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Dual bi-xenon and angel eye

40K views 44 replies 17 participants last post by  Millsy 
#1 ·
I didn't know if I should put it in Modifications-Performance or Modifications-Cosmetic :)

Just a teaser for now, the weather is too good to stay inside :yeahsmile:
 

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#11 ·
WHAT HE SAID.......:thumb: :eek: :thumb:
 
#7 ·
Details, I demand details! :thumb:
 
#8 ·
photos

some tests last night.

I adjusted the top projector, I still have to adjust the lower projector.
some pics:
I can use for now only one projector at a time until I build the harness for the second one ( I don't want to use the same wire for both, for back up purpose)
The high beam is really easy to connect and it's working great, I have retained all the functions for the high beam and passing ( that now is INSTANT ;) )
the light is uniform and INCREDIBLE! I have wide lenses on my camera and I couldn't catch all the beam!!! The cut-off is blue-ish and really sharp, and NO glare.
I'm amazed and happy :yeahsmile:
 

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#10 · (Edited)
Here is the HOW-TO:
*DISCLAIMER* I am NOT responsible for any part that you might break, bend, scratch, melt or some other damages if you follow what I did. I did a lot of mistakes, I'll try to explain, please take what you consider good and use common sense.

first question first:
I got this kit:

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=221
and:
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=103

from theretrofitsource.com
Matt there was really helpful and I literally changed with him tens of emails, never let me wait or ignored me. I don't know if I would have had the patience the other way around :)

I got these projectors because are the smallest I found, they have warranty, the CS was really good, the reviews on the internet are positive.

now back to Versys.
I wanted to do this upgrade since I got my bike last year, but it was expensive and I didn't see anybody doing it before ( this is my first retrofit).
I studied how I can put one or two projectors, how can I connect them...
last year I bought a xenon kit with light bulbs and ballast and it was an improvement over stock, but the pattern on the road was kind of U shape, with the sides getting more light but the front kinda' missing...:(
I noticed a lot of people lately putting this xenon light bulbs in halogen housing and giving a LOT of glare, I even started to flash them... and then I was using the same :(
so here I had the chance to change something and improve my lights and the bike.

I put all the pictures at the end.

1. Remove headlight
Not difficult, remove fairings and headlight, some screws and unplug the connections

2. Remove everything from the headlight ( connectors, covers, park lights)

3. Heat the oven at 200F. After the oven is at the temperature, put the headlight inside ( I use a piece of wood) for 5-7 minutes.

4. remove the headlight from the oven. It is warm, I was able to pick it up with my bare hands.

5. Start cracking open the front glass from the body. I used this pry bar to open the small clamps and then slowly pulled the glass. It works very well, please take your time to open. I did it 2 times already and it’s not that difficult.

6. Installing the CCFL: I won’t detail this, it is very well explained here:

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?33917-How-to-Install-Morimoto-CCFL-Angel-Eyes

(you have to register to see it, but it’s a 2 min registration, I had to do it too ;) )
Drill the holes for Angel eye but don’t install it yet, you have to cut the shrouds before.

7. The shrouds are not fitting inside, so you have to cut them. I just went slowly until I got the shape to put the projectors in.

8. These projectors have a nice way of mounting, you can fit them directly through the hole of the light bulb and have a thread that fixes them on the mirror. I did this and found that is not working well on Versys; the headlight is too short and when I put the glass back I broke an angel eye :(. Also I had to back up the mirrors until the end and when put back on the bike I noticed that they were shooting to the sky :(

9. Back to work… I had to find a way to adjust the projectors inside the headlight, other than the adjustment from the bike.
Here is a way of doing it, cutting the mirrors and fix the projectors with epoxy.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?37877-How-To-Do-a-Retrofit

10. I wanted more flexibility of adjustment, so I started a design for a plate to hold the projectors. As you see in the photo, with just the plate, it doesn't look nice :( . So I had to start cutting the mirrors...I even cut the mirrors supports to bring the mirrors further back.
I used a rotary tool. Do it outside if possible, with the wind from the back ;)

Here are some photos with the plate at the end ( what I have now on the headlight). There are some extra holes and some unnecessary cutting ( part of finding the right shape).
I scanned the plate with a scanner so if you print this with no rescale you should have it in the right shape, just cut and fit ;)


11. The base of the projector has 8 holes: 4 for shroud and 4 for the support of the lens. I used the holes for the support ( M4x0.7) and I replaced the bolts there with SS bolts M4x0.7x50mm ( very hard to find, BTW….at least here..)

12. I installed the projectors through the mirrors and fixed them with 2 locking nuts on the plate. I have now the possibility to adjust them individually in all the directions. (Be careful with the wires when you fit back the projectors, I almost cut them :( )

13. The factory adjustment is using 3 bolts. One for up/down, one for left/right and one for depth. I used the same bolts for major adjustment. I put back the plates and the plastic nuts used by the factory adjustment.

14. The projectors are aiming lower now and have bigger distance from the glass. I can install the second angel eye ! yey! ( I don’t have it yet..:( )

15. I put back everything, and put it back in the oven for 5-7 minutes at 200F. Clamp it after for the silicone to harden.

16. Mount the light bulbs and city lights ( if you have)

17. Fix the ballast on the frame ( I had mine from the previous kit, slim ballasts, you can buy the same ones with the kit from theretrofitsource.com ) I used tie-raps.

18. Put back the headlight and connect the wires. I used the old H4 base for the top projector. I have to bring a wire from the battery for the bottom projector with a fuse and a relay, I want to use only one most of the times. The high beam is very easy to connect, I used this cable and plugged it in the lower H4 female connector. It activates the solenoid on both projectors for passing and high beam.

19. Adjustment: don’t do like me :) I put everything back, sealed the headlight, put it on the bike and adjust the top projector; everything is great, but the lower projector is aimed a little low… so now I have to open the headlight again ( it’s not that bad, I wanted to install the second angel eye also :) )

Use this approach: after fitting the projectors in the headlight and the ballasts on the bike, put the headlight ( without the glass) on the bike and adjust the projectors. When you have everything ready, put back the glass….

20. The angel eyes I connect them to the city lights, I have the connectors from easternbeaver.com. You can connect 2 angel eyes to one CCFL inverter.

I hope it’s not that difficult and I put all the details :yeahsmile:

Enjoy!
 

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#12 ·
Looks good. But your first link showing what kit is no good.
 
#13 ·
thx, I changed it with the good one.

I just came back from a night ride.....aaaa...sorry....what night???
it's amazing!!! I did some city ride first..... the light is powerful and the cut-off is amazing.
I can clearly see where my light is going and if I blind somebody... the adjustment is very good, I did not receive any flash and I came face to face with a police car at a traffic light ;)

then I went out of the city for a completely dark road, no lights..... it was like day! I noticed how wide the beam is, is almost as wide as my field of vision with my full face helmet. Instead of looking ahead, I was looking on the side, at the cut-off on the trees :) And it's very uniform on the full field.
The cut-off is great, there is no light bleeding, I crossed a working area with big reflective cones; the reflecting part was like cut with the knife at the limit of my cut-off.

another thing that I noticed, when negotiating a curve, because the beam pattern is so wide and tall ( the shape is elliptic), I was seeing ahead in the curve with the bike lean on the side!!! me like it!!

I love it!!
 
#17 ·
The difference is like day and night!
I had this setup until now and it has a lot of disadvantages:
light goes everywhere because of the focal point of the xenon bulb, totally different from the halogen focal point of the mirrors;
light pattern on the road with the stock mirrors is something like an U shape, with more light on the sides but not too much on the front, where is needed;
glare for the other drivers day and night
doesn't add anything to the "look" of the bike

advantages:
it is easy to add

the light now with the projector ( just one yet!) is incredible, wide, uniform, very well focused and the combination of xenon projector and angel eye surely attracts some views.
 
#19 ·
I'm opening my headlight again this weekend ( I hope I have time) to install the second angel eye that came and to adjust the bottom projector to finish the installation.
If you have any request for more details, shoot it now, I can take some pictures.
 
#20 ·
Have you noticed any heat build up in the stock outer lenses?
Seems like you'd have a heck of a lot more heat from the higher output, focused light hitting them so I am concerned about eventually melting and/or deforming the factory outer lens.

Just asking.
Carl
 
#22 ·
I commuted all last week with sunny weather, Friday I had 28°C and I didn't notice anything.
The heat is generated inside the projector, pretty far from the glass of the headlight.
and they run cooler than halogens, I have the 35W bulb.

I'll pay more attention next time and let you know.
I mounted over the weekend the second angel eye and did the adjustment of projectors inside the headlight but didn't have time to put it back on the bike.
 
#23 ·
It took me less than an hour to take off the headlight, bake it, open it, install the second angel eye, adjust the projectors...
it took me 4 days to have time and weather ( I don't have a garage :( ) to be able to put it back ( just for tests).
It is much easier now :D It took me 6 min to bake the headlight and less than 2 minutes to open it.

it looks ......wow...
I hope today to be able to finish the installation and ride tomorrow...

The light in the picture is only from angel eyes, the projector are not running in these pictures.
 

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#24 ·
Hi Child been following your progress, i already had purchased a bulb ballast kit to convert the LB to HID but now have decided to sell to a buddy and go for the HID projector and angel eye set up. seems you converted the original running lights to the angle eye feeds as they are off in these photos. does the angel eye in HB position also have a HID projector? anyone tried this with '10 or '11 headlight yet? seems i have about 140mm in depth so was thinking to use a car version of the projector as that is 3" diam. in the low beam location and convert my HB to light blue LED. ideas or thoughts about that??

thanks

rick
 
#25 ·
hi Rick,
yes, I took the city lights off and I'm using the connectors to run the angel eyes.
yes, HB has also projector, the same as the LB ( dual bi-xenon setup). I posted a picture before with the HB projector ON.
I didn't find anybody doing this upgrade, that's why I did the HOW-TO.
I'm not sure if the 10-11 model has a different headlight.
I don't know if a normal car HID projector will work, this one is really small and I had to fit it at the limit. few mm extra and is touching the glass or is too long in the back.
I wanted to have both LB and HB available just in case ;) You can convert your city lights to blue leds. I'm not sure how legal is that, at least not here :(
 
#26 ·
great good info, so the limit is front to back as the LB is way bigger diameter then the HB. so the way you have it you can have two low beams on or two high beams on same time, or is the lower projector just running the HB and angel eye and the upper just LB and angle eye? if so really don't need bi-xenon just a LB or a HB unit right?

thanks again

rick
 
#27 ·
yes, the limit is front to back dimension.
Now I can have top projector on and bottom projector off or I can have both ON.
when I flash or I put HB, both react to the same command.
Because it is xenon, I cannot run only HB on the bottom one, to start it you need about 5 seconds. This is the beauty of the bi-xenon projector, you use the same bulb for both LB and HB, but when you run LB you have a shield inside the projector that blocks the light. In this way you have instant HB when you need it and also LB is on when you put HB.
 
#28 ·
Hi Child working with Matt also and about to pull the trigger to do the same. few more questions. the angle eyes each require an inverter? you tapped the city light you told me right? you used the morimoto H1 units which are a little linger then the D2s, but when i look at the ballasts they only show connections for D2s bulbs which bulbs and ballasts did you use?

thanks

rick
 
#32 ·
Glad you could do it Rick, it looks great!
Sorry I didn't see it before.

how's the light? do you like the cut-off?
I take my bike every day now and in the evening it's dark, I enjoy every minute left ( probably next week it will be the last one :((( )
 
#33 ·
A little update:
I finally was able to install Fuzeblock on my V, details in another thread, and I put a switch on the handlebar to power the second projector. I have it set up a little bit higher than the lower one, in the city I use just one projector ( plenty of light) and if I need more light, the second one makes it day-like :D

I updated the angel eyes also, the CCFL started to look old ( the bottom poart where the wires are) and the top one broke soon after I installed it ( they are made of glass and very fragile).
I went to LED this time, it's an RGB LED angel eye with remote, I can change colors, ( green is my favorite, but I can have red, blue, white or a lot of other colors, I can flash or strobe) I have a small remote.

They are more resistant than CCFLs and they look much nicer :D

I also like the curves of the V, so I wanted to make them more noticeable.
I installed 2 green LED strips ( waterproof) and I think it looks really nice ( I didn't have time to make some outside pictures, to come)
 

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