Eating headlamps

No, not M. Mangetout but my Sprint ST 1050

That will be 4 since June.

Especially interesting when the second one failed in 12 hours on the way
to work this morning on the dark and windy crooked mile. Still no-one
seemed to mind my full beam.

Anyone else having the same problem?
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

In

On the end of the failed filament is it broken clean or is there a small
ball of melted metal

Broken indicates vibration, ball indicates excess current.

 

Melted ball end on the filament tails is also the sign for failure when
illuminaited or for normal end of life failure. Usually associated with
'facetting' of the filament coils ('sparkly' crystalline facets) which is a
good indicator of service life.
I wonder what manufacturer produced these lamps.

JB

 

What brand are the bulbs?

Only when I bought some cheap bulbs from the local motor factor.

 

Ahh the last two were clean, I'll check these later, when I go shopping.

I'm guessing cheap bulbs probably don't help.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

The 'cheap' one I suspect.


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Cheap. I'll check when I'm back in the shop.

Nail <> head interface I suspect.


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

I was wondering about that very issue on the way to work.

He is. He is also planning an HID upgrade over the festive period. But
it's a time thing.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

On normal tungsten lamps it does, but not on halogens. They need to run at
their rated voltage/current provide the heat to get them in to their
regenerating cycle. Did you notice a clouding on the inside of the quartz?.

 

Stick some Osram Silverstars or Philips Vison Plus in there. You *will*
notice the difference.
Accept no substitute.

JB

 

I only use the Osram Silverstars now, having found that they punch out
the same sort of light as a 100W bulb, with less scatter and while
remaining legal and not melting the fucking wiring loom - talk about
biting the hand that feeds.

I've always been happy with the headlights in the car, but when a bulb
cried enough last week, a H7 Silverstar went in. The difference
between it and its (admittedly 4 year old+) mate is more than visible,
it's palpable. Brighter, whiter light with a sharper cutoff and in
the current shitty weather conditions distinctly better penetration
and less bounceback in mist and spray. Best fit the other one, I
suppose ;-)

No substitute.

 

Indeed. I've been working with lamps in the lighting industry for over 30yrs
now and I only use Osram or Philips lamps for reference test purposes in my
lab. They are far, far more uniform in output and as you say the filament
geometry is bang-on so the beam quality is always optimal. You do get what
you pay for as with most things in life.

JB

 

message

Well... HID has got so cheap that this ought to be a consideration.

I'd agree completely that the Osram lights are great- put them in the
car ('cos I can't be arsed to **** around with HID because of the CANBUS
system) and it's a lot better. However, it really doesn't compare to
the HID I have on the K75.

Must fit HID to the Pan in due course; once I trust it again.

 

Trying them now.


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Are Dane still the accepted supplier of choice?

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Nidge says...

Do us a favour, cut the high beam terminals off them first.

It's bad enough having one bike in the area ready to melt my retinas.

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE
Suzuki SV650 K3
Honda CBR600 F-W
Yamaha SR250 SpazzTrakka
Suzuki GSX-R750L

 

We'll expect a full report within 24 hours.

 

So I came to understand after edumacating myself a bit. However, that
did not explain how autos implementing Daytime Running Lamps by running
their headlamps at partial power avoid this problem. I assume they use
PWM to control the power, but the pulse rate is almost certainly too
fast for the filaments to warm up completely each cycle.

So, how do they avoid dramatically shortening the H4 bulbs' life,
given that the typical GM DRL implementation is main beams at
<mumble> percent power?

 

PWM would be far too costly for auto manufacturers. They often just ran the
high beam filaments of both lamps in series.

For automotive lamps, the halogen cycle doesn't really start to fall down
until you reach very low power levels indeed (~20%). The halogen/gas fill in
these lamps is far more aggressive than you would find in a halogen lamp for
domestic use, so is still operative at the lower lamp wall temps typical of
DRLs. The halogen cycle is also reversible. Even if you run a halogen lamp
at a low level enough to 'boil' some lamp filament tungsten onto the inner
lamp wall and 'blacken' it, simply give it a few seconds of full power and
the halogen will 'scrub' the deposited tungsten off and redeposit it back
onto the filament.

JB

 

<fx: Clears throat>
They work, but it was still pretty much light on the way home

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk