This page shows how I created a pair of 'Eagle Eyes' for my projector headlight. I call them 'Eagle Eyes' because they look more like the eyes of an eagle. Only three quarters of the rings are light up, unlike the full circle of the BMW's Angel Eyes. My humble CRX is not worthy enough for the full circle.
Disclaimer
The project will involve heating, cutting, drilling, sanding, electrical wiring, chemical substance, out-of-pocket expense, effort and time. By using the procedures shown here, you are accepting all financial and health risks involved and you are responsible for any lost or damage incurred on yourself or your car. Modifying your headlight and beam pattern maybe subject to state laws. Any tickets, traffic violation, or accidents resulted from using my procedures is your responsibility, not mine. Use these information at your own risk. The information posted here are free, and you can copy the information written on this page for your personal use ONLY. If you plan to post the information elsewhere, please give credit where needed. Any selling/trading in an attempt to gain profit is discourage and may be illegal. You are responsible for any legal actions brought against you. I received lots of useful information from the internet, and this is just my way of giving something back to the communities.
Creating The Angel Eye Rings
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| Instead of a round glass rod used by BMW, I used a clear acrylic/plastic rod. I bought it for $1.97 at a home improvement store, such as Home Depot. Not all Home Depot carry them; so you may have to shop around. The rod is actually made for your window blind to open/close the blind when you turn it left/right. It is about 30 inches long with a diameter of 8mm, and you can create 2 angel rings out of it. The rod has a hex-shape structure, not a round shape like the BMW, but it will do just fine. |
| The first thing I did was to create a circular ring out of it. To determine the circumference of the ring, I measured the diameter of my high-beam projector housing, which comes out to be 4" (or 2" radius). Using the circular formula (C=2pr, where p=3.14), you'll have to cut your rod about 12.5" long. I suggest cutting it 15" long, and use the extra inches as handles to help in the molding process. | ) |
| Next, I find an aluminum can or jar that has about the same diameter as the ring (I used a peanut jar). After heating the rod in a small toaster oven for about 5-7 minutes at 300°F, I held the two ends of the now flexible rod with a pair of pliers, and wrapped them around the peanut jar with one end crossing over the other end. For better control, you can wear your winter gloves or use your socks. The flexible rod will harden within 30 seconds. So, you may have to repeat this step 1 more time to mold it into a perfect circular ring. | ) ) |
| As you wrap the rod around the jar, make sure that one of the flat sides is facing down. This is important in a later process. This can be done by putting the rod on a flat smooth surface. With one of the sides facing down, wrap the rod around the jar. As you wrap, make sure you don't twist the two ends. | ) ) |
| Once done, you can use a Dremel tool to cut the extra handles that were used during the molding process. You will end up with one end above the other, as shown. Don't worry, later when you wrap electrical tape around the rod to hide the LED bulbs, the two open ends will realign themselves. If you like to be perfect, you can simply put it back in the oven one last time and allow the ends to soften and flatten. | ) ) |
| To test out how it lights up, I put a small halogen bulb between the open ends of the ring. "Wait a minute here, young man. It doesn't look like 'Angel Eye'. No halo ring effect. You suck." Yes, I know. That is because light goes in a straight line, and it takes the shape of whatever object it goes through. In this case, it goes through one end of the rod and out the other end, like fiber optic cables. | ) |
Making The Eagle Rings Light Up
In order to make it lights up like the true 'Angel Eye', I had to refract the light as it goes through the rod by making multiple cuts (scratches) along the rod, using a Dremel or a RotorMatic tool. Each cut/groove allows the light to 'escape' the ring. Each cut is about 2~3mm apart and 1mm deep. Don't make the cuts too close to one another. This will make your ring look like a continuous band of light. In my opinion, the rings look better and more sophisticated with the cuts evenly space out.
It will take about 2 minute to do the cuts using a Dremel tool. If you don't have a Dremel tool, you can use a small saw or a butter knife, but will take you longer. A Dremel tool set would cost about $30. It has many uses, such as cutting, sanding, carving, buffing, etc. Good tool to have for hobbies. You can also buy the new RotorMatic tool set for only $19.99. It work the same way as a Dremel.
Hint: To get the cuts look perfect, you can do the cuts ahead of time before making a circular ring out of it. You only need to make the cuts along 1 of the 6 sided rod. Doing 2 or more sides will make your ring look dimmer, because most of it has 'escaped' before it reaches the other end of the rod. Also, let the cutted side be the back side. When you turn it over to the front, the cuts will be multiplied by the hex shape which acts like mirrors, and they are brighter too compared to the back. The light appears to be refracted inward.
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| Light is being refracted as it hits a surface. | With a Dremal tool, you can create the cuts in 2 minutes. | Cuts along the back-side of the rod. | On the front side, the cuts are multipled by the hex-shape. |
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| Full view of angel eye rod. | Angel eye with some foreground light. | Closeup shot of light being refracted through the cuts along the rod. | Cuts along 2 sides vs 1 side of the 6 sides. | Cuts along 2 sides are dimmer. Don't make too many cuts. |
LED Light For My Eagle Eyes
I suggest you used LED light for your angel eye. Unlike halogen bulbs, LED bulbs are very efficient, last very long (no filament to burn out), and produce very little heat. The LED bulb along with the resistor use less than 1W of power, compare to a 35W halogen bulb used in the real BMW angel eyes. LED bulbs are bright too even though they are only 1 mcd. If you ever pointed a keychain with LED light toward your eyes, you know what I mean. Besides, the purpose of Angel Eyes is for look and style, not to light up the road.
LED bulbs are used in street signal lights, jumbo television, car alarm indicator etc., for their efficiency and reliability. They are bright in the day too. Hence, they are now being used in tail-light and stop-light, as found on newer Mercedes S Class, Infiniti G35 and other luxury cars. One distinctive feature of LED bulbs is that they come on/off instantly. Next time when you follow an S430 or a G35, you will notice that as the driver steps on or releases the break, the stop-light comes on and off instanstly. It doesn't dim in and out like halogen lights.
LED light comes in many different color, red, blue, orange, yellow, green, and white. Red is really nice and will definitely make your car stand out, but I used white LED to be compliance with state laws. They even come in multi-blinking colors too, and I think cops love them. They'll be happy to turn on their version of multi-blinking color light. :)
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| Angel Eye with yellow LED. | Angel Eye with blue LED. | Angel Eye with red LED. | Angel Eye with white LED. |
They cost about $4 to $5 each at your local Radio Shack store. Note that LED bulbs are not like halogen bulbs where you can just connect positive and negative wires to them to light them up. You must use a resistor. The purpose of the resistor is to limit/resist high current going through the LED bulbs. LED bulbs require only a small amount of current to light up. Hence the efficiency. Resistors should cost about $1 for a set of 5. Very cheap!
Resistor has different resistance which is measured in ohms. The get the correct resistor with the right resistance for your LED, use this modified version of Ohm's Law:
When you buy the LED bulb, it will tell you the voltage and amp used. Just plug them into the equation to get the Ohms value. In my case, I have a 12V car battery and a 3.6V LED with 20mA (or .02A). So, I used a resistor of 420 ohms [(12V - 3.6V)/.02A]
You can use a lower ohms resistor, eg 220 ohms, to light up your LED. In fact, it will make your LED brighter because a low resistance allows more current to go through the bulb. I have been doing this for 5 months now and still have no problem yet.
Also, you must attach the resistor to the positive terminal of LED bulb, which is the longer of the 2 terminal legs. I suggest that you attach a wire to the LED bulb first, and then attached a resistor at the end of the wire on the positive terminal. This will give you flexibility because the resistor will be outside your headlight unit and you can change it if you have a need to do so later, like changing to a lower resistor to make your Angel Eye brighter.
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| A white LED bulb. Positive is the longer terminal. | A 1100 vs a 2000 mcd LED bulbs. mcd (milli-Candela) measures brightness. | A 220 ohms resistor. Resistors restrict current going through a bulb. | Resistor connected to positive lead, which is the longer one. |
Securing LED Bulbs Inside Eagle Eye Rings
To secure the LED bulbs into my Eagle Eye rings, I drilled a hole in both ends of the ring, about 6mm wide and 5mm deep. I used two white LED bulbs and parallely paired them together. After soldering a foot-long wires to the positive and negative legs of the LED bulbs, I wrapped black electrical tape around the legs to keep them apart. I will attach the resistor to the end of the wire later when I connect the wire to my parking light.
Next, I inserted the bulbs inside the holes of the ring, and wrapped black electric tape around it to hide to LED bulbs. This will also hold the bulbs and the two ends of the rod in place. DO NOT paint the rod black. For some reason, the black paint will absorb the light and will make your angel ring look dim. If you plan to wrap the black tape around the uncut/unused part of the ring, make sure you wrap some aluminum foil around them first before wrapping the black tape. The aluminum foil will reflect the escaping light back into the ring, making the ring brighter.
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| Angel ring with a 5mm hole. | LED bulbs inside ring. | Use black electical tape to secure and hide the bulbs. |
Taking Apart My Projector Headlight
Next, it was time for me to put them into my HID projector headlight unit. First, I had to open apart my headlight unit. This is done by heating it in a cooking oven for about 10-15 minutes at 275°F or until the glue loosen. It may take a longer or shorter time to soften the glue on different headlamp units. Remove any attachments, like your bulb or wire harness, that may not be able to withstand the heat. Be very careful when separating your projector unit because the glue will stick to anything it can get a hold of. Think of hot melted cheese on a slice of pizza when you pull it apart. Use a butter knife or a flat-head screw driver to pry the headlight apart. Once you've pried it open, you can use your hands to do the rest of the job.
Here's my recommendation: As you pull apart the front cover from the headlight unit, separate/trim the cheesy web-like glue using your hand. Don't worry, the glue is not that hot, but the headlight unit is. Remember, pull a little and then trim a little, and repeat this step. Take your time and do it SLOWLY. You have about 20~30 minutes before the glue harden. Plenty of time. As you trim, the glue will retract, and you can reuse the glue later when re-attaching the headlight back together. I have done this process about 4 times already with the same headlight, and the glue is still good and I have no problem with rain fogging up the headlight.
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| Cheesy-like glue. | Components of my projector headlight with angel eyes glued to black frame. |
My aftermarket projector headlight is divided into 3 components, a reflective housing, an internal black frame, and a clear front cover. I glued my angel rings to the black frame, using clear silicon adhesive or Krazy/Super glue. I applied only a very small amount of glue to the un-scratch/un-cut part of the ring. The inner black frame acts as a barrier and helps protect my angel eyes from the heat coming from the reflective housing.
Putting the Headlight Back Together
Next, it was time for me to re-attach the front cover back onto the headlight unit, using the same glue. Just reheat them in the oven until the glue soften again. Very important, I only had to heat the reflective housing and the front cover. You don't need to reheat the black internal frame. Doing so may deform your angel rings. Actually, the rings didn't get deformed when I first did it. The silicon glue helps maintain the ring in its shape.
Once the glue is soften again, I took out the reflective housing and the clear front cover. I put the black frame with the angel rings back onto the reflective housing. Then I ran the wire from the angel ring through the water drainage opening of the housing. Now, I put the clear front cover back onto the headlight housing. Remember to apply pressure to get an air-tight hold. I used clamps to make a tight seal. You can also use a wide-mouth plier for this procedure.
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| High-beam housing without Angel Eye. | High-beam housing with Angel Eye. | Angel Eye orginally with halogen light. | Use clamps or pliers for a tighter seal. |
Finally, I put the headlight unit back onto my car. With a 220 ohms resistor attached to the positve terminal of the LED wire, I made a parallel connection to my parking lights. You can connect it to anything, an external light switch, low-beam, high-beam, running light, etc. This is really neat! My alarm system is also connected to my parking light. Everytime I arm my car, the rings blink once. Twice when I disarm, and continuous blinking when in panic mode. Cool. I didn't know that coming home from a movies at night and disarming my car from 50 feets away can be that enjoyable. :)
Miscellaneous Pictures of My Eagle Eyes At Work
(all shots are taken with some foreground lighting; and not in complete darkness to enhance the luminiscity of the rings)
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| Angel Eye with white LED. | Close-up shot on passenger-side. | Close-up shot on driver-side. | With 8000k HID lowbeam. |
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| Angel Eye from the side. | Full view of my CRX. Nice! | Angel Eye on an early morning. |
Now With Four Rings
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| Double Angel Eyes. Double the pleasure. | Double Angel Eyes. Double the pleasure. | Close-up shot. |
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| On the street next to a store. There's a church in the background. | Straight-on against HID lowbeam. | Beauty. What a beauty. |
Materials Used
It would be nice to have the following materials ready before starting this mod. I had to put my project on-hold while I went to get some parts. A little frustrating after a few trips. The list looks long, but most of the materials listed are freebies.
| Mini-blind Rod LED Bulbs Resistors Dremel Tool Wires | Krazy Glue/Silicon Adhesive Glove/Dirty Socks Peanut Jar Electrical Tape Aluminum Foil | Cooking Oven Soldering Iron Pair of Pliers Butter Knife/Flat-head Screwdriver Clamps |
Message For The Readers
Well, I hope this page gives you an idea on how to create a home-made 'Angel Eye'. If you plan to do this on your car, make sure you have the right tools and that you have some crafting skills. I don't want you to ruin your expensive BMW or your beloved car.
I also suggest that you assemble your 'angel eye' rings and test them out first before you start taking apart your headlight. The procedure for dis-assembling your headlamp unit may be different, and not all headlamps can be taken apart. My headlight is a projector-style headlight. With a black housing, the angel eyes look better and stand out more. I am not sure if they work or look good on reflective-style headlight. On reflective-style headlight, the light coming from the rings may cause irregular reflection against the reflective background. The rings may blend into the background.
For those with little time but have money to spend, or you don't like getting your hands dirty, you can buy the real quality BMW Angel Eye on the web. These Angel Eye kits (aka 'Demon Eyes' or 'Daylight Demom Eyes' kits), are made exclusively for BMW. I am sure they'll come out with different ring sizes for different cars in the future. The kits come with 4 rings along with 4 fiber optic cables and 2 halogen bulbs (35W each) which are mounted inside the engine compartment area. The light is being feed into the angel rings via fiber optic cables which are about 1 foot long. It is not 100% plug-n-play, however. You still have to take out your headlight units and open it apart, fit the Angel Eyes inside, and connect the wires. Also, make sure your car can handle an extra load of 70W of power, and that you have some amble cooling space behind the headlight to mount those 35W bulbs.
There are also aftermarket projector headlights with built-in LED Angel Eye rings, but not one made for a CRX :( I like them so much that I had to do it myself, but I found the process to be fun too. The end result is the creation of this page for your viewing pleasure.
Angel Eyes Video
The following videos are saved at 768 Kbits/sec for 640x480 resolution, so the quality is not perfect. In real life, the rings are larger, brighter, and look better.
| Creating the Rings Sept 11, 2006 | People have been asking me to help them create the angel eye rings. Sorry, but I have a busy schedule and a personal life too. I'm not here to make money or do business. So, I decided to make it a little easier for you, by creating this video showing how I did it. It would be a good compliment to the DIY instructions you read here. Hope this help. |
| Angel Eyes Output Dec 9, 2005 | View my DIY angel eyes video with the reflective tape upgrade. The rings are clearly visible regardless of time of day. The reflective tape uses external light to make the rings visible. It also traps escaping light that would otherwise hitting the reflector bowl behind, causing irregular light pattern and making the rings less distinctive. I also painted my S2000 and TSX bezel black to go with the entire black housing, giving the rings more contrast. It's not about having the brightest rings, it's about making it stand out, all for about $15 of materials. |
Related Angel Eye Links
Upgrading My Angel-Eye Rings (Dec. 2003)
My Other HID Related Retrofits
Converting a Halogen Projector Foglight Into an HID System (Jun. 2002)
Converting a Stock Reflective-style Headlamp to Projector-style Headlamp (Aug. 2002)
Retrofitting an OEM D2 Base Bulb Into an H3 Base Foglight (Nov. 2002)
Retrofitting a BMW X5 Projector Into Aftermarket Lowbeam Housing (Dec. 2003)
Retrofitting an Audi A6 Projector Into Aftermarket Highbeam Housing (Dec. 2003)
Honda S2000 | Acura TSX | BMW M5 Retrofit Combo (Dec. 2004)
CRX with Honda S2000 and Acura TSX Dual System (zTail Shield Mod + Mirror Mod) (Sep. 2005)
S2000 and TSX Dual Beam Output (Oct. 2006)
Projector Beam Comparison (a6, x5, s2k, tsx, m5, 330xi zkw, tl, sc430, rx330) (Oct. 2006)
Scion tC with S2000 Projector (Prism Tail Shield Mod) (May 2007)
How To Create a Custom Shield for an S2000 Projector (November 2007)
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