Joe Bellman

This is for those of you that have the Pilot cyber white driving lights (PN NV-504W) or are thinking about getting them. here at work (Radar repair shop) we have some DC power supplies with fully adjustable outputs. I hooked up one light to see how bright it would be and found out that they pull 4.7 amps at 12 volts. I didn't hook up both since my power supply only goes to 6 amps. As soon as I get my old lights off I will test them. Too bad I don't know anybody with a set of lights with 100watt bulbs. This would be good info to know when upgrading to higher wattage bulbs and whether or not the stock wiring can handle the increase current.

94BlackBowtie

Hey man, thanks....that is a very good idea! I do wish you could find out the others though like you said (the 100W.) I am just running them off of the stock wiring, and have had no problems, and don't expect too. Check out this page...I suspect that he is using the info off of a standard 885 bulb, but at $50 a piece ???

Anyways, thanks man, it might be worthwhile to upgrade the wiring (on these lights) if you had the stuff readily available and knew exactly what to do, but otherwise I think I am just gonna keep on going like I am...

Joe Bellman

$50 a bulb No way am I paying that much for a bulb....especially on my crappy $18 dollar an hour job.

I am going to see if I can find out how many amps certain guage wire can handle. 18 guage is rated at ??amps and 16 guage is rated at ??amps and so on.

94BlackBowtie

Cool buddy! Get us all the info you can! Even the info you can get on the stock H/L harness...I don't know what that dude's problem is...you can get the 885 bulbs at the parts store for $8 a piece? But the H3's are still cheaper than that, if I ever blow a bulb in my new foglights.

Joe Bellman

I have done some searching and found the following for current being used and what guage wire to use.

First use this formula:
watts of device divided by volts of source = amps (current being drawn)
exp: 55watt bulb divided by 12volts (battery) = 4.6 amps
Most people say add 20% for safety......4.6 + 20% = 5.5 amps

Then use this chart to determine wire guage size
(from Reference Data For Radio Engineers)

Guage of wire---------Max Current
20---------------------7.5
18---------------------10
16---------------------13
14---------------------17
12---------------------23
10---------------------33
8-----------------------46
6-----------------------60
4-----------------------80
2-----------------------100
1-----------------------125
0-----------------------150

94BlackBowtie

I found some info on wattage to amp outputs...if we can collaborate on this, we might can figure out some stuff...here and example...you can check out various bulbs here. and it gives you the wattage to amperage numbers. Let me know when you get all of this...what I am thinking is that there is no risk for out harnesses to run 100W bulbs on headlights, foglights, whatever...we shall see.

Joe Bellman

94Blackbowtie,
sent you email at dalton@aaiengineering.com