LED Brake Lights - Page 13

boxcarracer · 10-14-2015, 07:53 AM

Sent you a PM.

DRACO A5OG · DRACO A5OG's Garage

How many of you that swapped to LED SPOKE will be at Pelican's Cars and Coffee, would love to se them in person

DaveMcKenz · 10-14-2015, 06:43 PM

I am very happy with my LED brake lights. I did notice that the lights come on dim whenever the ignition is on. I don't have a third brake light. I assume there is some current flow via the cruise control brain. I don't have a cruise control actuator or cable, so I could just disconnect the CC brain. Anybody else see this. It really is of no consequence, just an oddity.
Dave

Reiver · 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveMcKenz

I am very happy with my LED brake lights. I did notice that the lights come on dim whenever the ignition is on. I don't have a third brake light. I assume there is some current flow via the cruise control brain. I don't have a cruise control actuator or cable, so I could just disconnect the CC brain. Anybody else see this. It really is of no consequence, just an oddity.
Dave

I've an '83 with no 3rd brake light and don't have this issue...just went into the garage and checked it out. I do have cruise control and it is operable.
Must be something else.
My car has been in southern Az or Cali for it's 32 years so the electrical connections are almost like new. No moisture or corrosion issues.
I suspect the issues most have relate to that.

DaveMcKenz · 10-14-2015, 07:57 PM

Thanks, Reiver. Your 83 may be different. 83-84 were transitional years in many ways.
I hate people who answer their own question, but here goes. Since I don't have any mechanical parts to my cruise control, and never use them on these kinds of cars anyway, I just disconnected the CC brain. Lights function normally now.
Dave

DaveMcKenz · 10-14-2015, 08:00 PM

Now I have a question for Spoke:
Jerry, you mentioned that the EP36 LED flasher is plug and play on (some of) these cars. On my 84 the flasher appears to be 4-prong with a connection for tachometer. The EP36 is three prong. Maybe it just doesn't matter. Will it work with my car if and when I switch to LED turn signals?
Thanks,
Dave

BrakeL8 · 10-14-2015, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

How many of you that swapped to LED SPOKE will be at Pelican's Cars and Coffee, would love to se them in person

I would as well.

spoke · 10-14-2015, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveMcKenz

Now I have a question for Spoke:
Jerry, you mentioned that the EP36 LED flasher is plug and play on (some of) these cars. On my 84 the flasher appears to be 4-prong with a connection for tachometer. The EP36 is three prong. Maybe it just doesn't matter. Will it work with my car if and when I switch to LED turn signals?
Thanks,
Dave

Not sure of the tach connection. There are some other functions used for the 4th pin in some applications. I would need to ask those here who know more than I about what that tach connection is.

About the brake LEDs being on gently, the CC control unit must have an input impedance which drains some current into the unlit brake bulbs when the brakes are not active. Standard bulbs have a real low resistance (like 10 ohm) so the little bit of current from the CC through the bulb creates very little voltage.

With these LED boards, the resistance of the boards below about 7V is infinite. Thus the CC control signal tries to drive a small current into the "unlit" LED. The LED voltage goes up until the LEDs become forward biased around 7V. The LEDs then light a little. The LEDs don't take too much current to light up.

I'm hoping the current from the CC signal is less than 50ma. If so, I'll find a place to mount an extra resistor on the Brake and 3rd brake boards.

I could use some help to determine the amount of current. If you have a voltmeter, I'd like to send you a couple of test resistors so you could measure the voltage drop and calculate the current. Let me know if you can do this.

Porsche 2 · 10-15-2015, 12:41 PM

Sent you a PM.

Westfield · Westfield's Garage

I bought the V.1 rear turn signals/running lights. They are great and offer so much more rear light.
I am using an EP36 flasher (purchased from Amazon). Works perfectly for the application but does blink a little faster than stock. My car is an '88 and the original german relay was also 3 pin.
Regards,
Hiro

Edit: To clarify - I bought the rear turn signal boards that were on SPOKE's car mentioned on page 3 and 4 of this thread. These were his first version and I think he was working on a second version with different side light set-up. These are very bright from all angles. I can't imagine driving without them now because they offer so much more running light. Sorry I don't have a better picture.

DaveMcKenz · 10-15-2015, 05:53 PM

Yeah. Looking over the diagrams for 84-89 The 4th connection is either not used or labeled as turn signals for trailer. On my 84 the diagram in my Bentley calls the blue/white wire tachometer, but there is no such wire on the tachometer diagram. I bet a 3-pin ep36 would work just fine.
Thanks,
Dave

DaveMcKenz · 10-17-2015, 08:47 AM

Hi Spoke,
PM sent.
Dave

3.0 liter · 10-19-2015, 05:37 PM

Hello Spoke,
PM sent
Mike

boxcarracer · 10-20-2015, 04:59 AM

I sent you a PM last week regarding a package (front runninglight/turnsignal, rear brake light/running light, rear turn signal, third brake light). Haven't heard back from you. Are you offering packages?
Thanks

spoke · 10-20-2015, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boxcarracer

I sent you a PM last week regarding a package (front runninglight/turnsignal, rear brake light/running light, rear turn signal, third brake light). Haven't heard back from you. Are you offering packages?
Thanks

Sorry for the delay in responding. Been very busy the last week with my daughter getting married on Saturday. It will probably be towards the weekend til I can get caught up with questions and such.

I can offer some discount if buying multiple sets. I'm selling these PCBs at near wholesale pricing so don't have a lot of wiggle room.

There are a couple of things going on right now with the LED brake lights. This has to do with interaction of the cruise control unit and the LEDs. I have to get a couple of test pigtails out to a few guys to determine how to correct this interaction.

As such, I don't want to release any LED brake boards until we can figure out how much ballast resistance to add to the boards to satisfy the CC unit.

boxcarracer · 10-20-2015, 12:19 PM

Congrats on the wedding!
Looking forward to buying a LED package from you.

RDM · RDM's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveMcKenz

I am very happy with my LED brake lights. I did notice that the lights come on dim whenever the ignition is on. I don't have a third brake light. I assume there is some current flow via the cruise control brain. I don't have a cruise control actuator or cable, so I could just disconnect the CC brain. Anybody else see this. It really is of no consequence, just an oddity.
Dave

The LEDs in my '80 glow dimly with the ignition on. No third light, yes cruise. Not sure what happens to the lights when the cruise is on. If that's important to know, I'll figure out how to turn it on and find out.

BrakeL8 · 10-20-2015, 03:28 PM

Very interested in the front turn signal that lights steady bright white and flashes amber when turn indicators are flashing.

I have Euro Clear front turn signals and think this would look great especially in the LED white hue since I'm replacing my stock headlines w/ Fozzy/Francois's HID units.

Are these currently for sale?

spoke · 10-23-2015, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RDM

The LEDs in my '80 glow dimly with the ignition on. No third light, yes cruise. Not sure what happens to the lights when the cruise is on. If that's important to know, I'll figure out how to turn it on and find out.

Cruise does have some current drain into ground via the bulbs. Have you run your cruise control after putting in the LEDs? I have to find out how much current is draining into the LEDs so I can add appropriate ballast resistors on the boards.

I've been putting ballast resistors on all the turnsignal boards that I design. I've found some LED-ready flasher relays that need at least some resistance in the load to start flashing.

A horse with no name · A horse with no name's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

How many of you that swapped to LED SPOKE will be at Pelican's Cars and Coffee, would love to se them in person

Howdy Jim...I have a set and they are extremely bright. I would imagine that when a car is behind you at a stop light, at night, they would be squinting...