Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #45 – January 17, 2013, 07:36:20 PM i will try not to forget to get voltage readings this weekend as well.'keeping an eye on this post and so is my son.hopefully over the course of this there is a tried ,tested and passing solution that would offer more light and reduce voltage requirements. Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #46 – February 10, 2013, 07:18:35 PM Okay guys, I am finishing this project up. To get rid of the running lamp power on and off flicker, I've ordered replacement LED drivers from TaskLED which do not flicker at full bright for some milliseconds if the dim pin is held low as the driver powers up.I'd like to take some intensity readings of the brake lights and adjust their output, but I am trying to make sense of the US laws. Does anyone have a definition of "Lighted sections"? I am looking in the following dospoogeent:http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2004-title49-vol5/pdf/CFR-2004-title49-vol5-sec571-108.pdfAt 650mA into the tail lights and third brake light, I am right at 410 candela (lux at 1m), measuring the llights separately. This will of course drop more after they are placed behind outer lenses. I assume 3 lighted sections means one left, one right, and one third brake location. Any input?Here is where I'm at compared to the stock lights, with the car running. I unplugged the right side to help limit voltage drop since I had the leds tied into the same harness. I used a breaker bar between the brake and seat to activate them.I repainted the fins/louvers but can see that I need more paint on a few spots. The finishing work will be the time consuming part, but I have some movies ready to start on it after they cure for a few more days. I hope to also receive the leds I plan on using for the backup lamps this week.Stress testing, the third brake light gets up to 65C after running at full (near 10W for the LEDs) for 3 hours in the house, in the housing. I don't remember the numbers for the tail lights, and I don't think I mentioned it here, but I believe they're around 70C after the same time period. Being that they won't run for that long in brake mode in the car, I assume it'll never approach that, even in summer. The heatsinks are open to the trunk so they are enclosed only by the rear trunk panel/cover. Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #47 – February 10, 2013, 07:48:35 PM Another shot:Too bad cameras are so terrible at picking up light intensity.The pattern of the third brake light is similar to the stock one, but the intensity of each LED changes as you move side to side in front of the light. The stock did this also, but with two light sources. I used 8.Nice pattern: Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #48 – February 16, 2013, 11:16:53 PM This is actually quite interesting. I am having trouble understanding, however, and maybe I just missed it, but why didn't you instead of going to all this trouble, just use 180* LED bulbs? Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #49 – February 17, 2013, 03:45:33 AM Quote from: sarjxxx;409507This is actually quite interesting. I am having trouble understanding, however, and maybe I just missed it, but why didn't you instead of going to all this trouble, just use 180* LED bulbs? Any LEDs worth using (have enough output) need a lot of heatsinking. Any "drop in bulb" can't have enough light - else it would overheat. These LEDs, which are VERY efficient in terms of efficacy, get their large-ish heatsinks up to 150F, which would be closer to 200F in the summer. Similar output without heatsinking will approach chip-frying temperatures in 10-ish seconds. It's no different than us comparing a 100-LED flashlight to my 1000 lumen single high power LED flashlight that I carry around. There is more output available, or I can run the LED at lower output and get 2-3 times the power efficiency as the dimmer LEDs with the same "lumens". Plus a point source has predictable optical properties.Buy me a replacement drop-in led bulb assembly and I'll show you a side by side comparison by camera. I won't waste money on the things, but here is an example of what a drop-in bulb would be: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Auto-2-Car-Bulb-1157-BAY15D-18-LED-SMD-Red-Side-Stop-Light-371-/280977728788?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item416b93e514&vxp=mtr (I have harnesses for both that socket, and the wedge type). Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #50 – February 19, 2013, 12:04:43 AM Wow, that's a lot of effort! It will be interesting to see how it works out. I simply went with a set of red SMT tower 60's from autolumination. Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #51 – February 19, 2013, 01:22:35 AM Quote from: Quietleaf;409660Wow, that's a lot of effort! It will be interesting to see how it works out. I simply went with a set of red SMT tower 60's from autolumination. The comparison pictures pretty much show the difference, and drop in replacement bulbs are generally dimmer than the stock bulbs, but it may require a camera to detect the difference with what is available today. Car was running and I had the passenger side disconnected so the bulbs were actually getting more voltage than they normally do, and were brighter. In comparison, they have nothing on the LEDs. This project was mostly to drop my power usage, get the instant on of LEDs, limit the load which would make my alternator struggle at night when the electric fan would come on, increase the overall brightness, and make the lights more red rather than the orange that everything appears with incandescent bulbs. Our tail lights are pretty dim in comparison to most cars out from the last 20 years.My backup light LEDs should be here any day now. Generating 7000 lumens in reverse will be nice, since our housings consume probably 3/4 of the generated light. Once they are here and I modify my taskled drivers to put out 650mA (no change going to 740mA as they came stock), everything will be finished up and installed in the car. Pictures and video will never do the things justice though. Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #52 – May 19, 2013, 03:01:54 AM Okay, this is now coming together. I have one tail light just about done. I was testing the backup lamps with my existing heatsink, as I'd like to see if I can get by with using a smaller one.Inner lenses are attached to the outer lenses. I have chopped up the reflector portion on one light to test fit everything. Everything is good but I need to get the backup lighting done. Here is an example of what one side will output using four LEDs at 7W each. It should be roughly 2,000 lumens for one backup light. Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #53 – June 24, 2013, 09:53:09 PM Okay, finishing this up now. Got some capable heatsinking and cut up the reflectors of both tails. I am working on centering the LED's and then I will use ABS and fiberglass to seal everything up.One LED in backup light (using 4 per side): Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #54 – June 25, 2013, 12:55:52 AM Bright light Bright light!!! Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #55 – June 25, 2013, 01:17:21 AM Getting it done. Took forever to tap all the holes to mount the LED's. I still need to add the side/corner light and finish closing the unit up, but here is where I'm at tonight with one light.It's looking good:Here is what the room looks like with the backup light on:Here is what the room looks like with the brake lights on:Together: Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #56 – June 25, 2013, 05:12:46 PM Jebus I thought the LED tail lamps on our Mustang were bright. Nice work. Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #57 – June 25, 2013, 05:49:59 PM Quote from: thunderjet302;417583Jebus I thought the LED tail lamps on our Mustang were bright. Nice work. The intensity isn't really that much brighter than other LED brake lights on the road - it's just that I have large circles with a lot of surface area with similar intensity. Overall, it appears brighter because of the much greater luminous flux.Now the backup lamps - that's another story altogether. I do have a lot of surface area, but it is also similar to looking directly at a LED. It will get noticed that the car's backing up, that's for sure. 4000 lumens from the white LED's in the back is more than most headlights, but it is also a full flood.Sad thing is, I will probably do this all over at one point in the future. I'd like to rebuild the entire reflector/mounting portion out of aluminum, using little "plates" that I can mount from the back to swap out parts. That would come after quad LED projection for headlights though - I have the same idea for up front. I want a full single piece assembly to be able to accept "modules" that I can bolt in from the back. This would allow revisions to the lights with much less effort, support upgrades, built-in heatsinking, and better control of the design without casting parts. Pointless? Sure, but it'd be a unique project that would support my desire to tweak things.If anyone has some recommendations for price effective aluminum plates, I'd love to hear them. I will be using parts up to 6" tall, maybe 12" LONG, IN 1/4, 1/8, and possibly 1/16" thicknesses. At this point, I don't care too much about the alloy. It's not terribly expensive in the first place, but the everyday rate is around $15/sqft in 1/8". Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #58 – June 25, 2013, 09:45:18 PM Is this something you will make for people in the future? Quote Selected
Tbird taillight LEDs and modifications Reply #59 – June 25, 2013, 11:00:50 PM way cool ive always liked these tails and this just made them that much better Quote Selected
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