Profile Powerhouse 35W/50W ballast testing data

[Haloruler64]

I'd appreciate it! I have a proven 35W control to test the Hella and Powerhouse against, a 55W (or is the F5 50W?) control would be awesome. As far as warm up time I can compare to Alphas, which are just as fast as Densos. The warm up to 50W is the same as to 35W on the Powerhouse because the switch is instant, it just changes circuits?

[Eddie]

Disregard my warmup comment, lack of sleep is making my brain not work gud LOL.

[gold94corolla]

I still have my switchable ballasts, just not using them because I wanted to put everything back to stock.

A warmup video I'm sure would be helpful for people!

[Haloruler64]

A warm up video you will get!

[Haloruler64]

And a warm up video you shall have. Fully warm (frames indistinguishable) in 30 seconds. Not slow! Also ignore my effed up cutoff shield and bulb spacing, I accidentally used a bent bulb.

[Haloruler64]

Also I got my readings. The battery was putting out 11.5V. At 35W the Powerhouse was pulling 4A, or 46W. Since it's putting out exactly the same amount of light as a known true 35W output ballast, we can assume efficiency here is 76%. In 50W mode it pulled 5.5A, or 63.25W. At the same 76% efficiency, that's 48.1W on the output side. Keep in mind that we don't know if efficiency changes with wattage, or if there is a second circuit for 50W mode that has a different efficiency.

[lowfat]

Got mine wired up today. At first I tried wiring both up to a single SPST switch. It didn't work. You would need to use a DPST switch to isolate them. So I just used a 1A DPDT solid state relay off of my 12v accessory in the cabin, hooked the ground up to a switch, then hooked each ballast separately to the relay. Works like a charm. It is pretty much instant to jump to 55W (or is it 50W?). The difference isn't huge though, but I am sure once I use them on the highway I'd miss having 50W.

Not I don't know where the whole rumour about a 1000K drop when you drive @ 50W came from as its 100% false. My Nightbreakers are increasing in kelvin @ 50W, not drop.

https://i.imgur.com/sLeFlKc.gifv

[Haloruler64]

It's 50W. Well according to my potentially wrong calculations, 48W. You don't actually need to supply 12V to it, you can just bridge the pins. I used a 9006 pigtail (test lead) and touched the leads together for my tests, they switch to 50W that way.

Yes the difference doesn't look very big despite the 66% bump in intensity. But my 37/55W Hellas also don't have a huge visible difference despite the 86% boost.

1000K drop is seemingly false, but there is a drop. You think it's increasing in color temp because it's getting brighter, but the temp itself is dropping. The jump from 35W to 55W should see 300-500 drop. From 35 to 48 should be smaller than that.

Did you notice that the Powerhouse ballasts create a warmer color temp than other ballasts? The 37W Hella and 35W Alpha both had the same 5000K color temp, but the 35W Powerhouse made the bulbs warmer (you can see that in the photos I think).

[02fx4dude]

It's 50W. Well according to my potentially wrong calculations, 48W. You don't actually need to supply 12V to it, you can just bridge the pins. I used a 9006 pigtail (test lead) and touched the leads together for my tests, they switch to 50W that way.

This has me wondering if it is supposed to be wired to a contact and not to 12VDC. I bench tested prior to installing and 12VDC switched the brightness so I tapped into the wires going to the projector solenoids on my setup. No real specifications on TRS website other than "Input from high beam". Hope it doesn't cause premature ballast failure.

Thanks for the video

[Haloruler64]

I think it works either way, since TRS specifies that it should be connected to a 12V high beam splitter. I can't say for sure though.

[lowfat]

This has me wondering if it is supposed to be wired to a contact and not to 12VDC. I bench tested prior to installing and 12VDC switched the brightness so I tapped into the wires going to the projector solenoids on my setup. No real specifications on TRS website other than "Input from high beam". Hope it doesn't cause premature ballast failure. Thanks for the video

It just needs to close the circuit, it has to have a diode to prevent damage when using 12v to close the curcuit. If it didn't, it would die instantly.

I would just have used a switch if I had DPST switches. I didn't and didn't want to use two different switches.

[ak_cowboy]

Anyone have a link for the K9 ballasts? There used to be some on ebay or ali, but I can't find them anymore. Wanted to give them a shot before shelling out the extra money for the Mori powerhouse.