Some musing re Colight Y7S

Greetings all,

I had been looking at LED mini-projectors. I like the concept of the Y7S Tri-color Mini Lense, but not the implementation. The Y7S, has been discussed in at least the thread https://www.tundras.com/threads/amazing-1st-gen-headlamp-upgrade.127384/page-6#post-3680076.

As I understand it, every time the headlight is switched from high-beam to low-beam, the low-beam color temperature advances to the next color temperature, id., post #163, although there appears to be a different interpretation, id., post #160.

There has been a suggestion to “jumper the high/low beams together so both circuits stay live when the high beams are triggered”, id., post #164, with concern of overheating, id., post #165.

I was wondering, provided that the suggestion in posts #164 were to resolve the issue, the concern of post #165 could not be resolved by introducing an auxiliary circuit sensing a switchover from high-beam to low-beam, wherein the circuit would delay the turn-off of the high-beam by micro or milli-seconds, depending on the response time of the LEDs. Such a circuit would be simple, a mono-stable IC, and the short time of both LEDs being on would, hopefully, not overheat the device.

I have two other ideas, but they are little more complex. The first one is look at the electronics of the Y7S and inhibit the color-temperature switch. My hypothesis is that there is a 3-bit shift register advanced by the switchover from high-beam to low-beam.

The other idea is to build a 3-bit counter that upon sensing a switchover from high-beam to low-beam would execute 3-times a high-beam to low-beam switch that would result in the same color temperature. If, and this is a big if, each of the 3-times high-beam to low-beam switch would happen faster than the turn-off/turn-on of the LEDs due the nature of the carriers needing some time to evacuate the P-N junction after removing power form the LED, this may not be perceived as change between the beams.

Any comments from the people who have the Y7S, @MT-Tundra, @Riverdale21 dale21, and/or others?

Kindest regards,

M

 

I can only comment to say that it's really disappointing they work the way they do, and if someone tried one of those workarounds and it worked, I'd be excited. I'm sure it's not overly complicated but electrical isn't my strong suit. If someone else confirmed that something worked, and had step-by-step instructions, I'd definitely try it. But I'm not up on electrical stuff enough to know if those suggestions would work, or to try them on my own without a tutorial.

But yes, my experience was that switching from low/high didn't advance the color progression every time, but it always eventually advanced it, after a high/low high/low or two or three. I didn't keep them installed long enough to find a definite pattern. Could have been random, could have just been I needed to pay attention longer. I know that driving home from an evening meeting in the winter, about a 45 minute, 50 mile drive, they'd cycle through all the colors multiple times.

I still have mine, but only as backups.

 

Hi @MT-Tundra,

thank you for your reply.

It is rather disappointed that you did not detect a pattern, as this makes the analysis/design of the (potentially) needed complex ideas more complicated. As such, I will start with the attempt of extending the duration of the high-beam little over the activation of the low-beam.

I will start designing the circuit while saving for the lights.

Kindest regards,

M

 

Hey no problem. My assumption is that there's a pattern. I didn't get very far past the "this is annoying" phase before I just replaced them with the Y6. Had I kept them longer and really looked for a patter, one would likely emerge...

 

Hi @MT-Tundra,

Yeah, I fully understand that.

Kindest regards,

M