This kind of dimmer is called PWM, or pulse-width modulation, it is a pretty cool technology that can be used for alot of different applications on cars, electronics, and electrical devices. PWM is used on many modern vehicles, and you might not even know it is there. In Jeep land, JK's use PWM on the headlights, which is why aftermarket HID and LED headlights flicker if you dont add the little adapter in line with the lights. It is used on electric radiator fans in some vehicles for speed control, that the fan can have more than 1 or 2 set speeds. PWM can also be used with nitrous systems to pulse the solenoids. There are also lots of transmission solenoids, EGR valves, EVAP vent solenoids, and IAC (idle air control) motors that use PWM for control. If you use PWM on solenoids, it can hold the solenoid in a certain position instead of just being on or off.
+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.
+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.
This is excellent! I just installed 2 new 7 inch LED light bars in the stock foglight locations. Now with this dimmer I can tone down the brightness for on-road as well as off-road use. This will Greatly improve the functionality of my jeep lighting and I will still be able to keep my clean stock look. Thank Matt!
That's awesome! I know lots of folks on the trail would appreciate that. Would like to see a long term test on if it affects the light bar at all... that buzzing is a bit worrisome.
im suprised more people didnt know about using a pulsing signal to dim led lights. my friend told me about it for led tail lights because a co workers aftermarket ones were brighter at night than he wanted. it was a fuew years ago too.
You might wanna check out how hot that device gets after a while. I have a pwm in my xj for hho purposes, and it actually has a mini cooler on it. Probably it depends on the amps that pass thru, but still, you don't wanna find out when at night in the woods ;)
I've experimented around with some of the LED modules that you find on eBay from the Chinese manufacturers. One of the ones that I encountered said that it needed 17V. When I hooked it up to 12V, the voltage was too low to even get the slightest glow from the LEDs in the package. So, I added a MT3608 power boost module to it to increase the 12V to the required level. It has a variable resistor module on it that allows you to adjust the voltage up to 28V. Of course, that would be too high for a LED module that was expecting 17V, so I adjusted it low and kept a multimeter on the output while watching it increase. As the voltage gets higher, the LED gets brighter. Without some sort of stop / limiter though, you could easily burn out an LED module with this. LEDs do not have a linear response though and as you get towards the maximum voltage they are supposed to handle, it doesn't take much of an adjustment to exceed it and possibly ruin your LED. So, it would be possible to just use voltage to control the brightness of the LEDs, but you would need to be pretty careful. A safer solution might be to just have a certain number of fixed brightness levels instead of a continuously variable solution.
thats cool, if you just want to dim it down use a 100 w 100 ohm rheostat on the ground, pretty much the same as a interior light dimmer in a car /or truck ,thanks for another cool vid godbless
Flicker sounds like just a PWM dimmer. Could make one from a 555 PWM controller (pretty easy and cheap to build, a 555 and a few other parts) and a chunky MOSFET to run the lights proper.
+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.
Back in the 80s, my buddy Crazy Todd put a strobe in his boat of a car, the Delta 88.. He found the right flash frequency that changed the stop lights just like the fire trucks used.
now because that switch is Ground Control put you 5 prong relay in the circuit so it acts like a normal high low switch. high will be normal operation without the adjusting circuit and low would be with the adjusting circuit. 87 will be a normal ground. 87a will be the green wire. and 30 would be ground for light bar. 86 would be a hot wire. and I personally would have 85 going to a push button Style ground switch ( the style that was on the older model trucks that is mounted to the floor so you can turn on with your foot)
i need to try this. i want to run the smaller 6 or 8 inch light bars for headlights but dont wanna blind everyone on the road. be cool to hook it up to auto dim on low beam
Can You make a ZJ project series? I have a 97 ZJ and have many plans for it, but many things with it differ from an XJ. For example I do not have leaf springs, I have coils all the way around. The bumper setup is different, etc.
there is also a company called s-pod, but the down side its 700 dollars but everything is contained in a box on circuit breakers and all plug and play. check it out if you havent herd of them.
its just pwm that one looks kinda small but you can buy them pretty cheap on ebay or wherever just make sure its rated for more than you need but it works i had one on a little 90w light bar the only thing on real low settings only a couple leds come on but other wise its fine
for a truly custom look, replace your headlamps with a light bar, and use this dimmer switch as a dimmer, So you could have hi beam ad low beam settings. I donno, crazy I know, but wired correctly. sounds like it would work ..... in theory anyway. Great Video.
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.
The industry could replace a resistor in the driver circuit with a potentiometer and make it adjustable brightness. They build them so the leds are over driven in order to shorten the lifespan which would be over 20 years if they were given the proper amount of amperage.
hey bud auxbeam sells a light bar call v series so controlling you have your toggle switch it also has a Bluetooth module that you can control with an app on your phone you can also change it to different colors they really don't forget the light far but for an effect it's cool but you can dim your light bar as well as turn it to a strobe as well as play it to your music and a couple other interesting features that the app does you can also control the light bar once it's turned on it says up to ten metres but I'm not quite sure yet
Mat, I have some damage to my unibody and it's tweaked. This doesn't let me get any mounts to mount a 50 inch across my roof because the gap between the gutter rail and the door it's to right and the gap between the door and the a pillar is also too tight, what should I do ? :(
Matt I got another idea, how about a video on seat swaps? like XJ seats in a TJ and such? may be sweet info for guys who want to upgrade my seats are shot and I want something better
I have another even more elegant solution to the "blinded by light bar" problem. Turn off the light bar when your behind someone. I had a light bar on my jeep, I used it once to align it and never again. Head lights, fogs and KCs were way more usable on the trail.
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.
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.
id like to buy some cree lights with amber colored covers and wire them into my panic switch so that they strobe with my panics. i think itd be a cool look
So I realize that the "dimmer" is just a PWM and a few other electrical components with a potentiometer to control it, but my question is do you think dimming the light bar would put any added stress on the internal electronics in the light bar? Essentially staving it for power?
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.
The circuit needs to be inverse phase so it looks like /|/|/|/|/| and not |\|\|\|\|\|\. Note the slow rise and the straight drop versus the sudden rise and slow fall off. That sudden rise is where the noise comes from. How this is achieved I am not sure. It is a PWM but it has a slow ramp up and not a square wave. I do not know how they do that, but I bet I could figure it out.
if its not designed to be dimmable it can blow out the ballast in your light bar over time if you use it on a low setting. I would check with the light bar manufacturer first.
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.
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.
Thank you so much! That's awesome. Haha, I thought I was the first to think of this but glad someone else figured it out for me. Can you tell me what that product is called, product # and where I can get it? Thanks, Jonathan
That buzzing sound you hear is your LED driver(s) getting fucked by the dimmer. The LED driver takes the 12 volts from the car and boosts it up to around 30 volts so that your LEDs are putting out as much light as possible. It boosts the voltage by using PWM up-converter and capacitors. You can't mix the two. You know how most CFLs and LED lights at home depot aren't dimmer safe? Same reason. Your lights will flicker and you will greatly reduce their lifespan.
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.
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.
There are better circuits in use by people using LED lights when they are making videos, which turn on and off so fast that the camera can't tell that it is flickering. Also, I would have expected to see this directly driving LEDs, but I don't know if the light bar has its own circuits inside it which interfere in the form of that noise.
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.
It's kinda cool, but I feel like it may not be the best for the light bar because they were not designed to work like that, but who knows they are leds, so maybe it won't hurt it.
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.
leds are current driven devices. the dimmer control would get very hot. you could use one on an leds system running analog drivers because you would just be manipulating a reference signal. but as a regulator on the main power supply wires, you could, but shouldnt ever do that.
Various companies do make 0-10 volt dimmers for low voltage controlled leds and CFL lamps. I'm not sure how effective they would be. Keeping in mind too that they do not like 12volt. So something would have to be done about that. These types of dimmers are also very expensive and are made to specific applications.
+Alex Holsinger if it's a 0-10v dimmer control than its sending a reference signal to a proper led driver. Unless it some sort of cob led. light bars like this are most likely just running a simple dc-dc step up converter power supply. when he says they haven't figured out a way to dim them it's flat out wrong. dimmable led drivers are nothing new. analog drivers accept a 0-10v reference signal which can be manipulated with a simple potentiometer(standard dimmer knob). and then they have pwn dimming drivers that accept a pwm input signal. dimmable light bars are easy. but real drivers are expensive and would significantly drive up the cost. one powerful enough for a light bar this size would be pretty big too. no way they'd be able to contain it all in one. I've been wanting to build my own led light bar driven with true dimmable led drivers. maybe I should start on that.
Someone explain to me why exactly the head light switch couldn't do the same thing? (obviously hooked up as a stand alone for the light bar). because i have lead dome lights and they dim with the switch
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.
Quick question hopefully anyone can answer...Recently installed a 20inch on my bullbar and am thinking about getting a bigger bar for my roof. Would there be any problem with my battery? Does anyone know if it can handle it or how many lightbars i can put on until it becomes a problem? Thanks guys, just thinking on 1 more bar lol but we all know that once you have one led bar you cant get enough.
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.
as far as your "noise" goes i would remove / bypass any circuitry aka controller that came with the light bar. if their is none try coating the LED strips on the back with silicone or a non conductive resin. preferably one with good thermal properties. the light bar housing is a massive heatsink for a reason. aka light bar company's will generally overdrive their LEDs to an extent instead of using a more efficient LED because it is cheaper that way. that is why they get so hot. basically a 50" light bar is a bunch of 200 - 250lm LED's running at 90%+- power. By the way a light bar does not put out 25,000lm nor even 5,000lm in fact they just multiplied 200 by the number of diodes on the strips and and lied to your face. they do make LED's that bright and affordable as well but it wouldn't look as cool because you would only need a few diodes to light the trail. And it would be brighter at the same price point. that is why when you do the math you will see company's offer brighter per diode smaller light bars all be it not as bright as they should be.
But doesn't work properly with LED, PWM is used in electronics circuits, in fact, PWM always keep the voltage constant, just turn on and off really fast, vary the voltage is not good idea when you turn LED on, LED are not a resistance, have minimum and maximum voltage to work properly, "normal" bulbs (halogen) can work vary voltage, because are a resistance an electric component, LED are Diode, an electronic component.
Nope, use a Analog Digital Converter, to mapping the analog value to 8bit (0-255 digital), then use that 8bit to reference the duty clicle for the PWM.
"Tourette syndrome"- I bet you would have some involuntary cussin' if you started strobing those lights. I almost spit ice cream onto my computer monitor when he said that. Great video! I have been looking for a way to dim my amber fog lights. Thanks.
You jush need appropriate Watt power shim motor/led controller - just that simple. And you will never have a strobe with it - so you can film near even with smartphone without artifacts
I would be super interested in buying one of these, but when I went to the creator's video, it seems like he made a small batch of them and is just selling off the ones he didn't use. I mean, it's basically just a high amperage PWM controller, which is cool. But I don't know how jazzed I am about buying something like this through an email address posted on some random youtube page with 164 subs. Plus, he didn't post a price, which is super annoying.
To Purchase: bleepinjeep.com/product/lightbar_dimmer
The link doesn’t seem to work anymore. There’s no option to add the dimmer to the cart.
This kind of dimmer is called PWM, or pulse-width modulation, it is a pretty cool technology that can be used for alot of different applications on cars, electronics, and electrical devices. PWM is used on many modern vehicles, and you might not even know it is there. In Jeep land, JK's use PWM on the headlights, which is why aftermarket HID and LED headlights flicker if you dont add the little adapter in line with the lights. It is used on electric radiator fans in some vehicles for speed control, that the fan can have more than 1 or 2 set speeds. PWM can also be used with nitrous systems to pulse the solenoids. There are also lots of transmission solenoids, EGR valves, EVAP vent solenoids, and IAC (idle air control) motors that use PWM for control. If you use PWM on solenoids, it can hold the solenoid in a certain position instead of just being on or off.
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.
This is excellent! I just installed 2 new 7 inch LED light bars in the stock foglight locations. Now with this dimmer I can tone down the brightness for on-road as well as off-road use. This will Greatly improve the functionality of my jeep lighting and I will still be able to keep my clean stock look. Thank Matt!
That's awesome! I know lots of folks on the trail would appreciate that. Would like to see a long term test on if it affects the light bar at all... that buzzing is a bit worrisome.
Ya @bleepinjeep what's the buzzing?
im suprised more people didnt know about using a pulsing signal to dim led lights. my friend told me about it for led tail lights because a co workers aftermarket ones were brighter at night than he wanted. it was a fuew years ago too.
The main part of the chip is a pulse width modulator. the same thing is used for dc brushed moters as a speed controller quite easy to make.
Would it reduce the life span of the light bar with it constantly turning on and off?
You might wanna check out how hot that device gets after a while.
I have a pwm in my xj for hho purposes, and it actually has a mini cooler on it.
Probably it depends on the amps that pass thru, but still, you don't wanna find out when at night in the woods ;)
I've experimented around with some of the LED modules that you find on eBay from the Chinese manufacturers. One of the ones that I encountered said that it needed 17V. When I hooked it up to 12V, the voltage was too low to even get the slightest glow from the LEDs in the package. So, I added a MT3608 power boost module to it to increase the 12V to the required level. It has a variable resistor module on it that allows you to adjust the voltage up to 28V. Of course, that would be too high for a LED module that was expecting 17V, so I adjusted it low and kept a multimeter on the output while watching it increase. As the voltage gets higher, the LED gets brighter. Without some sort of stop / limiter though, you could easily burn out an LED module with this. LEDs do not have a linear response though and as you get towards the maximum voltage they are supposed to handle, it doesn't take much of an adjustment to exceed it and possibly ruin your LED. So, it would be possible to just use voltage to control the brightness of the LEDs, but you would need to be pretty careful. A safer solution might be to just have a certain number of fixed brightness levels instead of a continuously variable solution.
where can we get the product ?
Thank you for testing this out Matt, I have been trying to figure out how I can dim light bars for an idea I have with them.
I have this dimmer wired up to my light bars functioning as "DRL" during the day and they work great. I don't experienced the buzzing noise.
thats cool, if you just want to dim it down use a 100 w 100 ohm rheostat on the ground, pretty much the same as a interior light dimmer in a car /or truck ,thanks for another cool vid godbless
is that bad on the leds pulsing them like that
Video gave me a seizure. accidentally dropped laptop on pet gerbil. Steven is now in heaven.
Ah poor laptop, I just call my laptop Vaio.
Wow. I might pick a couple of these up. I've got 380 watts of LEDs on my XJ so I'd have to use 2 but they're pretty awesome
will the continuous flashing decrease the life span of the l.e.d's in the light bar?
Flicker sounds like just a PWM dimmer.
Could make one from a 555 PWM controller (pretty easy and cheap to build, a 555 and a few other parts) and a chunky MOSFET to run the lights proper.
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.
Back in the 80s, my buddy Crazy Todd put a strobe in his boat of a car, the Delta 88.. He found the right flash frequency that changed the stop lights just like the fire trucks used.
pulse width modulation look it up maybe there are other controllers that arent car specific but will work flawlesly
now because that switch is Ground Control put you 5 prong relay in the circuit so it acts like a normal high low switch. high will be normal operation without the adjusting circuit and low would be with the adjusting circuit. 87 will be a normal ground. 87a will be the green wire. and 30 would be ground for light bar. 86 would be a hot wire. and I personally would have 85 going to a push button Style ground switch ( the style that was on the older model trucks that is mounted to the floor so you can turn on with your foot)
i need to try this. i want to run the smaller 6 or 8 inch light bars for headlights but dont wanna blind everyone on the road. be cool to hook it up to auto dim on low beam
Can You make a ZJ project series? I have a 97 ZJ and have many plans for it, but many things with it differ from an XJ. For example I do not have leaf springs, I have coils all the way around. The bumper setup is different, etc.
there is also a company called s-pod, but the down side its 700 dollars but everything is contained in a box on circuit breakers and all plug and play. check it out if you havent herd of them.
its just pwm that one looks kinda small but you can buy them pretty cheap on ebay or wherever just make sure its rated for more than you need but it works i had one on a little 90w light bar the only thing on real low settings only a couple leds come on but other wise its fine
Matt, has there been any feedback on this device? How does it hold up?
The next time you go somewhere that has a big waterfall you could get some really awesome video by adjusting the frequency of the strobe.
+Bill Roberts can you explain?
@@bleepinjeep -- Apparently you are too young to remember the disco strobes...
that's awesome... probably going to make his sales go up a bunch
Did the lightbar last as long as it normally would have?
Awesome! Doing this on my DRZ's POD LEDs! Thanks!
for a truly custom look, replace your headlamps with a light bar, and use this dimmer switch as a dimmer, So you could have hi beam ad low beam settings. I donno, crazy I know, but wired correctly. sounds like it would work ..... in theory anyway. Great Video.
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.
The industry could replace a resistor in the driver circuit with a potentiometer and make it adjustable brightness. They build them so the leds are over driven in order to shorten the lifespan which would be over 20 years if they were given the proper amount of amperage.
so this would be like pulse width modulation for an electric motor to controll speed, but your controlling brightness on a light bar. interesting!
What's the best dimmer now for light bars
must have ....your channel is awesome man
I wonder what the amperage rating for that is? It might not last long with a lightbar of that size.
Does the device circuit board heat up ?
Cool I was looking for a dimmer light bar for my truck
I would like to know what the chip is called so i can make one with longer wires
I might have to get one of these once I get a light bar again.
That is awesome! I need to get some light bars just so I can have that, lol. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Can we still purchase the dimmer? This is exactly what I need. The link does not work.
hey bud auxbeam sells a light bar call v series so controlling you have your toggle switch it also has a Bluetooth module that you can control with an app on your phone you can also change it to different colors they really don't forget the light far but for an effect it's cool but you can dim your light bar as well as turn it to a strobe as well as play it to your music and a couple other interesting features that the app does you can also control the light bar once it's turned on it says up to ten metres but I'm not quite sure yet
cool...where is that link for it..??...don't see it...
you have to email brian, its in the description
Mat, I have some damage to my unibody and it's tweaked. This doesn't let me get any mounts to mount a 50 inch across my roof because the gap between the gutter rail and the door it's to right and the gap between the door and the a pillar is also too tight, what should I do ? :(
+Chris Reyes learn to weld!!
+BleepinJeep teach teach teach
Matt I got another idea, how about a video on seat swaps? like XJ seats in a TJ and such? may be sweet info for guys who want to upgrade my seats are shot and I want something better
Really cool device!
pulse width modulation
Couldn't you just use a potentiometer/variable resistor to limit voltage/current to light bar to dim it? Or do you have to make a 555 controller?
no..to put it simple..less voltage doesnt make leds dimmer..too low and they just turn off
that's pretty neat.
I have another even more elegant solution to the "blinded by light bar" problem. Turn off the light bar when your behind someone. I had a light bar on my jeep, I used it once to align it and never again. Head lights, fogs and KCs were way more usable on the trail.
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.
That's so cool I might have to get one
id like to buy some cree lights with amber colored covers and wire them into my panic switch so that they strobe with my panics. i think itd be a cool look
So I realize that the "dimmer" is just a PWM and a few other electrical components with a potentiometer to control it, but my question is do you think dimming the light bar would put any added stress on the internal electronics in the light bar? Essentially staving it for power?
+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
That's pretty awesome!
I have a light bar like the one in video, but it strobes. Does anyone know how I can stop it from strobing?
The circuit needs to be inverse phase so it looks like /|/|/|/|/| and not |\|\|\|\|\|\. Note the slow rise and the straight drop versus the sudden rise and slow fall off. That sudden rise is where the noise comes from. How this is achieved I am not sure. It is a PWM but it has a slow ramp up and not a square wave. I do not know how they do that, but I bet I could figure it out.
I just noticed that the plate on the back part of the Wrangler is a Rhode Island plate cause that is where I am from
if its not designed to be dimmable it can blow out the ballast in your light bar over time if you use it on a low setting. I would check with the light bar manufacturer first.
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.
very cool
Where can you get them at the Switch I am talk about
That is pretty damn cool.. Thanks for sharing.
Very interesting!
What's the name of the song in the beginning of the video?
Cool!
I got a question can I tap in to the truck headlight switch to dime them
Blair Joseph Bernard Why would you want to dim your headlights? 95% of truck's headlights are absolutely horrible
You're in RI? I had no idea.
I wonder how that's gonna affect the longevity of the LEDs
what brand lightbar is that? never seen one with a plug
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.
What about the buzzing?
i looked down threw here ,,,, & didn't see the guy's or company info,. or e mail......???
Thank you so much! That's awesome. Haha, I thought I was the first to think of this but glad someone else figured it out for me.
Can you tell me what that product is called, product # and where I can get it?
Thanks, Jonathan
+Jonathan Bartsch see description
That buzzing sound you hear is your LED driver(s) getting fucked by the dimmer. The LED driver takes the 12 volts from the car and boosts it up to around 30 volts so that your LEDs are putting out as much light as possible. It boosts the voltage by using PWM up-converter and capacitors. You can't mix the two.
You know how most CFLs and LED lights at home depot aren't dimmer safe? Same reason. Your lights will flicker and you will greatly reduce their lifespan.
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.
+BleepinJeep Would this replace a relay if you wanted to use the dial switch as the main switch?
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.
Rhode Island plates. 80s era pretty cool. Are you from Lil Rhody? I'm just asking cause that's where I live. Great vids very cool and educational.
where can I get?
There are better circuits in use by people using LED lights when they are making videos, which turn on and off so fast that the camera can't tell that it is flickering. Also, I would have expected to see this directly driving LEDs, but I don't know if the light bar has its own circuits inside it which interfere in the form of that noise.
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.
"might give somebody some terretts syndrome" hahahahaha
Would a potentiometer not be just as simple? You'd get the dimming action, just not strobe.
It's kinda cool, but I feel like it may not be the best for the light bar because they were not designed to work like that, but who knows they are leds, so maybe it won't hurt it.
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.
How to brighten your lightbar please. None of this dimming rot
Dumb question but couldn't you use a dimmer that comes on a light switch that's in a house? Never wired up a light bar so I don't know.
no, led's are always the same brightness. normal lights get brighter or dimmer with more or less voltage
they do make led dimmers for house. 12 yr electrician there high$$ and most run off 110v
leds are current driven devices. the dimmer control would get very hot. you could use one on an leds system running analog drivers because you would just be manipulating a reference signal. but as a regulator on the main power supply wires, you could, but shouldnt ever do that.
Various companies do make 0-10 volt dimmers for low voltage controlled leds and CFL lamps. I'm not sure how effective they would be. Keeping in mind too that they do not like 12volt. So something would have to be done about that. These types of dimmers are also very expensive and are made to specific applications.
+Alex Holsinger if it's a 0-10v dimmer control than its sending a reference signal to a proper led driver. Unless it some sort of cob led. light bars like this are most likely just running a simple dc-dc step up converter power supply. when he says they haven't figured out a way to dim them it's flat out wrong. dimmable led drivers are nothing new. analog drivers accept a 0-10v reference signal which can be manipulated with a simple potentiometer(standard dimmer knob). and then they have pwn dimming drivers that accept a pwm input signal. dimmable light bars are easy. but real drivers are expensive and would significantly drive up the cost. one powerful enough for a light bar this size would be pretty big too. no way they'd be able to contain it all in one. I've been wanting to build my own led light bar driven with true dimmable led drivers. maybe I should start on that.
Someone explain to me why exactly the head light switch couldn't do the same thing? (obviously hooked up as a stand alone for the light bar).
because i have lead dome lights and they dim with the switch
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.
The strobe part make the jeep illegal to go back on the road in m y area your even forced to put a cover on the light bar when your on the road !
You could if used a household dimming switch. It just has a max handling of 120 orc115. So yeah lol
No... you can't
Quick question hopefully anyone can answer...Recently installed a 20inch on my bullbar and am thinking about getting a bigger bar for my roof. Would there be any problem with my battery? Does anyone know if it can handle it or how many lightbars i can put on until it becomes a problem? Thanks guys, just thinking on 1 more bar lol but we all know that once you have one led bar you cant get enough.
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
Looks like an RC speed controller or whatever they're called.
as far as your "noise" goes i would remove / bypass any circuitry aka controller that came with the light bar. if their is none try coating the LED strips on the back with silicone or a non conductive resin. preferably one with good thermal properties. the light bar housing is a massive heatsink for a reason. aka light bar company's will generally overdrive their LEDs to an extent instead of using a more efficient LED because it is cheaper that way. that is why they get so hot. basically a 50" light bar is a bunch of 200 - 250lm LED's running at 90%+- power. By the way a light bar does not put out 25,000lm nor even 5,000lm in fact they just multiplied 200 by the number of diodes on the strips and and lied to your face. they do make LED's that bright and affordable as well but it wouldn't look as cool because you would only need a few diodes to light the trail. And it would be brighter at the same price point. that is why when you do the math you will see company's offer brighter per diode smaller light bars all be it not as bright as they should be.
thanks for the info
You are welcome.
The device is a auto transformer. Vary the voltage you get to limit power(Watt).
But doesn't work properly with LED, PWM is used in electronics circuits, in fact, PWM always keep the voltage constant, just turn on and off really fast, vary the voltage is not good idea when you turn LED on, LED are not a resistance, have minimum and maximum voltage to work properly, "normal" bulbs (halogen) can work vary voltage, because are a resistance an electric component, LED are Diode, an electronic component.
+Oliver Silva www.amazon.com/Dimmable-12VDC-Magnetic-Transformer-Driver/dp/B00GLWHVTY
Tray Muse henrysbench.capnfatz.com/henrys-bench/arduino-output-devices/10-watt-high-power-led-with-an-arduino/
+Oliver Silva then the device is a potentiometer
Nope, use a Analog Digital Converter, to mapping the analog value to 8bit (0-255 digital), then use that 8bit to reference the duty clicle for the PWM.
"Tourette syndrome"- I bet you would have some involuntary cussin' if you started strobing those lights. I almost spit ice cream onto my computer monitor when he said that. Great video! I have been looking for a way to dim my amber fog lights. Thanks.
You jush need appropriate Watt power shim motor/led controller - just that simple. And you will never have a strobe with it - so you can film near even with smartphone without artifacts
beware electrical interference. you may want to consider a filter on your 12vdc feed.
Spod se has a built in dimmer
This thing is 60$ sPOD se with touch screen programmer is 800$ does that sound right?
Works just like my inova flashlight, don't worry about the hum
"you might give someone tourettes syndrome" hahahahaha!
I would think a simple screen or tinted cover would be the simplest way to dim these.
Why can't you just hook the light bar up to a variable resistor?
You can if you just wanted a dimmer. PWM allows for strobing.
Well the RGB colorshift light bars have this feature. Problem is colorshift light bars are Uber gay and the white dim setting isn't true white.
where is the link ?
in the description
I would be super interested in buying one of these, but when I went to the creator's video, it seems like he made a small batch of them and is just selling off the ones he didn't use.
I mean, it's basically just a high amperage PWM controller, which is cool. But I don't know how jazzed I am about buying something like this through an email address posted on some random youtube page with 164 subs. Plus, he didn't post a price, which is super annoying.