Did some studying and found some limited understanding. Years ago, the biggest improvement in headlights was the halogen bulb. More efficient than straight incandescent. How much more? Efficiency is defined as lumens per watt. Incandescent is typically rated as 12.5 to 17.5 lumens/watt. Our DT300i lights are 35 watt halogen so we have that amount of power available without overloading the charging system, supposedly. Let's say we were to have 35 watt incandescent lamps. That gives us 437.5 to 612.5 lumens per bulb out front. The formula looks like
Lumens = Power (watts) × lumens/watt
Pretty simple, huh? Lumens/watt is specified by the industry averages. You are never told by a led bulb manufacturer or distributor this value. What you are told is the TOTAL lumens for a two-pack! Any mention of watts on Amazon or eBay, for example, is the watt equivalent! Below is a table to give you an idea of comparison for 35 watts
Incandescent Halogen LED
12.5 lum/watt 437.5 lum 16 lum/watt 560 lum 80 lum/watt 2800 lum
17.5 612.5 24 840 100 3500
Easy to see you can realize a huge improvement in lighting by getting the right numbers! LED is WAY more efficient, ain't it!
I have been looking at literally hundreds of LED lamps and have reached some conclusions. First, you really have to be really careful about selecting a lamp. I was told by Sirius LED that their MX H8 lamp would be correct for a 35 watt system. Good thing this was checked because it would dissipate 50 watts per bulb! Seems like distributors don't know their product! 'Magine that! Another thing is most of these are rated at 6000 k or Kelvin or bright white. The natural light of an untinted halogen is about 3600 to 4300 k, depending who is talking. There seem to be NO LED lamps in that range. However, there are some on customer reviews that reportedly are closer to 4500 to 5000 k in some opinions. I will live with the brighter versions just to get the lumens correct for 35 watts. Why not HID? LED is way cheaper! Oh, yeah. One more thing: fan cooled lamps of any kind don't seem to last very long because the fan pukes quickly with the bulb flaming out shortly thereafter. There is a big gap between LED bulbs that fit exactly like halogen bulbs and LED's with heat sinks. The heat sinks seem to start after a little after 1000 lumens per bulb.
Update: Finally got the bulbs and FINALLY got this tablet fixed! I will post pictures on this project soon. I need some answers from the vendor first.
Took some amp readings and it was no surprise the halogens showed 2.97 amps for 35+ watts. The CAR ROVER LED's were less than .5 amps which equates to 450 to 560 lumens which is no real improvement. These will be returned for credit and I get to start over!
As usual, the pictures did not turn out right but somehow got on this post. The white thing is 1/2" schedule 40 PVC epoxied to the aiming screws. The notches are for grip to turn them. My DT300i has a stubby #2 Phillips somewhere in the bilges, having been dropped while trying to adjust the upper lights!
I give up. I have reached the same conclusion that De dee reached last year: add light assemblies made for the bulbs you want. Additionally, I will no longer, evermore, EVER believe anything said by an aftermarket LED seller! They lie about lumens and watts just to get me to buy something. Going back to the original halogens adjusted a little better.
