Luxeon Dome light (automotive)

Since George designed these great little boards for his older Toyota, I thought I'd give one a try in my shiny new Rav4EV. I bought the raw "built" board, and supplied my own emitter, heat sink and connectors. Turns out that his turn-key units would have worked better and saved me time - but where's the challenge in that?

Check out George's page for his automotive driver boards here: Dome light drivers. while they're a bit big for flashlight work, they're fantastic for their intended purpose: Automotive LED lighting. (link edited)

Here are the shots of my completed unit. It is more, better light at about 1/8th the current draw. Plus the unquantifiable "cool" factor of having LEDs in the car...

(images edited in 2007!)

Darell I think you've just built the worlds longest running flashlight, can you send you car to Roy for a runtime plot ? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Rechargeable too! I figure I could have that light on for many years if I left the "ignition" on (which connects the traction batteries to the inverter which charges the aux battery that runs the 12v items).

well...impressions?

i must say...it looks great!!!

i wonder if several (25-20) ls could be wired in paralell? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

In series the driver wouldn't have enough voltage for more than two. In parallel, it couldn't provide the current.

I realized that I should have taken a picture of it all buttoned up. Oops. Maybe later. I just left that light on accidentally for about ten hours (rear door not all the way latched). That little heat sink I glued the emitter to may not be big enough. I think I'll tack on some bigger cooling fins, and my next one will be built a bit beefier.

Ah but did you have to jump start your Rav or was 10 hours of Luxeon ok?

You can ship it here cheaper than all the way to Texas. Make shore (Oh boy I need sleep /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif--make that shure) your portablized TAL is in the trunk and I'll take care of the rest.

Well, it was like one hour of the incandescent - so all was good. (Except that the heat sink damn near burned the finger print off my fingertip).

[ QUOTE ]
Darell said:
Well, it was like one hour of the incandescent - so all was good. (Except that the heat sink damn near burned the finger print off my fingertip).

[/ QUOTE ]

Gee - you should have bought one of my 5W drivers and installed a 5W emitter - that would have permanently removed you fingerprints /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

george.

[ QUOTE ]
georges80 said:
Gee - you should have bought one of my 5W drivers and installed a 5W emitter - that would have permanently removed you fingerprints /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


[/ QUOTE ]
I'll save that for when I replace the headlights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think the simple is the best option, you can do something like that to the dome light, easy, cheap with very good results... Try...

:nana:

well since it's already been waken from the dead i'd like to throw in http://www.oznium.com/led-domelight this is the best LED dome light I have yet to come across if you can fit it into your stock housing

I plan to put a blue one in my cavalier

and let me tell you these things are SOOOOOOOOOO bright

it uses 4 chip suferflux LED's

Illum_the_nation said:

Changchung, I'm not sure that bumping a 4 year old thread is a good idea

I mean, granted, Darell is the most super awesome guy ever...but sometimes its best not to dig up threads thats supposed to be dead in the archives

Click to expand...

i do not check the post date...

netofficer3710 said:

well since it's already been waken from the dead i'd like to throw in http://www.oznium.com/led-domelight this is the best LED dome light I have yet to come across if you can fit it into your stock housing

I plan to put a blue one in my cavalier

and let me tell you these things are SOOOOOOOOOO bright

it uses 4 chip suferflux LED's

Click to expand...

This is the problem in most cases, mine is so tiny and the light is amazing...

Luxeon Dome light (Automotive)

Thanks for the posts. I was looking for something like this back when and I it has renewed my interest.

Re: Luxeon Dome light (Automotive)

Nice dig, Changchung. We were discussing these with Darell a couple of months ago since the dome light in my car keeps burning for no apparent reason.

Incidentally, this is George's website (the link in the OP is no longer valid):
http://www.taskled.com/

Re: Luxeon Dome light (Automotive)

Here's another alternative:


3 Luxeons + 1/16" aluminium plate + LMS1587 in current mode. LMS1587 set to 350mA.

Goes from this:



to this:



And uses 1/3rd the power.

netofficer3710 said:

well since it's already been waken from the dead i'd like to throw in http://www.oznium.com/led-domelight this is the best LED dome light I have yet to come across if you can fit it into your stock housing

Click to expand...

Ah.. now I'm really glad this was opened back up. While I can't quite go along with "best" on these - due to the fact that they are not regulated - they show great promise. Best part for me is the adapters that come with them. That is AWESOME! I'll definitely give them a try for some of my more difficult applications. (OK, I have $100 of their product heading my way now... uh... thanks... I think)

BTW, the units in my Rav are now all "smart" in that they auto-sleep if a door is left open for longer than 15 minutes. This has saved my bacon more times than I can count.

Re: Luxeon Dome light (Automotive)

greenLED said:

Nice dig, Changchung. We were discussing these with Darell a couple of months ago since the dome light in my car keeps burning for no apparent reason.

Incidentally, this is George's website (the link in the OP is no longer valid):
http://www.taskled.com/

Click to expand...

Thanks, Green. I just edited the link in my OP as well. Since this thread, I've done LOTS of work for the Prius as well.
this is one of my favorite comparison shots of factory bulb to my dome module:



Links to all my Prius goods:
http://evnut.com/prius_dome_cargo.htm
http://evnut.com/prius_dome_front.htm
http://evnut.com/prius_dome_door.htm
http://evnut.com/prius_dome_shade.htm
http://evnut.com/prius_dome_rear_festoon.htm
http://evnut.com/prius_led_license.htm

Changchung said:

I think the simple is the best option, you can do something like that to the dome light, easy, cheap with very good results... Try...

Click to expand...

Cheap and easy is good for many things. I was after "most durable and brightest." You just can't beat a fully-regulated high-output emitter(s) for that job!

I've since edited some newer images into my opening post. Man, that was a long time ago!