Headlight projector retrofit - HIDs to the max!

Sitrep: system in and on-line. I had it all wired up and then no low beams. Called TRS and the suggestion was swapping the heavy o/b wires for the lighter b/b wires. Bottom line, system runs great.
I'm sure next time the front end is off I might swap the the one connector (OEM to relay octopus connection) and swap the heavy gauge wires back to feed the ballasts.......I'll capture all my lessons learned and post on my CarDomian site in a few days....here are some highlights:


Above: the connector I may end up swapping the leads on and then return my heavy gauge wires to the ballast connections (sidebar: that silver cylinder is actually a 'thermos' to hold hot coolant for three days to help the ICE Cats light off faster during a cold start)......

Nothing like drilling a hole in a fuse box to get a single feed cleanly out the box.....
Thanks for the running help, I'll be resting a few days and then put a nice tidy "HID for dummies" together.
Cheers
Mike

 

Output pics would be nice.

 

^^^What he said....with bigger pic pls.

 

/\/\ ditto

 

Will do.

First drive at night, yep, need aiming. So I'm reading everything about aiming. See attached extracts from three different sources. Hope to get aiming done Saturday night......

My understanding: locate the DOT cross-hair symbol (its actually just a circle on my '08 Prius headlamp cover) molded into the front of the clear lens cover and this is center-point of bulb. Measure this point for your vertical distance from datum and mark on a wall 25 feet away.

Correctly aimed lamps will have the cut-off 2.1-2.5 inches below datum at 25 feet. Sound reasonable?

The only way I can give you good sized pictures is for me to upload my stuff onto CarDomian and then give you the link (no true hi-speed here, and hi-res = bogged down). Thus every thread I start with things like "Navguy12's heated seats (still under construction)", etc, I give a specific page in my signature block link (below) such as: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3963817/2008-toyota-prius-touring-hatchback-4d/page-3

If you go to that link, my pictures should be big......let me know if it still does not work........

 

Update: undid the main OEM connector, checked the low lamp circuit, all is well. Tried swapping the wires back (heavy orange to feed ballasts, lighter blue to feed shades) and swapping the leads from the OEM connector, result was no hi-beams....I suspect the relay may not be sorted out. Anyhow, I'm staying with the set-up electrically as is (orange feed for shades, blue feed for ballasts).

Preliminary headlamp adjustment: I did it in my garage, lamp center 26 and 13/16 inches above datum, wall was 5 feet away, so 20% of 2.5 inches is .5 inches. Marked a line on the wall at 26 and 5/16 inches and adjusted both lamps so cut-off line at that point, will test drive tonight. To keep my life simple, I covered one lamp with towels so I only had to look at one lamp pattern at a time whilst adjusting the height....will capture all early next week and provide info then. Snowstorm coming, will be busy loading pictures onto the net!

 

Update: first drive last night with preliminary adjustment (no photos yet ): looked pretty good to me. On-coming traffic was not blinded based on cut-off light pattern.

Am about to capture my lessons learned on my CarDomain page.

Sidebar: I've e-mailed the TRS team. Bottom line, if heavy gauge wire is meant for the ballasts, then I want my system to use said heavy gauge orange wire for the ballasts.....

I asked for a relay diagram and circuit diagram of their product that I bought because my OEM output connector is as they expect it would be.

Long story short, attached is a PDF that I sent TRS of what I think the relay set-up should be (for me to use the heavy gauge orange wires for the ballasts). Have a look. Am I off in left field here, or is there something I have over-looked.

I've also added the TRS PDF file explaining their harness that came with the kit.

Has anyone else used this kit, wired it up by the book, and then at the start of beta testing observed no low beams, only (correct) hi-beams (unless one swaps the blue feeds and orange feeds)?

Thanks

Cheers

Mike

 

Why don't u swap the wires back on the harness & swap the low & high beam wires on the OEM plug?

 

Why don't u swap the wires back on the harness & swap the low & high beam wires on the OEM plug?

 

Thanks, I can see some sort of trouble shooting like your suggestion, I still have to draw things on a sheet of paper a few times. The kit has a diode that I don't think may be required......

The kit relay/harness out of the box, with all wires connected by the book, gives me 'shade removed, no light' when the vehicle 'lo' beam setting is selected (blue wire live) and correct 'hi' beam when selected (both blue and orange wires live).

Hi beam is easy: a relay simply ensures both the orange and blue feeds are powered.
Lo beam: needs thought, you only want the orange feed powered (so in my mind....simply deny the blue feed a ground...gotta think this thru on a sheet of paper.......)

 

I think that your concept for the wiring is erroneous.
In short, when your headlights are at low beam, the shade is closed covering part of the projected light.
When Hi beam is selected, the wire that used to feed the high beam element of the halogen lamp now energizes the actuator of the shade,( linking both sides together by the wiring harness and relay) hence the full projected light goes through as a high beam.

 

I think the diode is used to keep the low beam from turning off when the high beam is turned on.

In the H4 halogen set up, the low beam turns off when the highs are on.

In the HID setup, the lows stay on when the highs are hit.

 

being as stubborn as a mule, I think that the wire/module set-up I have is kicking the blue wire instead of the orange wire when on 'lo'. When I re-wire it to book standards and swap the blue/orange wires at the OEM connector, I get lo only, no hi-beam.
I'm really hoping TRS will get back to me after looking at my diagram.....I don't want to start swapping wires in the module connector until I see one of their wire diagrams of how it is 'supposed' to be.....no pictures of cut-off pattern yet, winter returned this weekend.....

 

My "HID for Dummies" page is now 95% complete:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3963817/2008-toyota-prius-touring-hatchback-4d/page-8

I'm still waiting to get some good shots of the actual adjusted cut-off pattern at night. The weather is now improving......

I'll wait to hear from TRS before removing my front end (again) to (what I suspect will be) swap one orange and one blue wire at the module connector to get my orange feeds to kick the ballasts and blue feeds to kick the shades (instead of the current, backwards situation)....

 

I'm loading my night shots on CarDomian now.

As for my wiring, team TRS got back to me:

From Andrew:

From Matt (Owner of TRS):

Bottom line: thanks to F8L and usbseawolf2000 (and others) for all your help and tips.....my HID for Dummies should be done in a few hours.....

Cheers

Mike

 

I hate you guys for doing those mods.

 

Theres nothing keeping you from doing this

 

Oh well, at least if/when you change your mind, some instructions are there to look at......

 

I took these pictures last night with my iPhone 4, HDR option turned on.

 

Nice. You should get one on a nice white wall