LED Brake Light Project

LED Brake Light Project

I've been saying I'd do this for a long time now, so here it is!

So to get started and get a feel for how bright SuperFlux LEDs are, I decided to convert my center brake light to LED's. I'm gonna do the brake lights next, but I first need to design a pulse-width modulator circuit for the running lights.
Pics below:






*note: the center brake light is about twice as bright as the brake lights but matches up real nice cuz its going through limo-black tint*

I'll make a DIY as soon as I'm done... it took me a day to get everything figured out for my center brake light, the next day it took about 2 hours to do this mod on a 2003 eclipse for a friend. (including the trip to get all the parts)

that looks AWESOME!!
Cant wait for the DIY!! Im gunna do it TOO!!

It's gonna take some time, I just spent about $100 ordering more LED's to experiment with to do the tail lights.

I'll give you the breakdown of the things/skills you'll need:

1. ) Some LED's. Luxeon SuperFlux LED's are the best for the application. I've ordered some SnapLED 150's to play with for the rear brake lights, I'll let ya'll know how they turn out. You can use 5mm LED's off ebay, but no guarentees as to how long they'll last/how great they'll look/how easy they'll align, since they're only 2 prong.

2.) Solder, Soldering Iron, and Soldering Skill - it ain't easy if you're a beginner, but once you get the hang of it it's a piece of cake. I personally invested in a good variable wattage Weller Soldering iron because I do a lot of EE crap.

3.) Some basic knowledge of electronics - Kirchoff's Laws, Series/Parallel circuits, and max power transfer - not all circuits will be the same, some of them will require more or less LED's in a different series/parallel combination than I used. For example, i had to use a different setup for my friend's 03 Eclipse. Feel free to ask if you need help with this.

4.) High wattage resistors - Radioshack sells up to 10 Watt maximum power resistors, in a very limited quantity and selection. I needed about 7 Ohms of resistance in my circuit to provide the correct amount of current to my LED's (driving them at about 40 mA), but they only come in 1 Ohm, 10 Ohm, 50 Ohm, and 100 Ohm. There's an electronics place around here that I never have a chance to get to cuz I'm always workin past their closing time and they aint open on weekends, but I'm sure you can get these else where in a better variety.

To get 7 Ohms, simply take two 10's in Parallel (this will give you 5 Ohms of equivalent resistance) and put it in series with two 1 ohmers in series. Always use a multimeter to verify.

5.) Some Radioshack PCB - you can mount your LED's on these neatly, and evenly, and you can cut it to whatever shape you want. I used my trusty dremel.

6.) Some 20 Gauge Wire - pick this up at radioshack when you get your PCB. Solid, not stranded.

I guess I mentioned some tools I didn't put up as official things you'd need, so here we go:

Multimeter (fluke makes excellent ones)
Dremel
Bah I can't think of anything else.

If you have an older car I'd recommend checking how many volts are going across your light terminals w/the multimeter.

don't feel like you're on your own w/this either, i'll more than gladly answer any questions you have or try to help you with any problems. And those of you local to socal (particularly in san diego or los angeles) I can help directly.

i just joined the forum is this diy posted at all yet if so please direct me i would like to do it

That is a great project. It makes me wish I had the time to do stuff like that right now. Looks good!
I'm interested in the tail lights. Definatly post the pics when you get around to it!