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Posted: 12/29/2012 11:25:17 PM EDT
My latest gadget is a LED light bar. Now I've always wanted to setup some sort of http://www.ledlightshub.com/ LED lights system (low power consumption) but jesus the prices are INSANE!!! The top name brands are astronomically priced! Yes new LED tech is a little pricey and still developing but $1600-$2000 for a nice 40-50" bar is ridiculous. I don't care if it'll support the weight of my truck, big deal (when will i ever drive over it???), the aluminum housing does NOT justify the insane up charge. Besides if I was gonna mount one over cab, or anywhere for that matter I'll sure as hell be protecting it with steel. 
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Save some money and build it yourself with these! I bought some and they work great!
LED IR Lights |
| On my Jeep, they look and seem like regular headlights. I'm fairly sure that some of it would depend on what type of night vision you are using though. The lights are from the military and were used on HumVees. I also bought some of the ones that didn't have fans on them, for $35 each plus shipping. I don't think you'd need the fans anyway, unless you were in a real hot climate. |
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Damn, that's some pretty impressive performance, for what appears to be a small box o' lights.
Do you think one centrally located light would provide enough illumination for a 3rd gen PVS 7 or 14 at low road speeds? I am thinking "emergency" only use, or perhaps on a honda quad for woods/trail riding, at slower speeds. Though as set mounted on my vette could sure piss the popo on the interstate off................... 
Those "Urban Legends" about the 200 MPH, invisible to the naked eye, drug dealer in a Ferrari, as a delivery vehicle using pilots goggles, have always made me wonder.... 
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Ordered two from him, off of ebay, they are fanless, and I paid 45 bucks each, and 15 to ship.
I can't see paying 55.00 bucks more, for a 12v computer fan. Now, to figure out what to do with them. Maybe mount one to my quad and get the neighbors wondering who is driving at night, with no lights. I already got them wondering about the supressed gun fire, they thought I was using a nail gun.
Got to keep them on their toes, it makes them be nice to me......
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UPDATE:
Just got a set from the seller listed, he shipped fast, and the lights look good without the fan and cover plate as shown in the ad. And, after looking at these, I don't see where that small fan could have put much air over the lights themselves, these must have been placed completely inside a structure that didn't have any airflow over it, and sure as heck, it wouldnt take much to cobble a thin AL plate and small fan onto them. Definitely, get them for the lower price, unless you don't like to tinker. And, they are worth it for the "Look", your wife or SO, will give you. I got them out of the box, and showed them to her, and I got that "Look", if you are married you know it. I said, these are IR lights, she said, "what are you going to do with them?", I said, mount one on the quad and ride around at night with my NV goggles, she said, "OH!", and gave me THAT "Look".............. 
Worth every penny. 
Anybody know for sure whats inside the box? Are these LED's, or something else? |
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They are the same type of bulbless light like small torchlights use (LED?). I bought one with the fan, to mainly see what it was like to see if it was really needed. It had an aluminum plate on the back with a dougnut/wafer fan mounted on a hole in the middle of it. It was spaced about a quarter of an inch away from the light itself. I must assume that it just blew air across the backside of the light to cool it. Might be needed for desert heat, but another writer here says he's used them without fans for sometime now, with no problems. His pictures show he's in the southwest somewhere, and it ain't real cool temps there.
For the money, I think they are damn good weatherproof IR lights! |
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There isn't actually a hole in the unit, its a sealed unit, except for the wire coming out.
All they did was offset an aluminum plate 1/4" off the back of the unit, and the fan mounted on the face of that plate, and blew air through a hole over the sealed back of the unit. It could have only been moving a few CFM of air, as the fan couldn't be much larger than 2" to 2 1/2 inches, and running at 9 to 20 some volts, you aren't spinning it real fast. You could probably get a better effect by mounting a piece of finned aluminum heat sink to the back of the light, or just funneling air over the entire unit with a larger tapered housing. |
picture sharing Here is the back of the unit, now imagine that plate the fan is mounted on, sits 1/4" off the back of the light unit. All that small fan is doing is flowing air on the back of the unit, In an exposed real life use, I can't see it doing anything but sucking up plant debris, dirt, dust, etc, and jamming up. Its just a computer fan, and they don't take much to seize up. This thing had to be buried in the interior of the body of the hummer, and this was just an effort to get some airflow on it. |
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WOW!
I got mine, removed the fan and the plate it was mounted to. Tapped the wire for a cigarette adapter and tried it inside and I had to almost take the gain on my unit to it lowest setting and it was clear as day. I'm thinking about trying to find a way to order a second. |
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