Highbeam 50% DRL mod, completed

I can, but the pics won't look anything like what the human eye would see. I'll try and mess with exposure settings to see if I can post something better.

It basically looks like any other car with factory/oem DRLs, in other words visibility is very good, even in bright direct sun.

 

Sorry it took so long to post pics of DRLs in full sun, but here you go:





I had to adjust exposure settings to get closer to how the DRLs appear to the human eye. I would say the second pic is closer to real life than the first, which is a little underexposed.

Keep in mind that I have the "golden yellow" 9005 bulbs in there. The stock bulbs give off an orange-ish light, which are even better for visibility in bright sun conditions because the color is further away from the color spectrum of sunlight.

 

Thanks rrg, coming from you, that is a huge compliment.

Now that you're past the R&D stage on your own project, (link), are you gonna tackle this mod?

 

I thought about it, but I was able to do everything from above and below. so I just removed the three covers from the lower front end (two small sides and larger middle section) and the cover over the radiator.

It certainly would've been easier to mount the project box in the space in front of the driver's wheel well with the bumper cover removed.

It sounds like you are either doing this mod, or considering doing this mod. Do you need more specifics on how and exactly where I mounted the project box?

 

That is IF you could find a source to purchase it from. I looked around and the original sources listed didn't seem to carry/sell it anymore. Even a Google search didn't seem to produce any place to buy it.

If you stand in front of the driver's side headlight assembly with the hood up, look at the fuse box in the engine bay. Then look down, between the fuse box and the headlight connectors and harnesses. There is a sort of "shelf" there coming out of the inside fender. There are two unused threaded bolt holes there, the one on the left is hidden beneath the large diameter hose in the middle of this pic. I used the bolt hole on the right.

Driver's side headlight here

I mounted the project box to the available threaded bolt hole using a metric hex bolt I had. I also grounded the DRL circuit here with a ring terminal on my 14 gauge ground wire. You can see the black wire coming from under the bracket toward the left.

To make my upper mounting bracket, I used a 3" L-bracket (I purchased a set from WalMart) attached to a length of aluminum 3/4" x 10" x 1/8") that was bent in a slight curve toward the front of the car then straightened back down to accommodate the back of the project box. The L-bracket and length of aluminum are bolted together through the 2 holes already in the side of the L-bracket. I then drilled two holes in the aluminum piece and corresponding holes into the back of the project box and into the piece of 1/2" piece of scrap wood I used to mount my relays and fuse block inside my project box. I primed and painted the bracket and then screwed the bracket into the back of the project box, into the wood backing inside the project box using short 3/4" screws.

I made a lower mounting bracket using two more of the 3" L-brackets stuck together with some strong exterior double-sided mounting tape. I made the lower bracket after I had the project box mounted in the car with the upper mounting bracket. That's the only way to get the final bracket together, to test fit before assembling the two L-brackets together with the opposite ends facing in opposing directions. There is a hole available in the frame of the car down in front of where the project box hangs down. I secured the lower bracket to this mounting point, then zip tied the bottom of the project box to the lower bracket using these stick on mounting tabs:

Shop Gardner Bender 10-Piece 1" X 1" Black Mounting Pads at Lowes.com

Added pic 02/02/13: Lower bracket consisting of 2 corner L-brackets joined together and bolted to available hole forward of the wheel well.



If you zoom in on the lower bracket, you can see the bottom of the black project box (DRL module) and a black mounting pad with a zip tie securing the bottom. The lower brace is also secured at the back with another mounting pad and zip tie as well. Therefore, the DRL module is secured at three spots (top, bottom and back).

 

Added this pic of lower mounting bracket to post #28 above as well:



The front of the car would be to the left of the picture. Taken with my phone camera stuck up into the space through the driver's side lower access panel below/behind the front foglight/turn signal. Front of wheel well liner is the black "wall" in the right of the picture.

There is a non-threaded hole in the frame that I bolted the lower bracket to. The two 3" corner braces/L-brackets are attached together with some high strength exterior mounting tape and they are slightly off-angle to each other to get the upper side of the brace closer to the angle of the back of the DRL module/project box. That is the part where I had to test fit the lower bracket, after mounting the DRL module with the upper mounting bracket.

My DRL module has been mounted and in use for a month now. As you can see in the pic, the DRL module is dirty, so it does get some road spray or spray from washing the car, especially since I routinely spray the underside of the car vigorously when I wash it.

 

Checked out the link. Here's a direct link to the DRL products Hamsar currently offers:

Hamsar DRL products

Unfortunately, they don't seem to be carrying the 45060 DRL module that Steve used in his great blog write-up on his RSX:

DRL write-up

All of the DRL products they carry operate the lowbeams at 24% reduced power. None of them use the highbeam circuit. I wonder why they stopped carrying the 45060 highbeam DRL module?

EDIT 3/17/15: Hamsar has made the 45060 DRL modules available on their website again (see link above)

 

Yes, I must've missed that one. That one looks like it is the equivalent of the 45060 that is referenced in Steve Kou's blog.

 

I have had the clear 9005 bulbs from the Prius in my Camry for several weeks now. The previously clear bulbs are now developing the same orange color. I guess it is an effect of burning the bulbs at lower power.

 

Added a timer relay to delay the DRLs from coming on right away when power is on. Thanks to member Vitaliy for giving me the idea from his automatic headlight installation thread.

The main SPDT relay that switches power from the fuse block to the DPDT relay had a contact that failed. It lasted 6 months before failing.

After I replaced the relay, l opened up the failed SPDT relay and saw that the contact had some residue on it, probably from current arcing across the contact.

By adding the delay relay to the +12V Ready Mode wire I'm hoping to prevent the SPDT relay from chattering when initial power is initiated upon startup and avoid any arcing across the contact. The idea is to trigger the SPDT relay after voltages have settled down.

I set the delay for a minute so the DRLs won't come on when I turn on Accessory Mode to use the power windows or wipers, etc.

SCH-I535

 

That is interesting, let me know if you make any progress on getting an OEM DRL relay to work in a USDM spec Prius.

SCH-I535

 

There is a seller on eBay that has solid state control modules to get a proper 30% highbeam DRL.

First post edited with links to the modules. You can buy it and install it, no need to build your own.

 

I'm not certain if some do.

Honda DRLs seem to be running at lower power, as the Civics, Insights, and Accords I encounter have lights that are a darker shade of "orange" than say Toyota/Scion DRLs. The lights get brighter and whiter as more current is pushed through the filament, so the opposite is true, the less current run through the filament the more orange the color.

As I mentioned earlier, the DRLs on my homemade DRLs run on a serial circuit (50% theoretical) are brighter than the oem DRLs on my Camry. So it stands to reason that the Toyota oem DRLs are running at less than 50%.

The now unavailable Hamsar DRL module mentioned previously in this thread had a specification of 60% reduction of the highbeam current if I recall correctly.

So I'm hoping that 30% highbeams will give me DRLs similar to Hondas' implementation.