LED PROJECT

I need HELP . I am trying to make my own emergency lights and I need to know step by step what the process is for LED's. I am a volunteer fireman so the lights would be red and white. I also would like to know what kind of flasher I would need for different flash patterns. I have heard of people making the lights using aluminum channel for mounting. I am totally new to this but am excited to learn. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rich

Welcome to the CPF!!

What are you looking for, a dash light? Hide-aways??

Can you say a little more about what you would like it to do?

I am looking to build dash, deck and grille lights. I will probably make other colors such as red, white and amber also. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am totally new to all this, but, am very interested in building my own. Thanks again.

ok ,slow down .. welcome to CPF, you must realize you are not providing any where near enough info , please be VERY specific what the led's mission is (did i mention be VERY specific) is it to proved light ? or provide a indication something is on or off? or, is it to spell something?. lets look at it from a fireman's view , lets say i walk up to you and say i want to put out a fire , your answer is not gonna be "just put a little water on it or " just smack the fire with a rug" no! you want to know how big a fire , what type of fire, structure type , and all the variables that that entails, see a apparently easy question is not always easy to describe or answer, i cant help you i don't think ,but we have many people here that can, if you can be more specific, once again welcome to CPF

Welcome to CPF. The knowledge backround of this board is incredably diverse.There are a lot of public safety workers on this board. (I'm an EMT myself)

It's probably going to cost you more then purchasing a ready made light.

Also, whelen is coming out with a "competitor series" version of the talon really soon, it is supposed to rival the price of the star mini phantom.

www.sirennet.com is the lowest prices ive found outside of ebay.

The star mini phantom is a good buy if your going to go with red/red the red/blue isn't worth it imo. The blue is so dim compared to the red. But also IMHO, theres almost no dash light out there that will rival the dual talon. But that thing is damed expensive.

Of course, if your up to the challenge and really want to build it yourself and are willing to spend the money, then youv'e come to the right place.

But of course your going to have to explain exactly what you want to do. I'm guessing that you want the lights for emergency warning, but also you want it to be cheaper then commerical products.

Stay around awhile, and you'll not only want lights for your car, but also for your turnout pockets, and your keychain, and your glove box.

It's going to be a wild ride. Just tell the wallet to shut up and take it like a man! :rock:

Ok, to be VERY specific, I want to build my own emergency led lights for my personal vehicle. Primary colors will be red and white and I will more than likely make some amber ones also. I would like to make dual colored ones also wiith half the light flashing one color and the other half flashing a different color. I know the present lights on the market must have some kind of small chip that makes them flash or they have an external flasher unit. Any help is appreciated.

ill give you a free bump

One of the first things you might need to do is to figure out how much current your circuit is going to need to handle. (LED type and circuit configuration) This will help you determine how you will flash the led's. It could be something as simple as a 555 timer or as complicated as a multi chip flip-flop circuit, or maybe even a software programed chip.

One of the things you could do, is get a headlight flasher (for wigwags) and just use it to power your led arrays instead of your headlights. These will handle ALOT of current, and you probably could do away with using relays because the flasher alrealdy has them.

I dont know if you've got a budget, but if you do, it would be your benefit to post it this way we could help you better

This light is made by an EMT in New Jersey, and it's pretty impressive as far as the programming goes, but his price point is just a bit high compared to "commercially available" warning lights.


http://www.bkinnovations.com/First_Aid_Products/Led_Light/Double.htm

Is this what you want to do?

That is definately what I want to be building.

ColdSolderJoint, that's actually not a bad price compaired to commerically available LED warning lights..