The link doesn’t seem to work anymore. There’s no option to add the dimmer to the cart.

I was just about to post that about PWM and seen your comment lol.

Couldnt he use voltage regulation for the lightbar ? That seems better than PWM to me

+Jakub Hobl you can only drop the voltage so much before LEDS don't light at all. With PWM, it is still getting the 12 volts it needs, but is pulsed at a specified rate to achieve dimming. Dropping voltage usually only works right with incandescent bulbs.

You forgot about fuel pumps

+Cody LePenske oh yeah, Ford and Volvo, at least that I know of, use PWM instead of a regulator, effectively making it a variable volume pump. Volvo actually uses Ford's system, it even says Ford on the pump controller.

Ya @bleepinjeep what's the buzzing?

Ah poor laptop, I just call my laptop Vaio.

+Bill Roberts can you explain?

@@bleepinjeep -- Apparently you are too young to remember the disco strobes...

i know the pwm funtion but how can do the strobe module?

+Angelvf. If you need strobe as well, you probably can't get that with the PWM setup, but a cheap pic and a couple switches and a potentiometer and a chunky output mosfet and a simple enough program will give you all of that, custom and pride in a DIY build.

you can do the strobe with PWM, but you have to change the pulse width- the duration/frequency of the pulse. When he pushes the dial down, he's actually changing the input setting on the dial from controlling the % pulse to the frequency.

you have to email brian, its in the description

+Jonathan Bartsch see description

no..to put it simple..less voltage doesnt make leds dimmer..too low and they just turn off

Blair Joseph Bernard Why would you want to dim your headlights? 95% of truck's headlights are absolutely horrible

You'll need to use an on/off switch but yes, there is no "relay" in this setup.

couple months ago I had build a relay system for my JK. (inspired by you and a couple other forums) Finally have it all installed, but now i want to add these. might have to redesign a new one haha. great video man!!

Guessing because I'm no expert, but if you add a relay to this set up, it would be after the PWM switch, otherwise it would be rat tat tatting the heck out of the relay if it was before the relay?????

Andy Kenney You'll still need a relay because if you don't, you'll be pumping 60-300 watts (depending on your light bar) through a switch that's not rated for it and it will fail prematurely. I also recommend installing this circuit in the video AFTER your relay between the light bar and the relay.

TheKillerMarine All high quality light bars typically come with a Deutsch connector on them which is watertight and easy to remove. Don't EVER let anyone tell you cheap light bars are "just as good as all the expensive ones" because they're not. Low quality light bars may look the same but High quality light bars won't leak, have better optics, better threads on the ends for mounting, better coating, and better warranties.

+Chris Reyes learn to weld!!

+BleepinJeep teach teach teach

Low beam is not a dimming of high beam, the light of low beam only illuminate the ground, the high beam illuminate ground and a part of the "horizon and sky" that's the reason why you never have to put xenon bulbs in parabolic headlamps, (xenon are designed for proyectors) is good idea dimming the LED, but I'm not sure is the best for drive in highway or normal conditions, the idea for drive following another car in off road is good, because is low speed and the drivers are communicated.

dot has strict requirements about light emission of headlight pattern that these do not adhere to. also, high beams area actually aimed higher so it's not a great replacement solution.

Dan Acton absolutely terrible idea. Light bars do not have a cover over the light source like a typical reflector headlight does to prevent direct blinding light from the source. Light bars, even when dim, will still shine into oncoming driver's eyes because their optics are designed for maximum output, not road legal output. a headlight doesn't work by simply making the bulb brighter when you flick the high beams on. Single reflector headlights have bulbs that have 2 separate filaments. One for low beam which has a shield over the top of tbe filament so that the light only hits a certain part of the reflector. The high beam filament is not covered by the bulb shield and will hit the reflector in such a way that the high beam is placed higher than tbe low beam and will light up higher and further than the low beam. Another way they do this is with dedicated high beam reflectors that are essentially an off-road style reflector without a bulb shield for maximum output. There are actually projectors now that are called Bi-Xenon that have a shield that can move. The shield typically makes a very sharp cut off to keep the light out of oncoming driver's eye's since the HID bulb is extremely bright. Since the shield moves, hitting the high beams will cause the shield to flick down (because the light gets inverted when it hits the projector lens) and give you more distance and height in your beam pattern. Sorry for the long winded explanation but I take headlights seriously because I wear contacts and bright headlights coming the other way at night are horrible.

your interior dimmer is just using a potentiometer based slider. it's "analog" dimming. potentiometer dimming is very common and would work just fine on a light bar as long as you had one that's up to spec. the main issue is potentiometers dissipate power as heat. in high power applications such as this the knob would get very very hot very fast and fail pretty rapidly. when not dimming power mostly passes through with little heat. PWM(pulse width modulation) basically turns the power on and off thousands of times a second to regulate the amount of power getting to whatever. they don't have heat issues like analog but the controller can still get pretty warm. as for him saying the light bar industry hasn't found a way to dim them, that's flat out wrong. they could could very very easily use a pwm or analog drive to regulate the leds. it's very simple.

+imsowhiteandnerdy25 pwm or analog driver* pretty sure analog drivers don't have heat issues either since they're usually just using the potentiometer as a 0-10v reference signal. but splicing a potentiometer into the power wires of the light bars circuit would be a bad idea.

in the description

+RedlineHybrid you'd have to ask a geeky type for a real answer.

Never taken a light bar apart but I imagine the only thing in there are current limit resistors and the LEDs. Using this will affect the long term life of your light bar. But I see this as a cool trick to show off to friends, not something that you'd be using all the time. It is worth noting that when using this on full power you could still see the PWM flashing the LEDs rapidly. Which, again, is different than just being ON.

Sparks 1013 You're correct. That and reverse polarity protection

by this solution if you have 10 guys on the trail then only the front guy would have lights on and the rest would be driving in the dark... some of us don't have headlights.

so where's the guy's or company info., web site n e mail n cost.....???

BleepinJeep - I don't give a fuck what you guys do with those LED's on the trail, but you blind me on the highway and we're gonna get to know each other. They are not DOT legal and I've got the State Patrol on speed dial. Believe it.

I have off road lights on my truck and I'm 100% with you on the road. I'm sick and tired of the idiot kids driving around blinding everybody else because their mommy got them a light bar. They are gonna end up making it illegal to even have them installed on a truck driving on the road.

@dj beard - Exactly right, DJ.

you'll be fine. it tears on the charging system more than the battery. you could always upgrade your alternator to the highest amp rating you can find if your really worried about it but I wouldn't.

I have a 20 inch a 52 and to 4 inch pods all of them on it draws 16.9 amps. you can run them off your cigarette lighter if you wanted. all in all youll be fine stock

+Derrick Thornton Well my 20inch has a 30amp fuse connected to it because thats what came with the switch. I could defiantly downgrade if i wanted couldnt i? forexample put a 20amp fuse in there.

+imsowhiteandnerdy25 Thankyou! No i dont want to mess with the car anymore than i have lol. Time to start looking for mounting points haha

+soljafurkan oh yeah I would think so I have one 20 amp fuse for all of them. I would check your amps on your light just to be sure

Scott Brown Light bars don't have ballasts. Light bars are LED not fluorescent or HID. All they are is a huge circuit board with LED soldered on and a reflector on top of the LED.

This thing is 60$ sPOD se with touch screen programmer is 800$ does that sound right?

Most bars use have a buck current regulator inside. This is why they have a large operating voltage for example 10-30V. The flickering and audible noise was due to using a battery charger for a power supply. The charger output is not filtered so you have a nasty chopping voltage. This was actually a good test showing that the dimmer can work in a harsh electrical environment.

The flickering and audible noise was due to using a battery charger for a power supply. The charger output is not filtered so you have a nasty chopping voltage. This was actually a good test showing that the dimmer can work in a harsh electrical environment.

bstewart63 Ah, thanks for the info. Thought the bat chargers had smoothing.

Your welcome.

lots of led flashlights use the same type system for dimming, obviously the light bar draws a lot more power than a single flashlight but as long as the components are properly sized to handle the current it is a proven technology.

You can if you just wanted a dimmer. PWM allows for strobing.