The sun rises in my livingroom.

I assume that you have a 55 watt halogen that you're thinking about converting?

I got the 100W HID kit here. Great communication with the reseller and the items arrived in perfect condition. Total with shipping was about $98 to the US.

Credit goes to 2100 for finding these for me.

I really like mine. Is yours bamboo? I got it at an estate sale for $5 and keep all my GPS equipment in it.

Already converted. I'll post it up soon. Posted it on cpf awhile back. Would rather have it up here though since I don't really go on cpf anymore. It's not very pretty. But works great.

I am not sure if it bamboo or not and I don't remember were it came from I have had it for at least 20 years. It was just really weird when I noticed it I have never seen another one like it before.

Haha! I NEVER post my creations or significant contributions to CPF. Its a total waste of time and like giving information to an ignorant glutinous enemy.

Please do post your HID conversion. Just copy/paste from CPF if you dont have much time. 55W is a lot brighter than 35W. Do you still have a spare ballast and bulb?

I might have some spares. I just have to check. I have been putting them in offroad lights and on the brights of one of my cars. Started with them in the original headlight housings of my jeep but took them out soon after cause I was afraid of the glare for other drivers. I get most of them from ddm tuning. 55w start at $45 per kit.

Im glad to see youre not one of those guys running HID's in regular auto headlight housings any longer. Which offroad housings are you using for conversion?

I was using hella 700ffs on my jeep, but sold it. Will probably use some cheap ebay housings as soon as I find a nice suzuki sammy to put them on. I really did like the hella's but I feel the ebay's are more in my budget. I also plan on putting some 500ffs behind the grill of my crown vic.

Battery performance run time added:


Battery: PC680 ODYSSEY Drycell Lead Acid Absorbed Glass Mat

17 amp hour rating

Battery age: 7 years


2 x 100W Test

Resting Voltage: 12.93V

Run time in minutes to 11.0V (loaded): 21 min., 11 sec.

Resting Voltage after 5 minutes recovery: 11.97V


1 x 100W Test

Resting Voltage: 12.91V

Run time in minutes to 11.0V (loaded): 55 min., 50 sec.

Resting Voltage after 5 minutes recovery: 11.76V


I will try to barrow a friends clamp meter to get amperage readings later...

I get about 91W on 24V supply (25.0V loaded and 3.65A). 24V juice makes the ballast a little bit more efficient, so they could say be giving out slightly more output than with a 12V supply and yet 12V it is taking say 98W.

Im using a large descent quality 10A 12V battery charger to keep mine going. Starting amperage requires more than the charger can deliver to ignite 1 bulb... much less 2 bulbs. I have to keep the battery in the circuit to fire the ignitors. Once the operating temperature has stabilized, my battery charger uses 242W at the wall plug to keep both 100W lights running. Im sure the DC charger isnt that efficient and it generates a considerable amount of heat.

I need to barrow a good clamp meter to get actual readings before the ballast and after the ignitor.

2100, I put my spotlight together over the weekend. The conversion turned out extremely well and it performs exactly as you had conjectured. The beam through the nice aluminum reflector is quite uniform and the 100W's create some massive spill. Its like having 30 SST-90's for the spill beam but with a multi-thousand foot range hotspot thrown in for good measure ... probably about 1/10th the overall power of the VS3. The beam easily torched the entire 3000 x 40 foot tarmac airstrip I fly out of. All this in the palm of my hand and driven from my cigarette lighter plug. I am honestly blown away. Maybe even a bit pissed off that I didnt build one years ago. I'll write a review soon. Thanks for all of your support bro.

Man, Im still blown away by this darn thing. WOW!

BTW, be careful with the light. I am not sure how much UV your Coleman front glass cuts, and how much UV the quartz envelope cuts. It's ok to just check out th bulb at over 1m for maybe 1 or 2 seconds, but nothing more than that. But anyway i am wearing transition lenses which cuts out quite a bit of UV-A. (i know how much it cuts with my 405nm laser defocused)

Throw is good and fun, but most times i prefer sheer brute force lumens esp in a small package.

575W (MSR575) 700W(HTI 700W/D4) and 1500w (HTI 1500W/D7) compared to HID car headlamps at high beam (35W x 2?). This thing is small enough to fit into your coat!

165000 lumens for the 1.5kW.

All vids belong to Thomas from Germany. (siamese on CPF)


BTW the guy is using LiPo for 1.5kW, yes. And we are cringing on 2 x 18650s!

Not easy to source for the parts. Siamese told me to find on Ebay but i can't find the PAR lights. Aliexpress no go too. I can get a UPS or Inverter to power, but most probably AC to save cost.

There are some decently priced searchlights on aliexpress but are physically very big at least for my house/storeroom to store.

Hopefully we wont read of a LiPo venting on Thomas while he powers that monstrosity. Those bulbs were probably designed for stationary mounts and might not take to kindly to the high impact environment of a bicycle. There is actually a point where there is far to much light and what is useful for an application. Ive equipped my bikes with 2 x KD C8's. I run with only one in operation 90% of the time. Carving trails and paths with two lights blazing creates some tunnel vision after about 30 min. It also completely destroys my night vision sensitivity to the spill beam. This is is not a good thing when traveling 15-18mph through sharp narrow turns, and seeing blue spots when looking off to the sides to judge a turning radius.

Thanks for the UV warnings. I never look into the lens while its powered up. I almost went with 6000K and am very glad that I didnt. The 4300K bulbs give a much warmer tint that is far more useful and easier on the eyes for the way this lamp will be used.

I might get another pair of these 100W's and put them in a set of offroad vehicle housings as WastedNihilist has done. Im just not sure which ones would give the best overall beam after the HID conversion. Id like to find something that offers tremendous flood with descent range. Maybe I'll go with an LED array as something like this.

If you dont have a good use for massive candlepower, you're not going to get to enjoy it the way that you had imagined. If you have a large amount of money burning a hole in your pocket, go take an introductory flying lesson and see how that hits you. Ask any pilot if there is anything on this earth that beats flying. Most of us have the same answer.

Flashpilot, can buy the LED bars from the same place where you ordered your HIDs.

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=240W+LED+bar

Well, seriously i have no real use for 4x DRYs, HIDs....all are for hobby. My in-laws do. But luckily all my targets are really far as I live pretty high up, so not too bad. In Singapore we do not have any blackouts. (cables are underground too, so pretty immune to solar storms maybe not those which would knockout whole continents).

No use at all, but i still want those searchlights! This is called flashaholism, like alcoholism you don't need no reason. LOL!

(maybe when i really shift to Indonesia for retirement, i may have a true reason to use them after all)

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/508051/210168825-479146032/2011-New-design-Search-light7000w-10000w.html

PS. In SG it's really not easy to fly/own firearms. Though i managed to fire several rounds of 20mm in auto before on an APC and also 40mm grenades on a M203, Light Anti-tank Weapon/LAW. 3 years ago i fully fufilled my requirement of 2.5 years of Full-time National Service and 10 years/cycle of Reservist training, now on "Reserve" (hope no war here :D ).

Here is my HID conversion. Also I don't seem to have any spare HID bulbs or ballasts. Which seems odd since I should have used an odd number of them but received all of them in pairs. Oh well.

2100, Im familiar with the addiction. At least we arent collecting something as mundane as postage stamps or shoe laces. Once you get that 7kW searchlight, please do a full review - including 5 mile beam shots. Im amazed at how inexpensive it is. I can wait the years along with you till you acquire it. LOL!

Im jealous of your large caliber/explosive round destructive venture onto the firing range. HOW FUN! If you're ever in the states, please do look me up. Idaho is the best state in the 48 to fly in, and there's always something fun to do once you land.

WastedNihilist, thanks for the link. I must have missed your thread somehow. Keep digging for those missing parts. They must be somewhere! Do you get to use your searchlight often?

edit: your thread just popped up in my RSS feed... must be some lag.

Gladys, spam, spam, spam...