Buckeye Rob
New Member
Like many of you, I wasn't happy with the light output of the stock map light. My stock map light lens had a slight brownish haze in the center due to the extreme heat of the stock bulb so I decided to replace the lens with some 0.220" thick acrylic sheet and a Woody's LED map light bulb. I painted the back side of the lens with some Wimbledon White spray paint I had laying around so the bulb wasn't visible but you still got the benefit of the glow.
Let me start by saying I know nothing about lux/lumens/watts/candlepower, etc. I just wanted to try to make an objective comparison. I used an iPhone app called Light Meter to measure the lux of the stock dome light bulb vs Woody's LED's Bronco map light bulb through the two lenses. I was very careful to place the camera eye in the same place each time and averaged the results then rounded to the nearest 100. I gather the results are so high because I placed the phone directly against the map light lens. Wikipedia says 1000 lux is equivalent to an overcast day and and 10000-25000 is equivalent to full daylight (not direct sun).
Below are the results of my light test in lumens:
Stock bulb/lens: approx 4500
Stock bulb/painted acrylic lens: 6100
Led bulb/stock lens: 6800
Led bulb/painted acrylic lens: 8100
As you can see, just the lens change made a noticeable difference.
I didn't really have the optimal bits to drill countersunk holes for the lens screws but it passes the 3' test. I used a 5/32" brad point bit to drill through the acrylic then a 1/4" Forstner bit to countersink for the stock screws. I really needed to go up a size on the Forstner bit because the hole was too small for the screws but didn't have one so I just grabbed a larger drill bit and bored it out a little larger.
Let me start by saying I know nothing about lux/lumens/watts/candlepower, etc. I just wanted to try to make an objective comparison. I used an iPhone app called Light Meter to measure the lux of the stock dome light bulb vs Woody's LED's Bronco map light bulb through the two lenses. I was very careful to place the camera eye in the same place each time and averaged the results then rounded to the nearest 100. I gather the results are so high because I placed the phone directly against the map light lens. Wikipedia says 1000 lux is equivalent to an overcast day and and 10000-25000 is equivalent to full daylight (not direct sun).
Below are the results of my light test in lumens:
Stock bulb/lens: approx 4500
Stock bulb/painted acrylic lens: 6100
Led bulb/stock lens: 6800
Led bulb/painted acrylic lens: 8100
As you can see, just the lens change made a noticeable difference.
I didn't really have the optimal bits to drill countersunk holes for the lens screws but it passes the 3' test. I used a 5/32" brad point bit to drill through the acrylic then a 1/4" Forstner bit to countersink for the stock screws. I really needed to go up a size on the Forstner bit because the hole was too small for the screws but didn't have one so I just grabbed a larger drill bit and bored it out a little larger.
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