Text 1911, 124 rader
Skriven 2012-08-04 18:38:53 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: Totally useless project
===============================
Hello Björn,

On Saturday August 04 2012 01:26, you wrote to me:

 MvdV>> Are you sure they are parking lights? i have never seen yellow
 MvdV>> parking lights.

 BF>    Absolutely. This is a Mercedes speciality as far as I know, but
 BF> take a look at the light switch:

 BF> http://felten.se/450SL/#16

Clear enough.

 BF>    ... and you can see not only the P (for parking lights) but also
 BF> that on a Mercedes you can choose what side of the car you want the
 BF> lights turned on -- depending on what side of the road you park the
 BF> car. Those are the two settings to the left of the off position.

The feature of separetely controlling the right and left side was found in many
cars of that time frame. Of course parking on the left side violates the
principle that a red light is to be passed on the left and a white light on the
right. The old dedicated parking lights that I mentioned did not violate that
principle.

Coming to think of it, when I got my driver's license in 1964, parking on the
left side was prohibited, except in a one way street. If the only free spot was
on the other side, you had to make a U turn.

Nowadays parking lights are hardly ever used any more. They are still legally
required when parked on an unlit road in such a way that another vehicle could
run into you, but those places are rare these days. In this part of the world
at least.

 MvdV>> areas. Parking lights were optional and usually consisted of
 MvdV>> ONE fixture mounted on the side that emitted white light to the
 MvdV>> front and red to the back for the one on the left side. For the
 MvdV>> one on te right side it was just the other way around. The left
 MvdV>> one was used for parking on the right side, the other when
 MvdV>> parking in the left.

 BF>    Yeup. That's the general idea.

 MvdV>> Of course that does not mean they will be approved here.

 BF>    LOL! Damn right. What was perfectly OK in the US was obviously
 BF> something of a hazard in Sweden. That's what you get when you let
 BF> uneducated bureaucrats decide what's best for you. :(

In this case true I'd say, but OTOH, I can think of many examples of things
that are considered safe in the US, that for good reasons would not be
considered safe here. I think we discussed the requirements for a private pilot
license in the US vs Europe.

 MvdV>> I think you should not feel too bad about that. These yellow
 MvdV>> lights were never original to begin width. i am sure that in
 MvdV>> the German version they were white.

 BF>    True. The European version of the M-B SL has a very more elegant
 BF> array of front lights. With the parking light inside the head beam
 BF> reflector. And it's white.

As is usual here. Front parking lights are white.

 MvdV>> But I am a bit surprised that you had to add these what I would
 MvdV>> call "daylight driving lights". Because as I see it, that is
 MvdV>> what they are.

 BF>    Correct. When I ordered them from dealextreme.com they were
 BF> labelled Day Driving Lights:

 BF> http://tinyurl.com/3h7ofr9

Ok.

 MvdV>> I know that in Sweden having lights even in bright sunlight on
 MvdV>> a clear day is mandated. But I'd have thought that the regular
 MvdV>> headlights would do.

 BF> than a 1985 model, for instance, the position lights would have to be
 BF> approved by some EU authority -- I've forgotten witch one -- this I
 BF> was exempt from on my eight years older car.

You are lucky then. the ones you mounted are not EU approved for use as
daylight running lights and they never will.

 MvdV>> BTW, I may add one of those white lights you mounted on your
 MvdV>> Merc on the front on the Bandit.

 BF>    Nice! EUR 11:38 for a pair might even make you put two of them in
 BF> front? :)

For that price? Sure.

But... after reading the reviews, including your's, I decided not to. I can
live with the flimsy wiring. I can fix that, I have plenty of wire in the junk
box. I can live with the below standard sealing, I know how to fix that with
silicone kit. Also the reay ot control unit for the required automatic switch
off, when the main lights go on is missing. I can live with that, I can concoct
something or just do without.

But the killer is that they are not bright enough. Not by far. 85 lumen is not
enough. I compared with some of the EU apporoved units and they are 5 to 10
times brighter. Dealextreme may advertise them as Day Driving Light, but in the
EU they only qualify as positioning lights or parking lights.

I am not a sheep that blindly follows the leaders. I does not really bohter me
that they are not approved. I have played with unapproved lights many times
before.

But if I mount these things, it is not to comply with some regulation like in
your case. My goal is TO BE SEEN. For that I need something with more
brightness. Five times at least.  Unfortunately that also implies an almost
five times increase in price.

I won't put them on my car either because in all likehood that would mean
failure to pass the next yearly inspection. For the bandit that is no problem
as motor cycles are exempt from the yearly inspection. But when riding that, I
want to be seen.

Cheers, Michiel

--- GoldED+/W32-MINGW 1.1.5-b20110320
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