stykeeryce
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2003
- Messages
- 37
i was wondering how hard it would be to modify the taillights and reverse lights with some leds instead of the bulbs, i was thinking maybe some 1 watters? any ideas on this? thanks.
Modifying Car Lights with Leds
- Thread starter stykeeryce
- Start date
Blackbeagle
Newly Enlightened
A search of this site should give you lots of different manufacturers of LED replacement bulbs, but... I don't know of all that many that are DOT certified so they WON'T be street legal.
If you build it yourself, it definitely won't be DOT. You'd have to take the risk of real trouble in any accident you get into i.e. someone saying that your lights weren't legal so the fault is yours...
If you build it yourself, it definitely won't be DOT. You'd have to take the risk of real trouble in any accident you get into i.e. someone saying that your lights weren't legal so the fault is yours...
Harrkev
Enlightened
I would also question the reliability of such a light. First of all, we know that an individual LED is MUCH more reliable than any other type of illumination. However, for a tail light, you need probably 20 or 30 LEDs, which reduces the reliability.
Let's assume that the chance of an LED failing in a typical year is 1%. If you put 20 LEDs in one housing, then your chance of having all of them still working after one year is 82%. This means a 19% failure rate. The math is (0.99 ^ 20) for 20 LEDS with a 99% chance of continuing to work.
Also, for automotive applications, they string a few LEDs in series. When one dies, it will take out all of the other LEDs in series with it.
LEDs havine a 1% failure rate may be pessemistic. Maybe only 0.5% fail. But the point is that if you add enough reliable parts together, there are still good odds of something breaking, just because you have so many.
Let's assume that the chance of an LED failing in a typical year is 1%. If you put 20 LEDs in one housing, then your chance of having all of them still working after one year is 82%. This means a 19% failure rate. The math is (0.99 ^ 20) for 20 LEDS with a 99% chance of continuing to work.
Also, for automotive applications, they string a few LEDs in series. When one dies, it will take out all of the other LEDs in series with it.
LEDs havine a 1% failure rate may be pessemistic. Maybe only 0.5% fail. But the point is that if you add enough reliable parts together, there are still good odds of something breaking, just because you have so many.
Yes, and whatever the life expectancy/failure rate is for the LED, it will be much worse for all of those connections - each LED has 2 leads, plus the good ones have at least some sort of circuit board. I have 3 bulbs on each side in my SUV, and I considered this for 1 bulb on each side. But the DOT certification issue scared me away.
I'm using some cheap ones in my trailer, however. It's small enough not to be required to have lights. DOT requirements are for 1500lbs. & up, I think, unless that has changed lately; YMMV. But the LEDs have so far lasted longer than regular bulbs. And I can still swap the regular bulbs back in. You also might have problems with the blinker function because of the low current. Buy a major manf. LED lamp assembly from the junkyard. Also some surplus electronics places sell LED lamp assemblies - maybe because they did not meet DOT requirements.
I'm using some cheap ones in my trailer, however. It's small enough not to be required to have lights. DOT requirements are for 1500lbs. & up, I think, unless that has changed lately; YMMV. But the LEDs have so far lasted longer than regular bulbs. And I can still swap the regular bulbs back in. You also might have problems with the blinker function because of the low current. Buy a major manf. LED lamp assembly from the junkyard. Also some surplus electronics places sell LED lamp assemblies - maybe because they did not meet DOT requirements.
Ive been thinking about 1watt luxeons in the the brake lights, great idea, but youre gonna need heatsinking. when your parking lights come on that 1watt may be on for multiple hours at a time.
something to think about.
but for chevys 3rd brake light this would be an ideal application.
something to think about.
but for chevys 3rd brake light this would be an ideal application.
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Blackbeagle
Newly Enlightened
LED interior lights are no problems whatsoever. Just look at sites like www.varad.com if you don't mind basic wiring. If you want bulb swaps, there are lots of sites that make LED interior bulb replacements. Just do a search for auto + LED + bulb.
Entropy
Enlightened
Do a search for the user georges80 - He sells Luxeon dome lights for Land Cruisers that should be adaptable to many other vehicles. Don't remember the URL for his site at the moment.
As to reliability of many LEDs - LEDs are so far ahead of incandescents in reliability that even if you use a hundred, they will still last forever compared to an incandescent. (This is one of two reasons why luxury cars are starting to appear with pure-LED tail and turn lights.)
As to reliability of many LEDs - LEDs are so far ahead of incandescents in reliability that even if you use a hundred, they will still last forever compared to an incandescent. (This is one of two reasons why luxury cars are starting to appear with pure-LED tail and turn lights.)
Canuke
Enlightened
I bet that LED assemblies are built at least partly in parallel to enhance longevity. I saw an LED traffic light in Glendale CA where some of the individual LED's had failed, some in rows. The Light was still functional, but had an odd, jaggy look, which for a CGI artist like me is shocking to see in "real life"...
As far as car lights go, I think the rule at a minimum, is to stay away from modifying lights that have specific legal status (color & brightness specs), such as brakes, signals, etc. I've got LED's in my aux lights on my Del Sol, but they are not much brighter than the normal running lights, nor are they any proscribed color, like red or blue.
As far as car lights go, I think the rule at a minimum, is to stay away from modifying lights that have specific legal status (color & brightness specs), such as brakes, signals, etc. I've got LED's in my aux lights on my Del Sol, but they are not much brighter than the normal running lights, nor are they any proscribed color, like red or blue.
Gransee
Flashlight Enthusiast
4 DOT approved series/parallel arrays, 168 square snapLEDs total, drawing less than 1/10th of the original current, brighter, turns on faster. Dome and maps interior are also LED.
Peter
PhotonWrangler
Flashaholic
[ QUOTE ]
Canuke said:
I saw an LED traffic light in Glendale CA where some of the individual LED's had failed, some in rows. The Light was still functional, but had an odd, jaggy look, which for a CGI artist like me is shocking to see in "real life"...
[/ QUOTE ]
Interesting... this marks the first time that I've actually heard of an LED traffic light failing. All of the once I've seen thus far are still fairly new and haven't lost any of the individual lamps yet.
The neat thing, of course, is that LED traffic lights will not fail catastrophically, where they could wind up causing accidents, the way that incandescent lamps can. This is probably the single most important justification for replacing incandescent bulbs in traffic lights - they can save lives.
Canuke said:
I saw an LED traffic light in Glendale CA where some of the individual LED's had failed, some in rows. The Light was still functional, but had an odd, jaggy look, which for a CGI artist like me is shocking to see in "real life"...
[/ QUOTE ]
Interesting... this marks the first time that I've actually heard of an LED traffic light failing. All of the once I've seen thus far are still fairly new and haven't lost any of the individual lamps yet.
The neat thing, of course, is that LED traffic lights will not fail catastrophically, where they could wind up causing accidents, the way that incandescent lamps can. This is probably the single most important justification for replacing incandescent bulbs in traffic lights - they can save lives.
NightShift
Enlightened
[ QUOTE ]
Gransee said:
4 DOT approved series/parallel arrays, 168 square snapLEDs total, drawing less than 1/10th of the original current, brighter, turns on faster. Dome and maps interior are also LED.
Peter
[/ QUOTE ]
owwww, i want LEDs in my brake lights so bad, i just know it will be tricky...
Gransee said:
4 DOT approved series/parallel arrays, 168 square snapLEDs total, drawing less than 1/10th of the original current, brighter, turns on faster. Dome and maps interior are also LED.
Peter
[/ QUOTE ]
owwww, i want LEDs in my brake lights so bad, i just know it will be tricky...
CNC Dan
Enlightened
[ QUOTE ]
NightShift said:
owwww, i want LEDs in my brake lights so bad, i just know it will be tricky...
[/ QUOTE ]
You can get some standard size DOT aproved red and amber lights online that are made for tractor trailers. They come in round and rectangular, various sizes. You may be able to adapt such to your car.
NightShift said:
owwww, i want LEDs in my brake lights so bad, i just know it will be tricky...
[/ QUOTE ]
You can get some standard size DOT aproved red and amber lights online that are made for tractor trailers. They come in round and rectangular, various sizes. You may be able to adapt such to your car.
NightShift
Enlightened
i could have done that to my old car, but now i have to stick to just modifying the bulbs which is a little trickier since my car uses the wedge type bulbs
