[Wei]

Looks good sign me up!

 

[lotus_dp]

I'm interested but need some clarification...

In your demo video and posted pictures... is the OEM projectors lighted with Halogen bulbs or HID bulbs? From the color of the OEM, I'm assuming Halogen.

To evaluate if the new ORE projectors are superior to the OEM projectors...
I'd like to see a demo of ORE projectors and OEM projectors using the exact same HID setup.

I definitely expect HIDs to outperform the Halogens regardless of the projector used... I like to be assured that the performance gains seen in the video are strickly from the ORE projector, not because you're testing HID's bulbs against halogens.

Please take no disrespect to your work... just one engineer asking another.

 

[hotspoons]

For my clarification, these include all of the optics to ensure the correct beam aiming and scatter specifically for Xenon lamps, correct? Then you need an HID kit that fits an H1 halogen bulb then? Why are these not made to use D2S or other actual Xenon bulbs?

This is my concern: Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply . But if you can address those concerns, I am very tempted.

Thanks,

 

[Lowtush]

I'm interested but need some clarification...

In your demo video and posted pictures... is the OEM projectors lighted with Halogen bulbs or HID bulbs? From the color of the OEM, I'm assuming Halogen.

To evaluate if the new ORE projectors are superior to the OEM projectors...
I'd like to see a demo of ORE projectors and OEM projectors using the exact same HID setup.

I definitely expect HIDs to outperform the Halogens regardless of the projector used... I like to be assured that the performance gains seen in the video are strickly from the ORE projector, not because you're testing HID's bulbs against halogens.

Please take no disrespect to your work... just one engineer asking another.

We can compare it we just need to line a car that has an HID kit.

 

[Lowtush]

For my clarification, these include all of the optics to ensure the correct beam aiming and scatter specifically for Xenon lamps, correct? Then you need an HID kit that fits an H1 halogen bulb then? Why are these not made to use D2S or other actual Xenon bulbs?

This is my concern: Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply . But if you can address those concerns, I am very tempted.

Thanks,

That is a good question, let me clarify.

We are working directly with a projector manufacturer that designs high end projectors for retrofit use. Due to size and space constraints the base projector we selected was designed to take a Xenon bulb that has an "H1 Style" base instead of the D2S base. The bulb itself is identical (just the little plastic base is different) and the optics in our projectors are designed to only work with a Xenon bulb. Xenon bulbs with an "H1 Style" base are very easy to come by as they are what people use when they don't upgrade their optics properly.

The whole point of our retrofit kit is to get the correct optics for use with a Xenon bulb. If you put H1 halogen bulbs in these projectors the optics would be completely wrong.

 

[hotspoons]

That is a good question, let me clarify.

We are working directly with a projector manufacturer that designs high end projectors for retrofit use. Due to size and space constraints the base projector we selected was designed to take a Xenon bulb that has an "H1 Style" base instead of the D2S base. The bulb itself is identical (just the little plastic base is different) and the optics in our projectors are designed to only work with a Xenon bulb. Xenon bulbs with an "H1 Style" base are very easy to come by as they are what people use when they don't upgrade their optics properly.

The whole point of our retrofit kit is to get the correct optics for use with a Xenon bulb. If you put H1 halogen bulbs in these projectors the optics would be completely wrong.

Okay, that makes sense. So long as the optics are designed (hopefully by men in white lab coats with PhDs) specifically for Xenon arc lamps and the projector pattern has the correct intensity spread and cutoff, these should be good. I'm not worried about looking cool, but the stock head lamps are horrible and I can't get nearly as good lighting as I have with my Cibies and 100w narvas in my Miata; I'd like something *safe* and that provides a big lighting gain.

That said, the projected pattern above looks just like my STi's low beams.

Many optical upgrades require that the projector housing be heated to melt the glue and reseal the unit. I am ignorant to how the lights are assembled on my car, so can you provide more details as far as what the process is for installation? Thanks,

 

[TCAR]

Your pics comparison raise more questions

Lowtush, I commend you for your work on this project. Although, after looking at your pics I have serious doubts about a fair comparison. Here is why: The standard projector low beam has the European asymmetric output (with the up angle to enable object detection further down the road on the right side, caused by the sheet metal beam restrictor between the bulb and the lense). The correct low beam setting is based on the horizontal part of the the projected beam. Your replacement projector set obviously eliminates the beam restrictor since you are using a bi-xenon bulb. In your pics the lo-beam setting is way to high and will blind oncoming traffic while your hi-beam settings seam to be aimed similar to the original hi-beam settings (reference pic: "Both ORE and Lotus (Low Beams)").
Help me out here: if you adjust your lo-beam correctly, your hi-beam would have to be set automatically much lower as well. It almost looks to me that your projector kit emulates the original (lo-beam) projector by just eliminating the beam restrictor plate. Am I wrong in my assumption? IMHO, this $300 expense can hardly be justified, unless you can convince me of the opposite.

 

[Lowtush]

Okay, that makes sense. So long as the optics are designed (hopefully by men in white lab coats with PhDs) specifically for Xenon arc lamps and the projector pattern has the correct intensity spread and cutoff, these should be good. I'm not worried about looking cool, but the stock head lamps are horrible and I can't get nearly as good lighting as I have with my Cibies and 100w narvas in my Miata; I'd like something *safe* and that provides a big lighting gain.

That said, the projected pattern above looks just like my STi's low beams.

Many optical upgrades require that the projector housing be heated to melt the glue and reseal the unit. I am ignorant to how the lights are assembled on my car, so can you provide more details as far as what the process is for installation? Thanks,

I'm not sure what color their lab coats are but maybe white? Ha ha

Back on subject. The 05 and 06 cars have a cover that bolts onto the front clam. The factory brackets and lights (you can see this in the photos above) also bolt to the front clam separately. We are working on a formal how-to on every little step in the process. It will be able to be done with simple hand tools.

The 07+ cars have a sealed headlight much more like most OEM headlights. We are working on lining up a couple test cars to check fitment and provide a solid step by step on how to do the installation.

 

[Lowtush]

Lowtush, I commend you for your work on this project. Although, after looking at your pics I have serious doubts about a fair comparison. Here is why: The standard projector low beam has the European asymmetric output (with the up angle to enable object detection further down the road on the right side, caused by the sheet metal beam restrictor between the bulb and the lense). The correct low beam setting is based on the horizontal part of the the projected beam. Your replacement projector set obviously eliminates the beam restrictor since you are using a bi-xenon bulb. In your pics the lo-beam setting is way to high and will blind oncoming traffic while your hi-beam settings seam to be aimed similar to the original hi-beam settings (reference pic: "Both ORE and Lotus (Low Beams)").
Help me out here: if you adjust your lo-beam correctly, your hi-beam would have to be set automatically much lower as well. It almost looks to me that your projector kit emulates the original (lo-beam) projector by just eliminating the beam restrictor plate. Am I wrong in my assumption? IMHO, this $300 expense can hardly be justified, unless you can convince me of the opposite.

The low beam on the car with our upgraded projectors is set 100% perfectly aligned. We have already logged over 1000 miles on the car with the setup and many of those miles at night (lights were always on regardless of daylight). I have driven with plenty of other Lotus owners (worst case since against another low car) and nobody had any complaints about headlight height. The parking lot we were in is not quite flat so don't look at the height up the building to show what its actually like on a flat road.

We actually think that the other car we used to compare against has their lights set too low. Its not our car though, we are going to line up another car or adjust the lights on that car and get some better pics soon. Only have one Elise in our possession makes the side to side testing a little harder. When looking at those pics don't evaluate the kit based on height of beam but more on brightness of light and beam pattern.

Also keep in mind that you can keep the use of your OEM high beams to further compliment the Bi-Xenon high beams. We unplugged the factory high beams on our test car so it was a bit less confusing as to what lights were putting out what beam.

Imagine how bright it is with 4 high beams and not just 2! Best of both worlds!

 

[6i9]

The 07+ cars use an H7 bulb. So you're saying if we have an HID H7 kit we need to buy a new HID kit with H1 bulb and base?

Do you offer a kit that will accomodate an H7 so that we don't need to go out and convert to H1

 

[Lowtush]

The 07+ cars use an H7 bulb. So you're saying if we have an HID H7 kit we need to buy a new HID kit with H1 bulb and base?

Do you offer a kit that will accomodate an H7 so that we don't need to go out and convert to H1

This is very common in the HID upgrade world. When you order your kit for an 07+ just ask the seller for the H7 wiring adapter for the ballast but the H1 bulb base. A lot of retrofit projectors are H1 style bulbs. Since you need to wire in a ballast between the factory wiring and the bulb the two options aren't really conflicting.

 

[LionZoo]

I know I've asked this before, but can you let me know what research you've done into compatibility of the lights for the restyled 2011 Elise? The 2011 Elise uses the new headlight design and the cover, at least, is quite different from the earlier Elises as well as all US Exiges. I'm highly interested in the kit, but I don't want a kit that doesn't fit.

 

[donaldking]

what's the difference between the ORE set and this ebay $50 set plus bracket and harness? are the qualities similar?

Mini H1 Retrofit Bi Xenon HID Projectors with Mini Gatling Shrouds | eBay

 

[hotspoons]

what's the difference between the ORE set and this ebay $50 set plus bracket and harness? are the qualities similar?

Mini H1 Retrofit Bi Xenon HID Projectors with Mini Gatling Shrouds | eBay

I'd imagine that the optics are of better quality on the ORE set. Based on the beam patterns above, it looks like they are properly engineered.

The main thing is that the bracketry is designed exclusively for our cars. Headlamps are one place where you don't want things held in place with a stack of washers and adhesives; they need to be held in securely and be aimed properly to be safe and effective.

So is $350 for a set of optics and cheapo retrofit HID bulbs/ballasts worth it? It depends on how they perform.

What's the return policy if I order these and they don't live up to expectations?

 

[Lowtush]

what's the difference between the ORE set and this ebay $50 set plus bracket and harness? are the qualities similar?

Mini H1 Retrofit Bi Xenon HID Projectors with Mini Gatling Shrouds | eBay

We had these made to specifically fit the lotus housing using our measurements with the latest optics. We looked at off the shelf ones like that and the problem was that non of them quite fit right in the housing because of that we didnt even get to check quality of the optics. We pretty much gave up on the idea and went right to the source. If it was as simple as slapping on ebay projectors we wouldnt have bothered spending our time.

 

[Lowtush]

I'd imagine that the optics are of better quality on the ORE set. Based on the beam patterns above, it looks like they are properly engineered.

The main thing is that the bracketry is designed exclusively for our cars. Headlamps are one place where you don't want things held in place with a stack of washers and adhesives; they need to be held in securely and be aimed properly to be safe and effective.

So is $350 for a set of optics and cheapo retrofit HID bulbs/ballasts worth it? It depends on how they perform.

What's the return policy if I order these and they don't live up to expectations?

If you are not happy with the kit we will give you a refund as long as its returned in the same condition we sent it to you in. We stand behind this product and its performance.

 

[hotspoons]

If you are not happy with the kit we will give you a refund as long as its returned in the same condition we sent it to you in. We stand behind this product and its performance.

So how do I reserve a spot on your group buy?

 

[Lowtush]

So how do I reserve a spot on your group buy?

sent you a PM

 

[hotspoons]

sent you a PM

Got it, thanks. One last question before I reserve a spot; I'm having trouble finding bi-xenon hid kits for H1 bases (all I've found are low beams). Perhaps it's because H1s are traditionally used for single filament bulbs. Maybe I'm not searching correctly; any chance you could point me to a bi-xenon kit for h1 bases? Thanks,