GS430_4Me

Does anyone KNOW how the dynamic aim works?

It must sense something other than levelness, else when climbing a long grade, the lights would be aiming at a point a few feet in front of the car.

I suspect that there is a photo-sensor that looks for a light pattern, or spot, in the road & adjusts lamp leveling to move the 'spot' to a point at specified location relative to the car.

Can anyone direct me to a source of this information?

GS430_4Me

Surely, there's someone on this board that can help with this. Where are you?

BananaGS

why would you want to know this?

my guess:
i do not think that there is any sensor pointing to the road, since your car is moving, it's impossible to get the accurate measurement to level the light

the leveling sensor will probably be detecting the car level and adjusting the output of the light intensitive==>thus effective alter the light pattern and lower it down or up w/o machanicly move the head light.

that what I would design if I have to

ever notice the HID light when it turn on, the HID light level raise up?

anh

GS430_4Me

I appreciate your reply; you're the first to do so. I also think we both have some learning to do.

I want to know this because I'm a very curious engineer and auto enthusiast. If I were a cat, I would have died long ago.

A) If your guess is true, then where would the lights be aimed when driving on a long down-grade?

B) Where would the lights be aimed when very near the bottom of a down-grade, and about to begin an up-grade?

C) Where would the lights be aimed when driving on a long up-grade?

D) Where would the lights be aimed when about to crest an up-grade?

If the answer to any of these is "straight ahead, parallel with the car", then dynamic aim isn't needed; all cars do this.

As I understand it, the intent of dynamic aim is to avoid throwing the intense HID light into the eyes of oncoming traffic. Situation D) is a good example.

Yes, I see the light pattern move. I believe it's "looking" for something.

GS430_4Me

I just read an article at a site on automotive lighting. The author says that in Europe, HID lamps are required to have dynamic levelling to avoid throwing the high intensity light into the eyes of on-coming traffic.

Apparently, the levelling is required to be tied in with the car's suspension in order to detect attitude changes resulting from a trunk load of cargo. It also implies that something is required to deal with situation D) of my previous post.

However, the article doesn't go into any detail on how this is accomplished.

Folks, if this subject bores you, let me know & I'll back off.

RealMarty

I suspect the leveling system has sensors in the front and back of the car to measure the relative height of the front and back to each other. I know there is some sort of leveling sensor in the front near the headlight itself. The salesman pointed it out to me when I bought the car but I wasn't paying too much attention. Now that you've posed the question you've piqued my curiosity.

GS430_4Me

Marty,

Essentially all modern cars have a bubble level for basic headlamp adjustment. My GS 430 and my Mustang have it.

I suspect you're on the right trail with the frt. & Rr. sensor idea.

I appreciate your curiosity.

RealMarty

I know that. What I'm talking about is in the grill in addition to the bubble level.

GS430_4Me

Marty,

Oh.

I'll go look for mine.

Thanks.

Gary

RealMarty

Gary,

I just came back from Bit's house and we looked under my hood and his '00. Neither of us could see any sensor so my salesman must have been BS'ing me.

But we talked about it. We believe there must be two sensors. One in back and front - each comparing their elevation angles so they can have the HIDs remain pointed at the road.

Please let me know what you find out when you get the answer to this.

GS430_4Me

Marty,

I found an excellent site dealing with headlamps:

http://lighting.mbz.org/news/

I sent Dan, the site's creator, the question we've been pursuing. He answered promptly, and wanted clarification. I just sent it. I'll post results here

Your suspicion about two sensors fits with what I read on Dan's site, but may not be the whole answer.

Ever curious,
Gary

1niceride

Hmmm.. I think i remember seeing a pic of where the sensors were located at in my repair manual . I will go check it out.

GS430_4Me

1niceride,

If you find them, can you scan them & post them here?

DevilDog

Let's see if I can explain this in under a 1000 words...

First off, the car does not know when it is level or not. Not as we know it, no mystery bubble gauge in the car that the ecu uses. The bubble gauges you see are just to set the initial level. The headlights need to set to a level position when the car is made. This is the starting reference point. From that point the HID ECU will then raise and lower the headlights when needed. A mechanical level sensor is connected to both the front left and rear left lower control arms. When the front suspension dives on hard braking, it moves the sensor and the HID ECU raises the lights. When the rear of the car dives from hard acceleration the HID ECU lowers the lights. It is still possible to have the headlights not aimed right. Anyone who removes or replaces the headlamp must again reset the headlamp to a level point. If the headlamp was pointed down slightly, it would still adjust up and down, but would never be correct, because it thinks it's level.

Does that help?

DD

GS430_4Me

Devildog,

That helps a lot. It's the best explanation I've heard.

What's your information source ... how did you learn how they work?