LED questions from a newbie. Any help appreciated

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hello,

This is a great board you folks have here. I wonder if I can trouble you all for an expert opinion regarding a project I have been wanting to attempt. This may sound crazy so please, bear with me.

I have a 1996 Ford Thunderbird and it has LEDs for the rear deck-lid mounted running lights from the factory. I would like to either replace them with a LED that is capable of running continuously at one level of brightness but can brighten up to act as a turn signal in what I hope will become sequential turn signals or modify the factory originals to do the same. I do realize that other electronics will be necessary to complete the effect I am striving for and am open to suggestions on that as well.

I have acquired two spare tail lamp assemblies and will be dissecting one to experiment with. The other I hope to save as a working model for the modification technique.

What I really need to know is, what type of LED do I need to use for this? I'm not sure just how bright they would need to be but, they would need to match the brightness of the modern equivalent of a regular incandescent brake/turn signal bulb.

I sincerely appreciate any help anyone here can offer. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]


Warped

[Brock]

I am moving this thread over to General Light Discussion

As long as I am here I can't say since I don't know how they are using them. I often wondered if they have say 6 in a string to the 12v (14v really) or they use a lot of resistors or ??? Once you get it apart let us know what you find.

[Marked]

Can you post pics of the assemblies?

I think runing two sets of LEDs would work.
one set for running lights and other for turning lights.

[Go, Go Gadget Flashlight]

Definitely will need to see some pics of the assembly and its circuit (if any).

In the mean time, let me ask if I'm hearing you correctly. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

You currently have TWO seperate running lights.
You want to have both lights on all the time, at say 50% brightness. And have them brighten up when the turn signals are activated.

This sounds like a pretty simple problem IF I have understood the original layout AND the LED assemblies are simple 2 wire input.

I'll post a diagram in a bit of what I have in mind. Let me know ASAP if something I've assumed is incorrect. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Go, Go Gadget Flashlight]

See what you and the others think of this. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"RL" are the LED running lites.
"TL" are the existing, 2 filament, turn/brake lites.



The power from the Turn/Brake lites wire should bypass the resistor to provide full brightness. The diodes are needed to keep from lighting up the Turn/Brake lites with the Running lite power.

Whadya think? [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Thanks for the replies so far folks. I haven't had the time to cut open the assembly yet but I plan on doing so today. I am including a picture I found on the net of the rear of a car like mine. I have marked the picture with a paint program to give you all an idea of the effect I am hoping to acheive.

Here is the picture.



On the driver's side I have marked the sequence I would like to have. I should mention that when each light fires, it should stay lit until all three are lit and then cycle again. The vertical line on the driver's side depicts a separator that I am going to install to acheive the effect of three separate lamps. I nearly forgot to mention that, while these LEDs and the incandescent light are sequencing, the front incandescent lamp has to blink once per LED/incandescent fire in the rear.

The horizontal line on the passenger side is the actual location of the factory LEDs within the lamp. The factory lamps are sealed assemblies and not really user serviceable. The only hole leading to the inside of the car's trunk is for the wires. I have to work today so it will be evening before I can cut open the spare assembly.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Warped

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hi again friends!

After utterly destroying one of my test subject tail lamps I have discovered that modifying the factory LEDs will be all but impossible. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] I'm sure some of you are curious as to what LEDs Ford used in the tail lamp so I took plenty of pictures.

I still want to modify the tail lamp but it will have to be done by adding more LEDs or possibly incandescent bulbs. I would appreciate any input any of you have to offer.

Here is a picture of the lamp assembly with the red lens removed (sort of). You can see where the LED strip mounts at the bottom firing upwards.




This picture shows the LED assembly opened. It has cone shaped reflectors that fire through a convex lens that clips to the top of the assembly.






This is a close up picture of the resistors on the board along with one of the LEDs.





I appreciate all of the help from you folks! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Warped

[**DONOTDELETE**]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Marked:
Can you post pics of the assemblies?

I think runing two sets of LEDs would work.
one set for running lights and other for turning lights.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As it turns out, that is exactly what I am going to need to do. Running the stock lights at 50% power would just look strange on the car. As you can see in the pictures below I don't have a whole lot of room to work with. If you need more pictures of any specific area I can get them up fairly quickly. Again, thanks for all of your help. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Warped