I meant these videos about timing the sides of the led bulbs, not required in 6 sided bulbs

the_shmoo and Radco and fastsuv can attest to this a few others now have 6 sided bulbs installed, no complaints

 

How about actual night time shots with the 6 sided bulbs, blue? Just for curiosity and comparisons - I tried those first and hated the zero beam pattern.

 

Then I will take photos

 

 

The last one shows a pattern comparing different led bulbs

 

^ Yep, you can see every reflection from each individual diode. No discernable pattern - just a flood of light that isn't focused. May work for some folks, definitely not legal here.

 

So I wonder how an incandescent bulb directs its light? To define a pattern

 

The location of the filaments in relation to the base is very tightly controlled in incandescent bulbs. since all the light comes from what is trying to be close to a point source, the beam is controlled by the design of the blinders and reflector.

On a LED bulb it's much harder to get that point source effect with the same brightness, so the beam pattern will be controlled by the location of the LEDs and the cross section and aiming of the emitter. I assume when LEDs started to get bright enough, the move to two sided ones was attempting to simulate the point source by having the lows point up and the highs point down but since the dispersion pattern of a LED is directional, it can only do so much. I assume from looking at the picture of the 6 sided one that with the extra 4 LEDs they are attempting to solve some of that problem buy using 3 LEDs for each filament? The correct answer would be to replace the whole assembly so one could design the lenses and reflectors if necessary to properly work with LEDs. I would guess modern LED headlights don't use reflectors, just the LED behind a lens.

I would guess all that is between correct and close to correct, but it's still all a guess.

 

That's a really good question. Reflector position on the housing is primary to collecting the light and focusing the beam. Some of the construction of the bulb itself enters into it; this H4 has a reflector inside for the low beam.

On our 9005's, focal point is a big factor - the LED modules need to be in the exact same position as the halogen filament (distance from the base) for them to really work with the internal reflectors of the housing. Optics is an interesting subject matter.

 

That's exactly what they are. I have a handful of LED headlights assemblies from newer autos, from Ford to Audi, testing the components for installation as retrofits on vintage kit cars. Every one has a molded clear lens with a (very) small COB mounted behind the lens. High/low beams are different lens shapes. Audi even has their running lights build into the COB as a separate diode at the very top of the lens, which illuminates the lens but provides no forward light source.