LED taillights

[george graves]

The Led's are out there, you just have to do TONS of research to find exactly what works best.

I'd say Inspar8r has a really shot at making these work...Good job man. At $350, you'll be working for the money - these are not as easy as you guys would think they are...

Inspar8r do you have lux/lumin meter to measure brightness of the stock and then compare it to your own?

How do you insure you are getting the brightness correct?


....

[asubimmer]

so whats the legality of these. If you get rear ended or something I could see this biting the seller in the butt unless they said like offroad use only, etc.

[Inspar8r]

This forum needs a multi quote feature, haha.

First, we'll address legalities.

They well be in the stock housings, with the OE reflectors, so there won't be any concerns UNLESS the brightness isn't there. Trust me on this one, it'll be there.

George,

you might be right about them not being worthwhile. That price is just so people can have a feel for what it might cost. And you are absolutely right, there is a TON of work that goes into these things, but I've managed to cut costs down quite a bit.

However, because of the work involved, I won't be flexible on price at all. I would just assume not even build a set than build one for little to no money, so I'm hoping that people understand this.

I've already designed a board, i just need to burn it and fill it with LEDs. I have about 6 orders of tails to fulfill for the IS300 guys, but I can work on this on the side (though I am running out of LEDs).

Look for a working example within the next week. Ideally, it will be compared to stock on one side, just to compare. In terms of intensity, I have several formulas I use, but in practice, my wife is a film editor, so she has all that lighting equipment from her production classes.

[NABR 1337]

next dream project---

[Inspar8r]

Here is a pic of the preliminary design. The dimensions are going to be played around with slightly, but the isn't much room for changes.

As of that pic, there are 72 LEDs in that one board. Nevermind the off centerness and whatnot, and the damaged tail, we brought in tails to hack up for this project, and the board is just taped on.

I just taped it on because I know how excited some people are, and now you can see first hand that there will eventually be an LED solution.

Post Questions, comments, opinions



you'll notice they look kind of dim, and that's because the lens was flaring up. I'll try to wire up a bulb for comparison.

[redhatpat]

Do you have a pic from about 20-30 feet away?

[nefarious7907]

I went through countless designs to try and create LED tails for the E30 and regardless what i did or what kind of LED's i used they were never as bright as the stock bulbs. I even went so far as to grind the lense down to make it thinner, I tried pre made boards, and I made my own boards and in the end there were never as bright as stock even using a 100 leds per panel whether they were square or round LED's. Its not worth it.

[C ///M]

I went through countless designs to try and create LED tails for the E30 and regardless what i did or what kind of LED's i used they were never as bright as the stock bulbs. I even went so far as to grind the lense down to make it thinner, I tried pre made boards, and I made my own boards and in the end there were never as bright as stock even using a 100 leds per panel whether they were square or round LED's. Its not worth it.

Just wait... I don't know what kind of materials you use, but I think people will be pleasantly surprised. Keep in mind this is preliminary work.

[thereisnoyun]

Love the LED loko

I love the LED look, but having hundreds of LED in the back... its just not appealing unless more of the tail lights up and it would have to be ALOT ALOT brighter. Or else it would defeat the practical ergonomics of the upgrade. Pure light upgrade without function = RICE

[C ///M]

I love the LED look, but having hundreds of LED in the back... its just not appealing unless more of the tail lights up and it would have to be ALOT ALOT brighter. Or else it would defeat the practical ergonomics of the upgrade. Pure light upgrade without function = RICE

We could do it so more of the tail light actually lights up. We could incorporate the rear foglight lens area to be lit up when the rear lights are on as well, but it's definitely not the look I want. I want an OEM look. We could also do a dual stage setup. The idea behind being able to make custom lights is that you can make it however you want.

They will definitely be brighter than the standard bulbs and I love the way LED turn signals look. An LED has two settings, completely on and completely off. It's a real crisp blink as oppose to halogen bulbs which which have a slight ignite delay. If you don't know what i mean, look at an LED blink compared to a halogen bulb.

Anyway, this is just something cool and unique and quite frankly, I've never heard anyone say that the Startac smoked or MHW smoked or all red tail lights are rice. Exactly what "function" do they have? I suppose getting the european clear turn signals for the e36 to get rid of the hideous amber lenses must be rice as well.

Hell, why stop at lighting? You essentially just stated that any modification you make strictly for aesthetic purposes is rice. We better have a talk with all the car manufacturers, because they produce rice all over the place then. But I digress, I just think it looks cool and I'm bored with my car. So I need to do something new and custom/unique is always fun.

[Inspar8r]

I love the LED look, but having hundreds of LED in the back... its just not appealing unless more of the tail lights up and it would have to be ALOT ALOT brighter. Or else it would defeat the practical ergonomics of the upgrade. Pure light upgrade without function = RICE

ummm, okay.

Hence the reason why I told chris I was even hesitant to post about this project in the first place. Even chris was skeptical. Can there even be an "upgrade" without "function?"

I went through countless designs to try and create LED tails for the E30 and regardless what i did or what kind of LED's i used they were never as bright as the stock bulbs. I even went so far as to grind the lense down to make it thinner, I tried pre made boards, and I made my own boards and in the end there were never as bright as stock even using a 100 leds per panel whether they were square or round LED's. Its not worth it.

nuff said, and my current design isn't even breaking a sweat. This design is far superior to the bulbs, and I am not very easily broken. I've actually toned down the brightness because I have had some customers who are concerned about blinding people behind them.

[golde30]

cool. i'd be interested in a set if they filled up most of the inside area. like the one posted in the beggining of this thread:

[BDSax]

do you get a check panel light because of the LEDs?

[C ///M]

cool. i'd be interested in a set if they filled up most of the inside area. like the one posted in the beggining of this thread:

Like I said, nick can make them anyway he wants.

The later tails are easier because they're bigger. Nick could easily make later tails that look just like the picture above. The thing is, I don't have later tails, so we're starting with early tails. We need some junk later tails to experiment with.

The thing we're focusing on right now is how I want the setup to be with early tail lights. The later tails are cool because you can do the three separate panels and it looks nice. We may or may not try splitting the panels in 2 for the early tails since they have the little separation in the middle.

Guys who do have an idea of what's required in building these know that you can design a board any way you want. I could have nick put together a smiley face pattern if we wanted.

I don't have a whole lot to add to this thread other than what's been said. Nick is the tech behind this project, and he can put together any design he likes.

P.S. No, you will not trigger the check panel light. This is complete plug and play.

[BDSax]

sweet. are you just using a LED circuit board grid? also what MCD are the LEDs and are they in series or parallel. very cool project, i wanted to do this but i gave my spare tails to TJ and he never gave his old ones.