"mechanic proof". 😆 As a mechanic I appreciate the efforts of designers to make my life easier. Simple screw ups can get costly so items that can only fit one way or wiring that's not polarity dependant get a thumbs up from me.

As a machinist through to CNC over 45 years that machining reaches another level ......

The thermal failure of LED headlights often occurs when the headlights are off! Basically, at random, you pick a parking space or location that accidentally faces your headlights directly into the sun. The result is the headlamp reflectors act as a solar furnace and cook the LED emitters. Was never a problem with filament lamps as the filament didn't care about heat. Ran into this with a friend who would drive into work, comer out at the end of the day and the headlights would not operate.

God damn it... Every time you say "Bridge rectifier" I just have echoing in my head "FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER" in a middle eastern accent. xD

The cost of most good led headlights are really well made and thought out. The problem is planned obsolescence as they could of used thicker metal for higher heat transfer. And there is room for that little bit more of aluminum would make this last way longer. I like your presentation and explanation of the whole unit itself. Job well done.

I had a couple of these. Very bright and ‘if’ installed correctly they caused no dazzle to oncoming drivers. The problem is, is that they can be rotated within that securing collar. People don’t know that they need to be positioned in the right orientation. Also those fans have no suppression and could be heard on the radio, all the time, which is very annoying. 👍

You can clean the phosphor off these with PCB flux cleaner, and you get a lovely royal blue colour which causes a lot of brightly coloured things to fluoresce!!

Awesome video!! The fact that you used HD pics instead of trying to zoom and focus is brilliant!! I liked and subscribed for that reason. But your review is very detailed I love it!!

I was bewildered at the thumbnail for this for a couple days before finally watching it. I couldn't figure out how I'd wear this thing on my head...

Dear Clive, glad you touched the subject of automotive lights with which I had to fiddle for a while. I have had such bad experiences from small 5watt replacement parking light led to Main led headlights like those. Often the problem is that the reflector is not adapted to the LED because it is designed to have a small halogen filament in its focal point. Also the life span is not very long.

The final point you made is almost correct in your lovely sense of intuition. Really though, it's even more industrious than that: The bipolar modes of LED modules that are increasingly common on the Chinese market is a matter of a lack of documentation. Chinese and American system integrators who make these modules don't always touch their designs. The circuit designer was clever enough here to make it almost impossible to break this from a documentation perspective. It's very easy to publish Input and Output voltage in an Ebay listing, but it requires a proper datasheet or a visual inspection of the circuit card to get correct polarity. There's probably a few different companies using that LED circuit card, provided by five different circuit integrators. The companies that put a module in to a heatsink casing sell to fifteen different wholesalers, in five countries. The integrators offer the same LED in four different headlight configurations, and the sellers retail through nine different brick and mortar stores in three countries. The customer just wants it to work. The mechanic just wants to see the customer happy, so he plugs it in and hopes for the best. The wires won't be wrong polarity, because Toyota is leaps and bounds ahead of this aforementioned anonymous undocumented nightmare and knows how to wire up a car's headlights for proper polarity. So yeah, the Chinese engineer deserves some credit, maybe it belongs to a fourth year engineering student from Minnesota... but whatever the case, the big whoop goes to the guy who designed that circuit card.

Best and most informative electronics description of any device I've ever watched. Keep them coming Clive!

I love the dual diode per phase idea and will remember to use four the next time the user inserts power wires. They can insert them with any polarity, doesn’t matter because the diodes will route them to the correct spot.

Thanks Clive another very interesting video.

Love the close up pictures for talking about circuits!

I love your blown up pictures and your easy to follow circuit breakdowns. I've only watched a few videos but they've been a lot of fun.

The aluminum housing looks like a mini Mr fusion

I finally got it! You are Scott Manley and AvE's illegitimate lovechild. Right? They released the shmoo and out came you. :D

The standard halogen bulbs are not polarised as they are just a filament. Some vehicles use common negative and others use common positive which of course makes no difference to these. This is why any replacement has to be universal to.

Thank you Clive. Just made me realise these lamps make a great source to salvage components from.

I have led’s that look like these, but they are not the high and low beam kind, and the polarity only works one way. I got lucky, because mine work perfectly with my headlight housing. The beam quality is better and lower to the ground than a traditional light, and blinds traffic less! It is possible to get a good LED setup, it’s just very difficult to find a perfectly positioned diode that works with the housing and reflectors.

"Light" needs a fan and a heat sink now! Improvements! ¬.^

I have no electronics education other than Big Clive and a couple other KZfaq channels but I love this stuff. I got to mess with one of those one time and they are very interesting engineering. Love the channel.

I never realised a car headlamp bulb could be so complex!! You are a great teacher and what an interesting thing to listen to as well.

Oh, great... Candle-flicker headlights.

good informative video. loved the idea of the polarity protection. I just wonder how much extra they charge for the polarity protection

Hey Thanx Clive! it was very interesting to see how these are put together, and how the circuit works. a friend of mine just bought a set of them for his Honda, I had never seen these b4.

Thanks for going in depth with this.

Somehow I always end up on these videos at 1:00 AM

The failed end of the cob seems to be the one furthest from the main heatsink and fan which I guess makes sense, since that end will be hotter.

Where have you been all my life!? Brilliant video!

Thanks for the video. Truly enjoyable to watch and learn.

I wish you'd start putting together cool "recipes" of circuits you've backwards engineered. Why should the Chinese do all the stealing; It's our turn! :) I wonder if this light failed simply due to cheap sourcing of factory-seconds binned LEDs.

As someone who has installed a few aftermarket HID systems. That multiple polarity would've come in handy in the past. Most of my HID installs were 9005 (high beam) and 9006 (low beam). The first systems, the 12VDC harness was already wired up. Which was a bad idea. Because I had to swap the wires around to make it work. When I removed that first HID kit and installed in in a different car, made by the same manufacture but just different model and year. I had to swap the wires back. Both cars, obviously, were factory halogen. (9005/9006 are never HID). With that said, car manufactures do not care what polarity the light harness is, as it feeds a halogen bulb.

I have XKGlow devil eyes in my car and I absolutely love them! The original ones from the company did fail in about 8 months with the same sort of flickering issues, but the replacements they sent me had a design change of some sort. I would have liked to take them apart to see what exactly was the issue but the requested I send them back Love your stuff bigclivedotcom and thank you for making everything interesting!

I have this exact set! Works really well!

With the dual filament ones I've always had the dip beam go first too cos it's got the majority of the work to do for me. Quite a task getting a LED unit to work at all in the constraints designed for a halogen - I suppose we'll eventually either get a new standard shape for changeable LED headlight bulbs (which will be quite different to H4) or the manufacturers will be putting sealed beam units in.

Everythings on a cobb! the WHOLE PLANETS on a COBB!

Had some identical to these in my motorcycle, Great to see how they work in such detail!

Great work mate. Always educational. Thanks.

This is beautiful example of how todays products are perfectly made to last only just untill their warranty ends :)

I got to get me some CFL headlights... shame they never really caught on eh? ;-)

I have learned something again! Thanks Big Clive. 😀

i actually have a lot of respect of this thing now. nicely done.

A lot of smaller motorbikes run the headlight on AC, pretty much directly off the alternator coils. That's more than likely why this LED bulb is made to work regardless of polarity IMO.

As cool as this is from an electronics point of view, seems like it's far too complicated and failure-prone for the application. Having that sort of fan on something subjected to fairly severe conditions (engine bay heat, engine bay fluids, and outdoor environment) already makes me wonder how viable these are, before considering the lifespan of the LEDs weighed against the amount of electronics circuitry and the fairly sophisticated housing that are essentially made disposable. I live in a climate that's probably much dustier than these things were in (assuming they were used in the UK) and I have no doubt that fan would start chattering in a matter of months and be seized-up in a couple of years. If in a 4x4 truck that actually goes off road it would probably be even faster.

Happy Saturday to ya BC and thanks for the vid, keep cool buddy.

I love those aftermarket LED-Headlights ... we're driving a Toyota C-HR with these modern HIR2 Lamps. The stock ones burned every 3 month. After 4 changes we decided to switch to those LED things and et voila ... 14 month and still going strong.

Could you turn it into a powerbank powered non-death camp light with optional fan setting type of thing on video? Seems a shame to not use that nice machining for something and it might even come in handy.

Thanks for this amazing video! Do you think it would be possible to add a potentiometer into the circuit to make it dimmable? (for a diy DC light)

Auto/Truck LEDs are one of my favorite subjects right now, as I get my custom 77 Toyota Hilux (pickup) ready for the streets again in NM. And though it came with 4 round headlights from the factory I took those out and converted it to 4X6 rectangular headlights in the mid 80s, which were seal beams. But seal beams seem to be made to go out with time, as I found out when removing mine recently, as the glass was no longer bonded to the reflective back part at all. Any leak and they will go out fast, but I was already seeking the best current lighting and on my way to LEDs. So I searched and searched and experimented. For a halogen housing type bulb LED, the new Evitek F2 might be the hot set up, with shields and LEDs placed the same place and size, as the halogen bulb filaments. Its rated at 36w, but is actually uses 30w. For design cooling it is like the one Clive took to bits, but uses a copper bar under the LEDs for heat transfer. The light seems to match halogens perfectly in the housings in placement, but whether it has long life only time will tell. Another solution for old lights like mine are the all in one replacements like these. I bought one to test, but this is not my video. Notice the cutoff like the halogens. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rap6pdFhr6rDp4E.html There is even a lower priced one (4X6), that looks like chrome on the front, with 45 LEDs and claims 45w I also bought. My testing showed about 14-16w on low for both, and about 36w on high for both. But more of a spot beam without a halogen cutoff, and the light out put in lux at the same distance was about 50% brighter then the one in the video I posted on low and high. The housings on these are massive aluminum shells without fans, and the covers are clear plastic. The safety on these depends on the correct aiming mostly on these, and the legality is variable according to local laws. No inspections generally means legal if aimed properly for the locale. Where I live it states the main spot of the beam must be aimed to hit the ground no further than 75 feet, in front of the vehicle. And no excess glare or red lights. No inspections in most of the state. I do not like the light given off by HIDs, and many HID kits seem to be prone to failure in months. The LEDs are a softer bright light, and can be even brighter than 35w HIDs. Dim factory lights or pointed wrong, or both, are huge safety issues.

In my experience of vehicle electrical systems, I found that most European vehicles fitted with H4 headlamps would have common negative and switch the positive to the dip/main beam pins. Whereas a majority of Japanese/Asian vehicles would be common positive and switch the negative for dip/main. I think someone clever thought this through to cover as many markets as possible. Clever circuit arrangement. 👌

The "Vice of Knowledge..." lol

I think I know why they designed it so any polarity would work. When they sell these as a 9004 or 9007, they are the same part, but a 9004 and a 9007 use different pinout.

It is uncanny how those beautiful photographs of yours look 3D (at least to my eyes) even though they are just photographs (and viewed on a normal display of course)! Especially here where the capacitor and coil are relatively high above the PCB.

Yes indeed... very smart you are, Mr Mitchell !!

I was thinking for sure we would get "bonus footage" and Clive would have hacked them in a way got RGB out of them, but not the dodgy quick flashing the nice Slow Rolling RGB. Great video.

I have brought tons of led bulbs specifically 501 led bulbs and they always start flickering my theory was the absence of a constant current driver which is funny because yours appears to have this.

That machined housing with the heat sink veins is remarkably attractive. Looks very pleasing to the eye, and well machined.

Toyota used switched ground, instead of switched positive, for their headlights and horns. Effectively, these were wired as "positive ground" circuits, for all purposes. Which makes it very smart for a "bulb" supplier to build an assembly that doesn't care about reverse voltage, for ground or supply. Very smart bulb maker.

"Oh, blimey." 5:00

Remove one of the 0R250 resistors to reduce the current, reduce heat and extend lifetime a lot.

Fascinating, thanks for this video.

A most interesting video, Thanks Clive.

It almost sounds like Clive was in love

Leds dont like heat. That's why I prefer old fashion incandescent lamps next to that hot engine baking in summer sun. Those tiny cooling fans cant make hot air they suck in any cooler.

Completely lost watching these vids but still love geeking out on the tech

This was indeed one interesting video, Ty bigclive.

I thought about adding some of these to my truck. I think I'll stick with the incandescents for now!

Living up North ,I was told dont use them in snow conditions because they tend to create white out conditions in a snow storm. Which is sad because my Subaru Forester goes through headlights at an astromomical rate. With it being the middle of April and we are STILL getting snow, those would be a poor choice anyways. Norther Michigan is called that for a reason, Northern...mabe should have been called Artic region south instead.

Very good descriptive narration. I like the way you photographed it and blew it up so we could see the componants. That's coming from a non-electronic speaking auto mechanic, or should I say "limited electronic speaking". I've been switching over to LED's in my cars that can be retrofitted (due to space or type of bulb limitations) and I like to know how they work and now I know the degrade over time. I have automatic headlights on one of my cars that I switch off when they aren't needed to preserve the LED bulbs. One thing, I have found that a lot of manufacturers of LED replacement lamps are starting to place the LED element in the same location as the original Halogen filaments so the beam focuses correctly off of the reflector and you don't end up with a scattered beam. They work much better. I think the one you dissected may be that type. Any LED replacement will work in a projector type housing/lens, from my experience, and give you the correct flat focused beam.

I love these videos. I wish you would give regular classes :D

Closed enclosures, lots of heat needing to be dissipated, small heatsinks, not the ideal situation for retrofitting LEDs really... :\

Wow, 30W in about 0.5sqcm. That's considerably more than a lot of CPUs, and CPUs have way better cooling. It would have been interesting to measure their temperature after they had been running for 30 mins.

LED Headlight bulbs could use passive cooling via heatpipes, so that even if there is no power available and the vehicle is pointed at the sun, the LEDs will still have cooling enough to survive that inadvertent solar furnace. Alternatively, bundles of *tapered* light fibers could route the light in from remotely-located LEDs that feed into the large end of the light fibers. Sunlight attempting to enter the tiny apertures on the other end of the fibers would not be able to get much light into the tiny areas of those fiber ends, and what light did get in would be spread out to a larger area at the LED end. This fiberoptic approach also relieves the area and volume constraints that make intense heating a problem when the LEDs are powered.

I did probably 20x the research than a normal person before buying a cheap Chinese headlight set, and I reaped the rewards. I deduced that the ones I settled on were in fact engineered identically to repacked models selling for over $100 on Amazon, for only about $25. The ones I settled on have an external driver box, rather than internal circuitry. Whatever is in the box allows the entirety of the 4 COBs to be powered at once, thus resulting in very low relative heat on standard beams, thereby maximizing lifespan. I can only assume the high beam setting simply increases regulated current. The 4 chip design allows equal scatter, similar to the original bulbs. These things are incredibly bright, and they've worked successfully for almost 2 years now.

AFAIK it's illegal to use retro-fit lights like that in on public roads in EU.

I hate LED and HID retrofits equally. Most of the time, they blind me at night. Just as bad as using highbeams. I always flash the worst offenders. What the hell is wrong with replacing a standard bulb with another standard bulb or for a high performance one if you are concerned with quality of light?

To be completely honest here. I sometimes dont have any interest or care in what it is that you're doing in your videos, I just love to listen to your voice. It is very soothing and captivating indeed. Keep doing what you're doing! ✌

Knowledge and passion merge into one!

The light pattern from these is so awful they need to be prohibited from sale. The reflector is designed around a specific position for the light source, these type of bulb through all of that engineering out the window. The light pattern and cutoff is atrocious and potentially blinding to other drivers.

Ignoring the legality of these...... Anywhere..... Mose retrofit stuff I've seen is absolute junk. They don't last, they have horrible light patterns usually, and on the occation they do work, it's typically ungodly expensive. Silver Star Ultras and some auxiliary lighting is more than enough for 90%. Someone wants to play the high beam game? I have 6000 lumens of spot lights as a deterrent and they light up a country road for a good 1/2 mile.

It just seems to be a lot of stuff (technical term there) to make light from 12vdc supply. Thank you Clive for all your investigative reporting.

Wow! You have a very good quality printer.

I don’t get it. What advantage does this have over a simple 12v halogen bulb?

"Amazing"?? It's obviously a piece of crap. A fan and power supply in a headlamp? This is way too complex for use in a car. How much more efficient is it than a conventional lamp? And why the need to save power in a car anyway? It doesn't appear to be reliable? Better off with halogen headlamps.

Peace bro always brilliant !!! Keep good work

Great video. Very informative. These 6 pin buck regulators are very common. Many different brands. They all work about the same no matter which brand. I use my cheap Android tablets to read books. Often even the lowest light level for the LCD is too bright for dark rooms. Plus the brighter the LED backlight the more is sucks down your battery. So I get out my guitar picks and pop open the tablet. It's pretty easy to locate the 6 pin buck regulator. The backlight wires go right to that section. And the current sense resistor is going to be a large one or as in the case above, 3 in parallel. You can assure you found the resistor if one end is connected to ground and the other connected to a pin on the chip and the transistor. You can always turn on the tablet and observe the voltage on the current sense resistor. In this case the data sheet indicates 0.25V. And 0.2V to 0.6V is typical for these chips depending on the brand. Or find the data sheet which can be very hard for some of these Asian chips. I congratulate Big Clive at finding the data sheet. Remove the resistor. Measure it. Replace it with one that is 3 to 5 times higher in value. (You do have an assortment of 1206 chip resistors don't you? You can always stack up some 0603's.) Now your tablet's lowest brightness setting is much lower and easier to read in a darkened room. The highest light level is also lower so you may have trouble in bright sunlight. But I don't read in bright sunlight anyway. There is an android app that modulates the backlight to much lower levels by switching it on and off rapidly. But I find that the app really sucks down the battery because the CPU is having to run so hard to switch the back light on and off that fast.

These should be banned...all they do is blind other road users!!!

That looks just like the ones I have in my van. High beam, works great!

Interesting vid. The three grooves on the house you mentioned allow the h4 adapter ring to be removed without force. If you had twisted the silver h4 base the dimples on it line up to the grooves on the alloy housing and it separates easily.

It would be awesome if you put together a collection of some of the most clever designs you have come across over the years.

Thanks for the explanation

Ace teardown; very informative.

Somehow I missed watching this video four years ago, but not to worry, I just did watch it. Interestingly enough, your remark about reducing the voltage on the LEDs to prolong their life is so similar to reducing the voltage on an incandescent lamp, therefore prolonging its life.

Wow, great video. I would love an extra video where you show us how you figure out what everything is doing. You could post them on a separate channel, if you're concerned about it affecting your view statistics.

I've heard from mechanics that the two LED strip style will fail quickly. The triangle LED style is suppose to last longer.

On the subject of vehicle High Beam LED lights, quite a few vehicles use resistor packs to lower the voltage of the Halogen bulbs from 12 ish volts to about 8 volts for the Daytime Running Lights; this is great for Halogen bulbs but nightmare for LED's. One LED manufacture told me that they cannot make a car headlight run on dual voltages, but I think with a simple-ish diode arrangement a LED High beam light could be created to have say the 6 LED's like mine has for 12 Volts (High Beam), and 2 smaller LED's for 8 volts (DRL's), making the Headlight more of a two in one LED Light that can do High beam and DRL's with a minimal of fuss. Since we are closely approaching winter, it would be great if you could re visit this and shame Car LED Light manufactures :-)

I always wondered how the head lights worked when I turn the light switch on ! It was because of the QX9920 all this time ! Bloody genius !

Awesome Channel, very informative.