Smaller, Smarter, Brighter. That’s our new XTR LED Headlight
A perfect balance
The Hilox XTR LED is the first LED that is small enough to fit in any headlight and bright enough to perform better then a random marketplace xenon kit. Are you planning to replace the bulbs in your headlights because you have too little light or because you’re sick of the ugly yellow light bulbs? Then this is the ultimate led upgrade!
A hypermodern design with a Eindhovens touch
After the 2nd generation LEDs, the L1 and L2, we have taken a critical look at the design, ease of installation and light output. After 3 years, we have collected enough feedback and data to completely replace the desigs. With the influence of our city of light and our obsessive drive to develop something unique that fits into any headlight, the XTR LED is born.
We are a bit influenced by the Evoluon’s futuristic design which is iconic for Eindhoven, and from this point of view the first sketches where drawn. After many adjustments and measurements, we have been able to reduce the depth of installation to 32mm, which makes the installation easier.
Smart driver
To make the Philips Luxeon Z ES LED chips perform at it’s very best, a state-of-the-art driver has been developed. This driver ensures a powerful and very constant current, which keeps the LEDs always burning on the same power and no less fierce as the LED chips are at temperature. The smart XTR driver also ensures perfect heat regulation, if the LED chips become too hot, which causes them to break faster, our driver will ensure that the power supply is reduced so that the LEDs are not defective. This means that you do not run the risk of falling without light in the dark, but we are so safe!
The driver is packed in a sturdy aluminum water and shockproof case and therefore it is resistant to a lot of water and can withstand some bumps.
Maglev Ventilator
In our L2 led we already used a Maglev fan, which increased the light output from 2800 lumen to 3200 lumen. But the fan’s position was not really ideal and took up a lot of space. That’s why we changed the position so that we could tuck a thick 2cm of total installation depth, which is enormous for this kind of product. This will fit the led in 99% of all headlamps without having to make any adjustments to the headlamp, which was only 50% at the L2.
Evolution CAN-Bus II
The developments in different technologies in new vehicles are going fast, very fast. This is apparent because the design of the CAN bus module took a lot of time. Lots of measurements, lots of data, a lot of cups of coffee and overtime. But we are talking about a module that currently works on 100% of all vehicles.
Until the moment a manufacturer develops a new technologies, we are currently fine with the Evolution CAN-Bus II module.
Comparisational research
Our internship Dion of Eindhoven University has already researched the diversity of LED headlamps. This was largely theory and a little practice experience. Now we have done a new test in collaboration with TU Eindhoven, which makes it possible to compare with other widely sold leds of competition.
We think it’s important to do a fair and transparent research as possible, so we chose to do this with a reflector headlamp. In case of these headlights, the likelihood of a poor light image is larger than that with a lens where the light is better projected on the road surface.
Which LEDs have we tested:
1. Our neat XTR LED with Philips Luxeon Z ES chips
2. A commonly sold led from any competitor with Luxeon Z ES chips
3. A product with CSP LED Chips, these are led chips from Korea which appear like 2 drops of water on the Z ES chips but perform differently, these are also often sold as Z ES led chips on various Chinese webshops.
Heat production
As you can see below we have 3 measurement moments, 1 after 30 sec, 1 after 15 minutes and 1 after 30 minutes. We measured with an ambient temperature of 27.3 degrees. Yes, it’s hot in the summer!
Light beam
And then actually the most important aspect of good lighting, the light beam or the light image. Where is the light going and what does the spread of the light do with the final light output? We have used a Highlander headlight because this headlight with halogen also has a good light image. This way we can make a better and fair comparison.
Disclaimer:
Although our test has been performed very accurately, there is always a chance that there is a small deviation, because the light image is highly dependent on the headlight quality. Recent US research shows that not all car manufacturers produce a great headlight. Therefore, no rights can be derived from the above research.
