Depends on the car. My Genesis has LED taillights but they have a full red lens so they don't appear to be a string of dots.
Front DRL on a few cars look terrible, IMO. Cadillac is one of the worst, IMO, Audi not far behind. They they go out when the turn signal is on and it really looks bad.
Some look like the designers got a new toy and they don't know how to play with them yet, but they must use them because the competition has them.
Philips "warm glow" bulbs are the best dimmable LED's I've seen and weigh less than CREE's non-dimmable bulbs. They're still heavier than a 60W incandescent bulb, but not by much. I just bought Philips 60W replaceable "warm glow" bulbs from Home Depot for $8 each.
Sylvania's sunset effect bulbs are fairly light weight too, but I like the Philips bulbs better.
Anthony Watson
Muggles wrote: ...
ages ago i kept venus flytraps in a 10 gallon terrarium and they bloomed. did you ever think of how venus flytraps would be pollinated? :) they have yellow flowers on top of a stalk 8+" high.
if you do get flower stalks they can be hand pollinated with a little brush and then the seeds will eventually come along. they look like tiny little eggplants. to get them to grow from seed can be a challenge. i had a bunch of them coming along and went on vacation and left my sister in charge of making sure they didn't dry out. heh. came home to shrivelled little nothings... poor tykes.
songbird
There are two different issues at play. One is left to right aiming: the driver's side (inner) headlamp is supposed to point "right" instead of straight ahead. This keeps your lights out of the "other lane".
But, height/elevation also plays a role. If you're lights are higher up off the roadway, they will cross a given point of elevation that lower mounted lights won't. E.g., an 18-wheeler's lights are more likely to be up *above* my eyes, pointed downward, than a MiniCooper's.
In each case where "oncoming" drivers "flashed us", they were parked (at a light) directly across the intersection from us. I.e., close enough that our light cone hadn't fallen to a point BELOW the driver's eye level.
Living in a world of pickup trucks, we had noticed this early on: "Why are everyone's headlights so bright?" But, you'd only notice when the offending vehicle was very close -- not "down the road a bit and headed in your direction". The "solution" is to get your vehicle *up* and out of the downward aimed lights sooner.
Exactly. "High" and "low" aren't synonyms for "bright" and "dim".
We found the problem was the actual "height" of the lights. E.g., when a truck's headlamps are at the level of your head, while seated, it doesn't matter how bright they are; they're "in your eyes".
People behind you tend to *stay* behind you. So, wherever their headlights are (focused) now, they will remain there for the foreseeable future.
OTOH, an oncoming vehicle's headlamps will pass *through* the point of focus "in your eyes" before the vehicle gets to your location; it won't *stay* in that "unsweet spot" indefinitely (unless you are both sitting at a traffic interchange waiting for the signal to change!)
See my other posts, here. The issue is elevation of the headlamp. The first time it happened, we (new to the car) went to "lower" the beam -- and ended up flashing the highs, instead. So, the other vehicle now *knows* we didn't have the highs on.
Had he been in a pickup truck or other "high riding" vehicle, he would probably not have noticed. Or, had his vehicle been in relative motion to ours so he wasn't in the "bad spot" for the duration of the traffic light.
It's also possible that seeing the "wider" light source (3 lamps each side instead of just one filament) led him to think it was two bulbs, side by side.
And, they're "whiter" than normal incandescents.
There's a real spare in the trunk (instead of a bottle of sealant and a pump) but I doubt that makes much of a load difference (~100#?)
LED bulb costs are starting to come down. Costco sells a 3 pack of Feit 60W for under $9, but that inlcudes a local electric utility subsidy. Without the subsidy they are around 3/$15.
Non-dimmable bulbs in a dimmer circuit often consume *more* power (as well as almost ALWAYS forcing less efficient operation!) when used with dimmers that are "inappropriate"!
I tried GE, Feit, Cree, Philips, I liked Philips, Cree daylight ones. Also found out dimmable ones work as well with motion sensors.
By wasted non-energy producing ghost Wattage!
I'm waiting for the Tbird emulation frenzy to take place! :>
A lot of what goes into cars (appearance-wise) is to make the vehicle more noticeable to other drivers (safety). E.g., brake lights had been "low, on either side" of the car for ages -- why the sudden need to put a third one "up high"?
Ans: because it isn't *expected* there (yet) so drivers notice it more readily.
Ditto motorcycles running with headlight(s) on -- in daylight.
Drivers -- when not deliberately distracted by their own amusements -- tend to "zone out" and fail to see lots of what's in front of them.
...unless they are following you at half a car-length and/or driving one of those 4WD "land yacht" trucks/suvs and their "illuminate Cincinnati" headlights are "in yer face".
Sheesh! You relate all the proper technical answers, but seem to have never done any real life commuting or even any real driving. I think you need to get a "real life" clue. ;)
nb
Yes. It's called a shunt.
You jes lost any creds you may have ever had.
nb
Did you *read* what I wrote?
"People behind you tend to stay behind you."
I.e., if they are "half a car-length" behind you they will STAY half a car length behind you -- unlike oncoming cars where the distance changes with each passing instant!
"So, wherever their headlights are (focused) now, they will remain there for the foreseeable future"
I.e., "in yer face" -- and they will *stay* "in yer face"!
You should, perhaps, think more carefully about what I've written before complaining about my lack of "real life" experience.
(Or, should I be writing at a THIRD grade level, instead??)
Stormin Mormon wrote in alt.home.repair:
Agreed. In Virgnia, it's part of the annual inspection to ensure the tilt it maintained so you do not blind (and thereby endanger) other drivers.
If folks flash their lights at you, you have something wrong and need to fix it.
Don Y wrote in alt.home.repair:
There is an angle higher cars ned to use to not blind others. It is the law. Higher car does not matter.
No, dimmers don't work with "shunts". The problem with CFL/LED "ballasts" is that they don't represent nice resistive loads -- like the incandescents for which legacy dimmers were created (and still in use).
See the 'scope traces at: (N.B. the vertical scale has been changed by a factor of *5* from the "non-dimmer" example to the "dimmer" example that appears below it.
[The rest of the page is probably worth reading -- if you're technically inclined. E.g., the table that appears a bit above the cited photos if you like to see numbers instead of graphs]Hmmm... something about "real life" comes to mind...
In painful detail.
They do!?
Hard to see anything when halogen/HID headlights are giving one a migraine.
Unless they pass, then the next car moves up to half a car-length.
You think about it. I commuted fer 25 yrs and drove a semi fer 5.
Yer that old? I was wondering, but didn't wanna say anything. ;)
nb
Ironically the power company is giving you your own money back - they have added extra fees to your monthly bill to cover the subsidy. That basically means if you don't buy subsidized bulbs, you're buying them for your friends and neighbors indirectly. Such a deal. NOT!!!
Think about what you've said. Now, take out a piece of paper and a ruler and draw your "solution". Better yet, cite the actual ordinance so you know you're drawing the right elevations, spacings, etc.
Tell me how car height "does not matter" -- to the geometry involved?
In most states, car headlights have to be between ~24 and ~54 inches "above grade". The ROOF of *my* car (not SWMBO's vehicle which I've been talking about) is LOWER than that! So, my *eyes* will be even lower, still!
Please tell me what sort of "angle" those "higher cars" could adopt to keep their lights OUT of my eyes? Perhaps pointed STRAIGHT DOWN??
Headlamps are not point sources. Nor are they highly columnated (i.e., the light cones *disperse* else they'd be pretty USELESS at illuminating the roadway ahead -- you'd only be able to see two *points* on the road at some fixed distance ahead!).
Roads are not level. The person some distance in front of you may be at a higher or lower elevation; and, the roadway on which you (or he) are situated may be inclined (pointing lights upward or downward).
The distances between vehicles (light source and incident surface) can vary.
I'm eager to hear of the revolutionary geometrical principles you've uncovered that ENSURE *legally* conforming lights can't shine in another driver/passenger's eyes! :>
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