i've a friend who is inquiring about installing the S2K's HID system on his Prelude, here's the email he sent me, any help you guys can offered is appreciated!

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i was wondering if you knew exactly what makes your HID system work. is it just like the Philips aftermarket kits where it's just a Ballast and a bulb? reason i ask is because i want to modify my prelude and install an s2000 lighting system in it but i need to know what parts i'd need. i have a diagram of the headlight assembly and from the looks of it, all i need is part 5 which looks like the ballast/ignitor (for some reason also called the inverter) and the bulb. what is the bulb anyway? an H1?
anyways...any help you can offer would be great.
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Thanks in advance!

 

The bulb is not an H1, it's a weird setup with no filament, just two electrodes and a Frankenstein spark (arc welding) in between.
If the ballast box is labeled an inverter, then it implies the device converts the cars DC power into AC power (at high Frankenstein voltages I

 

Ask your friend to enquire with Belof HID lighting systems, can't recall the website but they have a very expensive conversion kit for the 5th generation Prelude. Is it worth it? I don't think so. Better off getting bulbs and painfully replacing them when they're time to go.

 

FWIW the bulbs may still be DC- an inverter doesn't necessarily mean AC, it could be a DC-AC-DC to go from 12VDC to something much higher (but still DC). I have no idea how HIDs work in terms of voltage/waveform, so can't contribute much more than that.

 

Is there an advantage to go DC-AC-DC as opposed to just straight boost x-former DC-DC? (go easy on me, I'm an ME type )

 

You cannot do a direct conversion from DC to DC (yeah yeah yeah, so I'm skipping diode-cap networks and the like, so shoot me). The easiest form to understand goes like this...the DC voltage excites an oscillator (AC) which is hooked to a transformer. Transformers can increase voltage (and lower current), or increase current (and lower voltage). So, the signal runs through a transformer that increases the voltage. This increased voltage is passed back through a rectifier (also known as a bridge) to change it back (using some smoothing caps) to a higher voltage DC signal. Transformers don't work with DC signals, so that's why the conversion to AC is necessary at some point along the path.