Predator ICE LED Modification
12-23-2006, 01:14 AM
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The M5board has a nice thread on changing the Predator ICE's LED with the purpose of getting a different color or higher light output for the angel eyes. Please take a look:
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84457
I signed up a username to post some suggestions there but for some odd reason it still did not allow me to post msg. That's okay, take that as a good sign from above to start a new topic here.
Amber color:
Amber/BMW oem color:
BMW oem color:
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84457
I signed up a username to post some suggestions there but for some odd reason it still did not allow me to post msg. That's okay, take that as a good sign from above to start a new topic here.
Amber color:
Amber/BMW oem color:
BMW oem color:
12-23-2006, 01:20 AM
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My Ride: 2005 530i JETBLACK/BLACK DAKOTA, COLD WEATHER PKG, PREMIUM PKG, ADAPTIVE XENON HEADLIGHTS, AUTO TRANSMISSION WITH 6 SPEED STEPTRONIC, BLUETOOTH SETUP,SAT SETUP AND WIFE AS CO-PILOT
hmmm...interesting....how doesit look at nite??post a pic..ericd
12-23-2006, 10:11 PM
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Very difficult to take decent pictures at night. In actuality when headlights are on, the rings are clearly distinctive and aggressive looking from a far distant.
01-05-2007, 01:18 PM
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Mind sharing how the amber is done? Is it a simple LED swap? What type LED? Details pls, I like the amber color more than stock. I think it gives a good contrast between the lowbeam and the AE.
01-05-2007, 06:10 PM
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For those who don't want to go to the M5 board to know about the modification. It involves, swapping out the 3.5W LED that is already in the present day Predator Ice, with a 5W LED and another heat sink. The new LED must be soldered in place of the old LED, and voila the 2x brighter claim of Umnitza that is coming out some time this month (according to one of the members on the M5 board. From all the pictures on the M5 board, WOW!! it is much brighter than our 3.5W ones. Those 5W are bright enough for DRL. Amazing. And not to mention just only a total of about 30$ for this mod. I'm going this route than buying a new set of predator ice 2x brighter version. Anyone else done this that could give more detail?
Link for LED:
Luxeon LED
Link for LED:
Luxeon LED
01-08-2007, 08:08 PM
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Originally Posted by 525iSE' post='374163' date='Jan 5 2007, 07:10 PM
For those who don't want to go to the M5 board to know about the modification. It involves, swapping out the 3.5W LED that is already in the present day Predator Ice, with a 5W LED and another heat sink. The new LED must be soldered in place of the old LED, and voila the 2x brighter claim of Umnitza that is coming out some time this month (according to one of the members on the M5 board. From all the pictures on the M5 board, WOW!! it is much brighter than our 3.5W ones. Those 5W are bright enough for DRL. Amazing. And not to mention just only a total of about 30$ for this mod. I'm going this route than buying a new set of predator ice 2x brighter version. Anyone else done this that could give more detail?
Link for LED:
Luxeon LED
Link for LED:
Luxeon LED
As an update, the person on the M5 board is now testing the new generation of LED. It's called the Luxeon K2 Star LED and it's cheaper and puts out 130 lumens of light at 6500K. He is also testing a new narrow beam 5 degree focusing lens. This LED is the same form factor as the Luxeon 5 (the previous 5W one tested) and best of all, is much cheaper ($8.99 ea + shipping) and there are alot of colors available. See the following website for info:
http://www.luxeonstar.com/index.php
I'm waiting for his results before I go ahead and get the K2 LED to upgrade my ICE unit. I think it would look nicer being a brighter. It's also nice for someone to do all the experimentation.....
01-09-2007, 07:03 AM
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Originally Posted by jlgjwu' post='375527' date='Jan 9 2007, 12:08 PM
Just as a clarification and update, you do not have to get another heatsink. As per the M5 board, you reuse the Predator ICE heatsink. All you have to do is unscrew and desolder the old led. The new led fits exactly. You have to put some thermal compound on the back, resolder and then screw it down.
As an update, the person on the M5 board is now testing the new generation of LED. It's called the Luxeon K2 Star LED and it's cheaper and puts out 130 lumens of light at 6500K. He is also testing a new narrow beam 5 degree focusing lens. This LED is the same form factor as the Luxeon 5 (the previous 5W one tested) and best of all, is much cheaper ($8.99 ea + shipping) and there are alot of colors available. See the following website for info:
http://www.luxeonstar.com/index.php
I'm waiting for his results before I go ahead and get the K2 LED to upgrade my ICE unit. I think it would look nicer being a brighter. It's also nice for someone to do all the experimentation.....
As an update, the person on the M5 board is now testing the new generation of LED. It's called the Luxeon K2 Star LED and it's cheaper and puts out 130 lumens of light at 6500K. He is also testing a new narrow beam 5 degree focusing lens. This LED is the same form factor as the Luxeon 5 (the previous 5W one tested) and best of all, is much cheaper ($8.99 ea + shipping) and there are alot of colors available. See the following website for info:
http://www.luxeonstar.com/index.php
I'm waiting for his results before I go ahead and get the K2 LED to upgrade my ICE unit. I think it would look nicer being a brighter. It's also nice for someone to do all the experimentation.....
01-12-2007, 03:41 AM
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Sorry folks, I hibernated for a while. 
There are few things to be addressed.
Let's start off with an example. Let's take a look at this 3 Watts Luxeon white LED. The specification listed:
LXHL-LW3C Specifications
Lumens 80 lm
Max Continuous Current 1000 mA
Forward Voltage 3.9 Vf
Dominant Wavelength 5500 K
LED Type Star
Radiation Pattern Lambertian
The two things we are concern about is the Max continuous current (Imax, 1000mA =1A) and the Forward Voltage (Vf, 3.9V) The theoretical power dissipation of the LED can be determined by:
P=IV => LEDpowermax = (Imax)(Vf) = 1A x 3.9V = 3.9W => ~3W
This LED will theoretically use about ~3 Watts of power. Different LEDs will have different specification. Vf value is given by the manufacture. When a voltage source is greater than Vf, a current will turn on the LED. A large current will burn out the LED if it is not rated for it. A resistor or an LED driver must be used to limit the current as necessary. For longevity of the LED, an LED driver would be the ideal choice.
Ok moving on to the Predator ICE. Since the product didn't come with any specification listed, I took it apart and measured myself for the Forward Voltage (Vf) and the current (Imax). The Vf came out to be less than ~3V, the current = ~350mA = ~.350A. From those values, I can assume the Predator ICE's LED is absorbing far less than 3W.
Ok, now we have problems with just substituting a different LED. The "long silver thingie" is the LED driver which gives the "correct" current for the LED. It provides a constant current source of ~350mA regardless of voltage fluctuations. I hooked up the LED driver to a 9V and 6V battery sources, it still outputed a constant current of ~350mA, as expected.
I was reading the M5 board a while ago and noticed that many were just replacing the predator's LED with the luxeon Star III or even Luxeon Star V. If you take a look again at the white 3W LED specification above, the LED will take any current up to 1000mA. Any larger than the allowed value, it would fry or shorten the life of the LED. When only the LED is replaced, the LED driver on the Predator ICE will be a limiting factor of allowing only ~350mA of current. This means the LED can still be much brighter when given the "correct" current close to its maximum current value.
Just directly substituting the Luxeon LED III/V would nevertheless be brighter than the Predator ICE. There is a reason for that. For example, the Forward Voltage Vf of the 3W white Luxeon is 3.9V, the VF of the Predator ICE is less than ~3V, both using the same 350mA current LED driver. The Power dissipation will be higher with the Luxeon LED. Since more power is used, it is brighter. Replacing the Predator LED with a 5W luxeon LED will make it a bit brighter than the 3W and more brighter than the original Predator LED. In these cases, the LEDs could have been much more brighter if the "long silver thingie" were replaced with an LED driver specified for the "correct" current for that particular LED.
I used the ambered Luxeon III LED. The LED allows current up to 1400mA (1.4A). I replaced the Predator ICE LED driver with the LuxDrive PowerPuck 1000mA LED Driver. It was the largest current LED driver I found at that time even though you can still power the LED with a larger current close to its maximum current rating. In terms of brightness, I would say it is near stock...stock yellow angel eye is probably slightly brighter. However, the amber colored angel eyes show the rings more clearly and it looks nice. For the Predator ICE with its original LED, I would say it is less bright than stock, and the amber modification i did. As far as I know, the 2nd version of Predator ICE will be much brighter and hopefully fix its earlier shortcoming.
There are few things to be addressed.Let's start off with an example. Let's take a look at this 3 Watts Luxeon white LED. The specification listed:
LXHL-LW3C Specifications
Lumens 80 lm
Max Continuous Current 1000 mA
Forward Voltage 3.9 Vf
Dominant Wavelength 5500 K
LED Type Star
Radiation Pattern Lambertian
The two things we are concern about is the Max continuous current (Imax, 1000mA =1A) and the Forward Voltage (Vf, 3.9V) The theoretical power dissipation of the LED can be determined by:
P=IV => LEDpowermax = (Imax)(Vf) = 1A x 3.9V = 3.9W => ~3W
This LED will theoretically use about ~3 Watts of power. Different LEDs will have different specification. Vf value is given by the manufacture. When a voltage source is greater than Vf, a current will turn on the LED. A large current will burn out the LED if it is not rated for it. A resistor or an LED driver must be used to limit the current as necessary. For longevity of the LED, an LED driver would be the ideal choice.
Ok moving on to the Predator ICE. Since the product didn't come with any specification listed, I took it apart and measured myself for the Forward Voltage (Vf) and the current (Imax). The Vf came out to be less than ~3V, the current = ~350mA = ~.350A. From those values, I can assume the Predator ICE's LED is absorbing far less than 3W.
Ok, now we have problems with just substituting a different LED. The "long silver thingie" is the LED driver which gives the "correct" current for the LED. It provides a constant current source of ~350mA regardless of voltage fluctuations. I hooked up the LED driver to a 9V and 6V battery sources, it still outputed a constant current of ~350mA, as expected.
I was reading the M5 board a while ago and noticed that many were just replacing the predator's LED with the luxeon Star III or even Luxeon Star V. If you take a look again at the white 3W LED specification above, the LED will take any current up to 1000mA. Any larger than the allowed value, it would fry or shorten the life of the LED. When only the LED is replaced, the LED driver on the Predator ICE will be a limiting factor of allowing only ~350mA of current. This means the LED can still be much brighter when given the "correct" current close to its maximum current value.
Just directly substituting the Luxeon LED III/V would nevertheless be brighter than the Predator ICE. There is a reason for that. For example, the Forward Voltage Vf of the 3W white Luxeon is 3.9V, the VF of the Predator ICE is less than ~3V, both using the same 350mA current LED driver. The Power dissipation will be higher with the Luxeon LED. Since more power is used, it is brighter. Replacing the Predator LED with a 5W luxeon LED will make it a bit brighter than the 3W and more brighter than the original Predator LED. In these cases, the LEDs could have been much more brighter if the "long silver thingie" were replaced with an LED driver specified for the "correct" current for that particular LED.
I used the ambered Luxeon III LED. The LED allows current up to 1400mA (1.4A). I replaced the Predator ICE LED driver with the LuxDrive PowerPuck 1000mA LED Driver. It was the largest current LED driver I found at that time even though you can still power the LED with a larger current close to its maximum current rating. In terms of brightness, I would say it is near stock...stock yellow angel eye is probably slightly brighter. However, the amber colored angel eyes show the rings more clearly and it looks nice. For the Predator ICE with its original LED, I would say it is less bright than stock, and the amber modification i did. As far as I know, the 2nd version of Predator ICE will be much brighter and hopefully fix its earlier shortcoming.