What to replace cyclops LED headlight with?

EricV

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So I'm about to undertake this task having decided that $180 for cyclops is a no go especially after so many talking about failures. I was about to order these "silver ones in the pic" after seeing several people use them. Then I saw these "black ones with an angled head and internal fan".

Which ones should I use silver heatsink, black built in fan, neither? Is there a club favorite if so what I'm looking for best light output with durability? I'm confused in my tiny pea brain they're both supposedly 10k lumens, 50w, and 6500K color temp one is $70 the other is $40 WHY?
Don't get the $70 pair. They are $70 because of the right angle housing, which is nice for some auto applications that use that style of housing and don't have a lot of extra space. It's not the 'normal' configuration for a H7 base bulb, thus the higher price. They likely will make things more difficult with the Super Ten's tight housing.

The $40 pair will work just fine, as will the internal fan style that Helimark linked to that are $35. (I used these myself). Both styles will require longer caps. If you're replacing Cyclops, you already have longer caps. If you're starting fresh on the LED conversion, order up some from deftoner on this forum. There is also an ebay seller that sometimes shows up. deftoner's caps fit perfectly and clear the forks. In both cases, you re-use the o-rings from your oem caps, or hit the hardware/auto parts/farm supply store and buy a couple of generic o-rings for a few bucks to use on the longer caps.

Heatsink or fan, your choice. On one hand, no fan to die and the lights are in sealed compartments. On the other hand, at least the fan is moving air around inside the light housing and no one that we know of has had a fan die. Heat is part of what kills LEDs. Neither choice is ideal with the enclosed housing.

@Blind Squirrel - You will need larger caps with any LED conversion. They all have a larger 'head' out the back than the oem halogen bulb. Helimark already had larger caps from the Cyclops kit, which work fine with the Chinese bulbs too.
 

Cycledude

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Thanks for actually posting the link, I just might order a set, the beginning of the add says 3 year warranty but the last line at the bottom of the add says 12 month warranty ?
After two bulb failures on the Cyclops, I was done with them. I purchased these, easy install, and so far, I actually like them better then the Cyclops. No night riding with them yet, but pulling into the garage, they seem to actually be brighter. Longevity, we will see.

https://www.amazon.com/Headlight-Conversion-Nighteye-A385-N7-Automotive-Warranty/dp/B07BH2Y7GK
 

TomZ

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Like many others, my 1st set of Cyclops lights failed after 10K hours or so. That's a little past 1 year and just out of warranty. It's a long way short of the 30K hours these lights are supposed to last. The problem seems to be overheating in the sealed caps. To make them last longer, I'm running the new ones without caps unless I'm planning to ride in a wet or dusty place. They seem to work just fine that way, and give good light. (Although they might be pointed a little high).

My question is: has anyone experimented with venting the caps (like drilling holes) to avoid heat buildup without letting in water etc.?
 

madman4049

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Don't get the $70 pair. They are $70 because of the right angle housing, which is nice for some auto applications that use that style of housing and don't have a lot of extra space. It's not the 'normal' configuration for a H7 base bulb, thus the higher price. They likely will make things more difficult with the Super Ten's tight housing.

The $40 pair will work just fine, as will the internal fan style that Helimark linked to that are $35. (I used these myself). Both styles will require longer caps. If you're replacing Cyclops, you already have longer caps. If you're starting fresh on the LED conversion, order up some from deftoner on this forum. There is also an ebay seller that sometimes shows up. deftoner's caps fit perfectly and clear the forks. In both cases, you re-use the o-rings from your oem caps, or hit the hardware/auto parts/farm supply store and buy a couple of generic o-rings for a few bucks to use on the longer caps.

Heatsink or fan, your choice. On one hand, no fan to die and the lights are in sealed compartments. On the other hand, at least the fan is moving air around inside the light housing and no one that we know of has had a fan die. Heat is part of what kills LEDs. Neither choice is ideal with the enclosed housing.

@Blind Squirrel - You will need larger caps with any LED conversion. They all have a larger 'head' out the back than the oem halogen bulb. Helimark already had larger caps from the Cyclops kit, which work fine with the Chinese bulbs too.
Thank you very much for the advice, do you think these warrant the price increase over the fanless silver ones? These have fans and supposedly 200 more lumens while also interestingly enough being rated at 45 watts draw VS the 50 of the cheaper ones.
 

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HeliMark

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Thanks for actually posting the link, I just might order a set, the beginning of the add says 3 year warranty but the last line at the bottom of the add says 12 month warranty ?
Badly worded, I guess not unexpected. Best I can figure out, is maybe 1 year return, and 3 year warranty as in exchange with a new one???


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EricV

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Thank you very much for the advice, do you think these warrant the price increase over the fanless silver ones? These have fans and supposedly 200 more lumens while also interestingly enough being rated at 45 watts draw VS the 50 of the cheaper ones.
The screen shot doesn't give me access to all of the info. I would suggest that you go with what is known to work instead of trying to break new ground. Novsight offers a huge array of H7 LED conversions. However, you really, really want to get some that don't have an inline ballast. It's much easier to fit the units w/o having to stuff in a ballast that's on the wires from the bulb to the plug. Usually, the ballast is shown in one of the pictures in the listing.
 

madman4049

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The screen shot doesn't give me access to all of the info. I would suggest that you go with what is known to work instead of trying to break new ground. Novsight offers a huge array of H7 LED conversions. However, you really, really want to get some that don't have an inline ballast. It's much easier to fit the units w/o having to stuff in a ballast that's on the wires from the bulb to the plug. Usually, the ballast is shown in one of the pictures in the listing.
Thanks again for the help, I couldn't find an exact h7 n7 and even if it doesn't do much I'd rather have a fan, especially if nobody has reported a failure of one. I ended up ordering these, they're 10k lumens, and 6k light temp instead of 6500 at 30W per bulb instead of 45w like the ones I was looking at. They also don't appear to have a ballast.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RJHCKVW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the link to the 12k lumen ones I linked but $5 cheaper, I was real close to biting the bullet on these for the extra light output but they have an external ballast which you say is a PITA to install and the D4's look like an airliner is on approach. They're also 45W per bulb and I'm already running a set of Denali D4's and want to run some Baja Designs S2's on the bars to light the sides of trails and don't want to overtax my electrical system.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QMKNBJW/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A3J8QSZPJZR9GU&psc=1

Now all I have to do is get in touch with Deftoner and get some of those famous caps.
 

WJBertrand

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I dunno, I think I’m getting disillusioned regarding these LED lights. I think fundamentally, closing them in behind the caps leads to shortened life. Both of my Cyclops ones burned our (or rather dimmed out) within a year and a couple months. I bought a cheaper pair to replace them but I’m not impressed with the light output, in spite of a claimed 4000 lumens/bulb. I find myself thinking again about HID lighting, which I had on my ST1300 - those suckers put out some light!


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EricV

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I dunno, I think I’m getting disillusioned regarding these LED lights. I think fundamentally, closing them in behind the caps leads to shortened life. Both of my Cyclops ones burned our (or rather dimmed out) within a year and a couple months. I bought a cheaper pair to replace them but I’m not impressed with the light output, in spite of a claimed 4000 lumens/bulb. I find myself thinking again about HID lighting, which I had on my ST1300 - those suckers put out some light!
Well, I guess you could try these lifetime warranty non-fan ones for $99 with free shipping (limited time on the free shipping). It doesn't look like they come with caps, but you already have those anyway.

What version of the cheaper ones did you get? Many of the Chinese kits now offer 5k or 6k Lumens each.

edit: Not sure what version of Cyclops LEDs you had, but they now claim 4800 Lm, so the 4k Lm LEDs you got would be less bright. The fun part with HID is always going to be where to put the ballasts and the extra wiring.
 
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WJBertrand

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I think they are all Chinese, even the Cyclops branded ones. I had what they told me were the 2nd gen ones rated at 4000 lumens, Gen 1s being 3600 lumens. Sounds like they are now at a 3rd gen bulb. I still think the fundamental problem is cooking them behind the covers in stagnant air and the truthfulness of the lumen ratings. I've got some Novasite ones on the bench but a different brand currently installed. I can't recall the brand but I still have the box at home. They were given to me by a generous friend and they have 4 emitters per bulb. The light is more even than what I had with the Cyclops but not very impressive in illumination. I'm fiddling with the aiming a little too, which may be part of the issue.
 

elricfate

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I still think the fundamental problem is cooking them behind the covers in stagnant air and the truthfulness of the lumen ratings. .
The lumen ratings are true at the emitter, which is exactly how all chinese sourced (and non-US distributed/retailed) bulbs are measured, or they're simply mathematically derived vs a proper measurement. I wish they'd use LUX and Lumens together so you'd get a real idea of how bright a bulb is, but also how useful that light actually is.

In terms of the early deaths, you're 100% right. Regardless of fan or no-fan, electronics cook in a non-ventilated area. Filament bulbs don't have this problem as the filament is usually tungsten, so it's one of the most heat resistant elements in the world. LED chips on the other hand, have to keep everything cool in order to not just vaporize important things that regulate power.

The brighter an LED, the more heat it produces, the more heat it produces, the more heat needs to be moved away from the emitter. Since that emitter is usually connected to a heatsink, that a fan cools, it would work in any enclosure that allows the fan to sit outside of it. But because our caps (and even the 3d printed ones) are fully enclosed, this isn't an option. Realistically, even the ones I made (that I am still running) that are bulbous and rubber, and give a lot of extra space, still have a weakness in that they can't expel that hot air fast enough through the little vents on them.

Our projectors require protection in order to stay functional, this means enclosing the entire system behind a fully sealed cap. If they were more like the caps on my Tacoma, it would be fully sealed with the exception of the bulb, which would allow the fan to sit in the open air and actually cool everything relatively easily. I think when I get a hair across my ass, and get bored, I may try to design a new set of caps using an open ended design that you can get everywhere on amazon. Sealing the projector, but allow the LED heatsink/fan to sit in the open air.
 

WJBertrand

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I think when I get a hair across my ass, and get bored, I may try to design a new set of caps using an open ended design that you can get everywhere on amazon. Sealing the projector, but allow the LED heatsink/fan to sit in the open air.
I've thought a lot about this too. One complicating factor is the location of the power plug inside the headlight assembly behind the cap. We'd need two seals, one to bring the wire for the connector to the outside and the other to seal the "neck" of the bulb assembly.
 

elricfate

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I've thought a lot about this too. One complicating factor is the location of the power plug inside the headlight assembly behind the cap. We'd need two seals, one to bring the wire for the connector to the outside and the other to seal the "neck" of the bulb assembly.
Yes and no. If I could get a spare project assembly to work on, the first problem would be easy to solve. It would require routing the wiring that provides power to the solenoid and the bulb to the outside of the assembly, but that would be simple just by altering the assembly itself to run the wires external prior to the cap. Then you would only need to solve for the cap itself, allowing the bulb to sit outside of it.

If someone happens to have a trashed Tenere with a headlight assembly they don't want/need. I'd love to make some surgical changes to it to prove out this theory. :)
 

EricV

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If you run the bulb wires outside, then a two piece cap that can be pressed together around the bulb, then rotated to lock would be one method. Bulb base outside, housing sealed off with a gasket. I can visualize a couple of ways to make it, but lack the tools to fabricate.
 
B

ballisticexchris

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I think they are all Chinese, even the Cyclops branded ones. I had what they told me were the 2nd gen ones rated at 4000 lumens, Gen 1s being 3600 lumens. Sounds like they are now at a 3rd gen bulb. I still think the fundamental problem is cooking them behind the covers in stagnant air and the truthfulness of the lumen ratings. I've got some Novasite ones on the bench but a different brand currently installed. I can't recall the brand but I still have the box at home. They were given to me by a generous friend and they have 4 emitters per bulb. The light is more even than what I had with the Cyclops but not very impressive in illumination. I'm fiddling with the aiming a little too, which may be part of the issue.
I'm still on the fence with these LED lights. Only time will tell how long they last. I will say they sure do get hot even with the fan running. They are pretty cheap in price though. I've decided if they burn out then I'm going back to the OEM bulbs and cap. Now that I have the Baja design Squadrons, the headlamps are nothing more than running lights anyway.
 

deftoner

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I have the larger caps-What is the easiest and best bulb I can install to improve my headlights ?
I'm running this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KSY7F32/?coliid=INCMGCJROE15G&colid=17R48OXG3RPC0&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it they work same as the cyclops. but this has no external driver and no fan, so super easy to install.

Its been a year in Florida weather, and still working perfect.


Don't get the $70 pair. They are $70 because of the right angle housing, which is nice for some auto applications that use that style of housing and don't have a lot of extra space. It's not the 'normal' configuration for a H7 base bulb, thus the higher price. They likely will make things more difficult with the Super Ten's tight housing.

The $40 pair will work just fine, as will the internal fan style that Helimark linked to that are $35. (I used these myself). Both styles will require longer caps. If you're replacing Cyclops, you already have longer caps. If you're starting fresh on the LED conversion, order up some from deftoner on this forum. There is also an ebay seller that sometimes shows up. deftoner's caps fit perfectly and clear the forks. In both cases, you re-use the o-rings from your oem caps, or hit the hardware/auto parts/farm supply store and buy a couple of generic o-rings for a few bucks to use on the longer caps.

Heatsink or fan, your choice. On one hand, no fan to die and the lights are in sealed compartments. On the other hand, at least the fan is moving air around inside the light housing and no one that we know of has had a fan die. Heat is part of what kills LEDs. Neither choice is ideal with the enclosed housing.

@Blind Squirrel - You will need larger caps with any LED conversion. They all have a larger 'head' out the back than the oem halogen bulb. Helimark already had larger caps from the Cyclops kit, which work fine with the Chinese bulbs too.
Yup, im the ebay seller too Kory :)
 
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