just thought i'd post a preview of my tail lights i started working on... all S-Flux LEDs with double the viewing angle of the standard flanged round type you usually see. When the lense is on the tails looked smoked :-) kept the reflector cuz i wanna be legal and look somewhat stock.


http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...hedproduct.jpg

in each assembly there's gonna be...

8, 4k MCD red for running lights
40, 10k MCD red for brake lights
28, 10k MCD amber for signaling
15, 7k MCD white for reverse lights

gonna look kinda like the new cadillac tails they use in the 2007 escalade, running/brake light wise. i will post a new thread when these are finished. gonna be a couple weeks longer now since my LED distributor is out of the amber and wont get them in for another 3 weeks.

if anyone can hook me up with a clear tail light lense that would be great but if not no worries ill keep the stock frosted lenses.

 

wow thats hot right there!

 

yes its required by law, AND its a safety item. to keep you from being rear ended!!

 

Damnit, this is what I get for being lazy. I'm doing a set of stock tails the same way. Well almost the same. Same concept, but different arrangement with the leds.

Great job though. Can't wait to see how they look. Now I got to get to work on mine

 

well if you get a move on it you can beat me to get yours done first ;-) I only have the running/brake light section done because the amber LEDs i need, the distributor wont have them for another 2-3 weeks from now so im hold.

the picture i posted is photoshopped but is identical to what its going to look like when im done :-)

just waitin on the LEDs...

ill give you a hint though...when i put the lense on to see what it was gonna look like when they're done and held it up next to the box's tail lights right now... its gonna look absolutely awesome.

always a great feeling when you make something yourself for your car/bike whenever you look at it

 

I was going to get a move on it today. Got all my stuff out and it hit me. Where are my leds!!! I ordered them alwhile ago and they must have gotting mixed in with somethings I threw out. Oh that made me mad. Put another order in today. So, looks like the race is on.

I had a good feeling about this mod. Thanks for the hint.

 

dang my LEDs are like gold to me. they are in a little case in my electrical bag of goodies.

the possibilites are endless with designing your own tail lights. i'd like to see your design you decided on if you dont mind sharing...

ive decided to stick with the basic pack as many LEDs in there to be ridiculously bright yet not cost too much. its gonna be worth it though cuz its still cheaper than buying a set of LED tails and i will have alot more LEDs than the aftermarket ones not to mention brighter ones as well. oh and the most important part...the stupid aftermarket LED tails that are sold do not have the turn signal as LED there is just a socket to plug in an incandescent bulb. i mean you can replace that with an LED bulb setup but that always looks cheezy when you get up close.

Enough whining about the crap aftermarket setups can i see a pic of your design scotty?

 

nice! keep up the good work

 

I know exactly what you mean because I have a set. I use an led blub for the turn signal and it sucks. You can hardly see it. A custom led turn signal is on the list of things to do. I can't wait to see how yours turns out.

 

I'm still baffeled on how they got thrown' out.

I suck at PS, so I'll try to explain it. The housing will be painted black. The lens will stay stock. The brake/tail light section will become brakes only. The blinkers will be the same. The reflective peice will look the same, but will become the tails. The reverse will be the same. As for led layout. I'm not sure on what I plan on doing. I'm going to play around with them as soon as I get them.

It would have been under $80 for the whole project and thats including the set of stock tails I picked up. But with the led misshap its going to be about the same as yours.

What do you plan on using to hold the leds in place? Are you going to do them the same way you did your third brake light?

 

well i shaped the boards where they fit in the holes very snug. in all reality i could probably just stick them in there how they are now and they would stay pinched in place but im not gonna just do that. ill probably pick up some black silicone sealant like with my bike's tail light and seal it around the edges just to make sure nothing can come loose.

i was thinking about doing something in the reflector section as well but it doesnt have any room to work with like in the other areas so you'd have to cut and i really wanted to stay legal with it so i just said screw it and left the reflector. also cuz of cost... the LEDs i use are very bright and not cheap. thats why all of them just for this project was $120. yikes.

what type of LED are you going to use?

 

movin right along... :-)

here is how they look so far

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s/HPIM2241.jpg

Here is just the 16 4k MCD running lights illuminated...this looks awesome in person i just cant get a picture to come out good though :-/

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s/HPIM2245.jpg

and then when you apply the brakes the 80 10k MCDs all come on with. it's ridiculously bright in person...ouch.

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s/HPIM2247.jpg

i still wish the lense was clear instead of looking through all the little prizms in a stock tail lense but its still coming out great so far. wish my amber ones would hurry up and get to my seller from japan. im dyin to finish these up and get them on...

ok no more previews :-)

 

aww, no more previews. hehe.. Great job so far. I'm watching this one closely. Good luck!

 

I think I got a tan from this pic

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s/HPIM2247.jpg

 

a tan huh? yea you should see it in person. i tried to show my wife (she doesnt care about these kind of things) and she turned her head right away saying she doesnt want a headache. haha

i dont want to give any more previews because im going to make a new thread when its done from start to finish with somewhat of an instrctional. when its all done it wont be quite as complicated as the one guy that made a set already and has it posted here. his came out good but with all the different light flashing sequences and stuff i thought i could make one thats simple and straight forward for the beginner. hope it works out.

i also cant figure out why the lights look a yellow/orange in the pics??? they are bright red when you look at it with your own eyes. oh yea my camera is cheap

thanx for the compliments and ill keep you guys updated.

MAYBE post one more preview pic or so before i make the thread about doing them yourself as well

 

Lookin' good. The pics do a good job of getting across the general idea - BRIGHT!

I suppose you could try adjusting your camera's white balance - even some pretty cheap cameras let you do that. Or you could just tweak the red channel on the image.

 

Those are freakin bright!! Great job

I've been busy with another project, but to answer your question on the leds I'm using.

Wide angled for the brakes
40 deg for the tails
wide angled for turns
825000 mcd for the reverse lights

I'm not going as bright as yours, cause I want to keep them close to stock. I see you had the joy of finding out how easy the lenses are to break. I lucked out and only took a little chunk out.

I hope mine come in this week

 

wow those will be bright reverse lights. are you using those "3 watt" LEDs or whatever im thinking of. they have like a little casing around them it looks like in pics?

yea i took a little chunk out of the inside edge of the light LOL. i got lazy with the heatgun and didnt get that section warm enough before popping it off with the screwdriver. i might glue it back on but i doubt it, you cant see that far along the side when the light is installed.

hopefully you get yur LEDs in the next couple days :-)

keep me updated on your progress buddy

 

Question:

Are you using 2 or 4 chip LED's? I looked on Ebay and they have 2-chip superflux, but on Oznium they have 4-chip.

 

this is the description of the LED i use...

S-Flux LEDs

S-Flux LEDs are the ideal diodes for signaling applications. They are small, rectangular pieces with a 5mm or 3mm dome on top from which light is emitted. LSDiodes S-Flux are 3mm for maximum space efficiency. They have four legs: two anode and two cathode, you can power just one cathode and one anode to light the LED. Two of each are provided to disperse the current under stressful conditions.

High flux LEDs are designed to have a wide viewing angle and be used as indicators (while they, of course, can be used anywhere a large viewing angle is desired). Their most common use is in the tail lights of vehicles where 6 - 12 placed in a grid can effectively substitute the stock filament bulb and last, on average, 22 times longer.