I can imagine a future where a failed headlight assembly writes the car off... "sorry, sir, that module is no longer available from the manufacturer, and no after-market replacement is available due to there being a crypto handshake between the lamp assembly and the body computer".
Just needs some lobbying for allowing to fit 3rd party lights. At least in Norway, Sweden and Finland you can replace the high beam (or increase it) with a 3rd party lamp. Not allowed with regular running lights though.
There already exists a model of Cadillac that gets totaled if one of the tail lights gets broken/burned out. (I'm not sure of which model though, sorry) Fred
Indeed incandescent headlights and tail lights allowed to replace high power bulbs for peanuts. And bixenon front light bulbs for more or less adequate price. LED lights seems may cause single use cars, scrapped due to expired front/tail lights. Expired LED light replacing also may become too expensive to be reasonable. Hope that at future compatible front/tail light LED solutions will appear.
Is that some kind of spatial ship headlight, or just intended for regular car ?! I don't even want to imagine the price of such a set in case of breakage or failure! This is just technological insanity in my eyes!
Engineers orgasming on whipping up the craziest ways to do stuff is how we end up with cars that get crazy repair bills or even totalled for minor collisions and insurance premiums skyrocketing for everyone.
I agree. Talk about seriously over-engineering a simple light bulb in an adjustable housing for aiming the light. Certainly not going to go to the hardware store and buy a replacement halogen bulb for that for $20.
And if one of those 4 modules fails, you will definitely need to replace the whole unit, as the modules are held in place in such a convoluted way, and even if you could, the manufacturer would discourage ut due to “BeAm CaLiBrAtIoN iSsUeS”... Provided that you can reach the headlamp assembly at all, especially as some new electric vehicles come with a hood you cannot open! Luckily, it seems so robust that a repair might not be neccessary.
@@vaclavtrpisovsky I think looking at the electronics of it that if you have one of the LEDs going out the whole thing will shut off and send you you a blinking warning on your dashboard. Then you'll have to take it to a certified technician. Who will charger you 150 bucks to run a diagnostic.. only then to tell you that the replacement parts will cost you 250 bucks and 100 buck to be installed then by the time they add tax and everything else you'll be having to pay like 650 .. lol with an old car it cost you £3 to replace the bulb. 🙄. The future is looking awesome.. lol
@@Android-ng1wn I think looking at the connectors that it will be somehow enclosed from some of the environment.. because looks to me like the terminals will corrode quite easy as well if I wasn't protected somehow.
@@brookerobertson2951 250$ definitely won't be enough for something like that.. You can barely get regular halogen nevermind xenon headlight housings for that price!
By the way. When you compare this horror to a spotlight with a parabola and a light bulb, which will do the same job, You are surprised that this planet was not cooked alive long ago. Imagine how much energy and material and sources is needed to make this insane thing. And so it is with everything.
Definitely makes you worry about the future.. I don't think there will be such a thing as a classic car in the future modern cars will just be filling up landfill sites with plastic because that's about 80% of what modern cars are made of.
@@brookerobertson2951 I will be glad when those monstrosities will have gone away TBH and we can just collectively forget the 2010s and 20s era of automotive history, LMAO.
I'm quite happy with the HIDs in my 2016 Citroen. Had to change them once and it was cheap and just as easy do to as changing H7s. But this atrocity here? I would never buy trash like this. I bet It's gonna break soon (just think about the fans) and replacement will be well into the four digits.
@@andreasu.3546 I dont have Matrix lights on my audi but the DRLs are LED and the high/low beam Xenon. And it's doing a really impressive job to this day, after 12 years.
Bloody hell! That thing seems to be of a pretty complicated design. I wonder how much it costs if bought as a service part. Are they perhaps developed for the next Bugatti model? 🤔
As a former bus mechanic who has replaced a LOT of LED lights that got cooked by engine heat, I was flabbergasted the entire time watching this. So many failure points, salt spray is a cruel mistress to anything not completely potted in silicone. This looks like a overhead projector build quality, not anything that would go in a car.
This module sits inside a lamp housing ( not shown in the video ). The housing is tested to protect the module under water spray and outer housing lens is tested against operation in dirty condition.
When they're desoldered they become very susceptible to static electricity. The legs should be bonded together for transport and very strict ESD controls have to be followed. Sitting down on a synthetic fabric chair will easily create +1000V of potential difference and these diodes are fried with much less. Just the application of 10V over the legs from a human shaped capacitor can destroy the component and this threshold can be crossed by merely moving the component on a charged table top or touching with your fingers while moving your arm. Careless handling will at least damage them partially and cause a shortening of life-time and lowering their efficiency.
@@wombatillo Yup, which means wearing an anti-static strap, desoldering the diode from the pcb, pulling pcb out, and putting a blob of solder across the diode pins. Or just wrapping a single strand of copper wire around the pins, all that's required for the most part. But when you figure there are people sitting on a plastic folding chair barefoot on carpet doing soldering work, things make sense
I think this is one is one of those headlamp modules that work in conjunction with a camera and computer to detect opposing traffic and dim certain areas of the beam accordingly as to not blind said opposing traffic. This way, you can leave your high beams on in a dark and unlit road without having to worry about blinding others.
I think you're correct; unfortunately they don't account for vehicles in front going the same direction and the drivers just assume that the lights are automatic so don't bother selecting low beam.
This light is a pita, the opposite of the KISS-principle.. Before, we had a bulb in a hole. Now, we have 3D-puzzle. Totally unrepairable by a normal car service.
Wow that's a crazy complicated assembly, no wonder these lights cost thousands when new. Sadly, there are definitely no "user serviceable" parts inside. I would try to use the laser module as a whole to make an LEP flashlight. I think all you need is an aspheric lens from some cheap LED zoom flashlight and you should be able to focus the laser module output into a super tight white beam that looks like a light saber. Check out some LEP flashlights on youtube, they are pretty cool.
I don't want something like that in my car - so overcomplicated and so many possibilities that something could break. I prefer classic halogen light with great conviction...
Thank you for a very interesting informative video. I also agree that this thing is far more complicated than a car headlight should be and I just do not see this thing lasting to long especially between the 100F+ summer temps and the -30F winter temps and during the winter months here in Canada at least, the amount of road salt brine and sand that is dumped on our highways producing a very wet, salty and mist that is easily sucked up under a car or truck and that would very quickly get sucked into those cooling fans and considering how filthy my Honda gets in the engine bay area ,that headlight assembly would not last very long here and as you mentioned, the cost of replacing it would be ridiculously high.
@@mojoblues66 the fact is I do live in Canada As I previously stated, British Columbia to be exact and fail to see why my choice of what terminology I use is any of your concern
Yeah that's my one gripe about almost every LED headlight I've seen, OEM or aftermarket. Almost all other LED lights have gotten passive cooling heat dissipation down and yet for some reason I don't quite know for sure, there's some type of limitation where headlight applications still need active cooling. The fan not only uses additional energy but it's almost certain to fail first
@@exoticcar5482 the fan will definitely be the first failure, but i'm pretty sure it's not more inefficient than the 2 55w on my low beams, it might get close with all those bright leds but i think you get so much more light
I guess this is what happens when they outlawed mercury, you can't have mercury based high intensity discharge lamps any more. Give me tungsten halogen over laser diode pumped phosphor anyway...
These things are a proper pain in the arse when they're behind you! Light shines off in all directions, but the smart electronics turn off the "pixels" that would shine on any vehicles ahead. Vauxhall call theirs "Adaptive Lighting" but it's bloody distracting as the various pixels turn on and off. They might be great for the driver who has them, but if it's behind you, you have light shining all around you, and a big dark spot right in front of you - You're effectively driving in your own shadow! Personally, I hate them. Thankfully, they're too expensive for many drivers, so as yet they are few and far between.
@@eDoc2020 If they were bright enough to compete with the modern lights behind you. Those things light up everything around you, and your eyes adjust to compensate for the light that swamps out the immediate vicinity. By comparison, your own (or my own) headlights might as well be candles in a glass jar. This is why I hate those things. This is why light output from vehicle headlights was limited by law, back in the day when they were using Watts as the baseline, and the technology was universal. Nowadays, you can get far more lumens, or candela, or any other fancy term, from the same number of Watts.
@@28YorkshireRose12 Usually the things around you is what you have to worry about the most. Deers and such. I don't have these in my car, but it is very good when someone behind me lights the road I can't (possibly because someone is ahead of me too). If you have a shadow ahead of you, then probably check your headlights, swap the bulbs for a new one if your lamp is otherwise clean.
The control board is absolutely nuts, what are all those chips doing on a device that needs to... make light come out?! I'd laugh if they're all STM32s... good luck getting a new headlight module 😂
You should use the laser module to make a flashlight! Those can have an extremely narrow beam angle thanks to the tiny area of the phosphor compared to an LED. Commerical ones cost over $100 because they're niche.
Absolute madness. The halogen filament globe already produced too much light, and there were no heat issues. This thing needs FANS to try and keep it cool. And no, the LED lamps will not last longer, because when the Halogen bulb gets to end of life, you just go to any auto store and but a standard replacement for $20 or so.
But that hot filament is ultimately a space heater and a crap light source. Putting up with LED technology in the long run is way better than hot filaments
@@johncoops6897 These are way better lights than the single bulb ones. It will light the road for you where there is no oncoming traffic or car ahead of you, while on normal high beams the only thing you can do is switch it off completely, not seeing anything far enough (animals usually) near the road. These lamps are very good.
With LED headlamps, you often need to replace the entire headlight module, orders of magnitude more expensive than a halogen lightbulb but thankfully not neccessary if they designed it to last. Which of these repairs will you be doing?
@@vaclavtrpisovsky I was kidding, just imagined the amount of work in case I want to re-solder one burnt led. I'm too cheap and tech savvy to bin whole unit because of one component. It would surely take me at least full day if not weekend. DGW does it super fast and cutting video not caring about precision - imagine doing this carefully keeping notes where which part go.
@@LMB222 I do not get it, why everyone states that LEDs are almost forever and so on, but in my house and previous flat I change those pretty often. Not near as often as incandescent, but in my book LEDs are fare from marvel of engineering. I do not use the cheapest ones and it's not always the led diode itself, more often some of the components, but anyhow. Only bulbs I would trust lasting even close to 30 ears are very old made incandescent ones. LEDs go out every day.
Why do you make quick judgements here? Let the engineering prove itself. It's like saying "all old cars are better, look, theres even some still on the road!" while completely leaving out all other cars that have died. The headlights (LED as DRL and Xenon) in my 2011 Audi are doing a very good job to this day. It may not be compareable with a 2022 model, but it still as a lot of electronics in it. In fact, the electronics in that car did not fail a single time. I am just trying to prove that many claims that electronics in modern cars fail are just not true.
From a couple of wires getting hot inside a glass bottle to a couple of dozen chips, pcbs, connectors, wires, lenses, fans, screws, all sorts of plastic and metal pieces ... is the difference in lighting really worth it? Conformal coating only on SMD components, but not on the connectors, some of which are board edge (considered more vibration resistant) but the rest are SMD ones !? You need a working CAN bus with (probably) a proprietary protocol just to turn on the lights. How do the little fans look in 10 years? Will the fans drain the battery before the LED's if you forget the lights on? How about the heat sinks? What's the max. ambient temperature it should be used at? What happens if you drive trough some really bad weather or a flood during the night? Do all the LED's become blinking lights? How is this supposed to be reparable, recyclable, sustainable? What is the expected life time of this unit? Are security patches "necessary"? An EMC pulse would literally live you in the dark. I consider headlights a safety-critical component of a car. It would be really hard for me to trust this one in an apocaliptic scenario. What is the idea of such a device? It's not solid-state, not simple, not cheap, not reliable (I suppose this unit was faulty although it seems it had little usage). Even worst, not bio-degradable... I remember a word of advice we've got from a university lecturer: "If you want to make something, make-it stupid simple!". I guess this defines the opposite :)
Especially as driving LEDs from a car battery can be as simple as a series resistor, no need to go above and beyond with several microcontrollers per headlight...
I agree…except maybe laser technology can be rly cool and let me tell it’s amazing with fog although they could make the fog lamps with lasers and adaptive hid lights since you need probably 2 high lights one fixed and the other with 2 electric motors for up and down and left,right and that’s it… Idk why they put fans in headlamps…it’s one of the first killer and failing component…it moves dust, moisture and bad stuff around…
@@o_o-_-8639 Maybe the fans are only run when the car is stationary with headlamps on, otherwise it is easy to divert some of the airflow through the cooler around the headlights' heatsink fins.
@@vaclavtrpisovsky yh that’s what I hoped but apparently they run with a thermostat so no matter what those fans will be on not on full blast at every time but yh…and the headlights cannot have the air from outside since they will need a filter for bugs and something for moisture when it rains…
Not quite, heaven has Philips screws. Meanwhile, hell has ramped, tighten-only flat-head screws, greasy glue and convolutedly interlocked parts from fragile plastic that snap into each other or are welded together.
Please get in contact with me by means of the email on my channel's page, I would like to send you one of my buck switch mode laser drivers for your other LEP module free of charge.
i am both amazed and appalled at the complexity of this lol. and all this work and they still cant make them not blind folks at night in oncoming lanes.
Its awesome technology, but why is car tech getting so complex, what happened to a light bulb that anyone can change ? Its such a complex marvel with a large quantity of parts. I get it, that light bulbs a primative etc but considering the life span of most vehicles and high chance of damage this is just another source of global E-waste........
To remove the headlight on my first car (a Mini 850), you had to remove 1 slot-head screw holding the bezel, and then the lamp came out. How things have changed in 30 odd years!
It once took me 90 mins to change a headlight bulb on a Citroen Xara Picasso, that looks like a complete nightmare, and is automatically dodgy as it doesn't use Incandescent bulbs. Please don't irradiate your retina(s) with laser light on my account, although I am looking forward to the next video
What is dodgy about LED lighting of cars? With 12V DC systems, LEDs are an obvious choice for illimination, last longer than halogeens if the fixture is robust and cooled well and they will most likely outlast the vehicle. Also, energy conservation is key in cars as it either comes from comparatively expensive fuels or a finitely sized battery. I would have replaced halogens with LED bulbs in my car long ago if it weren’t illegal to mess with headlight optics.
Yes too complex. German technology however from numerous comments here, apparently from a *2018-2019 Range Rover* and called the *Pixel-Laser headlight* with *Osram Smartrix LED modules* .
What utterly horrible mechanical engineering. 1st priority should always be disassembly, I don't care that they thought that was of no importance because repair shops change the whole light, they're wrong and need to do better.
One thing to note is that despite excellent heat sinks and accompanying fans, the heat-sink-paste looks dry and very inadequately applied. How often have we seen that phenomenon in other high-end products that fail due to over-heating? Is this just carelessness at one small stage of assembly, or very carefully calculated and planned obsolescence?
Are those fans exposed directly to the underhood environment, or is there some kind of plastic shroud/air filter covering the light assembly? I'd think those dinky computer fans would fail within months exposed to the environment of a car hood, with moisture and temperature excursions...
@@DiodeGoneWild You never mentioned the wattage of the osram LEDs, I'd guess under 5W each? Any chance to unsolder them with hot air for alternative use, or would you just melt their plastic package? Nice video! Cheers
We would still like to see the laser in operation. I still like to remember a laser video that even burned holes in furniture and walls 😯 but it was only a joke but well done!! Haha 😂 😂
These fans have ball bearings and the headlight probably is dust tight, but anyway, something so overcomplicated just has too many possible failure points.
And now imagine if some of that cheap chinese fans will fail and they for some time will, those led's are cooked. And those fricking overcomplicated, way too many parts headlights are trashed. So I bet an authorised service will not repair them, but only would replace the whole fking thing for probably 1000 € at least. If this is the way the automotive engineers solve lightning problems, how will they solve problems with engines, transmissions and drivetrains? Btw great vid again DGW.
I think the manufacturer will say something along the lines of “we cannot let you replace the modules, you don’t have calibration equipment and you might cross the beams!“ and not provide the modules... However, in that case they should give you a discount for handing over the old one, to be repaired, recalibrated and sold as a used spare part to someone else. As the assembly is quite modular with screws and wire connectors, this would be a rather easy job. Maybe used modules will be available unofficially.
Seeing as the headlight is most common accident damaged unit, and they likely will not sell them as parts, but only as a complete unit, like taken apart here, you will only be lucky if the outer case is damaged, and replaced fast, as those will fail rapidly if exposed to road dust dirt and water. Replace 2 of those, along with the front bumper and grille, on a 6 year old car will likely total it, in parts cost alone, as they will cost more than the value of the vehicle.
Thank you for this. Very complicated today such a car headlight. Im a person who love older cars and there I change a light bulb for around 5€ not 1000€ xD
So this is how it looks long before it undergoes a lot of optimizations until it hits the market, and even far far more - before being chinesed to bare minimum of it.
They cheaped out on the fans. Those were just two-wire fans. No RPM feedback, no speed control. ....or not? Those were 13V, instead of the 12V what would be standard for such fans. So those fans were custom. Still, there should be RPM feedback on them, so they can be changed when they start to fail, before the LEDs cook themselves to death. I'm happy with my H4 halogens in my car. I don't need those expensive over-engineered collections of failure points.
Ahoj DGW. What a beautifully over-engineered device for such a simple function of lighting the way ahead! I think your missing screwdriver will be in the same place all my and everyone elses missing screwdrivers all go to. There we will find all the springs and screws we all lose too! Dekuji :)
I think the guy stole this light from a spaceship and then donated it to you! Bloody hell! Engineering work of art. I counted 8 microcontrollers at 5:45... Insane!
There is one more forgotten technology, for people who work for normal salary , not for the one they receive in NASA ... It's called H7 or H4 halogen lamp... Can be made very reliable and costs only few dollars. Try to google it, you'll be amazed with simplicity and price 🤣🤣🤣🤣
No wonder we're in a CHIP SHORTAGE. My headlights don't have any silicon in them.... yeah its a hot wire in a glass tube.. able to replace it within an hour, easy.
If anyone cannot see the absolute contempt that [those whom own] modern automobile manufacturers have for their customers, then they are absolutely blinded... And not just blinded by such absurdly ridiculous headlights.
Excellent video, ridiculously complex headlamp and to think most people drive in the day time with them off and at night most of the time street lights will be on also the car spends way more of it's life parked than driven so all that complexity and cost just sits there doing nothing for years and years.
Our old Lexus has adaptive HID headlights. It's an odd sensation to see your headlights turn around corners and return to center. It happens over 18mph.
Agreed. I was referencing a simple LED tail light. The host said he could not just replace the LEDs. You had to buy the entire module, frames. lens, mounting brackets and all. This is ridiculous. No wonder vehicles get totaled so often these days for minor collisions.
@@jp040759 - other comments here say this headlight is from a 2018 Range Rover and replacement costs about $3000 per side. Ridiculous is an understatement.
Before one fails, you have already prepaid it via the insurance ;). I prefer my 2001 Fabia with halogens. The entire car is worth less then one such headlight.
When the headlight cost more than your entire car LOL!
Probably even both cars
Yeah, my car cost 1k... this would definitely cost more
I can imagine a future where a failed headlight assembly writes the car off... "sorry, sir, that module is no longer available from the manufacturer, and no after-market replacement is available due to there being a crypto handshake between the lamp assembly and the body computer".
tesla already has that for some reason
Just needs some lobbying for allowing to fit 3rd party lights. At least in Norway, Sweden and Finland you can replace the high beam (or increase it) with a 3rd party lamp. Not allowed with regular running lights though.
KTM 390 won't start if the headlight unit is unplugged.
There already exists a model of Cadillac that gets totaled if one of the tail lights gets broken/burned out. (I'm not sure of which model though, sorry) Fred
Indeed incandescent headlights and tail lights allowed to replace high power bulbs for peanuts. And bixenon front light bulbs for more or less adequate price. LED lights seems may cause single use cars, scrapped due to expired front/tail lights. Expired LED light replacing also may become too expensive to be reasonable. Hope that at future compatible front/tail light LED solutions will appear.
Remember when you would go to the petrol station and pay 2/3 buck for a new bulb if the one in your car failed.. lol
And you could actually replace them without having to disassemble half of the forward part of the car first.
Them young bucks don't no nothing about this lol 😂 😆 🤣
For anyone wondering, it's a pixel-laser headlight from a Range Rover Vogue L405 without the outer shell and DRLs.
Is that some kind of spatial ship headlight, or just intended for regular car ?! I don't even want to imagine the price of such a set in case of breakage or failure! This is just technological insanity in my eyes!
Engineers orgasming on whipping up the craziest ways to do stuff is how we end up with cars that get crazy repair bills or even totalled for minor collisions and insurance premiums skyrocketing for everyone.
They are now in thorchwres / flsahlights as in form of LEP laser exited phosphor so any person can have a laser based illuminatioin device😎😎😊😊
I agree. Talk about seriously over-engineering a simple light bulb in an adjustable housing for aiming the light. Certainly not going to go to the hardware store and buy a replacement halogen bulb for that for $20.
Adaptive lightening, becoming quite common on modern cars
A new module costs about as much as a 3 year old standard car. Maybe not on eBay but if you're to do it with a new one at a brand repair shop...
It looks very well designed and built! But dang, also production of all that alone most cost a fortune.
And if one of those 4 modules fails, you will definitely need to replace the whole unit, as the modules are held in place in such a convoluted way, and even if you could, the manufacturer would discourage ut due to “BeAm CaLiBrAtIoN iSsUeS”... Provided that you can reach the headlamp assembly at all, especially as some new electric vehicles come with a hood you cannot open! Luckily, it seems so robust that a repair might not be neccessary.
@@vaclavtrpisovsky I think looking at the electronics of it that if you have one of the LEDs going out the whole thing will shut off and send you you a blinking warning on your dashboard. Then you'll have to take it to a certified technician. Who will charger you 150 bucks to run a diagnostic.. only then to tell you that the replacement parts will cost you 250 bucks and 100 buck to be installed then by the time they add tax and everything else you'll be having to pay like 650 .. lol with an old car it cost you £3 to replace the bulb. 🙄. The future is looking awesome.. lol
@@Android-ng1wn I think looking at the connectors that it will be somehow enclosed from some of the environment.. because looks to me like the terminals will corrode quite easy as well if I wasn't protected somehow.
@@brookerobertson2951 250$ definitely won't be enough for something like that.. You can barely get regular halogen nevermind xenon headlight housings for that price!
A LED matrix headlight unit for a BMW will set you back a whopping €2.200.
That's a 2018 Range Rover Pixel-Laser headlight with Osram Smartrix LED modules
Polestar has a suspiciously similar headlight.
By the way. When you compare this horror to a spotlight with a parabola and a light bulb, which will do the same job, You are surprised that this planet was not cooked alive long ago. Imagine how much energy and material and sources is needed to make this insane thing. And so it is with everything.
Definitely makes you worry about the future.. I don't think there will be such a thing as a classic car in the future modern cars will just be filling up landfill sites with plastic because that's about 80% of what modern cars are made of.
@@brookerobertson2951
I will be glad when those monstrosities will have gone away TBH and we can just collectively forget the 2010s and 20s era of automotive history, LMAO.
Over complicated. A catastrophy. I'll stick to H7 for some time.
I'm quite happy with the HIDs in my 2016 Citroen. Had to change them once and it was cheap and just as easy do to as changing H7s. But this atrocity here? I would never buy trash like this. I bet It's gonna break soon (just think about the fans) and replacement will be well into the four digits.
@@andreasu.3546 I dont have Matrix lights on my audi but the DRLs are LED and the high/low beam Xenon. And it's doing a really impressive job to this day, after 12 years.
Like you have to live with that:D the best feature so far in volvo s90. Just pure satisfaction
Bloody hell! That thing seems to be of a pretty complicated design. I wonder how much it costs if bought as a service part.
Are they perhaps developed for the next Bugatti model? 🤔
would be nice in a room on a painting if you can find a powersupply small enough
Probably at least 1500$
😂😂it Cost MORE than a arm or leg
My sequoia 2020 headlights are $2,000
As a former bus mechanic who has replaced a LOT of LED lights that got cooked by engine heat, I was flabbergasted the entire time watching this. So many failure points, salt spray is a cruel mistress to anything not completely potted in silicone.
This looks like a overhead projector build quality, not anything that would go in a car.
I mean he said it was a prototype
This module sits inside a lamp housing ( not shown in the video ). The housing is tested to protect the module under water spray and outer housing lens is tested against operation in dirty condition.
There may be a way to take out the laser diode unharmed if you de-solder it first.
When they're desoldered they become very susceptible to static electricity. The legs should be bonded together for transport and very strict ESD controls have to be followed. Sitting down on a synthetic fabric chair will easily create +1000V of potential difference and these diodes are fried with much less. Just the application of 10V over the legs from a human shaped capacitor can destroy the component and this threshold can be crossed by merely moving the component on a charged table top or touching with your fingers while moving your arm. Careless handling will at least damage them partially and cause a shortening of life-time and lowering their efficiency.
@@wombatillo Yup, which means wearing an anti-static strap, desoldering the diode from the pcb, pulling pcb out, and putting a blob of solder across the diode pins. Or just wrapping a single strand of copper wire around the pins, all that's required for the most part. But when you figure there are people sitting on a plastic folding chair barefoot on carpet doing soldering work, things make sense
Damn, that thing would cost more than my entire car. An example of when headlights are no longer just headlights.
I think this is one is one of those headlamp modules that work in conjunction with a camera and computer to detect opposing traffic and dim certain areas of the beam accordingly as to not blind said opposing traffic. This way, you can leave your high beams on in a dark and unlit road without having to worry about blinding others.
I think you're correct; unfortunately they don't account for vehicles in front going the same direction and the drivers just assume that the lights are automatic so don't bother selecting low beam.
thats the goal of this headlight btw..
@@cambridgemart2075 They actually do.
This light is a pita, the opposite of the KISS-principle.. Before, we had a bulb in a hole. Now, we have 3D-puzzle. Totally unrepairable by a normal car service.
Wow that's a crazy complicated assembly, no wonder these lights cost thousands when new. Sadly, there are definitely no "user serviceable" parts inside.
I would try to use the laser module as a whole to make an LEP flashlight. I think all you need is an aspheric lens from some cheap LED zoom flashlight and you should be able to focus the laser module output into a super tight white beam that looks like a light saber. Check out some LEP flashlights on youtube, they are pretty cool.
I don't want something like that in my car - so overcomplicated and so many possibilities that something could break. I prefer classic halogen light with great conviction...
It makes me cry how you destroy this pice of engineering and the lasers 😵💫
Thank you for a very interesting informative video. I also agree that this thing is far more complicated than a car headlight should be and I just do not see this thing lasting to long especially between the 100F+ summer temps and the -30F winter temps and during the winter months here in Canada at least, the amount of road salt brine and sand that is dumped on our highways producing a very wet, salty and mist that is easily sucked up under a car or truck and that would very quickly get sucked into those cooling fans and considering how filthy my Honda gets in the engine bay area ,that headlight assembly would not last very long here and as you mentioned, the cost of replacing it would be ridiculously high.
If you were from Canada you'd measure temps in Celcius.
@@mojoblues66 the fact is I do live in Canada As I previously stated, British Columbia to be exact and fail to see why my choice of what terminology I use is any of your concern
It’s so cringe to see a Canadian using imperial measurements. Must be a boomer
Freaking fans in a headlight. Wonder how long that's gonna last....
Yeah that's my one gripe about almost every LED headlight I've seen, OEM or aftermarket. Almost all other LED lights have gotten passive cooling heat dissipation down and yet for some reason I don't quite know for sure, there's some type of limitation where headlight applications still need active cooling. The fan not only uses additional energy but it's almost certain to fail first
@@exoticcar5482 the fan will definitely be the first failure, but i'm pretty sure it's not more inefficient than the 2 55w on my low beams, it might get close with all those bright leds but i think you get so much more light
I guess this is what happens when they outlawed mercury, you can't have mercury based high intensity discharge lamps any more. Give me tungsten halogen over laser diode pumped phosphor anyway...
These things are a proper pain in the arse when they're behind you! Light shines off in all directions, but the smart electronics turn off the "pixels" that would shine on any vehicles ahead. Vauxhall call theirs "Adaptive Lighting" but it's bloody distracting as the various pixels turn on and off. They might be great for the driver who has them, but if it's behind you, you have light shining all around you, and a big dark spot right in front of you - You're effectively driving in your own shadow! Personally, I hate them. Thankfully, they're too expensive for many drivers, so as yet they are few and far between.
Shouldn't your own headlights eliminate the big dark spot right in front of you?
@@eDoc2020 If they were bright enough to compete with the modern lights behind you. Those things light up everything around you, and your eyes adjust to compensate for the light that swamps out the immediate vicinity. By comparison, your own (or my own) headlights might as well be candles in a glass jar. This is why I hate those things. This is why light output from vehicle headlights was limited by law, back in the day when they were using Watts as the baseline, and the technology was universal. Nowadays, you can get far more lumens, or candela, or any other fancy term, from the same number of Watts.
@@28YorkshireRose12 They are also not FMVSS compliant, so I won't be seeing them in the US anytime soon.
@@28YorkshireRose12 Usually the things around you is what you have to worry about the most. Deers and such. I don't have these in my car, but it is very good when someone behind me lights the road I can't (possibly because someone is ahead of me too). If you have a shadow ahead of you, then probably check your headlights, swap the bulbs for a new one if your lamp is otherwise clean.
The control board is absolutely nuts, what are all those chips doing on a device that needs to... make light come out?! I'd laugh if they're all STM32s... good luck getting a new headlight module 😂
I think matrix lightning.
All of this to do the same function as a halogen bulb... damn
You should use the laser module to make a flashlight! Those can have an extremely narrow beam angle thanks to the tiny area of the phosphor compared to an LED. Commerical ones cost over $100 because they're niche.
so thats why you cant just change one led if its broken.... either you have to change the whole headlight on both sides
technically, you can. the problem is how much effort you want to put into changing the dead one
I think they will have a failsafe like with the more modern Christmas lights. even if one goes out the rest just glow slightly brighter.
@@brookerobertson2951 yes maybe
@@n.shiina8798 and sometimes they are fully sealed. so you cant open without of destroy it maybe.
All this to replace a hot filament.... seems kind of crazy
Absolute madness. The halogen filament globe already produced too much light, and there were no heat issues. This thing needs FANS to try and keep it cool. And no, the LED lamps will not last longer, because when the Halogen bulb gets to end of life, you just go to any auto store and but a standard replacement for $20 or so.
But that hot filament is ultimately a space heater and a crap light source. Putting up with LED technology in the long run is way better than hot filaments
@@exoticcar5482 - in what specify way that benefits the consumer? Higher price?
@@johncoops6897 These are way better lights than the single bulb ones. It will light the road for you where there is no oncoming traffic or car ahead of you, while on normal high beams the only thing you can do is switch it off completely, not seeing anything far enough (animals usually) near the road.
These lamps are very good.
It's absurdly crazy..,. Just like everything else presented to us these days, under the guise of "modern technology", in this world.
No, sorry, this weekend I'm busy, will be changing light bulb on my car. Bloody overcomplicated it really is.
With LED headlamps, you often need to replace the entire headlight module, orders of magnitude more expensive than a halogen lightbulb but thankfully not neccessary if they designed it to last. Which of these repairs will you be doing?
@@vaclavtrpisovsky I was kidding, just imagined the amount of work in case I want to re-solder one burnt led. I'm too cheap and tech savvy to bin whole unit because of one component. It would surely take me at least full day if not weekend. DGW does it super fast and cutting video not caring about precision - imagine doing this carefully keeping notes where which part go.
Why change a LED that has 30 years guarantee?
@@LMB222 - Because NO LED has a 30 year guarantee. And the chips aren't the most likely failure points anyway.
@@LMB222 I do not get it, why everyone states that LEDs are almost forever and so on, but in my house and previous flat I change those pretty often. Not near as often as incandescent, but in my book LEDs are fare from marvel of engineering. I do not use the cheapest ones and it's not always the led diode itself, more often some of the components, but anyhow. Only bulbs I would trust lasting even close to 30 ears are very old made incandescent ones. LEDs go out every day.
Now I really love my 3,50€ halogen lamps in my car headlights. Sometimes I tink that the world is going back.
Why do you make quick judgements here? Let the engineering prove itself. It's like saying "all old cars are better, look, theres even some still on the road!" while completely leaving out all other cars that have died.
The headlights (LED as DRL and Xenon) in my 2011 Audi are doing a very good job to this day. It may not be compareable with a 2022 model, but it still as a lot of electronics in it.
In fact, the electronics in that car did not fail a single time. I am just trying to prove that many claims that electronics in modern cars fail are just not true.
@@polandball9937 I would not be concerned also if I could afford a Audi.
Do the Laser! You already had an active Tesla coil in your bathroom, why not having a deadly laser pointer to entertain the cat.
No wonder these are so expensive. Thanks for the explanation in detail.
extremely over engineered !
That laser is bloudy denjaruus !!!!!
Looking forward to see what you do with the laser diode.. think ur next video is going to be quite interesting.. 🙂
so over engineered for a car, they will be asking for problems with that light ASSY
From a couple of wires getting hot inside a glass bottle to a couple of dozen chips, pcbs, connectors, wires, lenses, fans, screws, all sorts of plastic and metal pieces ... is the difference in lighting really worth it?
Conformal coating only on SMD components, but not on the connectors, some of which are board edge (considered more vibration resistant) but the rest are SMD ones !?
You need a working CAN bus with (probably) a proprietary protocol just to turn on the lights.
How do the little fans look in 10 years? Will the fans drain the battery before the LED's if you forget the lights on? How about the heat sinks? What's the max. ambient temperature it should be used at?
What happens if you drive trough some really bad weather or a flood during the night? Do all the LED's become blinking lights?
How is this supposed to be reparable, recyclable, sustainable? What is the expected life time of this unit? Are security patches "necessary"?
An EMC pulse would literally live you in the dark. I consider headlights a safety-critical component of a car. It would be really hard for me to trust this one in an apocaliptic scenario.
What is the idea of such a device? It's not solid-state, not simple, not cheap, not reliable (I suppose this unit was faulty although it seems it had little usage). Even worst, not bio-degradable...
I remember a word of advice we've got from a university lecturer: "If you want to make something, make-it stupid simple!". I guess this defines the opposite :)
Especially as driving LEDs from a car battery can be as simple as a series resistor, no need to go above and beyond with several microcontrollers per headlight...
I agree…except maybe laser technology can be rly cool and let me tell it’s amazing with fog although they could make the fog lamps with lasers and adaptive hid lights since you need probably 2 high lights one fixed and the other with 2 electric motors for up and down and left,right and that’s it…
Idk why they put fans in headlamps…it’s one of the first killer and failing component…it moves dust, moisture and bad stuff around…
@@o_o-_-8639 Maybe the fans are only run when the car is stationary with headlamps on, otherwise it is easy to divert some of the airflow through the cooler around the headlights' heatsink fins.
@@vaclavtrpisovsky yh that’s what I hoped but apparently they run with a thermostat so no matter what those fans will be on not on full blast at every time but yh…and the headlights cannot have the air from outside since they will need a filter for bugs and something for moisture when it rains…
@@vaclavtrpisovsky those uC could be the adaptive light controller/driver
So many screws ... looks like heaven! 😁
Not quite, heaven has Philips screws. Meanwhile, hell has ramped, tighten-only flat-head screws, greasy glue and convolutedly interlocked parts from fragile plastic that snap into each other or are welded together.
@@vaclavtrpisovsky you misspelled JIS screw
@@1marcelfilms Scryews.
Hahahahhaah you sound like a sports commentator changing career path
aww no cat appearance? very interesting design, thank you for sharing!
Please get in contact with me by means of the email on my channel's page, I would like to send you one of my buck switch mode laser drivers for your other LEP module free of charge.
nice video, it just goes to show comapnies no longer want people to just be able to change a faulty bulb 😞
i am both amazed and appalled at the complexity of this lol. and all this work and they still cant make them not blind folks at night in oncoming lanes.
Its awesome technology, but why is car tech getting so complex, what happened to a light bulb that anyone can change ?
Its such a complex marvel with a large quantity of parts.
I get it, that light bulbs a primative etc but considering the life span of most vehicles and high chance of damage this is just another source of global E-waste........
To remove the headlight on my first car (a Mini 850), you had to remove 1 slot-head screw holding the bezel, and then the lamp came out. How things have changed in 30 odd years!
"That was not efficient and green"
Disgustingly overcomplicated. And of course they use cool white LEDs for extra blinding potential.
It once took me 90 mins to change a headlight bulb on a Citroen Xara Picasso, that looks like a complete nightmare, and is automatically dodgy as it doesn't use Incandescent bulbs. Please don't irradiate your retina(s) with laser light on my account, although I am looking forward to the next video
What is dodgy about LED lighting of cars? With 12V DC systems, LEDs are an obvious choice for illimination, last longer than halogeens if the fixture is robust and cooled well and they will most likely outlast the vehicle. Also, energy conservation is key in cars as it either comes from comparatively expensive fuels or a finitely sized battery. I would have replaced halogens with LED bulbs in my car long ago if it weren’t illegal to mess with headlight optics.
@@vaclavtrpisovsky Absolutely nothing, but DGW abhors LEDs
@@johnwelbourn3811 ...for festive lighting applications, which I somewhat understand. Otherwise, he mostly uses LEDs for general indoor lighting.
@@vaclavtrpisovsky I'm not well versed in DGW's home lighting system technology, but I'll take your word for it ;-)
this explains the chip shortage!
Unnecessarily complex. Verly likely from a german car.
Yes too complex. German technology however from numerous comments here, apparently from a *2018-2019 Range Rover* and called the *Pixel-Laser headlight* with *Osram Smartrix LED modules* .
What utterly horrible mechanical engineering. 1st priority should always be disassembly, I don't care that they thought that was of no importance because repair shops change the whole light, they're wrong and need to do better.
One thing to note is that despite excellent heat sinks and accompanying fans, the heat-sink-paste looks dry and very inadequately applied.
How often have we seen that phenomenon in other high-end products that fail due to over-heating?
Is this just carelessness at one small stage of assembly, or very carefully calculated and planned obsolescence?
Are those fans exposed directly to the underhood environment, or is there some kind of plastic shroud/air filter covering the light assembly? I'd think those dinky computer fans would fail within months exposed to the environment of a car hood, with moisture and temperature excursions...
I guess it's all inside a dust tight housing.... otherwise whoever designed it couldn't be sane.
@@DiodeGoneWild You never mentioned the wattage of the osram LEDs, I'd guess under 5W each? Any chance to unsolder them with hot air for alternative use, or would you just melt their plastic package? Nice video! Cheers
We would still like to see the laser in operation. I still like to remember a laser video that even burned holes in furniture and walls 😯 but it was only a joke but well done!! Haha 😂 😂
I already tested it and made a video :) yesterday I put the video on my patreon and tomorrow it will be public.
man your accent is funky
but very enjoyable to watch
good content, keep it up !
"Even more sal... ehmmm... screws"🤪
Very interesting. It is from Range Rover and it seems like it is not even full lamp as it is missing day light and blinker.
Also this 2018 Range Rover headlights cost around $3000
After seeing so many CPU fans fail due to room dust, I can imagine how much this light fixture will last in front of a car...
Looks to be a special 13.5 V fan
These fans have ball bearings and the headlight probably is dust tight, but anyway, something so overcomplicated just has too many possible failure points.
And now imagine if some of that cheap chinese fans will fail and they for some time will, those led's are cooked. And those fricking overcomplicated, way too many parts headlights are trashed. So I bet an authorised service will not repair them, but only would replace the whole fking thing for probably 1000 € at least. If this is the way the automotive engineers solve lightning problems, how will they solve problems with engines, transmissions and drivetrains? Btw great vid again DGW.
The fans have ball bearings, so they should last longer, but I still prefer halogens ;).
Even more SCREWWWWS 😁
I wonder what the smallest spare part you will be able to buy will be? The whole assembly? One of those LED modules?
I think the manufacturer will say something along the lines of “we cannot let you replace the modules, you don’t have calibration equipment and you might cross the beams!“ and not provide the modules... However, in that case they should give you a discount for handing over the old one, to be repaired, recalibrated and sold as a used spare part to someone else. As the assembly is quite modular with screws and wire connectors, this would be a rather easy job. Maybe used modules will be available unofficially.
@@vaclavtrpisovsky Until china starts selling parts anyways!
Seeing as the headlight is most common accident damaged unit, and they likely will not sell them as parts, but only as a complete unit, like taken apart here, you will only be lucky if the outer case is damaged, and replaced fast, as those will fail rapidly if exposed to road dust dirt and water. Replace 2 of those, along with the front bumper and grille, on a 6 year old car will likely total it, in parts cost alone, as they will cost more than the value of the vehicle.
Thank you for this. Very complicated today such a car headlight. Im a person who love older cars and there I change a light bulb for around 5€ not 1000€ xD
Do something with the laser :O
So this is how it looks long before it undergoes a lot of optimizations until it hits the market, and even far far more - before being chinesed to bare minimum of it.
20:30 is just a simple resistor - it will get melted before laser breaches thought the outer metal layer, disabling the faulty module ;)
it is ntc/ptc or tharmal resistor
They cheaped out on the fans. Those were just two-wire fans. No RPM feedback, no speed control. ....or not? Those were 13V, instead of the 12V what would be standard for such fans. So those fans were custom. Still, there should be RPM feedback on them, so they can be changed when they start to fail, before the LEDs cook themselves to death.
I'm happy with my H4 halogens in my car. I don't need those expensive over-engineered collections of failure points.
no feedback, just 2 wires. But at least, they have ball bearings.
So this is what makes me blind every god damn time I drive at night
Waste of resources and the excess of form over content
Every end at your sentences reminds me of Nascar
Outstanding video DGW thanks!
I’d rather change a $15 halogen lamp instead of totaling out my car in the future when my $500 headlight fails
I buy my halogens for $2. This headlight is probably couple grands...
So that is why these head lamp units easily cost hundreds of euros!
In this case, it is probably THOUSANDS of Euros, not hundreds.
I would have liked to see this powered on before the disassembly. Looks to be more than a + 12v and ground connection.
Yes, we want an episode about the osram laser diode.
What is the wattage of each of the 9x2 LED in the headlight (~10W each maybe?)? Does someone know the model/part number?
I am interested too, maybe is it possoble find in aliexpress 😂
Ahoj DGW.
What a beautifully over-engineered device for such a simple function of lighting the way ahead!
I think your missing screwdriver will be in the same place all my and everyone elses missing screwdrivers all go to.
There we will find all the springs and screws we all lose too!
Dekuji :)
I think the guy stole this light from a spaceship and then donated it to you!
Bloody hell! Engineering work of art.
I counted 8 microcontrollers at 5:45... Insane!
There is one more forgotten technology, for people who work for normal salary , not for the one they receive in NASA ...
It's called H7 or H4 halogen lamp... Can be made very reliable and costs only few dollars. Try to google it, you'll be amazed with simplicity and price 🤣🤣🤣🤣
No wonder we're in a CHIP SHORTAGE. My headlights don't have any silicon in them.... yeah its a hot wire in a glass tube.. able to replace it within an hour, easy.
It would be interesting to modify these as one of garden / security light outside the house..
That's super complicated for a headlight. More wires than my gaming pc probably... O
Dude dont even talk on videos, Such annoying accent. Thank god for mute button. “Connectoooorrrr” “headlampssssss”
If anyone cannot see the absolute contempt that [those whom own] modern automobile manufacturers have for their customers, then they are absolutely blinded... And not just blinded by such absurdly ridiculous headlights.
Excellent video, ridiculously complex headlamp and to think most people drive in the day time with them off and at night most of the time street lights will be on also the car spends way more of it's life parked than driven so all that complexity and cost just sits there doing nothing for years and years.
I always love your content, but as a photonics professional and full-time nerd, that was fucking painful watching you shred one of those.
In the next 2 years. What is that annoying sound coming from the lamp? Probably have to change the bearings 😂😂
Our old Lexus has adaptive HID headlights. It's an odd sensation to see your headlights turn around corners and return to center. It happens over 18mph.
Citroen DS23 had that in 1974, quite cool!
WOW All that technology and resources used just to save a little energy in a car. This explains why a new tail/head light cost $700 USD. Crazy!!
This would cost considerably more than $700
Agreed. I was referencing a simple LED tail light. The host said he could not just replace the LEDs. You had to buy the entire module, frames. lens, mounting brackets and all. This is ridiculous. No wonder vehicles get totaled so often these days for minor collisions.
@@jp040759 - other comments here say this headlight is from a 2018 Range Rover and replacement costs about $3000 per side. Ridiculous is an understatement.
@@johncoops6897 HOLY S**T!!!!!! Insane. Thanx.
@@jp040759 - The world has gone mad. He just dropped the new video of the laser parts of it... QUICK, go and watch it. 😛
This looks like a headlight from a hyundai ioniq or the newest toyota prius
There design are not for u in mind to fix anything trust me like all the. CAR world .....BS
Boy: Look at that guy's car mom with all those lights, is he not cool?
Mother: No, he is afraid of the dark :-)
Man loved your diction,, felt as if Arnold is giving detailed video. No offense brother. Great video.
Is there a reason your subtitles are disabled? It would help with watching your videos at high speed.
Dåŋjæŕ∞ž? Looking forward to seeing it!
That strange compound that covers the PCB is Corning Compound.
i totally agree ....over complicated and certainly stupidly expensive
my 2021 truck has LED headlights and fog lights, its $1100.00 for a used unit and almost $2000.00 for new, each side ....Glad I have insurance ...lol
Before one fails, you have already prepaid it via the insurance ;). I prefer my 2001 Fabia with halogens. The entire car is worth less then one such headlight.
That's phosphorus coating which emmits blue laser into white colour😒
Maybe someone knows what is 9.2 Leds part number or where can i buy?
Thank you very much bro :) that way to talk haha so funny...
Usually I decline the extended warranty but seeing this, I wonder!