LED Taillight Project

[fast93sho]

I just began on my LED Taillight Project. I'm using red LED's with clear lenses and I am mounting them on a sheet of plexiglass. I'm still working on the design though I'm not sure how many rows of LED's I should use, how many LED's per row, and if I should use LED's for the reverse lights also. I got 150 LED's along with many resistors. Here are some pics of the beginning of the project I took the red cover off the taillight assemblies so far.

 

[bmcreider]

More pics!

 

[WesternMassSHO]

Nice. What do you plan on running the LED's off of? Splice the ~12-14.4V rails back there and daisy chain 4 or 5 on each line? Let us know, looks interesting

 

[SHO92]

What method did you use to remove the lenses from the housings? I am ready to start my LED taillight project, but I haven't decided on how to go about removing the lenses. When ManySHOs did his LED tails, he had to use 4 tail lights because he kept cracking the red lenses trying to remove them.

 

[DHMag]

as for arrangement, id opt for following the original lens. 5 horizontal rows of 10-12 LEDS.

 

[fast93sho]

I preheated my oven to 400 degrees then i put the assembly in it and checked on it 5 minutes the adhesive began to heat up and I took a little bit of the lens off then put it in and checked on it every 2 minutes. It took about 9 minutes in the oven for it to come off. After that it comes off very easy.
I was thinking about following the original lens with 5 rows like DHMag said and have 3 rows on when my lights are on and when I brake have the other 2 rows light up but I am still debating it.

 

[Camarok]

let us know how it goes....

 

[shonutt]

that would be awsome please keep up updated i cant wait

 

[SolidState]

I preheated my oven to 400 degrees then i put the assembly in it and checked on it 5 minutes the adhesive began to heat up and I took a little bit of the lens off then put it in and checked on it every 2 minutes. It took about 9 minutes in the oven for it to come off. After that it comes off very easy.
I was thinking about following the original lens with 5 rows like DHMag said and have 3 rows on when my lights are on and when I brake have the other 2 rows light up but I am still debating it.

a la cadillac, eh? I was thinking the same thing at one time. But now if I tackle anything like this, I'll probably find a way to use dual brightness LEDs.

Are you using RED LEDs, or WHITE?

 

[LookAtThatSHO]

Any updates? Sweet project!

 

[Camarok]

a la cadillac, eh? I was thinking the same thing at one time. But now if I tackle anything like this, I'll probably find a way to use dual brightness LEDs.

Are you using RED LEDs, or WHITE?

The "dual" brightness can be achieved by a PWD (pulse width modulator) which basically turns the leds on and off super fast giving it a "dimmer" look. Some peoples' eyes can pick up on this when driving behind a car with this... they kinda flicker, and you notice this more if you turn your head quick, you get a glimps of it.... kind like putting a fan infront of your tv or something like that.

From what I nkow, there are no LEDs that have dual brightness built within them.

Or what you could do is build 2 circuits, one with less leds than the other for purpose of haveing a brighter brake light.

 

[SolidState]

hmm, that is interesting.

I was wondering how they achieved that, as I studied LEDs in depth back when I was taking electrical engineering in university...

 

[92sho16]

My winter project is LED tail lights as well, my plan is for each tail light to have 50 leds, 5 rows of 10 LED's each. To achieve the parking/brake light im going to wire two rows to the parking lights and 3 rows to the brake. So basically 20 leds for parking lights and 50 for brake ( per tail light). I just recieved all the components so i have no pictures to share.