Using Red Lux III's as a taillight

I've been wanting to build a LED setup for the taillight on my motorcycle for a while, and with the lower price of the Lux3's now I think it's time to take advantage of this. The bike uses a 2x1157 rectangle housing now, but I'm thinking of either affixing the LED's in place of the 1157's and see what kind of output I get, or putting a round reflector in there. Then use a driver to vary the current to 2 levels.

Anyone attempted something similar?

What kind of bike do you have? I did a little mod work on my Connie to put a Whelen strobe LED unit in there, it quad-flashes or something when you hit the breaks. It's pretty flippin' sweet..

I ride a Honda Hawk GT (NT650) The strobe sounds like a cool mod, any pics or links to what you did/used? My other idea is to integrate a driver that the local PD's are using that flashes the brakes very fast upon first press, then goes solid.

I used a Whelen 700 series light head (IIRC) but there are a bunch of different heads that can do that. It glows normally in the tail light mode, and then when you hit the brakes it strobes on and off, probably 4 times in half a second, and then it glows solid. Probably about the same thing you've seen, I bet. Really cool, IMO..

That sounds like the ticket. I'll check my Gall's catalog as they carry a lot of Whelen iirc. Thanks for the info.

For Lux III in rear lights, see: www.lumileds.com/newsandevents/releases/PR36.pdf

Don't forget (you probably havn't), rear lights produce a beam and matching the existing one would be the responsible thing to do for other road users.

VWTim - I too have a Hawk (except here in the UK they are called Bros).
I am thinking about converting to rear leds lights, but by using 30 x 10cd Kingbright red-orange 5mm leds as it simplifies construction and should be pretty thin.
My aim is to get a little extra room for the rather cramped tool box.

My trouble is, I want to try it out on a spare assembly just in case I cannot get a good light distribution (as the micro-lenses on the rear reflector are likely to have an effect) and if I cut up the origional, I can't easily go back.
But spare rear lights are impossible to get second-hand and a new one costs £60 ($100).

And, what is a "2x1157" rectangle housing

Steve

The 2x1157 housing is that the light housing is rectangular and uses 2x 1157 type bulbs.

I'd thought of going with a mess of 5mm's, but the Lux 3's sounded so interesting. Now I'm going to check into that Whalen setup.

If you had the ability to make your own optics or reflector setup a Lux3, even a Lux5 would be awesome. I don't know if the Whelen setup will fit as easily for yours as it did mine, but all I had to do was make a little adapter plate, screw that into the motorcycle, and screw the light into that. It was pretty simple, really. Brighter than stock, plus it's highly visable when I brake which is always a plus on two wheels..

You guys are making me miss my Hawk GT.
It served me well and taught me roadracing, and was replaced by my SV650.
VWTim, have you considered the multi-LED replacement bulbs?
I have them in my Gixxer and although they're not screaming bright, they are brighter than stock bulbs.
As far as the 2 levels go, a simple resitor might work for the running lights, bypassing it for the brake.
Actually, since you are working with a constant voltage supply > the Vf of the LEDs, resistors alone could work instead of a driver.

Bandgap, the "2 X 1157 rectangle housing" refers to the two bulb types. Maybe they're labeled differently in the UK.

I did mine awhile ago.

Although it is hard to see in the frame rate, one will notice that the LED third light kicks in a bit sooner than the incandescent tail lights.

At the time, I counted frames and such, and ended up determining at like 60 mph, this shorter time period would equated to something like an extra 17 ft of stopping distance for the person behind me. Much better than a rear end accident.

http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/dougta~6.avi


Ah, I found it. Forget the comments made here, refer to this thread:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1270079

Thanks for bringing that link back, NewBie! I'd solved the problems that I had with my Focus taillights but I'm still working on the 3rd brake light. That thread gives me some ideas which I'm thinking will help me finish this project off for the most part. Now I just need 8 Ti screws..

Ohh, and as far as the drop-in replacement "bulbs" are concerned, you're definately going to get what you pay for. And in every case I've seen you'll get better results if you replace the whole assembly rather than try and use the old one. Long story short, stay away from anything that's $2.99 on EbAY..

No problem, you are welcome.

I had been using 2 Red Lux I Star O's for taillights on my ATV and everyone bitches that they blind the !*$#!! out of them...

Well that is untill my HID lights burnt them out! I guess HID's and Luxeons do not get along to well.

Has anyone tried these Lux 3 drop-in replacement 1157 from superbrightleds.com: http://superbrightleds.com/specs/115x-xLX3.htm. $19.99/ea doesn't seem too bad for LUX3 drop in, and they say they can be brighter than incans, but wondered if anyone has had any real-life experience?

Thanks.

i had built a 3rd brake light / reverse light / turn signals for my suzuki swift about 2 years ago. the swift did not have a 3rd brake light so i decided to make one myself but with a twist as i included reverse and turn signal lights too.
i used 48 x 5mm red led's for the brake, 9 x 5mm white leds for the reverse and 9 x 5mm amber led for each turn signal and arranged them in a funky pattern. They were underdriven so no problems with the fluctuatung voltage.
I preferred to use 5mm or piranha led's simply because they look better ( having more of them ) and can be arranged in any pattern.
Unfortunately i sold the swift about a year ago and never took a picture.