DIY LED Tail Lights

[rongfk]

how can i build, or where can i find some voltage regulators for my tail lights?

[highlifein909]

i got these leds for free, they where chrome nd kinda lookd ugly
so i painted them black.. what do u guys think?

[highlifein909]

[rongfk]

so i got it all sorted out, thanks for all the help fellas.

-Ronnie.

here is my led boards all put together and installed. each large board holds 99 leds


running light, reverse light and signal on


brake light, reverse, and signal on


now installed on the car

running lights


brake lights


signals lights


reverse lights


later in the day shots

[rat240]

Nice you got them to work
<a href="http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t206/dr1f7t/?action=view&current=4942DD20-77EB-4DF3-BCAC-E20FCCA2CC89-1084-00000167DA9C4231_zps17b2bc38.mp4" target="_blank"><img src="http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t206/dr1f7t/4942DD20-77EB-4DF3-BCAC-E20FCCA2CC89-1084-00000167DA9C4231_zps17b2bc38.mp4" border="0" alt="Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos" /></a>
Mazda5 tail lights

[rat240]

[conrad_s13.5]

Bought some $39 ebay taillights,. threw $50 at em. Diggin where theyre going..
..Still deciding if I should tint/smoke the lens

[onehundredoctane]

Going to do the tail lights next, but started off with my bumper lights. These are 108 super white surface mount LEDS stuffed into one turn signal, yes, they are UBER bright

[BiG MiKE86]

Originally Posted by onehundredoctane

Going to do the tail lights next, but started off with my bumper lights. These are 108 super white surface mount LEDS stuffed into one turn signal, yes, they are UBER bright

Sup with a write up?

[onehundredoctane]

I didn't take many pics when I did the first one, I'll try to when I do the other one.

[onehundredoctane]

Started on these last night, ran out of LED panels and had to order more, I may have to add in some resistors to keep from blinding people at night!

[onehundredoctane]

These are about all the pics I managed to take while making my turn signals for my Silvia bumper. I bought these LED panels which have 36 surface mount LEDs per panel, you can see the difference 9vdc and 12vdc have on the light output. 9vdc will be great for running lights/ park lights, while 12vdc will be great for brake light function and turn signals.


With that in mind, I took 3 LED panels, wired the postive and negative together, epoxy'd (epoxied?) them in the park light housing, and left it to cure


These panels are thin enough that I only had to sand a very small amount of material out of the housing to have them sit flush and back enough for the lens to clear the LEDs.

You can see that 12vdc applied to the LEDs is MORE than enough juice. I will only be using these as turn signals so I didn't wire up the park light fucntion, HOWEVER, I have ordered some 3k ohm resistors to use on my next set of bumper lights so I can test out my theory of using lower voltage for park light functions.

[Rubberjohnny]

Looks very nice

[joshg51]

Are the LEDs you used for the bumper the same ones used for dome lights?

[onehundredoctane]

Yeah, you can usually get them on ebay in packs of 10 or more.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-Panel-36-...3f80a8&vxp=mtr

[joshg51]

Cool. Thanks for the help man

[w0nderbr3ad]

I want to try this method with my half amber/clear turn signals.

[rawgarage]

Dope thread....crazy customs @mikeyee

[KoukiMonsta]

Anybody have experience with how long the egay led's last? I feel like not very long, and who wants to split open a housing to replace them 'regularly'

[onehundredoctane]

Side by side comparison of my LED bumper light compared to an standard bulb with clear lens.


Also started messing around with one of my tail lights, 216 LEDs just for the park / brake light.


Shits so bright it blinds my camera, honestly, not as bright as it appears here, but def brighter than two dinky bulbs. After test fitting I found that I can actually fit more LEDs in there (notice the empty space to the left of the LEDs.

[S14DB]

How are you going to do the brake lights?

[onehundredoctane]

Not really sure what you're asking. . . sooooo

The pic above is with 12vdc applied to the LEDs, which is what the standard brake light gets when the pedal is depressed, so what you see above will end up being the brake light function. To achieve the park light function I'm going to add a resistor (probably 100 ohms, I haven't really researched that part yet) to get a much dimmer output from the LEDs.

The turn signal will be in top half of the tail light housing.

[Digi7ech]

The knock off led's aren't the exact issue.
The unchecked voltage from the car is what's going to kill them. They need to be behind a voltage regulator so they have a nice smooth stream of current. LED's work on current and going over or near their tolerances kills them. That tolerance on a "chinese led" may vary drastically between two. This is why "real" led's cost more. They're tested and binned to match the led's next to them.

You may have one led that can handle 20ma no problem while the other can't do more than 16ma.

///
Unrelated. Here's an update on my tails. Finished product for S5 FC's. I use the same led's as above for the running lights because they're smaller and SMD so it's easier to route them. I use actual Phillips Superflux led's for the brake lights as they are Super beefy and bright.

[S14DB]

Buck converter, nice...


Sent from my iFad using Crapatalk

[ditchs14]

anyone got some links on the basics of this stuff? i wanna make cool led shit. i know how to solder and basic wiring. but i don't know really want i need(board, resistors, etc)

[t_rempel]

Check out the hidplanet forums. There's a whole section for LEDs

[irax]

Originally Posted by ditchs14

anyone got some links on the basics of this stuff? i wanna make cool led shit. i know how to solder and basic wiring. but i don't know really want i need(board, resistors, etc)

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...deo-Tutuorials

pretty bomb stuff in that thread

[rawgarage]

Anybody making stuff in here? I'd be happy to pay

[HyperTek]

i ps this, i kinda want to try it to my Z, but dont think it would shine through the textured lens like that.. i dont know if that would be possible to lay a pattern like that with the housing, but would be fresh though.

[dsastr_clan]

how could i do a progressive signal light, for example on the 300zx the turn signals are big and long. I would like to make it so when i signal the blink from the inner side of the tail towards the outside, how could i accomplish this?