Aftermarket LED car lights

[alberto]

Has anyone here had any experience with replacing brake lights on a car with LED aftermarket lights such as this one:

I know the response time is supposed to be much faster and it's probably brighter. But it would be good to hear from someone who's done it and can advise as to whether it's worthwhile or not.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

I haven't seen one like that before...

I tried two different brand of 1157 replacement and neither worked well in my tail lights.

 

[Unicorn]

That looks like it's for the third, or high mount brakelight. That would probably work pretty well. There are enough LED's to make it bright. Look at the tail lights, and running lights on some busses, and semis for an idea of what that one might be able to do. I've wondered if the 1157 drop in replacements would be bright enough.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

If I remember right, the Lumileds taillight rounds and CHMSL arrays use "spider" LEDs, rather than Luxeon Stars.
Something else the cleaners got or threw away...otherwise I could take pictures of them and measure them for you. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif :toliet: /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
Oh wait... there are probably pictures of them on my website under "spider LEDs". This link ought to do the trick. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Gman]

d

 

[alberto]

Hey, thanks. It looks exactly like the CHMSL you describe. I'm going to try to see one up-close before I invest the time and money, but I have a feeling I'm going to like it. Anything to get more attention from tail huggers.

 

[Bart]

Posted by "The LED Museum":

[ QUOTE ]
If I remember right, the Lumileds taillight rounds and CHMSL arrays use "spider" LEDs, rather than Luxeon
Stars.
Something else the cleaners got or threw away...otherwise I could take pictures of them and measure them
for you. :toliet:
Oh wait... there are probably pictures of them on my website under "spider LEDs". This link ought to do the
trick.

[/ QUOTE ]

The round and linear arrays that Lumileds offers are actually made using "snapleds". They are similar to the "spiderleds" (superflux LEDs, as Lumileds call them), but are bigger and can handle up to 150mA while the superflux leds handle up to 70mA. Discrete snapleds are not available to the public because you don't solder them... only their premade arrays are available to the average joe.

LedMuseum: Have you ever gotten your hands on one of those snapleds? At one time, I used them in my tail lights but I didn't have any extras to send you in case you never seen them in real life. They aren't that amazing, just wierd looking just like all the new LEDs coming out. IMO, the ONLY thing keeping snapleds alive is the "solderless clinch" technology used... but not everyone can use that mothod of mounting. When I had them, I soldered them but was very close to ruining the LEDs since their method of heat dissipation is through their thick leads (mainly the negative lead). Luxeons leads are thinner because that's not their method of heat dissipation, so you can solder more freely with those!

Now I use the superflux LEDs for my tail lights (380 LEDs in all). I am currently attempting amber Luxeon emitters for my front turn signals... but that's a whole other ball game.

 

[highlandsun]

Wow, amazing that you had the patience to solder 380 LEDs... I like working with Stars instead of emitters, since they're already heatsinked well enough for low-current use. My front turn signals run at 100mA as parking lights, and they can run at that level forever without heat problems. They hit 500mA when flashing, but since they're only on at 50% duty cycle, it's no big deal, they cool off fast enough.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

[ QUOTE ]
Bart said:
LedMuseum: Have you ever gotten your hands on one of those snapleds? ... They aren't that amazing, just wierd looking just like all the new LEDs coming out. IMO, the ONLY thing keeping snapleds alive is the "solderless clinch" technology used...

[/ QUOTE ]
I've never gotten my hands on these LEDs in their feral state, only as finished products like the Lumileds taillight rounds and CMHSL strips. I thought the cleaners got them all late last year, but I believe I found one of the CHMSL arrays about a week ago. Let's see if I can go find it again...BRB...(tick tock tick tock)... There, I found a BROKEN taillight round. (How it got broken, I don't know because I didn't do it!!!)
It has three pins: a common cathode (-) terminal, a taillight (+) pin, and a turn signal (+) pin. When the turn signal pin gets +12 volts, the entire thing lights up VERY bright, and when the taillight pin gets +12 volts, it's dimmer.

I think I do have a bare SnapLED around here somewhere. It's never been soldered to or press-fit onto another assembly, because the metal tabs on it showed no dimpling or solder residue.