I did not have the wiring issues. However the ballasts are not good. They do not light consistently. I have to try a few times before it will light up, but eventually it does work out here in California where it's been around 40F at night.
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I did not have the wiring issues. However the ballasts are not good. They do not light consistently. I have to try a few times before it will light up, but eventually it does work out here in California where it's been around 40F at night.
thefortunes
Active Member
Interesting. The DDM kit that I installed has had no issues down to -5F (so far...knock on wood).
I received the replacement ballasts under TRS's cold starting problem recall program for the original ballasts. The new ones have a different model number. So far, no starting issues with the new ballasts in the testing I did in a cold garage. With the ballasts working reliably, I was finally able to get the headlight enclosure reassembled and ready for installation in the car.
I received the replacements as well. Working great! TRS has been awesome to work with. I understand some people may worry about getting their upgrade but these teething problems are normal. The important thing is that TRS stood behind the product, promptly replaced the incompatible ballasts under warranty and always were there to answer phone calls.
The results are amazing. The projectors really make a difference. I compared the headlights side by side with someone who owns a Mercedes SL500 and the TRS kit is brighter.
We did admittedly have an issue with some ballasts but have taken swift action to fix it.
Problem: We've recently encountered an issue where Morimoto 3Five and 5Five "SS" ballasts are failing to fire bulbs reliably in the cold. The specified igniter in the ballast puts out 16,000V on start up under normal operating conditions, which is more adequate to fire up most any bulb. Naturally when the temperature of the magnetic core in the igniter drops so does its capacity to produce that high voltage, and therefore in cold weather the output of the igniter is only right "on the fence" of being able to strike the bulb on reliably. How something like this passed by all year long without being noticed is truly beyond me, but as soon as temperatures started falling this winter it became clear that we had a problem on our hands.
Resolution: Once the issue was identified we took immediate action to solve it. The original MCU-Chips that were responsible for regulating the output to the bulbs were replaced with an all new ASIC-DSP circuit, which can track and adjust bulb output about seven times faster than before. They're also capable of doing so with less components, so the entire system is more efficient. Kinda like replacing your trusty old Acer with a new Macbook. And of course, the igniter....which we replaced with a much beefier Siemens model capable of producing 20,000KV (4000 more than before) so even when its capacity drops in the cold, it will still be well above the required threshold to strike the bulb reliably. The shell of the ballast has been thickened by 2mm to accommodate the bigger igniter as well. It wont be until the ballast temperature reaches -40F until things get sketchy again, so unless you're driving around in the arctic ocean, you should be fine!
We are addressing complaints on a case-by-case basis at this point, and are replacing ballasts in pairs to ensure all the problems are solved. It has affected just about 10% of the total ballasts out there (so just because you have an SS ballast, does not mean its bad) ....but 10% is way to high in our opinion, thus the recall. Today, we shipped around 300 sets of ballasts for customers at no charge to them....Some were mad about it, some disappointed, but I'm happy that the vast majority were impressed and happy to see us standing behind the product. I agree that something like this would be more typical of a $50 set of ballasts from eBay; but surely if that's what you bought you would get a reply that says "check your connections buddy! don't bother us again" whereas we've recognized the problem, wasted no time in re-engineering the ballast to solve it, and are now shelling out thousands in postage to make it right. TRS baby!
Thank you to all who put up with bad igniters for the past month, we can't thank you enough for your patience.
Problem: We've recently encountered an issue where Morimoto 3Five and 5Five "SS" ballasts are failing to fire bulbs reliably in the cold. The specified igniter in the ballast puts out 16,000V on start up under normal operating conditions, which is more adequate to fire up most any bulb. Naturally when the temperature of the magnetic core in the igniter drops so does its capacity to produce that high voltage, and therefore in cold weather the output of the igniter is only right "on the fence" of being able to strike the bulb on reliably. How something like this passed by all year long without being noticed is truly beyond me, but as soon as temperatures started falling this winter it became clear that we had a problem on our hands.
Resolution: Once the issue was identified we took immediate action to solve it. The original MCU-Chips that were responsible for regulating the output to the bulbs were replaced with an all new ASIC-DSP circuit, which can track and adjust bulb output about seven times faster than before. They're also capable of doing so with less components, so the entire system is more efficient. Kinda like replacing your trusty old Acer with a new Macbook. And of course, the igniter....which we replaced with a much beefier Siemens model capable of producing 20,000KV (4000 more than before) so even when its capacity drops in the cold, it will still be well above the required threshold to strike the bulb reliably. The shell of the ballast has been thickened by 2mm to accommodate the bigger igniter as well. It wont be until the ballast temperature reaches -40F until things get sketchy again, so unless you're driving around in the arctic ocean, you should be fine!
We are addressing complaints on a case-by-case basis at this point, and are replacing ballasts in pairs to ensure all the problems are solved. It has affected just about 10% of the total ballasts out there (so just because you have an SS ballast, does not mean its bad) ....but 10% is way to high in our opinion, thus the recall. Today, we shipped around 300 sets of ballasts for customers at no charge to them....Some were mad about it, some disappointed, but I'm happy that the vast majority were impressed and happy to see us standing behind the product. I agree that something like this would be more typical of a $50 set of ballasts from eBay; but surely if that's what you bought you would get a reply that says "check your connections buddy! don't bother us again" whereas we've recognized the problem, wasted no time in re-engineering the ballast to solve it, and are now shelling out thousands in postage to make it right. TRS baby!
Thank you to all who put up with bad igniters for the past month, we can't thank you enough for your patience.
I would like to add that Andrew has been EXTREMELY responsive and supportive to all of my email communications with him so kudos on the customer service. Taking responsibility is very important and then remediation of the problem the next step. Thank you Andrew for publicly addressing this issue.
shrink
Member
I don't meant to cross post, but I think this is relevant. I just and these done and love them:
Roadster Headlights in HID LED Upcycled - please order with weblink
Roadster Headlights in HID LED Upcycled - please order with weblink
wiztecy
Active Member
They just seem a little expensive, not compared to the Tesla upgrade of course. The problem with the "Upcycle" is that its a crap-shoot with the peeling headlight issue. So you send in your good unpeeled headlights to get back headlights that could peel in a month. Is there a guarantee against that? Best bet is to keep your headlights and take care of them. Throw paint armor on them before the peeling occurs. As for getting a set from a previous Roadster... well you just don't know and they will peel eventually.
TRS quoted the full swap at $550 originally when I asked them to do the HID upgrade and they came in even under that price when they engineered mine with the proper mounts for the projectors in the stock housings. You can ask them to throw the paint armor over the lenses. They may even fix the peeling if you ask them....
Happy your have good lights now, that's what counts. Also happy for TRS being proactive and addressing the ballast issue, very admirable of a vendor. You don't see many following forums let alone posting on them regards to an issue being addressed.
I believe TRS will run the LED lights too if you ask them and if you want less/more added. LEDs are cheap so that shouldn't be all too much to do.
TRS quoted the full swap at $550 originally when I asked them to do the HID upgrade and they came in even under that price when they engineered mine with the proper mounts for the projectors in the stock housings. You can ask them to throw the paint armor over the lenses. They may even fix the peeling if you ask them....
Happy your have good lights now, that's what counts. Also happy for TRS being proactive and addressing the ballast issue, very admirable of a vendor. You don't see many following forums let alone posting on them regards to an issue being addressed.
I believe TRS will run the LED lights too if you ask them and if you want less/more added. LEDs are cheap so that shouldn't be all too much to do.
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dhrivnak
Active Member
I just completed the DDM upgrade, 35W and 5000k. It is definitely brighter and whiter. The thin O ring made them plug and play, except for cutting out the rubber cap for the wires. But 2 min with an exacto blade did the job. To my surprise I got two kits as they are sold in pairs. So if anyone wants a pair for $35 I'll send them to you. The swap was quite easy and my only question is the bulb appears to have an electrode on one side. I assume that ends up pointing down.
But with the new bulbs I now have almost as much light as running on high beams and it is cool they use only half the power. It is 7 outside and they worked just fine.
Thanks to all the early adopters that did a great job posting the necessary pictures.
But with the new bulbs I now have almost as much light as running on high beams and it is cool they use only half the power. It is 7 outside and they worked just fine.
Thanks to all the early adopters that did a great job posting the necessary pictures.
I had a read of that write up - it's just FUD. HID replacement bulbs place the xenon capsule where the original filament was. That's why our Roadsters with replacement xenon bulbs all have perfectly formed output with a nice sharp cutoff.
I wonder if they're referring to the difference between cars that come with halogen non-projector lamps but switch them to full projectors when they go to Xenon, like the MINI or BMW for example.
Could be poor assembly of the original headlight units or perhaps you didn't seat the aftermarket xenon bulbs all the way in - the output does go all over the place if the bulbs aren't flat against the enclosure or perhaps you had some bad xenon bulbs. I'm just speculating of course, I can't say for sure.
wiztecy
Active Member
I found a post that backed up all our observations, observations with the TRS retrofit and the plug and play HID bulb. The worse possible route to go is from the non projector halogen setup where there's the the halogen reflective lenses with the HID bulb. I'm also curious as well if the trs comparison is with the halogen or non halogen plug and play. I'll ask about that. So back to the forum find, I found where a person commented that the halogen projector plug and play is not as bad but does not focus your light as precise as the retrofits with the HID projector. That's what I see in the pics, its trailey / spotty, and does not have a wide angle of lighting like the full retrofit offers. I'm sure I'd be happy with the plug and play. However lighting is is a characteristic in my car where it really counts, and if I don't see something, it really can cause problems.... so why cut costs there? Having light on your sides especially in corners is crucial which the retrofits offer over the plug and plays. I do think the plug and play with the halogen projectors offers a cutoff line. I also don't think it blinds people oncoming or with people you come up behind on.
Before I asked TRS if they'd do this HID experiment with the Roadster I looked at my stock halogen projector vs. the Tesla HID projector and immediate could see a difference in the magnification and focus of both. If you ever see this side by side take a look for yourself. They are really different and for a reason.
Also this isn't a $2500 nor $500 cost for a full HID retrofit upgrade, its lower than that. But you get the same $2500 performance as the stock HIDs. I think they perform as good as the stock HIDs in every way. Side coverage, brightness, and even dispersant of light across the front.
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smorgasbord
Active Member
At well under $100 (including a spare set of bulbs and shipping) and a couple hours, I still say it's hard to beat the DDM kits. I'm still really happy with my 55W 4500K low beams, and find that the stock high beams are a decent match and with both on do light up the road quite well.
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The light source on a xenon bulb is a much smaller point - it's a tiny blister compared even to the short filament an a 12v halogen headlight bulb. Plus, the factory HIDs also include a shuttered low/high beam and, the basic projector lens in the Roadster might be of lesser quality than the factory HID unit, probably not, but still, I think that all this means is that the factory HID will always look sharper than the factory halogen however, I compared my 55W saturday morning xenon kit to the $2,500 factory kit and concluded that the factory unit was no sharper, didn't leak off-center any less and and yet was not as bright as mine as the ballasts in the factory units are only 35W afaik.
I'm rather skeptical about the TRS claims - I'm generally skeptical about a lot of things these days, perhaps I've seen too much BS in one lifetime already - I suspect that the text of the TRS claim is founded on the notion that you're upgrading from a plain vanilla non-projector housing which, as I'm sure we've all seen down at our local tuner-meet, doesn't work on a stock '89 Honda Civic. - and no amount of purple in there makes it look cool either!
I'm not saying that the stock projectors couldn't be improved upon by some tweaking - you guys seem convinced and I'm not nearly young enough to know everything but, you know, I'm skeptical.
wiztecy
Active Member
Your halogen Plug and Plays appear brighter in the front because they are! Reason being, like I mentioned earlier, you're not getting even light to the sides and even across the front. The halogens have their focus primarily towards the front. I can see in the pics posted with the drop in kit that show the streaks. I think their posted here in this thread. Also to do a fair comparison both lights need to be aimed the same way. If you angle the lights up more you get light traveling in front of you very very far. I did this with mine, my low beams in essence can look like high beams if focused up enough. Did many trial runs to adjust them properly. Also you're running a 55watt kit where as the TRS and factory are running a 35watt kit, that alone is 20 more watts of output to the front! I really don't see a need to go more than 35watts myself, they're bright enough as is. As for the shutters, the shutters *only* work / activated down on the low beam trigger with the factory HIDs. This is for legality purposes only. They're self leveling so that the lights pose no danger in light pollution to oncoming cars at night when your car is going up a hill, hits bumps on the road, or does any angle transition that will raise the front of the car. The shutters flip up when the high beam is kicked on and down with the low beams. I don't think this adds to the cutoff, that really appears to be a function of the projector lens. Truth is both the plug and play and the retro-fit HIDs are illegal to have without the shutter. Odd since I've seen plain old halogen lights that were not properly aimed to be more of a danger when viewing oncoming.
However I do feel 500% safer driving for myself and for others on the road so I do feel the benefit outweighs the negative. I've also never had anyone flash me nor have to re-adjust their rear-view mirror when I'm behind them so I don't feel I'm really a hazard as what the law thinks. Any upgrade over the stock halogen lights is a way better upgrade in my opinion.
Bad lights like those coming from the factory should be the thing that's illegal!
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I originally ordered the TRS kit for $300 and Tesla SC was going to do the install. Then the mechanic said he did not feel comfortable doing it as he was concerned he'd crack the headlight. I'm returning the full HID kit and just getting the TRS xenon bulb for $150 as a local installer wanted $400 and I wasn't sure it was worth it. I'm sure it will be much better than the stock halogen.
wiztecy
Active Member
bart, did you see the post in this thread on how to split the headlight assembly? You place the whole enclosure in the oven to soften the seal. Fluke split his and said that it wasn't that hard to do. You can also send them out to have TRS split and install the assemblies as well. But you'll have some downtime for that.
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