LED Front Turns/Running Lights

[Schnitzer318is]

Yes I love LEDs... it's a well known fact. I think I've outdone myself with these though. 60 5mm 10000mcd LED's per side. Looks MEGA hawtness and are super bright at night but definitely bright enough to be seen easily during the day. What do you guys think? BTW I'm ordering a better smoked MHW lens from Abraham's... the lenses pictured are the crappy depo smoked fuc$ers. They suck and scatter the light instead of focusing it forward..

[StereoInstaller1]

Damn, man, excellent work.

Are you "potting" these?

[2002maniac]

you're crazy. too much time on your hands ;)

[Hartge_H27]

looks good. so when r u going to start selling these.

[Schnitzer318is]

Thanks guys for all the compliments. I could make these fairly easily if anyone is interested, they just take awhile to do. LOL soldering that many LED's sucks let me tell you. I can post a diagram of the wiring with resistor value and lead orientations, but no writeup. It's fairly easy if you know how to or are willing to learn how to solder.

[BeirBrennerE30]

nice! more day and night shots?

[Garageaholic]

I'm interested if you are potting them too in order to eliminate any moisture intrusion.

How do you get them to blink?
In conjunction with that, how do you get them NOT to blink twice as fast? Did you mimic the resistance of the bulb to "trick" the system into thinking that a bulb was there?

[Schnitzer318is]

I'm interested if you are potting them too in order to eliminate any moisture intrusion.

How do you get them to blink?
In conjunction with that, how do you get them NOT to blink twice as fast? Did you mimic the resistance of the bulb to "trick" the system into thinking that a bulb was there?

They aren't potted yet but I may do that. I've already driven through a pretty good thunderstorm and washed my car a couple of times as well with no issue. I usually just use hot glue for my weather proofing needs, but I haven't had an issue yet.

As for the hyperblink... I have a 318is so I don't have a check computer. Makes it easier for me. Each array uses 4-5watts if I remember correctly, not sure if that is enough to disable hyperblink. But I avoided all that by using a relay on each side so that I was able to get parking and signal functions to the LEDs. I have an ambulance LED controller that I could use to actually use dim for the parking lights and bright for the signal lights, but I kind of like them being bright all the time. I may use the ambulance one just for the tail lights, or not at all. On the dim setting the LEDs are kind of hard to see during the day.

[StereoInstaller1]

I wish to hell the sequential controller that I want for the tails would get back in stock.

I am thinking epoxy for potting would make the damn things bullet proof, but serviceability would then be 100% gone.

I sure do like the look of those turns, man...very nice.

[AndrewBird]

This stuff is your friend:

http://www.tapecase.com/p.9.5/3m-dp270-3m-scotch-weld-epoxy-potting-compound.aspx

You could just hook a resistor in series withe each array to dim them. You would have to play around and test what resistance value would work best. And they would have to be high wattage ceramic resistors.

[Schnitzer318is]

^Ya but like Luke said, serviceability is toast after that. Have to make a new array if a chain or LED went out. I'm going to run mine without anything first just to see if it's fine like that. So far so good... and I'd really like to just be able to solder a new LED in if one ever went out on me in a couple of years (I drive with lights on all the time).

Thanks for the compliments Luke, you should definitely do it. It's one of my favorite things on the car right now. BTW which sequential controller you talking about? Wouldn't a mustang one work?

Dimming isn't an issue, I bought a ShoMe ambulance LED controller that does all the work for me (even has wig wag output if I want). I just haven't hooked it up to an array yet to see how dim the parking light setting really is. I just think I like the lights bright all the time like they are now and then turn on and off with signals instead of bright dim with the ShowMe controller. I'll probably hook it up just to see it in action and make my decision then.

[StereoInstaller1]

The sequential controller I want to use is 100% electronic, and resets to "zero" if shut off mid-blink.

I get them from one of my stereo junk suppliers, just one I rarely use, because they are always out of stock on crap...like this part I need.

I wonder if any LEDs are more reliable than others, like maybe Panasonic?

[Schnitzer318is]

Not sure about reliability. I have mine running at 60% of rated input (20ma rated) so they should last damn near forever barring weather intrusion. They are just the cheap hong kong mass produced jobs, I forget the manufacturers name. I could get them brighter if I wanted to feed them more power, but I'm pretty happy with where they are now. Maybe I'll up it (lower resistor value) if I use that ambulance controller's dim and bright functions for the signals.

I'm sure higher quality LEDs have more consistent color/quantity of light output from run to run, but life cycle on most LEDs is rated at 100,000 hours from what I've been able to find.

[Larry e30]

Thats awesome, I'd be willing to buy some of these, when you turn your headlights on are they dimmer than when you activate the turn signal?

[Schnitzer318is]

Thats awesome, I'd be willing to buy some of these, when you turn your headlights on are they dimmer than when you activate the turn signal?

Not right now no. They are on full brightness all the time with the headlights on... then when you activate the turn signal they blink on and off at full brightness. I am thinking about wiring a controller to it to do the dimming function but haven't decided on that yet. I kind of like full brightness all the time since I drive with my headlights on during the day most of the time.

I'll post in here if I decide to start selling them, but it takes awhile to solder all those LEDs :) Also for the DIY'ers out there I can easily put a diagram up if you want to give it a go.