For those with UMNITZA DDE's
 

Recently, 1 of my rings went out. I have a seperate ballast for each ring. I examined my headlight and the ring doesn't look like it cracked.

Has anyone had any past problems with a ring or ballast buring out?

Not trying to say Umnitza makes bad products, so don't take this the wrong way. I love their products and just hope I have a defective ballast or something. I don't wanna crack open my headlights again :(

Please advise.

try and hook that ring up with one of the other ballasts from the other rings. Thats the first thing I would do and if it works try and hook up the ballast that was originally on the ring to one of the rings u know works.

Since I hardwired everything, that would be a pain in the arse to do. But it has to be done :(

Yeah thats gonna suck, but then u'll know if its a bad ballast or a bad ring.

let us know how this turns out. i don't remember seeing any outages linked to product failure, a couple due to wiring. the DDEs haven't been out for the maxima very long, they seem to be very good quality.

I would agree with greeneyes......test out other ballasts to see they light up. Is it one complete side or just one ring?

Igor....just swap the ballast one for the other to see if the ballast burned out.

where did u mount the balast? did it ever get wet? i have noticed moisture in there. max00se and i, relocated the ballast, cause moisture can get in there and fuq-up the ballast.

I had a defective ring when the DDE arrived in the mail, and then had to have a ballast replaced about 2 weeks later after installed. So far so good, except some really bad cold-start issues on the very rare occasions that I park it outside on a cold night.

as for wetness.... I read of someone having that problem a long time ago. I wrapped all of my ballasts in electrical tape so that moisture could not get in. :)

I will test this out soon and keep you all posted.

on 3 installs that i did. one had a bad balast. it was replaced within 3 days shipped by matt at Umnitza.
hope its not the ring. Umnitza quoted 50 dollars for 1 ring.

The rings are delicate. I would count on the rings breaking before the ballasts burning out but definately try swapping ballasts to isolate the problem

Igor, one of my ballasts is shot too....I just pulled the fuse out and haven't used'm for like a month- If you order a pair I may want to split the cost w/ you....let me know

Is there some sort of warranty on these things? Mine were bought ~9 moths ago

electrical tape won't necessarily keep out the moisture. water is very powerful. it can get into places, even with a little opening. check your ballast for moisture...

Igor, my friend, electrical tape is not meant to keep out moisture. It's meant to hold electrical components together, such as butt connectors> It is used to make sure they do not separate, and is meant to hold wiring together. RTV Silicone is used to prevent moisture passing through from one thing to another. I'm going to bet that your DDE ballast got wet and died somehow. The same happened with my HIDs that we bought together from SWAW, that you had in your green Maxima, except for some reason, if I keep my highbeams on they work fine :jeffy:

Also, I would not wrap the ballasts in anything. I have never seen the DDE's setup, but I would imagine that the ballasts have to produce some sort of heat, and that heat needs to disapate somehow.

~ Kirk

mount it right on the ballast for the headlights then.....or somewhere near it....the moisture seems not to damage the stock ballast.

Yeah I think it's probably moisture in the ballast. A few of my rings got dim before, but never went out completely. They've all been nice and bright lately. Hope they stay that way.

What type of glue/epoxy did you guys use to attach the rings? I know that some of the installs mention 90 second epoxy but, I've not been able to find any that withstands temperatures of over 200 degrees. Also, Would it be better to use something that has a bit of give - like silicone? Maybe it would help to absorb some vibration?

Use the brush-on superglue
 

Brush-on super glue works great. No mess and it holds good.

as compared to the dde's the stock ballast is much more sturdy, and seems sealed. the dde's is a plastic box. i have seen moisture in the dde's ballast box...relocating them is the only way to prevent them from getting wet.... :fro:

Turns out it was this sucker that stopped working:

http://www.igor911.com/org/bad_ballast.jpg

Props to Matt @ umnitza for helping me out with a quick replacement.

How much did a replacement ballast cost, Igor? :nopity:

Your going to have to ask Matt...

DUDE!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! you didn't have to do that... **(cut up your wires)** you can actually pop off the back and unplug the things!!!!!! :( see pic below:

http://www.mattmikeandjdawg.com/uplo...rgimg/dde1.jpg

I dropped that one, and the back came off, and the electronix board came out, it didn't survive the fall, that killed that Inverter (ballast)...

Now, as far as the moister aspect, my other one that survived the carry out to the car... it got wet later that day... i was going to show some of my friends half-of the kick ace effect of the angel eyes, and it didn't come on... i later found out that it had gotten moisturized bad... i washed my car after the install, and after the tests, so I thought they still worked... :(... a hair dryer and some time fixed that problem, and i got a replacement Inverter from Umnitza... now both DDE's work... These things have a bad tendency to get moister in them!!!!!! a bad flaw that could be fixed if the white-wires were longer, so that placement of the Inverter (ballast) could be further away from the headlamp where air, and water can easily seep through... anyhow! good luck man! DDE's kick ACE no matter what i say!!!!!! ;)... I love mine! (even though I’m selling my headlamps... hehehehe) I will be purchasing these again in the future... maybe then umnitza will have those projectors replacements he was talking about (I’m not talking about ebay projectors, yuck!!!)

:: DDE PICS ::

http://sp.ihod.net/headlamps.html

Mine cost me $25... :(

I cut the wires because it was hardwired. I dont plan on opening the ballast's up to unplug some :007: wires that I can once again crimp together :)

so what i said was correct :) :Popcorn:

READ WHAT I POSTED. DDE BALLASTS WILL GET WET, UNLESS YOU RE-WIRE AND MOVE THEM AWAY FROM THE HEADS. LIKE 00MAXSE AND I DID!!!!

Glad to see you got them back up

hey zippin where did you relocate it and how to you rewire it?? did you just splice new wires and make em longer??

unless u relocate the ballasts to the inside of the car, it will get wet/moist or w/e.

Where they are now is fine. Dont mess with it unless its broken. If it works now, don't touch it. :nono:

Yeah. Mine went out once because of moisture. So i took the back off the new one and the other one i had and put silicone in around the openings to keep moisture out. Works ever since.

I made my wires longer. I put my driver side ballast up against the firewall right above the master cylinder. The pass side is on the side of the fuse box.

in beginning i've had like 4-5 inverters burn on me...but Matt advised there was a batch of bad inverters & he corrected it....so far DDE's are working for 6+ months....

http://www.mattmikeandjdawg.com/uplo...rgimg/dde1.jpg

Hey i got an idea, what if you just put silicone all over everything with everything connected then put the black cover back on, wouldnt that stop moisture from touching anything, so that way you wouldnt have to relocate it right??

Mine's been dead for 4 months now..still haven't gotten around to buying a replacement :|

Lazy ****....lol j/k...

I need to buy me a set. :squintdan

dammit at the beginning of this thread I though someone else also had a bad ring........ One of my larger rings is bad. It's gotten worse and worse over the last few weeks. Today finally decided to swap wires on the ballast and see if the bad ring lights up...... nope. I think Umniza should cover this under warranty, but through email I was told just a 30 day warranty was given. I bought these things originally because I was told that they will last for 2.5 years of continuous play. I'll be calling customer service Monday to see what they can do for me. This really sucks that I have to crack the headlight back open.

i put silicone all over the outside of the ballast. they are working fine. i am sure the ballast gets crazy hot inside though. since it is sealed shut...

how hot do those lil suckers get? if not very hot, can't u just put them in a condom or two? or some balloons? just don't say it was my idea...
cuz when i used to race r/c cars, i used to wrap the servos and recievers in condoms because the openings were alot bigger, alot easier than stuffing them in balloons.. and then just zip tie around the wires, then pull the condom back and put a dab of silicone sealant or something...