the base of the unit/back of the vehicle.
I will finish putting it in and see if there is any discernible difference with the reflector in play.

Some observations on the install.
My headlight glass and reflector are made for a H4 bulb so they are not the best for this LED system.
The LED has its large shroud at the bottom with the LEDs shining out to the sides. The H4 bulb has its small shroud on the right side and the reflector has a thin cross member on the left in the same plane as the LEDs on that side so some of the left side light is diminished.
Because of the bottom shroud all the LED light goes out the top half of the lens. The H4 used both halves although only when on high beam.
Even so the LED does look brighter in the dark garage, I will take it our after dark soon to do an actual test.
Switching from low to high beam with the LED moves the light up a little (on the garage wall). Will have to see how that works at night also. But still does not look any brighter to me.
the LED system fit into the lens/reflector unit ok. Just from looking at it you would think it is too long to fit in.
Getting it into the Commando headlight shell was much harder. The LED power connector at the back faces straight up and does not fit with the very large (parking light?) switch inside the shell. Why is that switch so big? Luckily I found that the LED connector would rotate about 45 degrees to the left, and that gave enough clearance to fit. I "made a hole" in the middle of all the wires in the shell, meaning moved them towards the outside so they would not contact the fins on the LED system. I hope they stay put as I fear the fins might get hot enough to melt the plastic coating and short a wire. I will have to monitor that for a while.
I am doing this because I want to run the lights all the time with the crazy traffic these days and because the old bulb was very poor at night (nice yellow glow but not enough light to ride safely).
So even if not optimal the LED will probably be better. Will report back when the actual test is done.

I'm currently running this bulb http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PC-Motorcycle- ... d6&vxp=mtr and it has worked very well. Note the positioning of the LEDs. Low beam uses the "outer" two, while high beam adds the third. 20W/30W, and lots of bright light. You can read more about it in the write-up from last October back on page 3 of this thread. This bulb splits the electronics out into a separate box in the harness, allowing for a more compact fitting on the back of the bulb, and it's compatible with both positive and negative earth.

Nathan

Thanks Nater_Potater, I may just order one of those. It looks much more like a normal H4 bulb than the unit I bought, and would probably fit and use the lens/reflector better also.
I am worried about the heat sink fins in my unit. I can always use it on some other vehicle.

I ordered 2 of those bulbs several months ago and love them..Highly recommended for brightness and fit...