LED Brake Lights

[DaveMcKenz]

Originally Posted by spoke

Dave,

What you are looking for is the loop of wire which connects both L and R dash indicators on the tach. Here's my tach popped out of the dash. Notice the brown wire connecting between the 2 indicator lamps.

On your car, you simply want to remove those wires and tape them up so they don't contact anything. Then make a pigtail like the original connection except this pigtail will connect the 2 bulbs together and then connect to a chassis ground.

Seems like every year of 911 has some subtle differences in the wiring and finding the right wire diagram is crucial. I can't comment on discrepancies of wire diagram to car; I'm learning as I go as well.

Thanks, Jerry. That looks like it should work. I will pull the tach this weekend.
Great work,
Dave

[DaveMcKenz]

Jerry, you're so smart!
My common wire was blue/white just like in the wiring dagram near the flasher but not shown in the tach diagram. Anyway I found the light-to-light loop which was blue/white. I disconnected it and taped it up. I made a Y-shaped pig tail that connected to the indicator lights in the tach, then connected that to ground. Everything worked perfectly, except the indicator lights were backward, so I interchanged them. Emergency flashers are perfect also.
Thanks, now to install my new light boards,
Dave

[DaveMcKenz]

I got Jerry's front turn signals installed. They are white running lights that turn off when the amber signal light is flashing. They are super bright. They fit and work perfectly. I am very happy with them.
Thanks to Jerry,
Dave

[APachon71RN]

I am so ready to do the Fr and Rr turn signal LED upgrade a la Jerry!!!

~Andy

[APachon71RN]

Where did you get these clear lenses?

~Andy

Originally Posted by spoke

Finally getting caught up with things after my daughter's wedding and the delay for the quest to find a solution compatible with the cruise control units. A pile of boards were shipped today. All boards paid for have been shipped with one exception going to Ireland while we work out shipping.

Here's a couple of pics of my car with the white LED running lights in the turnsignal bucket.



With the headlights on.

[spoke]

Originally Posted by APachon71RN

Where did you get these clear lenses?

~Andy

Our hosts here at PP have it. I also had to buy the gasket between the fixture and lens:

Porsche 911 (1974-1989) - Lights and Lenses - Page 9

[APachon71RN]

Thanks for the heads up Spoke. I am going to also order the Euro Rr lenses in preparation for your Rr Turn signals.

~Andy

[McLaren-TAG]

Hey Spoke, loving the lights. The design is straight forward, no nonsense and ridiculously bright, so a hearty recommendation from me to anyone on the fence to buying one.

One bit of constructive feedback here though, the mounting mechanism (the little black tabs are just overly complicated and frankly break the tab during installation if you even just look at them the wrong way.

So I am including a picture with my solution which worked way better for me and will allow me to in the future take the assembly off and put back on countless times without issue.

I think what you need to do is ditch the mechanism entirely and simply add a "eyelet" molded right into the blue square mounting plate to make what I did easier and sturdier. Simply use a wire tie through the PCB, looped around the cross member and brought it back out through the hole where the plastic tab would have been. I tied it but left them loose enough to have play to do the same with the others, then tightened it all up and trim the excess.

Picture is worth a thousand words.

[DaveMcKenz]

Hi Tag,
I have had my boards in and out numerous times for resistor measurements, etc. I have the exact opposite opinion from yours. I think Spoke's mounting tabs are very clever and work great. I am sorry they gave you trouble, and I am also glad you solved the problem. I have to say that I really like his mounting tabs. That's just my opinion.
Dave

[Arne2]

I haven't read through the entire thread, so I need to ask if these brake light boards now come with a resistor to facilitate the cruise control?

[DaveMcKenz]

Originally Posted by Arne2

I haven't read through the entire thread, so I need to ask if these brake light boards now come with a resistor to facilitate the cruise control?

Yes they do, and I think if you have an old one it will be fixed on an exchange basis.
Dave

[Arne2]

Don't have any yet, but I will probably want to get a pair as soon as I finish my interior refresh.

[Lake Guy]

Hi guys, new to this forum. I sent a PM to you Spoke

[spoke]

I thought the periscope/snorkel 3rd brake lights pointed to the rear of the car. This one is pointing into the air to warn low flying airplanes and helicopters.

Is this factory standard, dealer, or PO mounted?



This is how I expect the periscope to be mounted.

[canamfan]

That 3rd/ "periscope" brake light on the red car is probably for a "no tail" mount whereas the blue slant has the appropriate type for cars with tails, not to further confuse, but there are also ones that have no neck ie. for speedsters, convertibles & I believe targas IIRC, & of course to even further confuse, the necks/base come in tall(for turbo's taller tail lip) & shorter version (for Carrera tail, lower rubber lip) applications, I think anyway?, but all look very similar

[canamfan]

To state the obvious, but some are body coloured and some are black, pretty sure they all use the same bulb type. Man I love these Speedsters

[spoke]

I am selling one (1) set of '74-'89 front turnsignal boards. There are 48 amber LEDs and should be about 3x brighter than the standard bulb.

Price: $90 + $10 shipping (CONUS)| $25 shipping (Canada)

This is a good deal as the front turnsignal boards we'll be making will be priced at $125 (72 all amber) and $145 (48 amber; 24 white).



These fit into the lens and attach with clips like the brake lights.



The LEDs are mounted on the board at an angle so when positioned in the car they point directly forward.

[DaveMcKenz]

Hi Jerry,
Do you have a rear turn signal/side marker set?
Thanks,
Dave

[spoke]

Originally Posted by DaveMcKenz

Hi Jerry,
Do you have a rear turn signal/side marker set?
Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave,

I'm working on the design for the front turnsignal board now. It's not much different than the ones you have; just tidied up in a couple of places.

The rear turnsignals are a bit more complicated since they involve the side light as well. The benefit of grabbing power from the side light is for cars with red turnsignals where the turnsignal can now be gently lit to be a running light. This gives the car a much wider light footprint at night. Can't do this with amber lenses though. Amber running lights are only allowed in the front of the car.

I've done this side light deletion on 914's for a while now. By turning some LEDs on the turnsignal board to the side of the car, the side light can be removed.

I did this on V1; deleted the side light and pointed 16 LEDs to the side. These are the boards Hiro showed on this thread a couple of pages back. 16 LEDs were overkill; it's like having a red flashlight pointed out the side of the car. If you stand between the car and a wall you can see your shadow on the wall. I used 8 LEDs in the 914's so 8 should be ok. Always better to overdo it than under do it.

On the V2 that I have on my car, I wanted to have more LEDs pointing to the rear and didn't want to delete the side light. I made the little round side light board so I could light up that area and grab power.

To improve contrast of turnsignals when running lights are on, I added a circuit to turn off running lights when the turnsignal is active. Instead of dim-bright-dim-bright....-dim, this one does: dim-bright-off-bright-off......-bright-off-dim. It's quite striking at night.

Not sure at this point which version I want to proceed with. V1 is simpler, less expensive but the sidemarker area is dark. V2 lights the sidemarker area but is more complicated and probably $40 more expensive.

[APachon71RN]

I'd be in for the $40 more version.