Before I start, let me tell you a little bit about my career experience. I started working in 2005 and have been involved in the automotive electronics industry, Europe and the United States, private companies, and state-owned enterprises. Later, I started my own business. My main work in starting a business has a certain intersection with modification. But it is not the main business direction. The reason why I want to briefly write about the basic popularization knowledge of retrofitting for easy upgrade of car lights is because I feel that retrofitting is slowly starting to develop from the niche to the public. There are more and more people in demand, but the retrofitting market It is quite messy and complicated, and sometimes it is difficult for car enthusiasts to decide how to carry out modifications. Therefore, this article will give a brief introduction to the industry, mainly to popularize science for car enthusiasts. Professionals in the modification industry are not to criticize, and please keep your opinions open. The content of this article will not contain any advertising information. Please do not delete the post. If you feel there is a problem, please feel free to communicate with me.
I have roughly planned 5 posts. They don’t contain much content, and the technical content is not very high. They are basically aimed at some modification directions that car enthusiasts basically need. I will start with car light modification here, because I am still standing on the edge of the industry. People who have been watching for a long time.
Regarding car light modification, it is basically because car owners buy low-end models. The original car is equipped with halogen lights, and the brightness is not ideal. Therefore, they need to be upgraded to HID, which is what we call hernia headlights. Of course, now it is necessary to upgrade the LED light source. There are also more and more. This industry roughly emerged around 2008. 2013 should be considered a time when the industry was having a better time. According to incomplete statistics, there are now more than 5,000 various types of lamp modification shops in the country. The number of employees is relatively The quality of the personnel is uneven, and many of the lamp modification shop owners recommend hand modification (what is manual modification will be explained below). Practitioners with a craftsman spirit, like Xiao Li Feidao in Gu Long's works, have rules and regulations for lamp modification. There are processes and standards; there are also those who fish in troubled waters and smear the industry, such as Qiu Qianzhang in Jin Yong's book. Under the guise of technology, the money was collected and the lights were changed, but as for how the changes were made, that was not his problem. of. Therefore, if many car enthusiasts encounter unkind people, their car's headlights may need to be put into the "operating room" repeatedly. Fortunately, the entire industry is developing rapidly, more and more lamp modification shops are establishing their reputation, and their services have been improving.
There are roughly two types of lamp modifications, one is to modify the lamp manually, and the other is to replace the headlight assembly. The two methods of lamp modification are introduced below.
1. Hand-modified light - (If the car enthusiast does not understand what a bifocal lens is, you can temporarily understand it as a flashlight. When it is turned on, it is high beam, and when it is not turned on, it is low beam. Switching between high and low beam is achieved on one lens)
The so-called handmade lamp, as the name suggests, means to modify the lamp by hand. In fact, it is to disassemble the low-end halogen headlights of your original car, make holes where the halogen bulbs were originally installed, and install HID bifocal lenses to upgrade the lights. In this process, the light lenses on both sides must be installed. The horizontal position is very important, otherwise there will be problems with the light pattern. Other injection wiring, etc. are also relatively important. It depends on the professionalism and overall level of the person who changes the lamp. There are generally three major items needed for hand-modified lamps: lens + ballast + light bulb.
Lenses: Generally, there are three types of lenses used by light modification shops, ① dismantled car lenses ② original lenses ③ domestic copycat lenses.
When the lamp modification industry first emerged, most of them used dismantled car lenses (Audi Q5 had the best reputation at the time), because many so-called original lenses had not appeared on the market at that time, and the industrial chain of domestic copycat lenses had not yet been formed. In the later period, due to the expansion of the modified lamp market, there was an increasing demand for lenses. The dismantled car lenses were no longer enough to satisfy this market, so a gray industry chain including original lenses like Q5 was formed. As for the channels, I will omit it here. 10,000 words; there are many varieties, but the Q5 bifocal lens and the Hella penta lens added later are the ones that have the best reviews. Normally speaking, automobile manufacturers do not allow lamp manufacturers to sell these bifocal lenses to the entire vehicle privately to the aftermarket. Q5 is a gray industry chain, and Hella 5 is playing a marginal role; these two Each type of bifocal lens has its own advantages in light pattern. In terms of cost performance, the original Q5 is better. Domestic knock-off lenses emerged on this basis, among which Q5 knock-offs were the most common. Starting from some traders, many brands of this kind and that were derived, causing the Q5 lens in the modified market to be extremely confusing, and car enthusiasts basically had no ability to identify them. Everyone just needs to remember that no matter what kind of advertising slogans you hear or what kind of highly imitated products you see, the original ones are the original ones, and the quality cannot be said because the production monitoring system is different; the copycat products must not be done well. ? No, because of vicious price competition, the profit margin of domestic lenses is getting thinner and thinner, and it is impossible to support a strict production system. At present, domestically produced Hella lenses also occupy a large market.
In addition, there are some domestically produced LED bifocal lenses on the market. Can these be used? It is recommended that you do not choose them at this stage. Because of the problem of light source, some large LED manufacturers basically supply high-brightness LED lamp beads to OEMs. The same type of LED lamp beads will have many bin codes. If they appear in the aftermarket, they are basically not suitable. Yes, some domestic LED lens developers, in order to increase the brightness, either add more LEDs or increase the current. Both of these situations will cause excessive attenuation of the lens life.
Ballast: The lamp tube of the HID bulb is filled with most of the inert gases such as xenon (Xenon) and iodide. The moment the xenon lamp power is turned on, the ballast instantly boosts the 12V voltage on the car to 23,000V. This high-intensity voltage is used to activate the HID bulb to produce strong light between the two poles, allowing the bulb to achieve high-brightness lighting. The brands are also very mixed. Many people like to use some dismantled car parts. Among domestic vehicle manufacturers, the most commonly used stabilizers are Huake (basically all Volkswagen brands use this) and Shanghai Koito's stabilizers. There are also some other brands of stabilizers. The selling price is relatively high, such as Osram, Hella, etc. Their technology or effect must be much higher than that of Huake and Koito. I don’t think so; Huake and Koito have also undergone many years of supporting inspections by OEMs, and their quality and The effect is okay, but there are many high imitation Koito ballasts on the market now. Basically, they are called brand new, but they are all high imitations. If you say brand new, I will accept it. If you say brand new and original, I will despise it. This is naked. Deceiving consumers!
Xenon bulb: The quartz lamp tube is filled with high-pressure inert gas - A perfect white arc that emits light that is close to very perfect sunlight.
Nowadays, most of the modified lights on the market use D series, such as D1S, D3S, etc. If you want to modify the entire vehicle by hand, choose Osram or Philips; I won’t say much about domestic xenon bulbs. You know, when it comes to a product, you should pay more attention to its production process rather than excessive packaging and marketing.
2. Replacement of headlight assembly
Modified headlight assembly: Generally, it is a semi-assembly made by some modified lamp manufacturers. It does not install ballasts and bulbs. The modification shop needs to equip domestic stabilizers, bulbs, etc. according to the needs of customers when modifying them, or they can also be equipped with imported ones. As for the quality, this is a matter of benevolence and wisdom.
Original high-end headlight assembly: This type is generally used when the headlights are low and raised, and needs to be decoded. There are a lot of things here, and it’s not convenient to say more here. Friends who are interested can ask questions.
Modified headlight assembly produced by the original factory: This is a low-rise headlight assembly produced by the original factory itself. It is an assembly that can be directly installed on the car, and the original factory will do the decoding process. Companies such as Koito Auto Lighting and Hella Auto Lighting are involved in this business. But the price is generally on the high side, and the rich can do whatever they want.
In addition, it is recommended that when replacing xenon bulbs, you should give priority to Osram or Philips, and the price difference will not be too big.
Headlight, make cover
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