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R1200RT LED Headlight conversion advice needed

@pappy35 Thanks for the links. I hadn't thought about disassembling the ones with wires but I think you are right as long as what I get is the same as what is pictured; I'll give it a shot.

I've sent in a request to Light Moses asking for bulb dimensions including chip position in relation to filament location in standard H7 bulb.

I'll will take before, during and after pics once done.

Rod
 
alvtrex said:
The parking lights will look weird if you only replace the headlights... for a few $$, I think it's worth having the same color for the whole set.
Click to expand...

I know the R nine T is a BMW orphan, but the cyclops parking light bulb will throw a lamp code if used in conjunction with Cyclops headlamp bulb. The headlamp bulb won't throw code but adding the parking lot into the mix = headlamp fault code.
 
I ended up ordering THESE LED lights from Amazon yesterday, they arrived today. I hooked them up to 12v for a quick test, they all work and are really bright. The chips are in exactly the same place as the element in a stock H7. The reviews were pretty good, they claim to be Canbus ready and no radio interference. I'm sure they are not the brightest LEDs on the market but that really wasn't what I was after.

I post pics once I figure out how to get the dang headlight out of this thing but that's another thread.... :banghead

Rod

View attachment 77177
 
Not picking on these in particular but just saying that, in general, most currently available LEDs will never perfectly emulate a halogen regardless of how accurately they position the chips. The attached snippet is from Luxeon's Z ES chipset and is pretty typical for LED chips (CREE is another supplier if you want to go look it up).

What this says is that 90% of the total luminous output is observed in about a 140 degree arc per side (there are chip on both sides of the mount). That leaves about a 40% arc on each side (think hourglass shaped) unilluminated and how this manifests itself is a function of the reflector design. 2013 and earlier, dual low beam, RTs have asymmetric reflectors and I can tell you from personal experience with three completely different H7 bulbs that there is a lot of scattered light and poor illumination to the right side. I made up for this by adding auxiliary lights and the Intels I kept aren't as bright so the scattering is less bothersome to others. Wetheads and newer I think have a symmetric single low beam and so for all I know this problem may not be an issue.

Capture.PNG
 
pappy35 said:
Not picking on these in particular but just saying that, in general, most currently available LEDs will never perfectly emulate a halogen regardless of how accurately they position the chips. The attached snippet is from Luxeon's Z ES chipset and is pretty typical for LED chips (CREE is another supplier if you want to go look it up).

What this says is that 90% of the total luminous output is observed in about a 140 degree arc per side (there are chip on both sides of the mount). That leaves about a 40% arc on each side (think hourglass shaped) unilluminated and how this manifests itself is a function of the reflector design. 2013 and earlier, dual low beam, RTs have asymmetric reflectors and I can tell you from personal experience with three completely different H7 bulbs that there is a lot of scattered light and poor illumination to the right side. I made up for this by adding auxiliary lights and the Intels I kept aren't as bright so the scattering is less bothersome to others. Wetheads and newer I think have a symmetric single low beam and so for all I know this problem may not be an issue.

View attachment 77178
Click to expand...

@pappy35,

I agree with that, that is the reason I was interested in the Light Moses 360* lights but it appeared the chips may not have been in the same position as the filament in an H7 bulb which I think is critical. I made several attempts to contact the Light Moses distributor for chip position measurements but didn't get any reply....
 
dirtmerchant said:
@pappy35,

I agree with that, that is the reason I was interested in the Light Moses 360* lights but it appeared the chips may not have been in the same position as the filament in an H7 bulb which I think is critical. I made several attempts to contact the Light Moses distributor for chip position measurements but didn't get any reply....
Click to expand...

Their site is very vague on details. I'm probably wrong about this but that unit has, if you believe the pictures on their site, 18 emitters. THere aren't that many companies that make white LED chips and for most, the specs are very nearly the same. So, given that, if most units out there have 6 in two groups of three, how freaking bright would 6 groups of three be?

Since most LED chip have a 140 degree emission spread, it seems to be that an array of 3 chips mounted as close to the centerline would be ideal but as far as I can tell no one makes anything like that. This leads me to conclude that my basic assumptions are wrong. A friend of mine that recently converted to the Intel H7s is going to send me his old HID kit to try out. I got all wrapped up in testing LEDs and never tried them (well, there's that and all the other hardware HIDs have).
 
I put the bulbs in yesterday and while not thrilled I'm pretty happy with the results. The light is more scattered than the halogen H7 bulbs but the are much brighter. I took before and after indoor pics and outdoor after pics, didn't think to take outdoor before pics...

For reference, the indoor pics were at 30' from the door with the bike on the centerstand.

HIGH AND LOW BEAM Halogen
IMG_1050.jpg


LOW BEAM ONLY Halogen
IMG_1051.jpg


HIGH BEAM ONLY Halogen
IMG_1052.jpg
 
For reference, the indoor pics were at 30' from the door with the bike on the centerstand.

HIGH AND LOW BEAM LED
IMG_1054.jpg


LOW BEAM ONLY LED
IMG_1055.jpg


HIGH BEAM ONLY LED
IMG_1056.jpg
 
Outdoor pics, for reference the tree towards the curve in the driveway is about 200' away. Bike was on the center-stand.



low only2.jpg
LOW BEAM ONLY LED



high only2.jpg
HIGH BEAM ONLY LED



high and low2.jpg
HIGH AND LOW BEAM LED
 
Last edited:
pappy35 said:
Their site is very vague on details. I'm probably wrong about this but that unit has, if you believe the pictures on their site, 18 emitters. THere aren't that many companies that make white LED chips and for most, the specs are very nearly the same. So, given that, if most units out there have 6 in two groups of three, how freaking bright would 6 groups of three be?

Since most LED chip have a 140 degree emission spread, it seems to be that an array of 3 chips mounted as close to the centerline would be ideal but as far as I can tell no one makes anything like that. This leads me to conclude that my basic assumptions are wrong. A friend of mine that recently converted to the Intel H7s is going to send me his old HID kit to try out. I got all wrapped up in testing LEDs and never tried them (well, there's that and all the other hardware HIDs have).
Click to expand...

They finally replied to my request with the attached pic regarding measurements. Their website claims "They are extremely bright, easily 5-6 times brighter than the halogen bulb they replaced, and the color is a nice white 6000K." I was concerned they may be too bright for oncoming traffic. I put HIDs on my R12GS back in 2008 or so, they worked great but I didn't feel like dealing with finding a place to mount the ballast, drill the caps and etc...

I appreciate all your help and words of wisdom on this subject.:beer

Rod

View attachment 77189
 
Pappy35 - In short, I've extensively tested the major brands (i.e. the hugely expensive ones that you will no doubt be getting a lot of recommendations for) and settled on these being as good or better for literally 1/3rd the price, are CanBus friendly, and have no bulky drivers to stuff into the housings. People feel compelled to believe that more expensive means higher quality. I guarantee you that ADVMonster and Cyclops are paying $30 for each unit they buy from China and then marking them up 300% to sell to us.

Just want to give my experience with Pappy35 suggested item. I have installed these on my 2013 R1200RT and have 600+ miles (low beam only, so far) with them. Installation was relatively simple (clipped and plugged in perfectly), brightness is perfect (no negative feedback, half the miles have been at night). Pappy35 - Thank you for the link and info
 
dirtmerchant said:
pics not uploading to site, will edit later to add pics.
Click to expand...

dirtmerchant, did you ever get the outdoor pics? Also since it has been a little while since you got the ZDATT bulbs, can you give us an update on pros and cons? I'm looking to do LED headlamps, and digging through the forums. It seems the newer bulbs may be better than the ones discussed several years ago.
 
@largestache

I did get outdoor pics but the site fails when I try to upload them....

Not sure how many miles I have on them but so no error codes and bulbs still working great.
 
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