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- 2008 Mazda5 GT
I HATE following cars with obnoxiously bright LED tails!!! I swear they give me retina burn (Caddies and Infiniti's) if I'm stopped behind them. But on the other hand, I was driving said car, I won't think much of them.
POLL: Lamin-X Tail Light Color
- Thread starter Silentnoise713
- Start date
LOL, I like how I can see everything and everyone in the cars that are behind me at stop lights. It's pretty funny. It's a built-in way of saying "BACK OFF".
Regarding the Caddie LEDs, like everything GM, they suck bad. The frequency, or the technology itself, I'm not sure, causes me to see those LEDs smearing across my field of view at night. It may just be me though because when I look at DLP TVs the screen has these green/red/blue tearing "splotches" all over the screen when my eyes move from one area to the other. You're not supposed to be able to see it, but for some reason I can see the wheel turning inside at 60 Hz. I think the same is true for Caddie lights. They need to bump the frequency up. I'm waiting for the class-action lawsuit commercials to come on TV talking about crashes that Cadillac tail lights have caused. I have to pull over and wait for them to go away or it will cause me to see big streaks of red all over my field of vision. I hate GM anyway so I'm glad they suck.
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- 2008 Mazda5 Touring
That reminds me of a vid someone posted on here a while back. They recorded a drive with a dash cam and when sped up, noticed that the car they followed had LED tails that appeared to blink. I attributed it to PWM. I think it was a Toyota or Nissan though...
a lot of BMW's have the same effect in videos with their tails/angel eyes
most LEDs flicker at 60 Hz unless they are rectified which are up around 120 Hz....basically your brain is not fast enough to process the flickering so what you see with your eyes in real life is a steady light....when a camera, which can captures discrete frames even faster than 60 hz, shoots the same light...the frame can catch it when it is in the 'off' position
I can see movement faster than 60 Hz.
I figured the signal to the LEDs was DC. The whole point of having LEDs is to have a tiny supply with brighter light. Makes no sense that it's AC unless you wanted to change the frequency for some reason. Actually, I don't want to know. Going back to my EE days hurts my head. Thanks for the heads up.
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- 2008 Mazda5 Touring
How does your vision work with the 24 fps (Hz) of a theater film?
PWM would be the most efficient way to run LED's as tail lights and brake lights, then you're not bleeding off the excess current as heat when they are dimmed as tails.
PWM would be the most efficient way to run LED's as tail lights and brake lights, then you're not bleeding off the excess current as heat when they are dimmed as tails.
24 Hz looks like ass unless I'm watching a TV with 240 Hz interpolation or something similar. I have a 240 Hz Sharp that does a good job with that. Some of the older Bravia XB with 120 Hz looked great. Not so much the newer ones.
I don't know why, but I'm 39 and still have 20/15 vision. I went to an eye doctor two years ago for the first time since my childhood and they had me walk out in the hall and keep backing up while reciting new charts. Pretty funny. I just have turbo eyes for some reason. The TV nerds at the stores always trip out that I can't watch DLP TVs because I can see the 60 Hz wheel isn't fast enough when looking around. It's the eye's ability to stay focused in quick transitions.
I don't know why, but I'm 39 and still have 20/15 vision. I went to an eye doctor two years ago for the first time since my childhood and they had me walk out in the hall and keep backing up while reciting new charts. Pretty funny. I just have turbo eyes for some reason. The TV nerds at the stores always trip out that I can't watch DLP TVs because I can see the 60 Hz wheel isn't fast enough when looking around. It's the eye's ability to stay focused in quick transitions.
I guess that would be the case. XBR is what I meant actually.
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- 2008 Mazda5 GT
Sorry, nothing new. This is low on my priority list but it would be RED. Actually, I am thinking of clearing out the headlights first and may consider clearing out the rears too and use LED bulbs. Trouble is I cannot find a suitable LED replacement bulb for the tail lights. All reviews seem to say they are not bright enough for brake lights and that makes sense since it is only 1 bulb. My other consideration is to spray cover from the inside with red translucent paint. I bought a can for a project a while back but never got to it. I think my last option is to do the Lamin-X. Maybe not since it would be so much easier....
There are a few suitable for brake lights.
4x1.5W LEDs, fills up the diffuser nicely and then provides a forward 1.5W beam, if you've ever looked at a 1W led these things are pretty bright.
This could be a bit overkill... single 5W LED. It's a concentrated light but at that light intensity you almost wouldn't care. They also have a 9W version as well, only in white and single filament since it's waaaaay too bright to be used as a brake light. As a reverse light, these things are great... they produce light that's almost as bright as a 60W incadescent.
Stock reverse light:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FQeQVDqLhM
Cree 9W LED reverse light, THAT'S BRIGHT!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6YDhQc67y0
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- 2008 Mazda5 GT
Thanks DKaz. But I thought the tails are 1156 or 1157, no?
