I have been looking at these for a while, and wondering if anyone in the U.K has ever bothered to make any?

 

 

 

when I say 'Any' I mean DECENT attempts, nothing with a strip light stuck inside the tail light housing lol..

 

The only thing that puts me off rushing out and buying some is A) the cost and B) I might be being picky, but I wish the leds went round the edges of the light cluster a bit better rather than having a flat lit edge... if that makes sense..

 

Has anyone ever made any on the forum?.. or know of anywhere locally, where I could enquire about some?

 

 

Any help appreciated

 

CheerZ

There have been a few posts on led rear lights as you say though some look awful !!

 

have a word with FunkiSi, as i know he had a few ideas on this

 

Chris

I think clear corners are the only place that does them and i also know what you mean about the edges, Its a real shame all it need is an extra 2 in there :(

Yeah, I mean, I would love my entire car to have LEDs all round, they will modernise the look of the car, the Tail Lights need to be done right though.. I have been in contact with one bloke about doing some, he is not on this forum. I will have a word with Si.. and I am surprised Groover hasn't attempted anything like this, as he is a Dab hand with the leds... I'm just more surprised that nobody in the uk has done them yet ... I even seen a little Saxo with led tail lights that looked cool the other day and I thought to myself, I need some LEDs on the Z....

and I am surprised Groover hasn't attempted anything like this, as he is a Dab hand with the leds.......

 

 

 

:nana2:;)

Ive got some clear corners ones here, im fixing, going to be looking at making something similar, the clear corners use strips, which is why you dont have them going around the edge, also easier as you dont need to solder hundreds of leds to a board.

I think funkysi was looking at getting some boards made through his work contacts

Ive got some clear corners ones here, im fixing, going to be looking at making something similar, the clear corners use strips, which is why you dont have them going around the edge, also easier as you dont need to solder hundreds of leds to a board.

I think funkysi was looking at getting some boards made through his work contacts

 

 

Im 1st on the list please Graham :nana2:

 

Mates rates :D

Im 1st on the list please Graham :nana2:

 

Mates rates :D

 

Well, let me be joint 1st.. as I created this thread LOL :D

Well, let me be joint 1st.. as I created this thread LOL :D

 

Already discussed weeks ago via pm's. my motor is 90% leds now with a massive thanks to Graham :tongue:

Already discussed weeks ago via pm's. my motor is 90% leds now with a massive thanks to Graham :tongue:

 

Lol :headvswal

Has anyone thought of using electro luminecent strips? like the one behind the light up 300zx rear panel? just a thought.

 

DaZ

Has anyone thought of using electro luminecent strips? like the one behind the light up 300zx rear panel? just a thought.

 

DaZ

 

 

It would work with the indicators. But not with the brake lights and rear lights because the brakes need to be brighter etc

I think funkysi was looking at getting some boards made through his work contacts

 

 

Yeah that rings a bell, i sent him an old oem rear light to experiment on also so definitely give him a shout

Im not sure how the el panel would react to different voltage changes. The side light would have a for eg: quarter watt resistor/choke and the for the brake light direct with no resistor, that way you get the difference in brightness between the 2. The el panel is driven by an invertor, which converts 12v to 110v, im not sure if you put the choke in front of the invertor whether it would perform properly, might not be enough voltage for the invertor. But nice idea

Im not sure how the el panel would react to different voltage changes. The side light would have a for eg: quarter watt resistor/choke and the for the brake light direct with no resistor, that way you get the difference in brightness between the 2. The el panel is driven by an invertor, which converts 12v to 110v, im not sure if you put the choke in front of the invertor whether it would perform properly, might not be enough voltage for the invertor. But nice idea

 

Well Groover, I think your the man to design it and make loads of money, cause if you do make it work, book me in for a rear light conversion!!!

I think they would look coooool :)

 

DaZ.:)

My '99 spec rears are full LED conversions.

 

One day I'll remember to get some photos :headvswal

I might be being picky, but I wish the leds went round the edges of the light cluster a bit better rather than having a flat lit edge... if that makes sense..

 

I've done quite a bit of research into this and totally agree with what you're saying and it's something I've been saying for years if you look back at other threads about this. Also, clear corners use the old style LEDs and as a result, each LED can be visible. If a PCB was used with the micro SMD LEDs (or 'LED Beads'), this would also look much better. LED spacing would be more concentrated and get a more even glow, so you wouldn't notice the gaps between each LED.

 

The trouble is, SMD LEDs need to go through a 'pick and place machine' before being passed through a solder bath (very quick to manufacture). The regular ones are hand fitted and soldered (which is extremely time consuming which is why the clear-corners' LED lights are so expensive) . Basically you'd need to find a company that has a solder bath and a pick and place machine who can also make you a PCB. There are quite a few companies in the UK that can build you PCBs and populate them to your design. It's not something you can do yourself though. Again, it's something I've been looking at. I've got quite a few contacts through my job and could probably get one designed and built, but it wouldn't be cheap unless I had a large batch of them made and sold them. I've just been lazy and haven't gotten round to designing it yet. I also need to pull apart a set of lights to see what space there is between diffuser, light backing and bezel.

 

These are the conventional old style LEDs that Clear corners mount to their boards. They are quite large and cumbersome and you can't get high concentrations of them due to design.

 

 

You can see here that their stand off height is quite big and they take up a lot of room. They also can't be packed together much closer than this.

 

 

SMD LEDs can be sourced that are so small, you can barely see them. They can be populated to a high degree of concentration (close together) and are extremely compact which means they add very little 'height' to the PCB. You'd basically loose the hard edges that are apparent in clear corners' style rear lights and you'd probably be able to manufacture a really wide strip that would sit beyond the edges of the light bezels, so they'd illuminate the same area that regular standard lights do.

 

 

Gives you and idea of what they look like mounted. These can be packed closer together too, so they'd butt up to each other. These are very small and because of that they can be packed very close to each other, when illuminated will give a much more even glow.

 

 

This shows how close together you can get them. This has been hand soldered....but you can get even smaller SMD LEDs that need tweezers to pick up.

 

 

Here's a better photo showing an SMD LED matrix. Gives you an idea as to how small they can go and the design I am talking about. You would still require the regular diffuser on top of these to completely even out light dispersal.

 

 

Gives you an idea of size.... this is NOT the smallest either.

 

 

This gives you a better idea of how small they can go. For guidance, a 1 dime coin is roughly the same size as our 5p piece.

 

Edited November 8, 200916 yr by FunkySi

I agree Simon, and believe micro smd leds are definitely the way forward with regards to getting the edge more crisp and rounded.

 

One question I do have with regards to the tail lights is the braking light and side light, I presume I will need a higher intensity led mounted between the cluster to make the brake lights apparent, as you cannot run a higher voltage through an led like you can with a halogen? as they have 2 filaments for this, whereas LEDs will just pop.

So the board will need a row of higher intensity bulbs for the brake light, which could break up the appearance again?

 

The ones that clear corners do are fine, but it's just that side edge that will grate on me.

 

I would like the strip to be packed nice and neatly together if I was to get them done myself, but it's the aggro of scouring the internet for companies and places to get it all done, and then to have them tell you it's not worth there while as they don't do one offs, plus the price it would cost would be silly unless made in bulk.

If you have contacts that would be able to do this, then that is fantastic and maybe you could make some money from it too?

 

The final thing that gets me is the fact that I know ALOT of people would purchase these if they were readily available, and a lot of people have ideas on these, but the ideas never seem to make it past the drawing board, this is why I am looking forward to seeing what Groover will produce. :)

"One question I do have with regards to the tail lights is the braking light and side light, I presume I will need a higher intensity led mounted between the cluster to make the brake lights apparent, as you cannot run a higher voltage through an led like you can with a halogen? as they have 2 filaments for this, whereas LEDs will just pop.

So the board will need a row of higher intensity bulbs for the brake light, which could break up the appearance again?"

 

 

You dont need seperate leds for the side and brake light leds, you would use a resistor which acts as a choke, i have these on my afterburner leds the resistor is inline with the sidelight feed and the brake light feed is wired directly to the same batch of leds, the effect is the same as a stop and tail lamp bulb dimmer for sidelight use and full brightness for the brakelight. Each section of leds already has a resistor inline for protection, the larger ceramic resistor is for the overall feed for the sidelights

Clear as mud i know :rofl:

Edited November 8, 200916 yr by groover

Right, been doing a bit more delving around. I've spoken with a few companies about producing PCBs populated with a matrix of SMD LEDs and it's gonna be mega costly. £1k+ before instalation! So custom work/prototyping is probably out of the question.

 

BUT, I have another solution. You can actually buy SMD LED matrix. Currently, they are still pretty expensive and I'd imagine that to stack enough of them side by side to fill just one of the apertures would still cost. But, providing you can mate them all together, it's doable.

 

This one is a colour variable one, so kinda pricey, but you get the idea.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/8-8-60-60mm-RGB-Full-Color-Dot-Matrix-LED-Display_W0QQitemZ260503286186QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ca734b1aa

 

These are slightly cheaper, but you get 3 per pack, but they are quite thick. So you're limited with space really.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/8x8-Bi-Colour-LED-Dot-Matrix-Pack-of-3-Arduino-Ideal_W0QQitemZ230426638225QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item35a67f7791

Or thinking further outside the box, the disco lighting world, there are plenty of manufacturers out there already make boards populated with leds, as floods. Although these particular light leds, are too big for what we are after, there are boards with 3mm or 5mm leds or can be adapted. I have a couple of these i use in my band, so i can take one apart and see what is feasable.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LEDJ-Stratos-RGB-LED-Colour-Wash-Flood-Light_W0QQitemZ140376007865QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ConElec_LightingLEDsStrobes_RL?hash=item20af0fe4b9

They are ok. Although they are the large diode ones. You'll get bright spots with those as you can't populate them that close to each other. Still think closely populate SMD LEDs are the way to go.