LED LS1 tail light project finally underway...

[italicizedsponge]

**VIDEO ON PAGE 2 OF STOCK VS. LED COMPARISON**

**NEW UPDATE PAGE 4 AND 5 WITH VIDEO**

So i have been toying around with the idea for awhile and a couple weeks ago i ordered a ton of 5mm leds and im going to make myself some LED tail lights cause i hate all of the aftermarket ones. in my final design each brake light will be 78 LEDs. and each turn signal will be around 30-40 LEDs. i will post up more progress as i go but heres what i got done today just one sides brake light.

heres 200 of the red leds i ordered


one side done


series-parallel wiring


i know the pics look like shit for now but i will hopefully get the other brake light done friday and maybe some test pics inside the lense.

[fast01z28]

im curious to see where this is going. looks nothing like mine, but its got potential for sure.

[PERFECT Z28]

Keep us posted!

[badazz99ta]

i am defineately interested in this. good luck and keep us posted.

[Lotus289]

Yeah I definitely wanna see how this turns out. I've been pondering LED tail lights for quite some time now. I just haven't thought up a design yet.

[Ericbigmac83]

Cool, cant wait to see finished pics

[fast01z28]

for those who want to see what it might look like, heres mine. keep in mind, i used the 94-96 tails lights, the OP looks like his will look sweet.

[Tdawg]

Originally Posted by fast01z28

for those who want to see what it might look like, heres mine. keep in mind, i used the 94-96 tails lights, the OP looks like his will look sweet.

i want a set of these

[mrburnout81]

where did you get the boards and leds from? pm me if its a non sponser. i think this is my next project

[FireBird_Fr3ak]

Originally Posted by mrburnout81

where did you get the boards and leds from? pm me if its a non sponser. i think this is my next project

Radio Shack.

[screamin96ss]

I will be offering custom LED taillight conversions for all 4th gen tail light styles within the next month.

I'm going to be posting pics of some of my work within the next week to give you guys an idea of what to expect.

[Soul TKR]

Originally Posted by italicizedsponge

So i have been toying around with the idea for awhile and a couple weeks ago i ordered a ton of 5mm leds and im going to make myself some LED tail lights cause i hate all of the aftermarket ones. in my final design each brake light will be 78 LEDs. and each turn signal will be around 30-40 LEDs. i will post up more progress as i go but heres what i got done today just one sides brake light.

heres 200 of the red leds i ordered


one side done


series-parallel wiring


i know the pics look like shit for now but i will hopefully get the other brake light done friday and maybe some test pics inside the lense.

i've got some perf boards and LED's... I just have no clue how to wire them

[fast01z28]

Originally Posted by Soul TKR

i've got some perf boards and LED's... I just have no clue how to wire them

its easy...usually. i think the OP is wiring them in series. i never thought about that, it would have made things MUCH cleaner. I soldered a resister to each positive end of teh LED, wired those together, and then wired teh negatives together. then ran those to the appropriate wires in the car.

i had some issues because some LEDs serve two duties, so they get brighter or dimmer. it wasnt hard, just tool using my thinking cap.

[FamousZ]

I sure hope they are bright enough during the day.. LED's wernt really meant for our cars lenses so I hope this works out for you.. I just have a feeling that they arnt gonna be really bright during the day..

Good luck though.. I hope you prove me wrong.

[italicizedsponge]

only a small update, i got the guts to take a dremel to my tail light and ripped it in half to see inside. i test the board of 78 leds and all worked well. i will be not be bothering with making them dim and bright because a select amount of the outside lights will be on with the running lights and the rest will light up when i brake. kind of like a 04 cadillac dts does. i set the board inside the tail light to see how it lit up and surprisingly it was about the same as the other side running the stocks bulbs. and not only that my tail lights are tinted right now and i will be sanding the VHT off once i get ready to finish the lights up.

the actual lights are wired in series-parallel.

cut the board


here's what the turn signal will look like. this one is half done obviously. each turn signal will be 48 LED's a piece.

[Soul TKR]

what are you guys talking about when you say "in series parallel"? and how do you know what resistors to use?

[italicizedsponge]

there are 2 different ways to wire leds. series is where u connect the positive and negative end together like i did. parallel is where all the negatives ends connect together, and all the positive ends connect together. series parallel is a combination of both where i have multiples sets of leds that are wired in series, then all the sets wired together in parallel. this website makes it very easy to calculate http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

that is the website i use and it tells me after i get the wiring diagram that 1/4 watt resistor is fine for each row of leds. it will normally say 1/4 watt resistor. so i put in 78 leds into that wizard and it shows me a diagram of how to wire it. the leds i orderded came with a 1/4 watt resistor for each led so i have like hundreds left over. the thing that always confused me is how many "ohms"" it says but just make sure if it says 1/4 watt resistor that that is what you use dont worry about the ohms rating.

ill be getting a lot more of this done monday when im off work again. im going to try to at least have one tail light completely done by monday afternoon. definitely pics will follow

[Soul TKR]

good website... thanks a lot man! Now that I see it visually it makes a lot more sense!

[BenLaz]

any reason in particular why you chose to use 5mm LEDs instead of some superfluxs?

[italicizedsponge]

cost... 500 superflux off ebay are around $170 shipped. 500 5mm LEDs are around $35 shipped