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Gen 4 LED H4 headlights with high beam modulate?


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I'm not sure you need the modulators when you've got the brighter LED bulbs, but a quick google search shows quite a few companies make modulators for LED's these days.

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Thank you for the reply.  I have Googled it before I posted an couldn't find any dual h4 head light led kits and or that will fit in a gen 4 an work well. Meaning really bright white 5000/6000 k an have really good usable light at night in the gen4 head light housing.  Please post details if you know of them.  I'm really looking for someone that's done this on a gen4 an can add info they found in doing this an found results I'm looking for.  Results I found that don't even offer led modulators...

1) http://www.signaldynamics.com/headlight-module/

 

2) http://www.kriss.com/dualh4mod.php

 

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I've got LED retrofitted H4's in my 4th gen.  Honestly, I'll probably change them back; despite them seeming brighter, the pattern isn't nearly as nice.   

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Thank you for the reply.  Which h4 LED's do you have? Did they fit with controller and all with no isses?  I read reviews the Cree or piaa h4's are good.  Still not sure if they will allow modulation with the way ones I have dropping high beam voltage By 20%.  An if modulators for dual h4 LED's are made I can't find em.  I don't ride as much as I use to even less at night so this will be to basicly save power draw...that with all my other gadgets I could use the power for an not have watch my voltage draw as closely.

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don't remember which ones they were exactly, aside from the LED's themselves were advertised as Cree.   to make them fit, I un-soldered the mount tangs off my old bulbs, and then fitted them to the LED housing, because I didn't want to bend/cut tabs, etc....  MIGHT have pics somewhere ... would have to look.   The other 'issue' was that they weren't easy to stuff into the headlight housing with due to the bulb retaining clips interfering with the fans on the end of the LED's, somewhat.   the igniter boxes (or whatever they are) I just sticky'd to side of the housing.. 

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IMG_20140403_210454_400.jpg

left one is with the fan.. the rubber never really fit over bulb correctly, and I doubt the fan does much good as a result.

 

Camera$IMG_20140403_205213_807.jpg

 

I stripped the mount off the old bulb, and replaced the ones on the LED with it.. worked like a charm.  I have pics of the before/after of the lighting, but honestly real world application isn't nearly as nice as the pic would imply, so don't want to bias you..  LOL

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With lighting you have three choices:

1. Stay factory

2. Upgrade to PIAA 

3. Upgrade to Bixenon projector retofits

 

All this stuffing HIDs and LEDs into housings that were built for standard halogens, is useless bling, that will only result in annoying oncoming traffic and a poor beam pattern.

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I have tried PIAA Halogens, Cree LED kits, DDM tuning HIDs and bixenon projector retrofits. The PIAAS were great, perfect beam pattern and improved output. The HIDs looked cool, but scattered light everywhere and added complexity. The Cree LEDs had a beam pattern somewhere in between halogens and HIDs, output was okay, somewhere in between PIAAs and regular halogens, but they were not reliable, added complexity and had a very short life span. Bixenon Projector retrofits are amazing. The output, cut off and pattern is perfection, but they are pricey, add complexity and a pain to install. My favorite is PIAA, due to their simplicity, output and beam pattern.

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Some people will swear up and down that the results are exactly as good as the money they've just spent... :wink:

 

I think more and more people are coming around to agree that HID "conversion kits" are crap.

 

As for LEDs in H4 applications, the results I've seen are not only disappointing, but my understanding of the way lighting systems work also suggests to me that they cannot work in the way advertised.  I can see how a single very bright LED facing down in the correct position within a reflector headlamp could come close to the precision of a halogen bulb's shielded tungsten filament, but then the high beam's got to be a compromise, because the high beam LED(s) cannot both occupy the same space or duplicate the position of the unshielded high beam filament.  The only mitigating factor is that beam pattern is probably less important on high beam.

 

Modern halogen headlamp systems were designed with a very specific purpose, which was to allow the lighting source (the bulb) to be swapped old for new without changing in any way the lamp's focus and beam pattern functioned.  Trying to force a completely different lighting technology into that controlled environment is highly unlikely to be successful--which is why it is usually considered illegal.

 

The xenon "retrofit", on the other hand, involves swapping the entire HID system, so the system functions pretty much as well as it did in the donor vehicle (with some potential differences).  The "Next Step" in aftermarket automotive lighting should logically be the retrofit of well-designed LED headlamp components into existing housings in the same way this has been done with xenon/HID.  (I wonder if The Retrofit Source is working on this as we speak?)

 

Ciao,

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While I understand my fifth gen (2001) is different from fourth and sixth gens, I installed CREE LED bulbs without problems and am very happy with the results.

http://www.highperformancebulbs.com/h4-cree-led-bulb-headlight-bulb-super-bright-motorcycle-kit.html

The vendor assured me they were appropriate for my fifth gen.

They went in easily and I feel I am more noticed by traffic (especially when approaching same-direction traffic from behind during the day) and the lights greatly improves forward lighting in the dark. The distance illuminated is increased, the lighting to the sides were moderately increased. I've had them for over a year and have received NO flashing highbeams from approaching vehicles. The highbeams seem to light up MUCH further and broader. in place with fan.JPG 

I did have to remove the two lower locating tabs from the LED bulb to fit the bulbs in the existing holder but the oem springs provide solid mounting. I detect no vibration from the new bulbs. I had to trim the rubber boots that install at the back of the housing to expose the vent holes for the fan/heat sink. LED headlights.JPGmounting place.JPGbulb - bulb.JPG 

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Apart from the now common problem of counterfeit CREE LEDs flooding the market, CREE makes LEDs, not LED automotive bulbs, so to the extent any vendor tells you (or implies) the junk they're flogging is "made by CREE", they're flat out lying to you.  An excellent start to a commercial transaction, I'd say... :blush:

 

Ciao,

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All good info.  Thank you.  May need missing why I wanna convert the h4's to led h4's....I wanna save on power/volts.  I don't ride much at night anyone....so just want bright highbeem an be able to flash/modulate it like I have for years automatically.  I agree about fake Cree LED's...an I for one don't know how to make sure they are made by Cree 

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Why exactly do you want to save power/volts? If you don't know what you are doing, that is a great way to burn up a non-series regulator/rectifier even faster.

 

Now on the other hand, if you have a new shindengen sh847 series rr, saving 100watts would be a great way to make 0.134 horsepower lol. Or you could save 100 watts of headlight/tail light power and spend it on other farkles such as a heated jacket/grips, electric water pump or an extra radiator fan etc, the only problem is, unless you have a series rr, when those extra farkles aren't in use, the extra power will need to be converted into heat by the charging system...

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I have a good idea I know what I'm wanting to do an will save power that can be better used on my steed that fyi I've owned since 1997 purchased new ...has well over 150,000 miles on it...totaled it five times an brought it back better after each total....with upgrades ...an it's still going strong 

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Great, well anyways, that was very descriptive lol. I am not really sure what totaling a motorcycle five times has to do with your credibility in a discussion over charging systems, but before you start trying to free up extra power AND volts, you should research the difference between shunt, mosfett, series rr's and what exactly AN rr does, then proceed from there...

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Thnank you for words of wisdom an what i may not know i should consider.  Lol grasshopper...you must know of me...fyi I've been part of the vfr scene for decades....the 80's when I started with 86 750.  Yes of late I've been in the wings lurking.  This link shows an tells...I have a ultimate set of tools and know how to use them after I have pushed the limits of what a gen4 was made to do...an make it better...for me after accidents and me learning my limits an my steed

 

 

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Lol okay, great, well anyways I don't see what any of this has to do with regulator/rectifiers. I am not trying to personally attack your credibility of all the marvelous and irrelevant things that you did to your VFR in the 80's, I am simply stating, before you go trying to free up some extra watts from your charging system, you should do some research on the various kinds of Regulator/rectifiers and how exactly they work. You would be really surprised at the breakthroughs that regulator/rectifiers have made in the last 10 or 20 years...

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7 hours ago, CandyRedRC46 said:

Why exactly do you want to save power/volts? If you don't know what you are doing, that is a great way to burn up a non-series regulator/rectifier even faster.

 

Now on the other hand, if you have a new shindengen sh847 series rr, saving 100watts would be a great way to make 0.134 horsepower lol. Or you could save 100 watts of headlight/tail light power and spend it on other farkles such as a heated jacket/grips, electric water pump or an extra radiator fan etc, the only problem is, unless you have a series rr, when those extra farkles aren't in use, the extra power will need to be converted into heat by the charging system...

I should have included the information I received from Wire My Bike about the decreased voltage(?) demands of the LED lights. With less voltage required the load on the r/r is increased. I had previously bought a Ricks r/r with his VFRness that I installed with the new lights. And I added a metal heat sink plate between the r/r and the rear subframe, removing the paint from the subframe to increase the metal-to-metal contact area to more easily dissipate the extra heat.

This address the problem raised by CandyRedRC46. Thanks for the reminder CandyRedRC46. 

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Good info...but have had the shindengen sh847 series rr for years with a extra heat sink and DC could fan cooling it..  also have heated grips vest,gps,radar detector, cruise control,gsxr mirror lights,extra rear brake lights air an Hella horns,heads up display

 

Please detail all of what you found to save on voltage...maybe I missed a way an or maybe someone else will learn from em.

 

 

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23 minutes ago, Joe Foe from Buffalo said:

Good info...but have had the shindengen sh847 series rr for years with a extra heat sink and DC could fan cooling it..  also have heated grips vest,gps,radar detector, cruise control,gsxr mirror lights,extra rear brake lights air an Hella horns,heads up display

 

Please detail all of what you found to save on voltage...maybe I missed a way an or maybe someone else will learn from em.

 

 

I was not trying to save on voltage. I installed the lights to improve the lighting and safety of riding.

 

The reduced voltage requirements of the lights has the side-effect of increasing the heat-dissipation load on the r/r. You do understand what the r/r's function is, right? In case not, the stator puts out a constant amount of voltage which usually is more that the bike may need at any particular moment. Any voltage not used by the whole electrical system is shunted through the r/r to be dissipated as heat. Some r/r's are not up to the task including, as I understand it, the original oem r/r on my 2001 fifth gen.   

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