LED headlights

[Syphon]

Night shot

High res link

Scott

 

[JK1]

Here's a video of the LED lights in action

http://youtu.be/VemBrS9hVy0

 

[kugaman1]

Hmm,
Lights look white and bright, but there seems to be a very sudden cut off with the beam pattern.

Hope it looks OK actually in use...

Andy

 

[Snarks]

So, just been out in the dark to test the new LED lights. They look great and make the car really distinctive on the road.

The lights are far whiter than I've been used to in the past and the area they light up is very well lit. However, there is a sudden cut off point between the bright bit and total darkness. In dipped mode, I would have liked a bit more distance. For example, if you went into a dip in the road, the climb back out would be in darkness.

Full beam was great with plenty of illumination for a long way down the road. I thought the lights were supposed to switch out of full beam automatically when oncoming vehicles were detected. Either this didn't happen or I chickened out and dipped the beam too early. I'll try again another night.

 

[Syphon]

Have you had xenons before? That sudden cut off surprised me at first. If you are used to std lights they are a lot less focused. The intensity would blind other drivers if it didn't have the cut off.

Scott

 

[JK1]

Snarks, did you order the Driver Assist Pack? That's what had the high beam assist and lane assist, don't think it's part of the tech pack.

 

[Snarks]

Have you had xenons before? That sudden cut off surprised me at first. If you are used to std lights they are a lot less focused. The intensity would blind other drivers if it didn't have the cut off.

Scott

No Scott. I've only ever had basic lights that fade gradually with distance.

 

[Snarks]

Snarks, did you order the Driver Assist Pack? That's what had the high beam assist and lane assist, don't think it's part of the tech pack.

No. Just the tech pack. That explains why.

 

[Mesmer]

Snarks, so do the LED headlights have AFS? And if they don't is it not needed with full LED?
I saw some videos from the Audi A7 Full LED startup sequence and it seemed that they only move up/down, no lateral movement.

 

[kugaman1]

Theres definitely something ive read in the Leon literature that states that the lights do something to stop dazzling other drivers.....?

Andy

 

[Mesmer]

Theres definitely something ive read in the Leon literature that states that the lights do something to stop dazzling other drivers.....?

Andy

Yes, Leons with High Beam Assist have a video camera that lets you drive with High Beam on and turns it off, switches to low beam when it sees ongoing traffic so that they're not dazzled.

 

[iMatchu]

Finally, I came across a Spanish video review of the new Leon in which the daylight running LEDS seem to be doing some odd things at about 3.56 and 4.59 in the video (again no URL, but the site is called coches.net and the review was posted on 29 January). Do these lights double as indicators? Even if that is the case, it doesn't explain the second phenomenon - unless the LEDs are acting as hazard warning lights. Any ideas?

Were the LEDS flickering by any chance? it's do you with the frequency of the cameras compared to the LEDS, if you watch top gear you see it happen to the rear leds on the cars as they film. so it's not a fault with the car.

fyi you can't see them flicker by human eye incase you are wondering.

 

[Walpurgis]

Were the LEDS flickering by any chance? it's do you with the frequency of the cameras compared to the LEDS, if you watch top gear you see it happen to the rear leds on the cars as they film. so it's not a fault with the car.

fyi you can't see them flicker by human eye incase you are wondering.

Yes that might explain the phenomenon. In the video (posted on 1 February), the daylight running LEDs (I think) appear to be "winking" alternately between the left and right headlights. I suppose that switching them on and off at a very high frequency would save energy and reduce heating of the LEDs.

 

[EndlessNameless]

Yes that might explain the phenomenon. In the video (posted on 1 February), the daylight running LEDs (I think) appear to be "winking" alternately between the left and right headlights. I suppose that switching them on and off at a very high frequency would save energy and reduce heating of the LEDs.

It's how you modulate the brightness of the light. "Pulse Width Modulation" is the technical term, I believe. LEDs are binary type devices, so to fool the eye into thinking they're less bright than they really are you fiddle with the amount of on and off time at high frequency.

That interacts with the camera's frame rate to produce effects that you don't see in real life - like the bars moving perpetually upwards on a CRT Monitor when shown on TV.

 

[Snarks]

Snarks, so do the LED headlights have AFS? And if they don't is it not needed with full LED?
I saw some videos from the Audi A7 Full LED startup sequence and it seemed that they only move up/down, no lateral movement.

It's got automatic range adjustment but I've seen no evidence of the beam moving from side to side as I turn the vehicle.

 

[Walpurgis]

It's got automatic range adjustment but I've seen no evidence of the beam moving from side to side as I turn the vehicle.

The same Spanish video review mentioned above (1st Feb on coches.net - I still can't post links yet) shows an animated display on the infotainment screen in which the (head?)light beams appear to move as the steering wheel is turned (at about 2.35 in the video). This may be showing how the foglight beams move when cornering.

 

[Mesmer]

The local dealer just replyed to my email.

He says that the LED Headlights don't have AFS. Shame really, I really liked the new leon but i also wanted AFS for my new car. To make matters worse in Romania they don't even ship the high beam assist

 

[phsroberts]

The same Spanish video review mentioned above (1st Feb on coches.net - I still can't post links yet) shows an animated display on the infotainment screen in which the (head?)light beams appear to move as the steering wheel is turned (at about 2.35 in the video). This may be showing how the foglight beams move when cornering.

That's the parking assist showing the wheel angle and turn radius.

 

[wiganlad81]

Well I gave the LED's a through testing last night. Probably about the best headlights I've had the pleasure to use. Good colour, good light distribution. Does anyone else think the light distribution is unusually wide? I'm not complaining in anyway just an observation. I think this spread of light actually reassured me more. It's so wide I had to keep checking if I had a motor behind me with fb on at first. Once I got used to that they were fantastic.

 

[coxxic]

According to one online report, Ford has developed adaptive lighting functions which adjust beam pattern to vehicle speed and cornering attitude to provide the best possible illumination of the road ahead without dazzling oncoming vehicle. I'm not sure whether this is the same as AFS but it looks like it's up to the vehicle manufacturer to provide these functions and it doesn't look like SEAT are offering similar functions - for now.

It seems to me SEAT bets all on only one card - just the LED technology itself because it´s in vogue. I´d like to see real progress in lighting with every new model. Not only the LED with basic configuration.
I would expect the opt LED lights to have the features you mentioned at least. It should adjust beam pattern in all ways according to driving mods and conditions (city, country, motorway, fog, rain, low/high beam, etc.) along with dynamic cornering and last but not the least it should have the dynamic antidazzling feature (aka adaptive cut off line) as one can find even on 2006 VW Toureq ! (Hella VarioX)

dynamic antidazzling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kFSuBWGCuY#t=45

LED matrix : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oad0FmXhilI#t=44

AFS in general : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDoA5MV41-I