LED rear light kit progress
Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 8:52 pm
After my origional thread asking if people might be interested in an LED upgrade kit for the rear light clusters I have come up with a viable solution.
First off, my solution...
Each light cluster will require three sepperate printed circuit boards (Brake, Indicator, sidelight), each with 30 ultrabright long life LEDs [30,000 Millicandellas for 1,000,000 hours].
The boards vary in size, so the brakelight (at the top) is the smallest, followed by the indicator (Second down), finaly, the largest board is the sidelight....All boards have 30 LEDs with different spacing on each board.
First off, the brakelights.... When you press the brake pedal, the brake AND sidelight LEDs light up with maximum brightness.
When you switch on the sidelights, the sidelight LEDs illuminate with 50% of their total intensity (Which is fractionally brighter than the standard bulb) [Its hard to photograph the lights...they do all light up to the same intensity and are evenly spaced...it just doesnt look like it in this picture!)
Then, when you press the brake, the brakelight comes on, and the sidelight brigtness goes up to 100% (In reality you can see the sepperate LEDS inside the lights, its just hard to capture on film)
(Both of the above photos were taken using the same shutter speed on the camera, so show a good representation of the relative brightnes of brake and sidelight)
The indicators are used at 100% brightness and are similar brightness to the standard bulb...They do however give the added benefit of flashing on and off nice and sharp rather than slowly warming up, and cooling down like the conventional bulbs do. The indicators also have the same evenly spaced 'LED' pattern as the sidelights and brakes when viewed from behind.
Due to the high cost of the Philips superbright LEDs(just over 20p each)....The final price for each of the boards will be £9.00
Each board is photo-etched onto a glass reinforced plastic board providing a rigid and flameproof base on which to solder all of the components.
£9.00 would buy you one (1) complete printed circuit board with 30 LEDs soldered into place, fully tested with wires and connectors all ready to drop into your light clusters. I will include photographic instructions for installation..All you need is an 8mm spanner, a hacksaw blade, some araldite (or similar) and about an hour.
If you wanted all 6 boards together (2x brake, 2x indicator, 2xSidelight/brake) the total cost would be £54.
By doing it this way, you can pick and choose which lights you want converted to LED and which you want left standard.
I have also considered an LED conversion for the foglights, but this would cost slightly more than £9 per board, so unless anyone really wants this, I wont be producing any.
Likewise if anyone wanted the LEDs layed out in a different pattern, or didnt want the sidelights to act as brakes, or fancied something slightly different, I would be happy to help.
Would this kit be of interest to anyone?
First off, my solution...
Each light cluster will require three sepperate printed circuit boards (Brake, Indicator, sidelight), each with 30 ultrabright long life LEDs [30,000 Millicandellas for 1,000,000 hours].
The boards vary in size, so the brakelight (at the top) is the smallest, followed by the indicator (Second down), finaly, the largest board is the sidelight....All boards have 30 LEDs with different spacing on each board.
First off, the brakelights.... When you press the brake pedal, the brake AND sidelight LEDs light up with maximum brightness.
When you switch on the sidelights, the sidelight LEDs illuminate with 50% of their total intensity (Which is fractionally brighter than the standard bulb) [Its hard to photograph the lights...they do all light up to the same intensity and are evenly spaced...it just doesnt look like it in this picture!)
Then, when you press the brake, the brakelight comes on, and the sidelight brigtness goes up to 100% (In reality you can see the sepperate LEDS inside the lights, its just hard to capture on film)
(Both of the above photos were taken using the same shutter speed on the camera, so show a good representation of the relative brightnes of brake and sidelight)
The indicators are used at 100% brightness and are similar brightness to the standard bulb...They do however give the added benefit of flashing on and off nice and sharp rather than slowly warming up, and cooling down like the conventional bulbs do. The indicators also have the same evenly spaced 'LED' pattern as the sidelights and brakes when viewed from behind.
Due to the high cost of the Philips superbright LEDs(just over 20p each)....The final price for each of the boards will be £9.00
Each board is photo-etched onto a glass reinforced plastic board providing a rigid and flameproof base on which to solder all of the components.
£9.00 would buy you one (1) complete printed circuit board with 30 LEDs soldered into place, fully tested with wires and connectors all ready to drop into your light clusters. I will include photographic instructions for installation..All you need is an 8mm spanner, a hacksaw blade, some araldite (or similar) and about an hour.
If you wanted all 6 boards together (2x brake, 2x indicator, 2xSidelight/brake) the total cost would be £54.
By doing it this way, you can pick and choose which lights you want converted to LED and which you want left standard.
I have also considered an LED conversion for the foglights, but this would cost slightly more than £9 per board, so unless anyone really wants this, I wont be producing any.
Likewise if anyone wanted the LEDs layed out in a different pattern, or didnt want the sidelights to act as brakes, or fancied something slightly different, I would be happy to help.
Would this kit be of interest to anyone?
)
Cheers mate
