LED Tail Light Project

LED Tail Light Project

Has any one here tried making an LED Tail Light? I'm thinking about getting a few 10mm 12V Red LED's, along with a pair of CF-Altezzas and trying it out.. if you have, success stories? Anyone else have any suggestions about how I should go about carrying this out?

Also, if I use Altezzas, how would I conceal the PCB?
Thanks in advance!

I think you would be the first here to do this. Good Luck and Post some pics

buy some Truck LEDs.. Brake lamps are dual filiment

On the ones that I have seen (Cadillac M-B etc...) the L-E-Ds are all packed very tightly and you have to consider the taillights portion as well would be required.

I bought an L-E-D single line 15 lamp one from JC Whitney and it was basicly a small circuit board with the diodes and resistors affixed. Looked great in the top of the rear window of my truck even before the trucks started having high mounts.

It would be a challenge (but not impossible)

CW

Good Luck...

i thought about it but didnt feel like it... but there is someoen i know thats working on it... he has a 97 corolla i think

www.superbrightleds.com

but if you can, go to www.marktechopto.com and look in their closeout section.. you have to place a min $100 order tho..

already been done

the secret is using your stock housing as your mounting base. drill small holes in the housing, pop in LED's and then wire accordingly. i did the rear signals in red on a clear signal housing... lit up red with the rest of the signal, then blinked brighter for signal. looked great. i utilized a regular LED bulb to provide light for the tail portion of the light, then the outboard LED's to illuminate the housing during signalling.

buy the brightest LED's you can find. 19,000MCD are available, but they only have a 5degree beam. to utilize these, you must pack the LEDs tightly, and angle the outer ones at 45 and 90 degrees to the other ones, creating a "surrounding" light like a real bulb. that's what's wrong with LED signals. they don't utilize the stock reflectors at all. they only point directly back, where a regular incandescant shines in a 300+ degree arc.

any questions, feel free to ask

let me know waht kinda LEDs you are useing and where you got them from.. the best way i can think of is the ones off of big rig trucks.. lots of my friends drive big trcuska dn they all have them laying around im goasn see if i can jsut get some and im goan try to do this project too...plus i saw some on Ebay

wow, thanks guys for all the replies

I was thinking about gettin some off ebay but I really dont trust stuff shipping out of hong kong. Thanks for the links CivicEater, I think i'll order them from superbrightleds.

I'll let you all know when I get this project off the ground, Instead of Altezza's i'm thinking I'll order a pair of the red tails with clear turn signals off ebay and makin em look like the LED tails on the Benz S500's or the Cadillacs (vs G35 style circles).

I'll take pics in the making and see if I can make a DIY or somethin if its successful!

One question - as long as I'm tightly packing in the LED's, should I use 10mm or 5mm LEDs, or does it really matter?
Oh its gonna be fun soldering tiny wires and resistors onto a circuit board... given my history of burning PCB's x)

I've already modded a bunch of optical mice with 6000 mcd blue LED's! lets hope the experience comes in handy

use 3MM

really? well, just a suggestion. I wouldn't have done it myself anyway. I'm gonna leave the lights alone, I've spent too much on replacement parts as it is.

let me know how it all comes out..

You can just chance all the stock bulbs to the LED replacements. It'll be a little pricey, but it'll get the job done.

im trying to do the pcb led. Expensive project.

those bulbs are useless, Light output are horrible, cant be seen at the all angles, not DOT and down right dangerous.