Originally Posted by
Road Fan
Very cool!
You need to consider radiating excess heat in this design. The efficiency of an HID bulb is around 50% give or take, and the bulb input power (same as ballast output power) is in this case around 10 watts. So the waste heat generated in the bulb is 5 watts.
The problem isn't as severe as with a 5 watt LED because the heat transfer requirement is not as stringent, but I think it could still heat up and distort.
The electrical and temperature specs look automotive.
Cheers for the info, I was already concerned about waste heat so when I did the run test I placed the HID in a plastic tube (piece of waste pipe) after 2.5 hours the tube hadn't melted, touching the bulb wasn't a good idea however.
Here are the main possiblities for an enclosure:
Spice jar with clear lid (just happens to be the right size).
D cell extension tube from Maglite copy.
Length of black waste pipe which is an exact fit on the ballast.
A trip to Maplin yielded:
