Custom LED tailights

And then it was Caturday.... :shifty:


FrankLS said:
I beleive this should solve my problems. With this I should be able to use the same leds as the brake and running lights. So that whole bottom section will be used for both.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?40783-FS-Mini-Opti-Drive-PWM&highlight=opti+drive

Let me know what you think.
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Yeah, that's basically what we are talking about doing here. If the things we are talking about making happen they will be about the size of a quarter. Might even add a small power circuit so you can get more output. Who knows.

The ones you linked to in the thread would work too. All the same concept. Same LEDs used for running and brake lights.
 
me too! Have you decided on a pattern? Are you just gonna fill up those segments or try to do something fancier like lines or concentric circles?
 
Kumba said:
And then it was Caturday.... :shifty:




Yeah, that's basically what we are talking about doing here. If the things we are talking about making happen they will be about the size of a quarter. Might even add a small power circuit so you can get more output. Who knows.

The ones you linked to in the thread would work too. All the same concept. Same LEDs used for running and brake lights.
Click to expand...

That sounds great. If ever these get made ill be sure to make a purchase. As of right now I'm in the process of buying a mini opti drive. I'm hoping he responds and still has them for sale.
 
Not too sure on a pattern yet. I recently purchased some superflux led's, red and amber. They are suposed to meet sae automotive color requirements. The leds I've purchased before have not been as accurate on color as id like.

Once I get these in I plan on filling the sections with as many as possible. The amber blinker section will all be wired to light up at the same time. For the running/brake section, I'm still a bit unsure on what route I want to take. Once I just place them on the board, ill have a better visual on how rows or any other light pattern will look. If I'm able to get an opti drive board, I'll probably start by wiring them all together and go from there.

I still have to purchase another tailight :mad:
 
FrankLS said:
That sounds great. If ever these get made ill be sure to make a purchase. As of right now I'm in the process of buying a mini opti drive. I'm hoping he responds and still has them for sale.
Click to expand...

Well I wouldn't wait on this project. Considering it's everyone just volunteering their free time at the moment, it's hard to put any kind of timeframe to it.

I keep thinking the design might be modified with a high-current transistor to the output so you can get 2 or 3 amps of power output. That should be enough to power a fairly large LED Tail-light.
 
Yeah ive got some more work done. I received my super flux led's a few days ago and have been doing some test fitting on the boards to figure out how id like to place them. Their color is great and lighting a few up gets me excited for the final result.

Ive also started testing the led's on my test board with different resistors. I dont think ill be running them at 70 or even 50 mA as the whole board will be too bright for that. I plan on running many leds in the sections so will be overwhelmingly bright.

Ive contacted the member from hidplanet and we have been emailing back and fourth about the set up. He shipped my items this morning. That is a hard man to get a hold of, but real cool and he shipped my items this morning. Made sure I ordered extras just in case something happens or I fail to contact him in the future.

Still on the hunt for the other tailight. I really dont want to pay 100dlls for the tailight and those too good to be true ads on ebay are just that, very misleading. Ive contacted at least 3 sellers and the pictures or descriptions of the items were not accurate. Most sellers post a picture and description of a tailight but are really selling the trunk reflector.

Tomorrow I willl be purchasing the silver paint for the boards.

Ill take some pictures of the leds i baught. They appear to be of great quality. I test fitted the lens over the boards with the leds and you can see the individual leds through the lens. Looks nice. Ill be able to fit quite a bit of leds on these boards. Should look real good. Nothing is soldered or permanently placed.

Ill post some pictures tomorrow night or Tuesday as tomorrow is a busy day for me.
 
So I ended up purchasing some Philips LEDs and they seam to be of very good quaility. The light color is also very nice. The LED's i had baught from ebay were more of a pinkish color. So Im very happy with the purchase.
Purchased them from here.

http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/Pages/index.aspx

CIMG00072Medium.jpg


I went ahead and started temporarily placing them in my breadboards. Im not completley sure how i want to place them exactly but I believe that spacing them one row apart will make for a great look, but wont know for sure until i wire and light them up.

-I know, lots of LED's, but running them on a lower brightness i believe will look great. I still need to do some adjusting to the boards to get them aligned just perfectly. On some of the edges, I can still fit a few more but will require a tiny bit of sanding of the plastic edges of the LED. Not too sure if I want to do that though.

7Medium.jpg


CIMG00173Medium.jpg


Just a quick picture of the LED,s running at a high mA vs low mA. For the amount of LED's i am planning on using, I will have to decrease the brightness as to not blind anyone.

CIMG00179Medium.jpg


Still have lots of more work to do and progress has been slow, but ill get there.
 
LOOKs GREAT!!!

If you would be willing to make lots of these im sure there would be lots of buyers.
 
BlackLS06 said:
LOOKs GREAT!!!

If you would be willing to make lots of these im sure there would be lots of buyers.
Click to expand...

Yeah ill be manufacturing a set once a year!! :eek:

Im feeling good about the project and think it will all work out and look great, but i wont know for sure until Im done. All the wiring and calculations are still to come which will be the hardest for me.

To be honest, so far the project has not been too complicated and has been fun.
 
Looking forward to this. Glad to see my tails are put to good use.
 
They were in very good shape. Unfortunately I murdered one.
 
Looks legit. Looking forward to the shot of them coming through our lens.
 
will you be able to adjust brightness once its installed... just incase output is too high with lights on
 
are you going to paint the bread boards or do they not really show through the lenses
 
Thanks guys.

Initially I will have to, I guess, estimate how bright would be best. I don't have a test board big enough to place the same amount of leds as the brake section will have. Ill solder all leds with resistors to the board and change out resistors as I see fit.

I guess I could load up my current test board and place the lens over it and adjust the brightness that way.

Yes, the boards will be painted. Have not purchased the paint just yet as I've been doing a bit of research on what would be best to use. Painting is a must as the clear lens on the top section will allow the board to be seen.

Edit. The mini opti drive does have adjustments so will test and adjust once they get in. Should be getting them today.
 
No offense but this is a mod that doesn't really interest me and I probably won't ever try this, but I can appreciate good work and those lights look awesome. Good luck!
 
^^ none taken. Theres lots of mods out there that dont interest me but for some reason this one did.

So ive been doing some work. Baught some silver paint and painted up the breadboards.

-The boards came out very good. They will be visible through the lens so painting them was very important.

PaintedbreadboardMedium.jpg


-I also received the items I ordered from 99AznAccord over at hidplanet. I orded some mini opti drives and voltage regulators. The mini optidrive will be running both my brake/marker sections as this will allow them to be dimm and appear brighter for the brake lights. The voltage regulators will be for the blinker sections. The items appear to be of very good quality. I recomend his items for anyone looking for such.

optidriveMedium.jpg


I started soldering the LEDs to the boards. I ran out of red LEDs so was unable to finish the brake/marker section. Waiting for the new order to arrive. The placement of the LEDs is practically finished for the blinker section. Still debating wether i should add one more LED to the top middle area.

brakesectionMedium.jpg


blinkersectionMedium.jpg


I started soldering some of the resistors and running my + and - lines. I have finished all the wiring for the brake/marker section except for the missing LED area.

Still have a lot of work left for the blinker section.

-Dont be too harsh on my soldering. I know, my solder looks like rape. The cheap 25w soldering iron im using is giving me problems especially the tips. The pointed tips have melted on me so im basically soldering with a nub.After about 4 LEDs the tip starts giving away. I will clean up the solder when I purchase new tips.


brakesection2Medium.jpg


blinkersection2Medium.jpg


I still have some testing to do with diff ohm resistors to finally pick one for the blinker section. I forsee having to replace the resistors in the sections to acheive the desired brightness. Dont want to blind anyone but still be visible during the day.

The adjustments that can be made from the mini opti drive are for the marker lights. I can dim them or brighten them as much as I want. The brightness of the brake lights will go off of the size of the resistor.
 
I dont think you need to worry about brightness...cadillacs use tons of led's for their brakelights.
 
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