Custom LED lighting...

Custom LED lighting...

Wee! First Post!!!
sorry...
now that I've gotten that all out of my system...

I have sourced a supplier for the LEDs that are used for automotive lighting (the stuff that goes into those nice LED tails on bmws and such).....and it's got ideas flowing through my head.

I can get white, blue, green, amber, red; basically any color you'd ever need for a car application; and they're bright enough that roughly 11 of their high power (they have 2 of each color, one high one low) would put out as much light as one Silverstar H4 high beam. Bright.

By that logic, I could then put together my own LED tails, and even headlights, for my (2004) Corolla....which is where I've been going with all this. Since I found out that I could get my hands on these LEDs (and for cheap), and manufacture my own setup....I've been wanting to pull it off.

What I need to know, though, is what the laws are regarding car lighting systems. How bright headlights, high beams, turn indicators, brake lights, etc, all need to be. Whatever other things that could legally make this idea a tougher one. Anything that could legally stop me. I can work on the technical makings of this all on my own.

Can anybody help me out with the specifics of the letter of the law? I live in Ontario, Canada; though I expect the laws throughout Canada and the US to be pretty similar, if not the same, in these respects.

A little help? I promise if I ever get something put together and working and looking good I'll do it for other forum members, too! :-D

where did you get the L.E.D.'s?

well, I don't have them yet. I just have sourced them, so I know where to get em. LSDiodes.com.

I've ordered from them before, great guys. Great cust. service, great price; and nobody can complain about the selection...

Hm, most of the lights you can buy commercially are DOT approved for the specified application. I don't really know for sure, but here's my take on it.... As long as the lights are within the accepted range of colors allowed by DOT for the specific application, and as long as the lumens match DOT approved lights for the specified purpose. Like your brake lights I would imagine couldn't be as bright as your headlights. Headlights might be 1200 lumens, where your brake lights could be 400. As long as the colors and brightness are equal it should be just the same. go to the store and write down how bright the lights are. you might need a light meter, they're like $130 or more. maybe call the DOT in your state and ask them.
Thats just my opinion...
Don't they make replacement LED bulbs that will fit in an 04?
That sounds like a cool project... Good luck

Statik

That LSDiodes is cool site, I may end up ordering from them. Thanks for the tip!! CW

Those guys are great, ordered bulk packs of LED's off ebay from them.

As for automotic headlight applications, check out Luxeon Lumileds. They manufacture the LED's you see in cadillacs and street lights. You can order direct from them.

I've actually been planning out an LED project just like this for my 00 rolla, except I need to fabricate some PCB's, and I haven't gotten around to creating the circuit diagrams in OrCAD and sending them off to be custom fabricated. There's a few calculations you needa throw into this before you jump in and do this project - if you put LED's in place of your bulbs you're gonna have some issues with the blinker speed. You'll need to emulate the impedence of the light bulbs by installing a resistor somewhere in that circuit, and you'll also want to make sure you get the voltages correct.

I would like to see what you come up with. If you need help on fabrication. I may be able to help you. I've made some circuits before. It's not hard. I actually used a vinyl decal as a stencil in the process. It would be cool if we could work on something like this. LED lights would be pretty slick. I'm sure daPyr0x would appreciate the effort.. I'd like to have some LED lights too. I could make the circuit boards, just give me some plans.

Statik

LSDiodes sells the Luxeons...

I'm actually unsure of exactly what I want to do. I've always been a person who doesn't like to see the source of light, merely where it reflects. Kinda like on a car's underglow, I *hate* seeing the neons, just like seeing the underbody and the ground below lit up. As such, I've been thinking about a ring of inward-facing LEDs along the outside of the reflector.

So, if this is a side shot of the reflector/light, a regular bulb would be something like this

Code:

	
  /
 /
/..
\``
 \
  \

with the dots being the lightbulb
And the posibility I was thinking of would be something like this

Code:

	
  /|
 /
/
\
 \
  \|

and the | along the outside of the rims of the reflectors would be the LEDs, pointing in and then being reflected back out.

But, I had also thought of something a bit more traditional, with something more along the lines of a traditional bulb, but still inward facing

Code:

	
  /
 /
/__|
\--|
 \
  \

And then, of course, htere's a more traditional outward faving design similar to that, but, like I said, I don't like those as much.

No matter what I do, I don't think there's a way of doing this without opening up the tails, which kinda bothers me, because I'd like to keep them sealed. But, I'm still not sure what all I'd need because I'm not sure how many I'd need, or how would be best to do it all as far as light output is concerned.

According to LSDiodes roughly candela = lumens/12.47 (if I remember right...), so I shouldn't need more than like 4-6 LEDs for each brake light, but I still really do'nt know yet.

If I do have to open up my tails, I want to buy aftermarket ones, because I'd like to keep my stock ones in perfect running condition, and not ruin them by trying to mod em. That's whats holding me back, they're not cheap. So, right now, I'm in planning mode.