Flyguytki

Flyguytki

Well Known Member
Just curious if anyone is running automotive style HID Landing lights and if so What their amp draw is. Mine were drawing 9.8 amps according to the VPX which seemed really high. If your is Significantly lower IE: 2-3 amps what type are they b.c I might be switching

-david
 
You will get tons of different results with different lights.

There are so many designs out there for the ballast that it is hard to nail this down. Some of them go off the chart during startup and then settle to something normal. Others are current limited during startup to prevent this current spike.

Too many variables with all the Chinese makers of these things.....
 
Is that 9.8 amps for both lights together? That would equate to almost 130 amps at a nominal 13V. That is pretty high for the normal 50W HID's most people run.


You should be running closer to 6.9 to 8.0 amps.

What is the voltage on your battery as reported by the VPX.

If the battery voltage was as low as 10.2V, that would be the correct amperage draw for 2 of the 50W HID lights together.

Remember P=VI Power = Voltage x current.

Most of chinese 50W HID lights are rated at the amount of power delivered to the ballast, whereas the nicer higher end HID lights use the power delivered to the bulb. I dont think it is a huge difference, but probably around 10-15%

They are all pretty much automotive derivatives. Even the high end STC'd lights are just D1S style which is used very commonly in cars.
 
yes the 9.8 is the current draw for both, I have both Landing Lights connected to one power plug on the VP-X. I will have to check what the battery voltage is when this is happeneing havent looked at that yet.

-david
 
HID draw

I think mine draw about 4 amps each at 13.8 volts. 55 watt automotive units from Rigid industries. They certainly draw alot less than the halogens that they replaced!!
 
Ok so even though it is alot it sounds about right, I will leave them on for a few minutes next time and see if the amperage drops after they are warm.

Thanks alot
 
The amperage should drop off pretty fast. Like 10 seconds max they should be stable.

Most HIDs are stable after just 1-2 seconds.

The voltage will tell you if you are seeing correct amperages.
 
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