liveforphysics
New member
Some dealers want prices in the thousand dollar range for the projectors. I would definitely stick with a place that dismantles used OEM headlights for the purpose of extracting the projectors.
I used these guys for the projectors, and service was good. I used OEM projectors made by valeo. I did have to modify each projector though to make it better suited towards my needs. Your needs may be different. They don't sell any bulbs that would work for coral.
http://store.theretrofitsource.com/index.php
The bulbs have a claimed life of 3,000-5,000 hours. I never trust these things at all, and I'm kinda thinking that only time will tell.
As far as getting bulbs and bulb/ballast kits, I have a wholesaler who is working with me. We tried out some kits ranging between the $40 area up to the $220 area. The $40 kits had less than 50% ballast efficiency, buzzed softly, occasionally lost the arc, and felt like they were going to melt down after a few minutes. The $220 kit did absolutely nothing better than one of the kits that cost $105/kit, and efficiency was very high and it passed all the thermal and over voltage and shorting protection tests I tried. I was pretty impressed. The 3 models of bulb I found best suited to coral come from two different manufactures, neither of which I know the names of. The ballasts I like also list no manufacture info, but leave an area for some companies sticker to go. I'm thinking they are likely resold by multiple companies who re-label the ballast, bump the price, and sell it as there own product. My contact is able to source the ballasts and bulbs direct from the manufacture.
I talked to him about expanding his market from just cars to including reef keepers. He seems to think I'm the only person in the world who would ever spend the time to try to keep a reef though... lol I'm trying to convince him that there could be some demand, but it's tough to know. I ended up buying 10 more ballasts with 10 more of the special 25k blue bulbs from him though, so I could have some items available to help someone else who is interested in trying it out. If there is enough interest, I might buy a pallet of bulbs and kits at very low prices, and get them out to interested folks at roughly my cost. I REALLY don't want to get caught up in hassles of dealing with customers and things, but I wouldn't mind mailing out a package once in a while. I'm not trying to make profits (I have a job for that), it would just be a way to help get parts to people who want to try it out. I would actually be down for trading unique SPS frags for XGD parts/equipment
I think I should get more hours on my setup before I supply any parts though. So far the bulb lifespan is unknown, and the technology is largely unproven for this application. My setup is basically just a prototype, and anyone who wants to try it this soon would be like a product "beta tester".
Anyways... I'm tired. I'm rambling. I'm going to go take a nap before getting back to work on some new projects.
Best Wishes,
-Luke
I used these guys for the projectors, and service was good. I used OEM projectors made by valeo. I did have to modify each projector though to make it better suited towards my needs. Your needs may be different. They don't sell any bulbs that would work for coral.
http://store.theretrofitsource.com/index.php
The bulbs have a claimed life of 3,000-5,000 hours. I never trust these things at all, and I'm kinda thinking that only time will tell.
As far as getting bulbs and bulb/ballast kits, I have a wholesaler who is working with me. We tried out some kits ranging between the $40 area up to the $220 area. The $40 kits had less than 50% ballast efficiency, buzzed softly, occasionally lost the arc, and felt like they were going to melt down after a few minutes. The $220 kit did absolutely nothing better than one of the kits that cost $105/kit, and efficiency was very high and it passed all the thermal and over voltage and shorting protection tests I tried. I was pretty impressed. The 3 models of bulb I found best suited to coral come from two different manufactures, neither of which I know the names of. The ballasts I like also list no manufacture info, but leave an area for some companies sticker to go. I'm thinking they are likely resold by multiple companies who re-label the ballast, bump the price, and sell it as there own product. My contact is able to source the ballasts and bulbs direct from the manufacture.
I talked to him about expanding his market from just cars to including reef keepers. He seems to think I'm the only person in the world who would ever spend the time to try to keep a reef though... lol I'm trying to convince him that there could be some demand, but it's tough to know. I ended up buying 10 more ballasts with 10 more of the special 25k blue bulbs from him though, so I could have some items available to help someone else who is interested in trying it out. If there is enough interest, I might buy a pallet of bulbs and kits at very low prices, and get them out to interested folks at roughly my cost. I REALLY don't want to get caught up in hassles of dealing with customers and things, but I wouldn't mind mailing out a package once in a while. I'm not trying to make profits (I have a job for that), it would just be a way to help get parts to people who want to try it out. I would actually be down for trading unique SPS frags for XGD parts/equipment
I think I should get more hours on my setup before I supply any parts though. So far the bulb lifespan is unknown, and the technology is largely unproven for this application. My setup is basically just a prototype, and anyone who wants to try it this soon would be like a product "beta tester".
Anyways... I'm tired. I'm rambling. I'm going to go take a nap before getting back to work on some new projects.
Best Wishes,
-Luke
