Where to buy 5mm bright LEDs?

[Masterrer]

Hello people!
I'm new here, and want to say that you are true LED gurus.

I'm building LED taillights for my car, but the problem is the local electronics stores sell very dim LEDs:
The brightest I found was a SuperFlux red 1.5-2.5Cd for 0.80$:
http://www.lemona.lt/index.php?page=item&i_id=66525
And a Luxeon Star; 530nm costs 18$!!!

I'm more used to 5mm LEDs,
so I'm searching for a place to buy bright 5mm LEDs for a good price, and shipping to Europe is a must.

Can I trust the claims on e-Bay like these?:
5mm red LED 18 000 mcd 50 pack + 1000 resistors free shipping for 13.50$?
http://cgi.ebay.com/50XNew-5mm-Supe...8QQihZ015QQcategoryZ26207QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[LED_Thrift]

May I suggest you look into the "Automotive" forum under Transportation Lighting for help with car lights. I know there are some threads recently discussing where to get replacement LED car lights.

CandlePowerForums > Beyond Flashlights Transportation Lighting

 

[Oznog]

Luxeon or any of the super-powerful emitters may not be a great choice because they're an intense point emitter, the red lens may or may not be able to diffuse it correctly.

What works really well are the 4-pin 7.6mmx7.6mm square pkgs- "SuperFlux" is one brand name for them. They don't have the thermal issues that Stars have, solder them on a PCB and that'll generally do it. They're cheap. More powerful than can be made in a T1-3/4 pkg, lambertian distribution (wide spread, not focused, good for a taillight). You'd use a number of them per light so the generated light is even not from one intense point.

 

[will]

Cars that are sold here in the US have tail lights that are approved by the Dept. of Transportation (D.O.T.) While Brighter may be better for flashlights it is not always the best for tail lights. I had been behind a car that had some very bright tail lights. After a few minutes I realized my night vision was being affected by the too bright lights. I was very happy when the car turned off the road I was traveling on. It was like a car coming at me that had it's upper headlights on.

 

[Oznog]

Oh BTW "Sunset Orange" is a high brightness slightly orange-y red that is generally the "red" used for taillights. That would be the color you want.

As will says, you could get busted for illegal taillights if you did something visibly odd. I'd say if you made them too powerful, they didn't spread light to the sides enough, or if the light emitted from one bright point and the lens didn't spread it out then you'd be in trouble.

Technically they may still not be a legal modification no matter what you do, I don't know know. Probably varies by state. If you made a basically normal-looking taillight though, I don't see why anyone would ever think to question it much less try to prosecute it. The danger would be in making a mistake because you don't know what you're doing or because you wanted to do something "super cool" like making them brighter than anyone has seen before.

 

[StandaT]

For LED retrofit try to search and ask here http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/. I think there are more experienced people in automotive/LED than on CPF. For example look at this

or this

or this

 

[Masterrer]

Thanks a bunch :thumbsup:

BTW, here's my setup so far: