Originally when my project started out, my park lamps were in the outer section of the headlight assembly. The factory designed this section as park/turn but the turns were relocated during the project. Well, the park lamps were moved as well, but I had already created this piece. I cannot change the project not, nor do I want to. The current opening is about 2" in diameter. I have found a lens that I am going to put in it, and I am going to most likely use a Luxeon Star as a low power DRL. Since the lens is mostly clear, and I dont want the entire star to be visible, I have decided to use a clear reflector, and put a hole through the middle of it for the Star to fire through. I have thought of using a front bicycle reflector, but they are curved at the edges and that could make for some problems because of the Star's size. Any idea of where I could find some white reflectors? 3" in diameter would give me a little bit of play room too since the lamp increases in diameter slightly once it is behind the housing.

Here is a pic of the lamp when it was park only. It has since been bonded to the original factory lenses (modified of course).



This is the new lamp that is going to fill its hole. The chrome ring will sit behind the OEM lens, and will not be visible. If you look at the pic, you can see the bulb/socket and vent holes. I am going to revise the vents, the Luxeon will sit where the socket is and the reflector will go over that, with the small hole for the Luxeon to shine through.



Ideas?

-Jon

Have u cheked out the reflector links for luxeon on:
http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/signal-leds.htm

One luxeon may be a little dim for DRL function. It should match output from a 20-30W incadescent bulb.

I thought about it after I posted and realised that the 1w would be way too dim for DRL. I guess it would be used slightly like a park lamp (even though that will be elsewhere), or for a positioning lamp when/if a lowbeam burns out. I just dont want a dead section on the assembly and the car's structure prohibited me from moving the lows out further to take up that spot.

Ok, then, ideas?

-Jon

1watt would be wimpy for DRL. The new Audi A8 coming out soon uses LED's for DRL. Except, it uses five 5 watt LED's. That is impossible for you to use there because of size constraints and cooling requirements.

Are u sure Hella (for Audi A8) uses 5W LEDs at full power? I speculate that 5 x 1W lumileds with really good reflectrs will create enough output. They could also possibly use the 5 x 5W lumileds, but with lower drive to decrease output.

Well I don't know if they are at full power. I've never seen one in real life. But they are 5watt luxeons. The press release on Hella.com says so.

DRLs need to be at least 500 candela on axis and need to have essentially a flood lamp pattern. Yes, the Audi probably does need to have more than one high powered LED. Both Hella and GM produce complying white DRLs using incandescent bulbs and those are typically 25 watt bulbs. So an LED powered DRL should be quite a bit more efficient and use only a few 5 watt elements. On the otherhand, because LEDs are very directional and achieving a good beam pattern demands more optical design than just soldering LEDs to a circuit board, a practical lamp may need more LEDs to achieve a robust wide beam pattern needed for DRLs.

Yea good point.. optics will play a major role in making these DOT compliant.