FJRocket
Doctor Throckenstein !!!
Bixenon Single Shutter Extension Mod
The self buy Bixenon HID lights are far from perfect. The low beams ARE awesome, but the high beams are seriously flawed. Jestal, Warchild and I (and maybe others) have tried various ways to fix the problem. Ultimately, Warchild's dedicated single high beam light is probably going to give you the best quality of light. Personally, I did not want to install any extra lights, let alone have only one headlight showing in low beam mode. Not because there isn't enough light, there certainly is. I just didn't want any LEO to have an excuse to stop me. Maybe it's just for the sheer symmetry. Anyway, I wanted to stick with the dual headlights working all the time.
Jestal has some great ideas, and I used his idea of inverting the beam source. Also, it was his idea to cut the actuator channel on the bottom of the bixenon mechanism to let out more light. Thanks Jestal for some great ideas!
The Bixenon HID "capsule" comes in two parts that are clipped together. The light source component is clipped into the bixenon mechanism base. It's the bixenon mechanism base (or just "base") that controls the high beam and low beam. The default is low beam. There are a pair of shutters that the bixenon mechanism opens when you select high beam. The shutters open and let the light source hit the bottom of the FJR's reflective headlight lens. Regreattably, the Bixenon mechanism doesn't let out anything near what you would expect as far as light goes.
Let's hack that puppy!
First, separate the source from the base. You have to notch the source's flange 180 degrees from the factory notch in order to get the source unit to sit in the bixenon base upside down. This is easy to notch with a dremel, so that you can put the light source in the base with the large anode wire at the TOP of the mechanism.
You can also searate the light souce from IT'S base. There is a circlip that you can remove to slide the light source in and out of it's base to change the location of the light source in the reflector. The Bixenon lights from the factory have the light source set comparable to the low beam location of an H4 filament. The high beam filament of and H4 bulb is about 6 mm farther to the rear.
(EDIT: Don't bother moving the light source farther than the forward most factory slot. Any more than that, and the beam gets fuzzy and out of focus. Oncoming traffic probably won't like it at all.)
If you want to maximize the high beam, you might want to move the HID light source rearward about 6mm. Better yet, hold the light source in the entire bixenon mechanism side by side to an H4 and slide the light source back to match the H4 high beam filament. Then you have to notch the light source body so that you can now re-clip the light source to this position. I found that making a notch nearly 3 mm forward of the row of factory notches on the light source base was required to get the source back to the high beam light source position.
My plan is to leave one light source in the low beam position and one in the high beam position initially, then do some testing. I may need to fiddle with both of them to get the best results as far as light source position. The problem here is focus and beam cast. You definitely want to keep that definite, if not crisp, low beam cut off on the beam cast so you don't blind oncoming traffic. This entire hacking process is a compromise, and totally experimental. And I don't expect perfection. More than likely I will end up leaving one light with a low beam source position and one with a high beam position. The FJR's H4 reflector lens was designed to work with two separate light sources, so it will be a compromise since the HID only has one light source.
(Edit: in the end, I have both light sources clipped at the forward most slot. More than that really messes up the quality of the beamcast.)
There is a rather large channel at the bottom of the base's mechanism that works to open and close the shutters. I used a dremel with a cut off wheel to judiciously remove the material from the channel. The idea here is to remove as much light obstruction from the bottom of the mechanism as possible, and still be able to have the shutters continue to function. Here is the start of the channel cutting:
You can't cut ALL the channel out, you have to leave it in tact. You can see in the pics below how much I actually removed.
(Edit: Don't cut the vertical parts of the shutters as shown in the pic below. It doesn't help at all. BTDT!!!)
The next pic shows (fuzzily) the side support cut off. That piece is a vertical extension that comes off of the nose cone strut. The vertical piece provides extra support at the location where the shutter end bumps up against the retraction mechanism fingers. The stop isn't that necessary. Just try not to cut cut anything else! If you want to make a shutter extension that is LONGER to the rear of the light, you have to cut at least ONE of the supports to let the extended shutter swing out.
Next I cut a piece of aluminum from a pop can to fashion as a shutter extension. What I am doing is going back and now blocking all the light that I opened up in the channel. When the Bixenon is operated in low beam, the light source is actually blocked so that you can't see any light coming from the bottom of the light source. IOW, the high beam is actually blocked by shutters during low beam operation.
The extension I created overlaps the opposing shutter when closed. The extension also goes all the way rearward to rest against the mechanism that operates the channel and shutters. You can but right up against this because it will retract rearwards when the mechanism operates. The extension does need to be curved on the inside rear corner so that when the shutters swing open, the extension clears and does not interfere with the mechanism.
Jestal suggests that you rivet the extension to the taller of the two shutters. Riveting is likely to last longer than JB Weld. Therefore your shutter extension should be ANGLE shaped (L shaped) instead of just a flat piece.
The pic below shows the lower (right side) shutter with a piece of pop can aluminum epoxied to place:
The next fuzzy picture shows how much I cut the base. It also shows how much channel I hacked out to let the source light through the bottom of the mechanism.
And below is a pic of the mechanism opened in the high beam mode. Now you get a better idea of the size of the shutter extension. If I were to do this again, I probably would NOT cut off the corner of the extension at the inside forward corner. That was a matter of choice. It's going to block light somewhere no matter what, but if you leave that corner in tact, you get less high beam light sneaking out when low beam is selected.
Again, I don't think this is going to give you as much light as Warchild's dedicated high beam mod, but it is a nice compromise for those who wish to have the standard two headlights usable. This mod does reduce the dead zone (does not completely eliminate it) and it does throw more high beam down the road. If you already own these bixenons and want two lights burning all the time without extra driving lights, this might be a good way to go.
The self buy Bixenon HID lights are far from perfect. The low beams ARE awesome, but the high beams are seriously flawed. Jestal, Warchild and I (and maybe others) have tried various ways to fix the problem. Ultimately, Warchild's dedicated single high beam light is probably going to give you the best quality of light. Personally, I did not want to install any extra lights, let alone have only one headlight showing in low beam mode. Not because there isn't enough light, there certainly is. I just didn't want any LEO to have an excuse to stop me. Maybe it's just for the sheer symmetry. Anyway, I wanted to stick with the dual headlights working all the time.
Jestal has some great ideas, and I used his idea of inverting the beam source. Also, it was his idea to cut the actuator channel on the bottom of the bixenon mechanism to let out more light. Thanks Jestal for some great ideas!
The Bixenon HID "capsule" comes in two parts that are clipped together. The light source component is clipped into the bixenon mechanism base. It's the bixenon mechanism base (or just "base") that controls the high beam and low beam. The default is low beam. There are a pair of shutters that the bixenon mechanism opens when you select high beam. The shutters open and let the light source hit the bottom of the FJR's reflective headlight lens. Regreattably, the Bixenon mechanism doesn't let out anything near what you would expect as far as light goes.
Let's hack that puppy!
First, separate the source from the base. You have to notch the source's flange 180 degrees from the factory notch in order to get the source unit to sit in the bixenon base upside down. This is easy to notch with a dremel, so that you can put the light source in the base with the large anode wire at the TOP of the mechanism.
You can also searate the light souce from IT'S base. There is a circlip that you can remove to slide the light source in and out of it's base to change the location of the light source in the reflector. The Bixenon lights from the factory have the light source set comparable to the low beam location of an H4 filament. The high beam filament of and H4 bulb is about 6 mm farther to the rear.
(EDIT: Don't bother moving the light source farther than the forward most factory slot. Any more than that, and the beam gets fuzzy and out of focus. Oncoming traffic probably won't like it at all.)
If you want to maximize the high beam, you might want to move the HID light source rearward about 6mm. Better yet, hold the light source in the entire bixenon mechanism side by side to an H4 and slide the light source back to match the H4 high beam filament. Then you have to notch the light source body so that you can now re-clip the light source to this position. I found that making a notch nearly 3 mm forward of the row of factory notches on the light source base was required to get the source back to the high beam light source position.
My plan is to leave one light source in the low beam position and one in the high beam position initially, then do some testing. I may need to fiddle with both of them to get the best results as far as light source position. The problem here is focus and beam cast. You definitely want to keep that definite, if not crisp, low beam cut off on the beam cast so you don't blind oncoming traffic. This entire hacking process is a compromise, and totally experimental. And I don't expect perfection. More than likely I will end up leaving one light with a low beam source position and one with a high beam position. The FJR's H4 reflector lens was designed to work with two separate light sources, so it will be a compromise since the HID only has one light source.
(Edit: in the end, I have both light sources clipped at the forward most slot. More than that really messes up the quality of the beamcast.)
There is a rather large channel at the bottom of the base's mechanism that works to open and close the shutters. I used a dremel with a cut off wheel to judiciously remove the material from the channel. The idea here is to remove as much light obstruction from the bottom of the mechanism as possible, and still be able to have the shutters continue to function. Here is the start of the channel cutting:
You can't cut ALL the channel out, you have to leave it in tact. You can see in the pics below how much I actually removed.
(Edit: Don't cut the vertical parts of the shutters as shown in the pic below. It doesn't help at all. BTDT!!!)
The next pic shows (fuzzily) the side support cut off. That piece is a vertical extension that comes off of the nose cone strut. The vertical piece provides extra support at the location where the shutter end bumps up against the retraction mechanism fingers. The stop isn't that necessary. Just try not to cut cut anything else! If you want to make a shutter extension that is LONGER to the rear of the light, you have to cut at least ONE of the supports to let the extended shutter swing out.
Next I cut a piece of aluminum from a pop can to fashion as a shutter extension. What I am doing is going back and now blocking all the light that I opened up in the channel. When the Bixenon is operated in low beam, the light source is actually blocked so that you can't see any light coming from the bottom of the light source. IOW, the high beam is actually blocked by shutters during low beam operation.
The extension I created overlaps the opposing shutter when closed. The extension also goes all the way rearward to rest against the mechanism that operates the channel and shutters. You can but right up against this because it will retract rearwards when the mechanism operates. The extension does need to be curved on the inside rear corner so that when the shutters swing open, the extension clears and does not interfere with the mechanism.
Jestal suggests that you rivet the extension to the taller of the two shutters. Riveting is likely to last longer than JB Weld. Therefore your shutter extension should be ANGLE shaped (L shaped) instead of just a flat piece.
The pic below shows the lower (right side) shutter with a piece of pop can aluminum epoxied to place:
The next fuzzy picture shows how much I cut the base. It also shows how much channel I hacked out to let the source light through the bottom of the mechanism.
And below is a pic of the mechanism opened in the high beam mode. Now you get a better idea of the size of the shutter extension. If I were to do this again, I probably would NOT cut off the corner of the extension at the inside forward corner. That was a matter of choice. It's going to block light somewhere no matter what, but if you leave that corner in tact, you get less high beam light sneaking out when low beam is selected.
Again, I don't think this is going to give you as much light as Warchild's dedicated high beam mod, but it is a nice compromise for those who wish to have the standard two headlights usable. This mod does reduce the dead zone (does not completely eliminate it) and it does throw more high beam down the road. If you already own these bixenons and want two lights burning all the time without extra driving lights, this might be a good way to go.
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