leds

[logan1]

I'm certainly interested in a set of LED tail lights depending on price.

[Hugh]

I built that on a flat plastic sheet with no regard for the inner shiny housing. When I perfect it, I plan to do the same sort of thing.

 

I'm now thinking the more they blend together, the better. I suppose I will switch to red and possibly step down to slightly less bright LED for them. Makes sense that they would disperse and blend better, with less obtrusive straight line brightness. I don't want laser pointers sticking out of the back of my car. Especially when they can't be seen from the side.

 

The day running lights would break up the look of the smooth lens that has no features to look at. I suppose that would look pretty interesting. How much side angle do you anticipate? Is your lens going to to protrude out of the back of the car, or be flush?

[getoffmyinternet]

I plan on making the lens about the same dimension as the oem and it can be used with the stock housing if desired. I'd like to make a new housing for the led clusters though, like an aluminum tray or something, if it's shiny that would also add to the look I think.

 

To make them blend better you could do 3mm leds too. Not many people do that, but it would simply allow you to use more of them in less space so the lights are closer together. 3mm leds can also be about the same brightness as the 5mm but if there are more of them then they don't really have to be. It's just more work is all.

 

Wide angle leds on superbrightleds are 120 degrees, so are most of the flat tops on ebay. That should be plenty, plus they are like 10000mcd. Of course you can never have too bright, because you can always just power them appropriately. You could even put a dimmer and leave it up to the customer, but I digress..

Edited March 22, 2010 by getoffmyinternet

[Hugh]

Something I hadn't considered.. haha - how stupid of me. A dimmer.

 

I'll go ultra-bright then, and adjust it til I like it.

[iBang]

Here's a question - does anyone know of an aftermarket 240Z tail light replacement that might have a clear lens? Maybe something in a ricer altezza style? I want to do LED tail lights as well but I want them to be a more modern look with clear lenses and red LED's in a nice pretty housing, but I've never seen tail light covers in anything other than OEM red. If I could get a set of altezza lights and throw away the crappy innards and just use the clear plastics over my own custom inner housings with LED's that could be very cool. Alternately it could look horrible but that's the chance you take.

[getoffmyinternet]

How would altezza lenses fit? All I know of are custom lenses that people make themselves. Or like the klearz guy but he doesn't make the 240z lenses, just the 260+. I've always wondered if a pantera lens would fit. It's doubtful but too hard to tell without seeing them side by side. They are very similar at least. I'm still debating if it's worth it to duplicate the original lenses myself, they seem to go like hot cakes. People would probably eat them up in clear and orange too.

[Hugh]

Looks wider to me.

 

 

(pantera)

Edited March 24, 2010 by Hugh

[getoffmyinternet]

Yeah either that or a different aspect. Worth a shot. "riveted" together??

 

I have several more ideas.

 

1. Adopting the late s30 tail but getting rid of the backup light lens area so you just have the two lenses, which klearz already makes in any color.

 

2. Using patterned plastic for the custom lenses that either have pillows on the inside or spikes like modern lenses (drop lighting style) so they diffuse the leds evenly. I got the idea from behind a car today that had the latter and the light was completely uniform and looked kinda like reflectors look when lit up (might even disguise the problem of not having reflectors (CA and others) and could look more interesting in the day than smooth lenses. I'm not sure if this can be vacuum formed easily enough though, it's pretty finicky when you use a female mold. A guy told me he's even vacuum formed the pillowed lenses with a male mold, but technically it would make the outside ripple a little bit. Otherwise I would probably have to spring for making a more complex two piece mold for resin casting, probably not worth it.

[getoffmyinternet]

I wish I had something to relate mcd to. The 5mm leds at superbrightleds are supposedly less than 3 lumens (1200mcd@120) but my flashlight has a 90 lumen bulb and it's not that bright. However the 3mm leds I got for my test panels are only rated at 6mcd and they seem pretty bright, a hell of a lot brighter than I would expect from .01 lumens! Not to mention I'm using a 9v battery for my little breadboard. They might not be smoked lens in the daytime bright, but they make 20000 mcd sound like staring into the sun, unless the sellers on ebay just like to add some zeros to the specs. I guess when I order the big boys I'll get a 25ohm rheostat from radio shack in anticipation of turning them down a bit.

 

[Hugh]

and now you get what I'm saying about 56 led's pushing 10,000 mcd from 14 volts.

[getoffmyinternet]

Yeah 3mm leds just might be the way to go for the more solid look, or at least put the 5mm really close together. And just underpower the whole thing if you have to. I was wondering if it would be cool to make a circuit where the harder you push on the brake the brighter they get, seems like it would be safer if cars were like that too. Or if there's a center brake light that sequences where the bar gets wider the harder you push, that would be interesting. But here I am going on a tangent. Yeah I might do the 100x5000mcd leds. They're pretty cheap when you buy them in bulk. These lenses are so large the 3mm would be a pain in the neck, although I guess you could have some sort of bragging rights that you crammed 2000 leds in each brake light

[iBang]

How would altezza lenses fit? All I know of are custom lenses that people make themselves. Or like the klearz guy but he doesn't make the 240z lenses, just the 260+. I've always wondered if a pantera lens would fit. It's doubtful but too hard to tell without seeing them side by side. They are very similar at least. I'm still debating if it's worth it to duplicate the original lenses myself, they seem to go like hot cakes. People would probably eat them up in clear and orange too.

 

I looked up klearz on google and the only Z stuff I could find were the front turn signals. Any links to those tail lights? I don't mind switching to a later style S30 lens if its what I want color wise.

[getoffmyinternet]

He told me he's done group buys for 280z guys on here before, I don't know if he actually has them listed on his website though. Just email him and ask about them.

[getoffmyinternet]

I think I figured out why these little 8mcd leds seem so bright. I must have gotten the wrong ones in the mail, because while they say they are 3v, they are actually 1.6v, which means I overclocked the hell out of them. Instead of a 1ohm resistor they need like a 100ohm one, according to this led array wizard. I'm surprised they didn't burn up along with the 1/4W resistor, they were using 350mA together.

[getoffmyinternet]

Hey guys, which would you prefer if I start selling the led sequencers? Should you buy or they come with a replacement flasher, or should I build a flasher into the circuit. On one hand, a replacement flasher could be put in the stock position and you would hear the clicking sound, but on the other hand making my own means I can customize the flash rate to be optimum for the sequence. The price would probably be about the same either way. A third option would be if I could find clicking adjustable flashers, or at least ones that I know have good duration for these lights.

 

Of course if I made the flashers, they too could be variable, I'm just not sure how to do it yet. The diagram I have says to change the cap to lengthen the flash, but some say you can just change the resistor or make it a pot. Either way it wouldn't have an audible confirmation that your blinker is on.

 

I'm still waiting for the last IC to make the sequencer, they were on quite the backorder.