Hey guys, Paul here with Diode Dynamics coming
to you with another comparison. This time we're looking at two-inch LED pods we've got the big
three on the market here we've got the Rigid SRM, the Baja Designs S2, and finally the Diode
Dynamics SSC2 the newest one in the group. Now there's a lot of different optic patterns and
colors with all of these from the three different brands we're going to compare the output
thanks to measurements from our light tunnel and goniometer; that's a laboratory
test and you can find more information about it in a video linked below.
If you want to
see the output just skip to the end of this video where we go through the output of every single
color and optic available here that way you can really choose the best beam pattern for your
setup, but before we do that we're going to take a look at comparing some of the major features
of these lights. Now as you can see they're all very similar in appearance that two-inch style
is basically two LEDs about two by 1 inches but they are different in the size. The Rigid one
tapers to the front a bit and it's not very deep the Baja one is also similar it's more rectangular
more boxy but it's not very deep either.
The Diode Dynamics is actually the largest one out of the
group you can really tell if you hold them next to each other and it is the deepest and you'll see
why this runs at the highest power as well, but this might be important if you're trying to mount
it in a specific location, up on a roof rack, under a bumper you want to make sure that you
have enough room so check the dimensional drawings on each one of the manufacturer's websites
before you buy anything. Now you might notice this fourth Rigid one is much bigger as well
that's because this is actually the Oem Toyota TRD fog light it's in the same series but it
also runs at a higher power level so sure enough the heat sinks much bigger as well.
You can find
these on ebay or from a Toyota dealer but they are a little hard to mount for universal applications
because they don't have a standard mounting setup; also you might notice that the wiring is different
between the three as well. The Rigid lamp has a Deutsche DT style connector on a wire lead here.
The Baja is also on a wire lead but it's got a proprietary two-pin connector it does come with
a wiring kit and the Diode Dynamics does not have a wire lead instead a four-pin style Deutsche DT
plugs directly into the back. The mounting is all pretty similar for these except for that oem one,
they just have little pegs here for a very small bracket to mount them up so no real differences
there and they're all complete aluminum enclosures either CNC'd or cast they should be really
durable no matter which brand you go with. So the last thing is really the function in the
lenses so when we talk lenses the Rigid you're really not supposed to service these you don't
swap out the lenses they are available in a lot of different optics though.
The Baja Designs you can
swap these out; it's called their u-service where you just remove the four screws and you can change
out that outer lens you can change the color or the beam pattern that way. Diode Dynamics you
can remove the four screws on the back and swap the lens out in the same way when you swap that
lens out it's actually the entire optical lens that's the proprietary TIR which is custom
designed for this lamp to really capture and focus as much light as possible. Now these are available
in a lot of different beam patterns and we tested as many as we could Diode Dynamics has five, Baja
Designs has four and Rigid has quite a few more. Now when it comes to the output
all of these have a main white or amber output pattern Diode Dynamics has an extra
backlight as well these don't have a backlight or any accent light the Diode Dynamics though
has that four-pin connector on the back here and that's because it's got a backlight
feature. So you can see when we light it up this is actually a white light but it's got an
amber backlight on it it's a really great look because it illuminates the entire TIR lens and
when we switch it to the main beam power the backlight will turn off and you'll get the main
output.
This is available in white, amber, red, and blue however for the yellow lens it's only
available in amber because the lens is yellow. This is a great way to add a little bit of
extra style and an extra function to your setup especially with that red backlight on
a rear bumper setup or something like that. It's just a great extra feature that really
gives you a lot for the price. Now let's take a look at how those main beam patterns compare.
First up is the Rigid SRM with the spot pattern being about 20 by 20 degrees it shines with
30,300 candela that's quite a bit of intensity at 120 each it's a pretty good value as well.
Next up is the Baja in the sport power level the spotlight on this is also about 20 by 20 degrees
but a little bit lower intensity at 24,000 candela it runs at 11 watts of power and it's 110 dollars
each.
Going up to the pro power level the spot is actually almost the same it's a little bit bigger
at 22 degrees but the intensity is 23,000 candela and this is because when we first started it
up it ran at about 22 watts but after only a couple minutes the power level dropped to only 13
watts when we measure LEDs it's really important to get the stable operating temperature to get
a realistic expectation of the output after the thing gets as hot as it's going to be. The Baja
S2 pro gets so hot that the power level really decreases after a couple minutes which means
there's not a huge difference between the sport and the pro power level next taking a look at the
Diode Dynamics SSC2 first the sport power level spot is a really tight eight-degree pattern thanks
to those tir optics and also really high intensity 91,000 candela with just 8 watts of power and
at only 70 dollars with the backlight feature that's a great value stepping up to the pro level
we have a slightly bigger pattern at 12 degrees but the intensity increases to 97,000 candela
as well.
The difference here is that it runs at 26 watts of power with stable operation that's a
much higher power than anything else on the table it's a really powerful lamp for this size. Now
we're going to keep going through the white output just so you can see a comparison the yellow
output is about the same it's just about 10% lower for all these lamps, so we'll show that data at
the end but we're going to keep going through the white output power for now. That brings us to
the SAE fog pattern now the only ones offered in the fog are that Rigid lamp which is actually a
Toyota OEM product that's the one with that bigger heatsink and it does run with a higher power
level as a result it's got pretty nice output with 64-degree wide pattern that's 10 degrees tall and
9,300 candela that's a really great performing fog light especially for this size but it does come
as a cost these are 450 to 500 dollars online. The Diode Dynamics is also available in a fog
pattern in both sport and pro power levels the sport is 72 degrees wide by 8 degrees tall and
5,000 candelas the pro is 80 degrees wide by 10 degrees tall again just a little bit bigger with
8,500 candelas next up we've got the driving beam pattern now this is a little bit of a confusing
term because there is an SAE or DOT driving light which is meant as an extra high beam.
This is a
regulated pattern which has to meet certain output but some manufacturers also refer to driving
as just a general pattern first the Rigid SRM driving has a 40 by 20-degree beam pattern
at 8,000 candelas this is great for just some extra light the Baja S2 sport in the wide
has a 55 degree wide by 15-degree tall pattern definitely wider but still great for general
driving use and is at 5,300 candelas. The S2 Pro comes in with the same beam pattern at a slightly
higher output of 5,900 candelas. Next, we have the Diode Dynamics driving lights which are SAE
compliant patterns. First, the sport is a 16 by 10-degree pattern at 37,500 candelas again this
is much more focused and much higher intensity and that's because it's intended to be used as an
actual driving light. The same thing goes for the SSC22 pro at 18 by 15 degrees and 59,000 candelas.
Next, we've got our flood patterns these are great for lighting up a campsite especially since these
are so easy to mount up on a roof rack or the side of a trailer first up we've got the Rigid SRM
flood which is a 40 by 35 degree spread really nice full spread at 2,300 candelas next up we've
got the Baja S2 in the flood pattern in both sport and pro power levels these are going to spread
light in a 60 by 60-degree pattern and they'll both be about the same amount of output at
1,070 candelas finally we've got the ssc2 in the sport flood we've got a 90 by 80-degree
pattern just a huge spread of light but it's only 375 candelas really intended to fill a huge
space with only a little bit of light the pro does step it up to 100 by 90-degree spread and
700 candela about double the light from the sport. Now the last beam pattern to look at is the combo
pattern Rigid doesn't offer any combo patterns but Baja offers it with their wide cornering and spot
and Diode Dynamics offers it with a flood as well as a wide driving this results in pretty useful
beam patterns depending on what you want to do. The Baja S2 sport in the combo pattern
is 50 degrees wide by 18 degrees tall and 14,500 candelas stepping up to the pro we have
a 55 by 20-degree pattern and 14,200 candela so again slightly larger but after that stabilization
period about the same output the Diode Dynamics sport combo comes in at 20 degrees wide by 12
tall, much tighter pattern and 16,000 candelas with the pro-level output we've got 40
degrees wide by 20 tall and 27,000 candelas. Again that's the white data for the yellow output
not all these lights are available in yellow or amber but what we have will show you as well and
all the information is available on our website at Diodedynamics.com.
As you can see even though
these are pretty similar in size at first glance there are some major differences when it comes
to the size and form factor the power level and the beam pattern output of each one
of these again a major difference is the backlight feature which provides that extra accent
on the Diode Dynamics lights as well. You can find the Diode Dynamics product online at
Diodedynamics.com or at a dealer near you. The Rigid and Baja options are available from
major online retailers as well as directly through those websites. If you have questions please
leave them below we'd love to hear them and help answer your questions to try to find the best
option that meets your needs, thanks for watching.
you.
