Incandescent to LED rear lights
Naw. I almost never trot-out my affiliations like that. Probably shouldn't have this time, either. But I type over 110 words/minute!
Because the lights and reflectors on every car, including yours, are there for my safety as much as yours. They're interactive safety devices; they are the means by which drivers communicate to other drivers so those other drivers can adjust accordingly. If this were something that affected only you, I wouldn't be so insistent about it, since your choice wouldn't degrade my safety. ("my" means everyone else on the road in your vicinity)
From straight behind, subjectively they may be more conspicuous, but:
1. You and I both agree they're less noticeable off-axis, and that translates directly to a greater likelihood of being hit and knocked out of lane because the guy in the next lane didn't see your brake lights.
2. You're not wrong, in one sense, when you say they're more noticeable. LEDs come to full intensity faster than filament bulbs, especially when there's voltage drop in the circuit to the filament bulbs. The brake lights come on quicker, is what that means, and that's undoubtedly good. BUT, the intensity is nowhere near high enough. I've (formally) tested a fair number of brake lights that have been retrofitted with these kinds of "LED bulbs" you used, and not a single one of them has ever come close to meeting the minimum requirements for the brake light function -- not even the old 1971 standard. Most of them even fail the much dimmer tail light function; central intensity on axis is okeh but angle of distribution isn't even near adequate.
That's all it is. I don't mean to mock, deride, belittle or dismiss you. Most people think of a car's lights as "they work" or "they don't work" if they think about them at all. Most mechanics are better than that, but this just isn't your field of knowledge so you'd have no reason to know all this stuff. It happens to be mine. There aren't many of us, but we do manage to get about 500 at the major automotive lighting technical conferences.
All of which means there are enormous areas of knowledge you have that I don't. If one of those subjects comes up and you give a technical explanation, I hope I will have the wisdom and presence of mind to learn what I'm being taught. :-)
No, not at all. Just that people be aware that what works physically doesn't always necessarily work all the way as well as it needs to for reasons that may not be immediately obvious, is all.
Naw. I almost never trot-out my affiliations like that. Probably shouldn't have this time, either. But I type over 110 words/minute!
Because the lights and reflectors on every car, including yours, are there for my safety as much as yours. They're interactive safety devices; they are the means by which drivers communicate to other drivers so those other drivers can adjust accordingly. If this were something that affected only you, I wouldn't be so insistent about it, since your choice wouldn't degrade my safety. ("my" means everyone else on the road in your vicinity)
From straight behind, subjectively they may be more conspicuous, but:
1. You and I both agree they're less noticeable off-axis, and that translates directly to a greater likelihood of being hit and knocked out of lane because the guy in the next lane didn't see your brake lights.
2. You're not wrong, in one sense, when you say they're more noticeable. LEDs come to full intensity faster than filament bulbs, especially when there's voltage drop in the circuit to the filament bulbs. The brake lights come on quicker, is what that means, and that's undoubtedly good. BUT, the intensity is nowhere near high enough. I've (formally) tested a fair number of brake lights that have been retrofitted with these kinds of "LED bulbs" you used, and not a single one of them has ever come close to meeting the minimum requirements for the brake light function -- not even the old 1971 standard. Most of them even fail the much dimmer tail light function; central intensity on axis is okeh but angle of distribution isn't even near adequate.
That's all it is. I don't mean to mock, deride, belittle or dismiss you. Most people think of a car's lights as "they work" or "they don't work" if they think about them at all. Most mechanics are better than that, but this just isn't your field of knowledge so you'd have no reason to know all this stuff. It happens to be mine. There aren't many of us, but we do manage to get about 500 at the major automotive lighting technical conferences.
All of which means there are enormous areas of knowledge you have that I don't. If one of those subjects comes up and you give a technical explanation, I hope I will have the wisdom and presence of mind to learn what I'm being taught. :-)
No, not at all. Just that people be aware that what works physically doesn't always necessarily work all the way as well as it needs to for reasons that may not be immediately obvious, is all.