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i dont know if this should be in lightiing...... but anywayz i now have true H.I.D KIT.....WHEN THE BASS HITS MY HEADLIGHTS NO LONGER DIM... is this a good thing ???

 
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yes it is a good thing. i dont know much about this kinda situation but frm what i know, if it dims, it means the sound system u have in ur car takes the power from the battery over the lighting into the subs. so the harder the bass hits, the more likely the lighting starts to dim. their is a battery like called a "capacitor" which can be purchased for about $50-$100? eBay.com has plently to choose from.

 
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caps are no good

 
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maybe because HIDs got ballasts

 
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how so?

 
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^^ All they do is reduce dimming a little, and it causes more of a strain on the electrical system, because it has to be charged constantly. For it to effectively stop dimming you would need a 5+ farad cap, and those are about twice as much money as an alternator would be. A new alternator would solve the problem completely, whereas a cap would be like a bandaid; just covering up the problem.

 
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For the most part caps dont help much. I have seen on some cars where it will reduce the headligh dimming a little. They can also help the system musically but in most cases they dont provide any benifit other then more $$$ for the retailer you bought them from.

 
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"I think it's probably more appropriate to say, are there solid facts that disprove any of the above?..

And we need to be more careful with the word "help"...
...help what?
(and also "band-aid for...what?", "placebo... that I think I notice what? )


Bear in mind, most of this "caps don't do anything" argument was born from Richard Clark's research to the end of showing that capacitors don't make an amplifier make more power.

Richard Clark had a specific goal... show that capacitors don't make an amplifier make more power. Fine... "of course" even.

From there, however, people have made a huge leap into a generalization that "capacitors don't help anything."

They've made this leap without proof or evidence.

Those claiming that adding capacitance (of whatever quantity - and based on whatever variables you like for sizing that quantity) doesn't help your car's electrical system, or even those claiming that it can't help sound quality are the ones who are operating without proof!

People fail to understand "scope"...
That RC's work had a narrow scope...
And it was conclusive only within that scope.

If you reference his publications, his plots use a time scale that is dramatically too long, and too coarse in grain to reach any conclusions as to the other two items:
1) stabilizing the vehicle's electrical system during transients (which includes light dimming)
2) aiding sound quality (whether you want to file it under noise filtering, or the same transient response aid).

So why do people feel so comfortable in citing that "capacitors don't do anything", when the only research work conducted was narrow in scope, and in fact not addressing these two items?

Member 1: I just bought a capacitor for my new stereo, since I've got a 1200 watt amp now.
Member 2: Don't bother, they don't do anything.
Member 1: So why when I hooked up my last one, did I notice a reduction in dash light dimming?
Member 2: Oh, I don't know... but I just know that they don't do anything, I mean, some of those guys said so... and they sounded confident..." - geolemon

 
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When I hooked up a friends 6farad capacitor in my car as a test, my headlights did indeed stop all dimming. My 1 farad capacitor reduces it *slightly*, however it seems to cause other odd electrical problems in my car that go away when I remove it. So I now run without one.

Thats all I base my argument on.

 
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notice i didnt argue with this thread. why? because the argument was headlight dimming. The absolute easiest fix for headlight dimming is a capacitor. Nowhere did I hear that a cap saves your electrical system, which is why i didnt argue =).

Mystic got bitch slapped by scuba mothafukin steve

 
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now that i think about it, the ballast while by itself, should do nothign ot prevent dimming. but isnt HID like flourescant lighting? seems to me like it is! and flourescant lights have sarters that fire them on, and we all know that flourescants are incapable of dimming...

so i agree that its probably the lights you got that has eliminated dimming, but check for yoruself. if they dimmed before but wont now, try playing loud music at night then turn on yrou dome light, or jstu yoru parking lights, youll find out real quick if you *really* cured dimming

 
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yup interior lights still dim when two windows are rised at the same time and when the bass hits hard...but headlights no longer dim

 
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definitely due to the HID

 
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wull don't HIDS also use like 1/2 the power? 25/30W instead of 55/60W? i think lower draw is going to make dimming less noticible. but who cares if it's there, as long as you aren't noticing it.

 
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its not a current issue, if they operate like florescants. how much current do you think the dome light uses? far less than the headlights, hid or not! it still dims. same with the parking lights

ever see a florescant light dim in yoru house ever? how bout an incandescent? its gotta be the nature of the light

 
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i'm betting it's some part of the HID that acts as a voltage regulator, maybe the ballast has a zener diode or something in it. no i have not seen florescents dim in my house, but i have seen neon lights in cars dim when bass hits. and those are like florescents.

this is interesting though. i want a diffinitive answer now, maybe someone with stock HID's and a big system can tell us if they get dimming.

 
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what it is is teh function of the ballast. flourescent lighting also uses a ballast. same with car lcd's, or neons, etc.. they dont dim with bass because its a miniature flourescent light inside. we could call the ballast a voltage regulator. HID is in essence a flourescent light, but the difference is that regular home flourescents use mercury and argon gas, while HID's use xenon and mercury gas along with some metal hlide salts.

by teh way mr doubledeuce. zener's only stop voltage spiking, not voltage drops. thats why voltage regulators have to use a combination of zener's and capacitors

 
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cool i'll just add zeners and caps to my car to stop dimming... kidding.

but i've had neons in my car (for like 2 months, they're in the trash now so i can't test them) and they dimmed when the bass hit. and no, they weren't the kind that are supposed to do that. but they were pretty crappy, so maybe that's why i don't buy the flourescent arguement.

 
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thats because its not the ballast alone. a ballast is just a coil! when the voltage drops, so does the coil! however, flourescant lights have a starter without which it wouldnt work. ive never seen a full HID kit, so if youll check out my first post on the matter, I stressed that starter thing. i guess its a moot point really, who cares why it does it, whats most important is that it does do it, right?