Front Tribar LED with Sequential Turn MOD! (new thread)

[papinist]

I was wondering, if you use the tribar lights, do you still need to use the litle squares?

Well, you are more visible with tribar drl for sure but legally I really don't know since Ford designed the drl in fog lights specifically for europe.. if the little squares could be enough, they sure avoided to put in fogs.

Lights are back to the car. They are really great now with both sides with the same brightness :headbonk:

[MENTION=12253]papinist[/MENTION], the tribars in DRL mode, do they provide the same brightness as your switchbacks on your car ?

Just to imagine how bright they could be with better boards

mmm I should measure the light output... time to find a use for the luxometer I bought time ago

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[gojensen]

my sales guy claimed that Ford told him the tribars weren't bright enough for DRLs so they changed it. why they had to disable the tribars I have no idea - maybe there's some EU regulation (or local somewhere) that prohibits two DRLs? All I know is that the yellow light my car gives off is just ugly :( and way out of place on a 2016 car.

 

[papinist]

[MENTION=12253]papinist[/MENTION], the tribars in DRL mode, do they provide the same brightness as your switchbacks on your car ?

Just to imagine how bright they could be with better boards

This is a question I also made myself some time ago, so today I made an improvised tool to measure the light output of tribar drl and switchback. I build a cardboard box and mounted a luxmeter in it so the readings will not be altered by other light sources. The sensor is at about 75 cm from the measurement point:

Yeah I know it should be completely boxed but I didn't have another cardboard at hand..
However, measurements are very clear:

Tribar DRL

Switchback

I made about 4 or 5 measurements, trying to move the luxmeter from front slightly to the side, however the readings were similar:

Tribar drl: from 30 to 50 lux
Switchback: from 140 to 170 lux

So the switchbacks are way brighter than the tribar drl. Actually looking directly at it, it's noticeable now that I know But when you are on the road during daylights the tribar are clearly visible.

We should also consider the light direction: if tribar points towards other drivers and switchback points down to the road, even if tribars are less bright they are more visible.

 

[gojensen]

I wonder how much the original drls put out...

 

[Ericc B]

I was wondering, if you use the tribar lights, do you still need to use the litle squares?

No you don't need them anymore. The tribar mod from "expertland" includes both a parking setting (dimmed) and a drl setting (full blast). You can obviouisly keep them connected in parallel, but there is no real need for that, it's more about what you personally like. And of couse what local law says about having double parking lights.

 

[Ericc B]

so today I made an improvised tool to measure the light output

You keep amazing us with your home mechanic activities :clap2:

 

[comm]

Sunday trip with Tribar DRL :usa:

 

[John577]

Once upon a time ...

After 2 days of happiness, the tribars are definitely dead ... :tsk:

I had the "great" surprise tonight while driving home to see the front of my car shining like a christmas tree ... No joke, it's real ...
The tribars goes crazy and it changed all alone all the colors.
First I thought that I touched the RGBW controller but NO, it was in a safe place..

I stopped in a parking to have a look at it and ... Nothing .. They stopped to work !! After some trying, they finally light up, but the white color was dead, nothing came out. Change to the color option, and the colors worked. Swapped to white, nothing ... !

Once back home, I checked under the hood and saw that the 2 new, yes NEW drivers began to melt ... ! I placed them around the battery and thought it was for that point but NO, don't noticed any heat after my driving home.

So for now, I removed the RGBW controller and I've put electrician tape around the power and ground cables... Don't want to risk any problem with that or to burn the car to the ground ...

Bye bye tribars ... :frusty: :tsk: :(

 

[papinist]

Damn John this is very bad news!!
I remember I ironically said something like "are you sure the new drivers won't burn the leds??".. I'm sorry to have guessed (partially) right :(

And, not to always remark that, but.. another issue with Diode Dynamics products.

 

[John577]

The funniest thing is that it was the first time that I've noticed the tri bar in the bumper of a car in front of me ... Lol

 

[vieirinha33]

bad luck.. just put the tribars red.. no one will notice it hehe
well you will find out a way to fix it you have 4 days

 

[Ace]

Sorry to thear that. So you got new drivers from DD and they burnt out after 2 days!? Man, imagine the whole car caught fire :tsk:

So what's your next step? Getting other tribars or let DD try to fix that?

 

[John577]

Sorry to thear that. So you got new drivers from DD and they burnt out after 2 days!? Man, imagine the whole car caught fire :tsk:

So what's your next step? Getting other tribars or let DD try to fix that?

I will let them a last chance. I know, I'm a very good guy

The new drivers are already underway to me.

After that, if the drivers burn again after only 2 days, I will totally remove the boards and send my lights to the "expert land" !!

The new drivers are really melted from the inside to the outside, a chance I noticed that before the car caught fire ...

 

[John577]

bad luck.. just put the tribars red.. no one will notice it hehe
well you will find out a way to fix it you have 4 days

I have a spare set of drivers (the first version) and I will put them on for the lux meet.

So I'll have something to show :cheers:

 

[papinist]

In one way or another, you cannot live anymore without tribar, once you experienced that
I hope you will solve this issue soon, but I would lie if I say that I believe DD can solve this. Unfortunately the quality of their products don't seem so high.

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