I'm in the process of making some LED inserts like the ones that are in the new Cadilacs. The tail lights that are made up of like 100 LEDs instead of bulbs. I think they look awesome. If they are easy and cheap to make I may make more. It just depends on how they turn out. I'll post some pics when I'm done.
Does anyone like the Caddy tail lights?
- Thread starter big_ben
- Start date
DooMer_MP3
Member
This must be similar to this light my friend had that had a band that you'd wear around your head (used for cave exploration or something). It had like 80 LEDs, was bright as hell, yet lasted for 80 hours on two AA batteries 
.
Chris
.Chris
TECHNICAL 5
Member
Yeah i know wich ones your talking about, they're similiar to the G35 lights with all the LEDs in them.I have to admit they look pretty sharp.Looks like a gang of LEDs honeycombed together.
Actually, the reason many auto makers are switching to LEDs is because of safety. LEDs light up like 100 times as fast as a filiment bulb. And an LED will out live you, so you will never have to replace them. They are less wastefull, and they require less energy than a filiment bulb. Not to mention the look cool as hell.
Ben...if you are looking for bulk LEDs, give www.digikey.com a shot. I've ordered stuff from them before and they give quantity discounts. The dircect link to the catalog section with LEDs is http://dkc3.digikey.com/T023/V5/SectO.pdf
Good Luck!
Good Luck!
Last edited:
Hey ben , with our pasts aside ... I think I can be a little help on this one. I looked into leds a while back because I wanted to create some "Angel Eyes" for my car. Anyway I did some searching on ebay and found a ton of the parts I needed. This one place sold them in major bulk. Like 500 on a daiy chain looking thing(you know the paper that they package them with protecting the wiring) Anyway they had them in all sorts of colors. I remember having to wade though a bunch of RICE crap to find them but the prices looked very resaonable. I have the info written down at home but I am at work now. I am going to try and do a search now on ebay but if I can't find then I will just post when I get home. BTW I think that you are on to something with the LED Taillight mod. think it could turn out really sweet looking. I am still tossing around the "ANGEL EYES idea but am not that experienced in electronics like that. I have worked with LEDs and circuit boards and resistors and such but I am just not sure what all I would need to buy to get them to work properly. How are you planning on running all of the lights to access the power?, some sort of socket?
What past do we have? Were we in an arguement or something? I don't remember. Anyway, I looked on ebay but couldn't find anything. Maybe you can find it for me. I ordered 500 LEDs from a company I just found on the web. They had really good prices. Let me know if you find the place on ebay though. Thanks.
Glad to hear you forgot about it as well. Was just making sure.
Anyway here are some of the ones I found on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1788107565
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1788187633
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1786700471
There is a few. I know I have more at home. Are you good with working with these??? May need to bounce some ideas off of you. If you don't mind. I really really want a way to do some sort of ANGEL EYES (like on the BMW) . Was thinking When I do the blackout headlight mod on my car about drilling small holes down each side of the headlight and mounting the LEDS in them and then just figuring out the wiring. I guess I could just get blank circuit boards and cut them to shape and then solder all of them to that huh? Well hope those help and keep us updated on your progress. I would definatley get some of the tailights if you make them.
Anyway here are some of the ones I found on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1788107565
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1788187633
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1786700471
There is a few. I know I have more at home. Are you good with working with these??? May need to bounce some ideas off of you. If you don't mind. I really really want a way to do some sort of ANGEL EYES (like on the BMW) . Was thinking When I do the blackout headlight mod on my car about drilling small holes down each side of the headlight and mounting the LEDS in them and then just figuring out the wiring. I guess I could just get blank circuit boards and cut them to shape and then solder all of them to that huh? Well hope those help and keep us updated on your progress. I would definatley get some of the tailights if you make them.
I really don't remember us argueing about anything. I just don't take anything that is said on this board seriously. Personalities don't come across on a forum the way they come across in person. Someone will take something the wrong way and a huge arguement will sprout. Anyway back to the subject.
The ones I just bought are a little better price than that. I'm not sure what you are talking about with the angle eyes. Where are they at on BMW's? I should have the LEDs I ordered in a week or two. I'll build one and see how it looks and take pics of it. Let me know if you have any ideas.
The ones I just bought are a little better price than that. I'm not sure what you are talking about with the angle eyes. Where are they at on BMW's? I should have the LEDs I ordered in a week or two. I'll build one and see how it looks and take pics of it. Let me know if you have any ideas.
The angel eyes are the "HALO" rings around the headlights on like the %40 's and a few others. I was thinking that I could create this on the Protege5 since they have seperate High and Low beams. It would kinda look like this.
(L)(H) (H)(L)
H= High beam and L= Low Beam. the parenthesis would be the LED lights.
I will try and do a photoshop of what I am talking about. Just trying to be original with it. Plus I think it wouls look mean as hell with my car being all black and just seeing the little halos on and the fogs but no headlights. Definately keep us updated on the tail lights. Got some ideas for those too. Maybe like a P% in the LED as a different color or something.... hmmm maybe I am just getting carried away now.
(L)(H) (H)(L)
H= High beam and L= Low Beam. the parenthesis would be the LED lights.
I will try and do a photoshop of what I am talking about. Just trying to be original with it. Plus I think it wouls look mean as hell with my car being all black and just seeing the little halos on and the fogs but no headlights. Definately keep us updated on the tail lights. Got some ideas for those too. Maybe like a P% in the LED as a different color or something.... hmmm maybe I am just getting carried away now.
I'm wondering if the LEDs need to be red or not. Are the brake light bulbs red or does the tail light covers give it the red. I know what you are talking about now with the "angle eyes". I think that yould be pretty hard to do. You would also have to break open the headlight. I guess you might have to do the same witht he tails. I haven't even looked at them close yet. I cant look at them until Monday. My car is in the shop getting the fuel tank rinsed out and body damage repaired. The bastard vandals struck again. Last week my fuel door was pried open with a crow bar ans they poured sugar in my gas tank. Now you see why I'm ready to get rid of this car.
I think the LEDs could be either white or red. the ones you can buy to replace the stock bulbs are clear. I would probably go with red though just because I think it would look better. IMO... Yeah I would have to break open the headlights...but I was planning on doing this to paint them black anyway so I figure while I am in there I might as well do this mod. It is probably going to be pretty damn hard though you are right. Would be a costly mistake if I messed up. I am going to play with the idea some more and maybe do some experimenting off of the car before I go and screw something up.
Sorry to hear about all of the bad luck on your car. I can say I know how it goes though. 2 Months prior to NOPI in '99 my Corrado was vandalized all over. Grille ripped off, all lights smashed . It was pretty ugly. Ran about $5k to fix completely but I still had it in the show and I actually won that year. Sold it about 3 months after though. Just goes to show what a pissed off ex can do.
Idea for a new alarm system!!! SLEEP IN YOUR CAR WITH A GUN. But seriously sorry to hear of all of your troubles. hate to lose a Protege brother but sounds like your miata will be a blast.
Sorry to hear about all of the bad luck on your car. I can say I know how it goes though. 2 Months prior to NOPI in '99 my Corrado was vandalized all over. Grille ripped off, all lights smashed . It was pretty ugly. Ran about $5k to fix completely but I still had it in the show and I actually won that year. Sold it about 3 months after though. Just goes to show what a pissed off ex can do.
Idea for a new alarm system!!! SLEEP IN YOUR CAR WITH A GUN. But seriously sorry to hear of all of your troubles. hate to lose a Protege brother but sounds like your miata will be a blast.
You can always use too much power then use a resistor. If you underpower them they will not be bright enough. So, yes, 12VDC is ok for all of them. I'll have to find you some links...big_ben said:
This link will take you to more than you ever wanted to know about LEDs. WARNING: Take in small doses. It could drive you mad if you stay there too long.
This link has excellent information on how to calculate the resistors you need and how to wire your LEDs. Once you get your head wrapped around the ideas of "forward voltage" and amperage and wattage, you can basically figure out how to wire any LEDs in any combination to any voltage.
LEDs will last a very very long time provided 1) they are not defective and 2) they are not overpowered. That second link has some good pics of overpowered LEDs.
smithers_0990
On and On
- :
- 02 P5 & 01 Audi S4
You are going to need resistors. There is no way around that.(there is but it costs more)
This site has a calculator to tell u what you need as far as resistance. It also tell u a lit about LED's.
http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/led.htm
Let us know how it works out
Later
This site has a calculator to tell u what you need as far as resistance. It also tell u a lit about LED's.
http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/led.htm
Let us know how it works out
Later
