| Author | Message | ||
     Hambcastle |
I have a question for people using the VVME HID lights. First, do you get two ballast and lamp setups in one kit? And if this is the case, can you set it up so that both the headlights are on low, and when you switch to high, both come on high? Since the Amp draw with HID's is much lower, the bike should handle it? | ||
| Mikef5000 |
1) Yes, the kits are made for cars, so they come with 2x bulbs, 2x ballasts, and 2x wiring. Now the more difficult part. Just like our OEM halogen lights, these HID kits only have one 'brightness' per bulb. They are either on or off. Think about how your halogen lights don't work as both dim for low beam and both bright for high beam. What you can do is buy BI-XENON HID's. These bulbs have two settings, so they can be dim and bright. This is exactly what I did, I bought the bi-xenon kit to install in both headlights, to give me low/high on both lights, exactly as you are wanting to do. The problem is in how Bi-Xenon's work. (specifically the less expensive bi-xenons) They DO NOT have a two brightness level bulb. They have one bulb that is on 100% all the time. The difference comes in that the bulb moves inside a shield. On low beam the bulb is mostly covered, effectively shielding most of the light, making them look dimmer. On high beam the bulb is less covered, effectively making them appear brighter. When I went to install my custom Bi-Xenon kit into my XB, I found that on Low beam the shield blocked 75% of the light output, and on high beam it still blocked 25%. Sure they worked, and the dim/bright feature worked, but the light output was terrible. Even on high beam they were literally half the light output of a standard bulb. Pictures: Bi-Xenon Low Beam:  Bi-Xenon High Beam:  Bulb and shield:  In the end, before I even finished the install, I removed all the bi-xenon stuff, sold it off, and bought a new set of 55 watt standard HID's. Put one in the low beam, and left the high beam as halogen. The low beam now puts out PLENTY of light, and the sole purpose of my high beam is to flash at jerks that pull out in front of me. Since the kits come with two of everything, I conveniently already have the HID stuff on hand for my new XB. (Message edited by mikef5000 on November 17, 2009) | ||
| Towpro |
I also did the standard (35w) HID install in both lights. I made both light on high by splicing into the wires before the connection where everyone does the yellow wire mode. I put a 10Amp diode between the High and Low wires. Because the headlight switch has "overlap" (where you can move the switch between high and low and get both headlights on)The diode conducts before the switch turns off the low beam voltage, thus the low beam does not flash while switching from low to high. When switched to low beam, the low beam comes on. When switched to high beam, both lights come on. This is because the diode conducts only in one directions, so the voltage is sent to the low beam bulb through the diode, but not in reverse direction. There is a very small voltage drop through the diode, but the HID ballast don't seem to care. Before installing the diode, I checked to make sure the low beam wire was not grounded when the switch is in high beam. The diode can go in 2 ways. (I think the stripe goes to the low beam bulb side). To see if you have it correct, put the high beams on, connect one end of the diode to the high beam + wire, and you should see something near 12V on the other end of the diode. If you have it backwards, you will see no voltage. If you are running relays, you can still use the diode trick to keep the low beams on (allows you to use smaller diode). I was looking through VVME's site today and noticed they also sell pre wired relay kits for cheep. Wish I had seen this when I ordered my lights. (Message edited by towpro on November 17, 2009) | ||
| Ronmold |
2 ballasts/bulbs are a lot of current for 1 switch contact, especially the added start-up current of the H while the L is still on. Hope the switch holds up. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
It would be highly recommended to use a relay to power 2 HID's. |
