How the reflector works...

Well I have a question that I dont really know the answer on. I have bought a Xenon kit from a webstore here in Sweden. I have mounted it on the bike and it is as H4 bi-xenon light. I have been thinking how to mount it. As you can see on the picture there is a "metal plate" half around the lamp. This could be over or under the lamp when it is mounted if you get what I mean...
I have have it mounted so it is under for the moment but i dont really think that I get a good hi beam. I have contacted the company and they told me that the lamp should be mounted so that it fits the reflector, and this could be with the metalplate under or over. The lamp swtiches back and up when switched to hi beam. I hope somebody understand my question :Flash:
See pictures below (on one picture it looks like the metalplate should be under...):

It looks like they're coming out with different combinations for HID conversion everyday.

I've heard of an H4 type hID conversion that has some type of plunger to change from Low to High beam. It looks like what you have changes from low to high beam by moving the actual envelope itself! The picture depicts the reflector shield on the bottom and I would imagine there are the three tabs that should only allow the lamp assembly to clock in the correct position.

Motogiro said:

It looks like they're coming out with different combinations for HID conversion everyday.

I've heard of an H4 type hID conversion that has some type of plunger to change from Low to High beam. It looks like what you have changes from low to high beam by moving the actual envelope itself! The picture depicts the reflector shield on the bottom and I would imagine there are the three tabs that should only allow the lamp assembly to clock in the correct position.

Click to expand...

Yes you are quite right that I have the three tabs who will only fit in one position. But the lamp came by it self in the packet and I have too put it in the holder. I can then fit the lamp in the holder so that it actully could be mounted in both ways wich make it a little bit harder. But I do think that it should be mounted the way it is right now. But when I asked the company that I bought it from the told me to mount it like the reflector is, but now that I have been thinking other the night I think the original H4 lamp looks a bit like the one I have mounted now, and that one do have a little bit of metalplate inside of it wich is on the bottom, or am I totaly wrong here? Then the Xenon lamp would be mounted on the same way, or? If I have a original H4 och a Xenon a guess that they should be mounted the same way beacause of the reflector, this shouldnt make any different?

I read the Wikipedia page about headlights a few weeks ago.

http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp

There's a great diagram under the heading "Projector (polyellipsoidal) lamps" that shows at least for the type they're describing, that the shield should be at the bottom.

Is your shield 100% opaque? That article says that some headlights don't illuminate street signs if the shield passes no light at all. One of the excuses I've had for not looking into upgrading...

After re-reading your post, I don't think you're talking about projectors at all. Just an HID bulb conversion. So, ignore what I posted. :ban:

The metal plate should definately be beneath.
Don't expect to get a decent high beam with such setups though.
It will only shift the beam a bit, which will let some light be reflected at a little different angle at the reflector.
If you really want to go with a good HID setup, go for the HID projector setup.
You could also go for a non bi-xenon hid bulb (so the high beam will be a seperated incandescent bulb). This will give you a better output than the shifting bi-xenon bulbs (but again; don't assume it will perform miracles)

There are actually 4 types of H4 HID bulbs:

H4-1 these don't have a high beam option
H4-2 these are the bulbs with an incandescent bulb for high beam
H4-3 these are the type of bulbs you're using (moving the light source up/down)
H4-4 same as H4-2, but using 2 xenon bulbs
Grtz,


Degake