Review on 🔦 AKD Part LED Pods: High-Performance 3 inch Driving Lights - 40W Spot Lights, Off Road Work Lights | LED Cubes Light Bar Pods for Truck, Motor, ATV, UTV, SUV, Pickup, Boat | White - 2 Pack by Justin Gomez

From time to time you will find a product that is superior in performance yet very economical. That's all. I am creating/modifying lights as a hobby so I am very familiar with LEDs, their electronics and behavior (Cree XM-L2, XP-L, XHP35/70). , SST40, SBT90.2, Osram 1mm1/1mm2 etc.). If you buy cheap LEDs, most of the time you will get a fake one which will not work. Cheap eBay/Revain/China light strips are notorious for this. These LED modules are in direct competition with the $160 Baja Design modules and/or the $140 LED Dynamic C2 modules. Power of 20W. The Cree XM-L2 are in fact 10W LEDs according to the Cree specification. Upon visual inspection, these pods look like they use a Cree XM-L2 LED. You can tell by the silver around the cube. XM-L T6 (older version) has no silver around the crystal and is green instead. The XM-L2 LED should put out around 1000 lumens (per chip) at 10W full power. My first tests with power meter and pixmeter show that these modules perform very well. @ 13.1V (18.3W total) Ambient Temperature: 75°F Case Temperature: 104°F 9.15W per LED. Voltage measurements at two voltage differences. Most cars run at around 13.2v with the engine running and 12.5v with an SLA battery (whatever I had on hand). But both still draw 1.40/1.42 amps, which is (good). To look at it from another perspective, here are the Baja and diode specs for their 2 LED modules: LED) Baba Design Pro ($175): 1.7a 24W power input (12W per LED) C2 Sport Diode Speaker ( $140): Power Consumption 0.6 amps (high beam) 7 watts (3.5 watts per LED) I'm not here to tell you which is better or what to buy. These numbers are for a tangible comparison of the actual performance of different modules in their class (although I'm a big DD fan. I'm using their 43" panel and SS3pro fog lights). A third test was conducted to see how these headlights performed after 10 minutes of continuous use. how hot is it How much does thermal management reduce LED performance? It turns out that this is also very good. Rice. 3. Readings after 10 min 1.38 A at 12.83 V (total 17.7 W). The temperature limit for the Cree XM-L2 LED is 85°C (185°F) before it melts. Although I couldn't measure the chip temperature, the 148F package is pretty good (148F stable). Another note: when the LEDs are on, they get hot. The driver typically derates the power from the LED to lower the output power and therefore less heat. This is important because we want the LED to have a long lifespan. Running the XM-L2 (or any other LED) at full power (in this case 10W) will significantly reduce the life of the stand, especially without active cooling e.g. B. when a HUGE heatsink or fan is actively cooled (think computer CPU). ). In addition, these modules are small, so their cooling capacity is limited. Having a 10 watt LED at 8.85-9.15 watts is actually very good. And this is considered full power (stable full power). Let's talk about getting off. Unfortunately, I cannot objectively measure raw lumens. If I had to guess though, at 9 watts they should produce around 800-900 lumens per on-chip LED. However, I can measure lux and candela at 25 feet. Normally one measures lux and candela in 10 m (about 30 feet), but my garage isn't that long. This should serve as a benchmark. Readings were taken at 1 minute: 594 lux at 25 feet peak beam intensity 34,490 cd at 25 feet peak beam intensity You have your typical spot beam. What if that's what you're looking for, great. General Summary: Pros: - Good pods with acceptable performance levels. - Good stable performance after 10 minutes - True 8.85-9.15 watts per LED - Inexpensive (compared to Baja or DD) - Good build quality and feel (subjective) Cons: - I wish it had more lens options. For example a negative lens or a forward lens. At around $30 a pair, can you really complain? I bet I can fit 2 baja design led lenses. - No ventilation holes. I have 4 pairs of these and they are used as parking lights (left and right). I will also be swapping out the lens for a 20mm polymethyl methacrylate diffuser lens because I want my side lights to be a diffused light and not a blur. Other Thoughts: While these lights appear to be very well made, only time will tell. For my purposes, I will be using these lights for base camp. And if one breaks, I only lose $15. Maybe I can check the mfg guarantee at this point (does it even exist? lol). Of course, keep in mind that these test results should serve as a reference for the average [slightly above average] end user. These tests are not lab quality (can't believe I even have to say this). I am also in no way affiliated with the manufacturer. I bought all 4 sets with my own money like an ordinary farmer. (But if any manufacturer wants to send me something for free to test and try I don't mind) months and they still work great. I modified them with a 20mm PMMA lens to use them from the side (see image). I have 4 pods on the side to light up my side area when camping. They are dimmable.