Headlight Retrofit Project
Hello, everybody! I am new to the forums but I figure this is the best place to get some ideas for a project I am considering. A little background information about me, I recently graduated from college. I started out as electrical engineering but finished as IT/Comp Sci. I am very hands for learning new things so difficulty isn't too much of a factor.
With the introduction out of the way, as the title states, I would like to retrofit HID headlights to my car instead of the halogen lights I have now. The car in question is a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee which has the option for halogen lights and HID lights. I would like to make the HID version of the lights behave the same as they would from the factory, hence I have a few questions.
On the halogen lights, the daytime running lights(DRL) just run the main headlight bulb at about 6 volts instead of 12. The HID lights have a horseshoe LED shape around the light. So the first issue is getting the DRLs to behave correctly. I basically need to set up a circuit where I can trigger two different relays based on what voltage the headlight bulb is seeing. If the line is 6ish volts then I would need to have the LED lights on. When the voltage hits 12 volts, I need it to turn on both the HID bulb and the LED lights, while slightly dimming the LEDs.
To do this could I use a comparator chip? Is that the only option?
The next issue is the pass to flash feature because I need to trigger two relays. The HID light are bi-xenon projectors so the brights and normal lights are in a single projector. When the brights are triggered, a shutter in the projector is moved out of the way in order to raise the beam. This is not an issue when the headlights are on but would be an issue when they aren't on. So whenever the high beams go hot I would need the HID bulbs go on and trigger the shutter at the same time.
I would also need to have PWM LED drivers for the DRLs and turn signals. I would like to stay away from controllers like arduino to do this. Eventually, I would like to design and print a custom PCB with all of these components.
Sorry about the wall of text for the first post. I will add more details later but it's hard to type it all on the iPad.
Thanks in advance!
Roman
Hello, everybody! I am new to the forums but I figure this is the best place to get some ideas for a project I am considering. A little background information about me, I recently graduated from college. I started out as electrical engineering but finished as IT/Comp Sci. I am very hands for learning new things so difficulty isn't too much of a factor.
With the introduction out of the way, as the title states, I would like to retrofit HID headlights to my car instead of the halogen lights I have now. The car in question is a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee which has the option for halogen lights and HID lights. I would like to make the HID version of the lights behave the same as they would from the factory, hence I have a few questions.
On the halogen lights, the daytime running lights(DRL) just run the main headlight bulb at about 6 volts instead of 12. The HID lights have a horseshoe LED shape around the light. So the first issue is getting the DRLs to behave correctly. I basically need to set up a circuit where I can trigger two different relays based on what voltage the headlight bulb is seeing. If the line is 6ish volts then I would need to have the LED lights on. When the voltage hits 12 volts, I need it to turn on both the HID bulb and the LED lights, while slightly dimming the LEDs.
To do this could I use a comparator chip? Is that the only option?
The next issue is the pass to flash feature because I need to trigger two relays. The HID light are bi-xenon projectors so the brights and normal lights are in a single projector. When the brights are triggered, a shutter in the projector is moved out of the way in order to raise the beam. This is not an issue when the headlights are on but would be an issue when they aren't on. So whenever the high beams go hot I would need the HID bulbs go on and trigger the shutter at the same time.
I would also need to have PWM LED drivers for the DRLs and turn signals. I would like to stay away from controllers like arduino to do this. Eventually, I would like to design and print a custom PCB with all of these components.
Sorry about the wall of text for the first post. I will add more details later but it's hard to type it all on the iPad.
Thanks in advance!
Roman
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