LED Brake Lights

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by spoke

Sent the 911 front sidemarker board to the fab. Should have boards in hand in a week or 2.



The board has 48 LEDs and the current/brightness will be identical to the front turnsignal LEDs when on running light.



Still working on the lens or diffuser. I picked up a sheet of diffuser (probably for a fluorescent fixture) to see how it looks. More to come on this one...

I’ll be ordering a set when they get finalized


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PabloX]

Just curious, have you looked at this style of LED for the front daytime running lights? It seems like they'd be more visible.

[dannyg911]

Just my .02 I have the combo turn signal/daytime running boards and they are bright. I have been very happy with them.

[spoke]

Originally Posted by PabloX

Just curious, have you looked at this style of LED for the front daytime running lights? It seems like they'd be more visible.

There are a lot of bright LED solutions out there. I have a small LED flashlight that is extremely bright. In most LED lighting products you can purchase, a custom lens or reflector is used to either focus or de-focus the LED light. The LED flashlight I have has a deep reflector to create a beam of light from the LED. An LED worklight would de-focus the light or channel the light to a wide angle for area lighting.

A solution like shown adapted to a running light would be interesting although would require a great deal of engineering to make it fit inside the existing lens like my front turnsignal boards.

Likely adapting such LED strip to the 911 would require a custom designed lens and/or reflector to replace the existing lens. It could be done however the tooling needed for that may require a large minimum order to make financial sense.

[PabloX]

Originally Posted by spoke

There are a lot of bright LED solutions out there. I have a small LED flashlight that is extremely bright. In most LED lighting products you can purchase, a custom lens or reflector is used to either focus or de-focus the LED light. The LED flashlight I have has a deep reflector to create a beam of light from the LED. An LED worklight would de-focus the light or channel the light to a wide angle for area lighting.

A solution like shown adapted to a running light would be interesting although would require a great deal of engineering to make it fit inside the existing lens like my front turnsignal boards.

Likely adapting such LED strip to the 911 would require a custom designed lens and/or reflector to replace the existing lens. It could be done however the tooling needed for that may require a large minimum order to make financial sense.

I'll obviously defer to you on the EE aspects. I mostly thought the lighting pattern from that type of LED would be ideal for a DRL.

[spoke]

Got the first set of front sidemarker boards built and installed on my car. They look a lot better than I thought they would.

Because there no dispersion qualities to the lens, the 48 LEDs are quite visible either on or off although it looks ok either way.

The weirdest thing about this board is I started out thinking of just a sidemarker board like the rear which has 12 LEDs and ended up with a front turnsignal board with 48 LEDs and capability to be very bright.

When I put 12 LEDs on this board they look lost. So I increased the LEDs to 30. Still a lot of blank space. Then up to 48 LEDs where this board is. In the end, all I ended up doing was redesigning the first front turnsignal board I made with 48 amber LEDs. Duh.

To keep the running light brightness to the same as the front turnsignal, I used the same resistive drive network. This means the LEDs can be operated at a bright level for turnsignals as well as the dim running light level. So if someone wanted to do some rewiring on the front of the car to run turnsignal power to this board, it would also flash with the turnsignal.

For connection to the car's running light power, the boards will come with a BA9 bulb base connector to connect to the existing sidemarker bulb socket. There will also be an extra red wire which will be curled up unused. The red wire would allow the sidemarker to double as a turnsignal if the car wiring is modified to bring turnsignal power to the sidemarker enclosure.

[Canada Kev]

If you were to use them as signals, would they flash at the same time, or could they be made to do so alternately, like train crossing lights?

[bugstrider]

Lookin purdy dang sexy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[spoke]

Originally Posted by Canada Kev

If you were to use them as signals, would they flash at the same time, or could they be made to do so alternately, like train crossing lights?

Interesting idea. Not sure it could be done easily. Reason is in general the flasher relay interrupts the power to the turnsignal lights. On, Off, On, Off... When the turnsignal lights are off, there is no power to light the sidemarkers.

[Canada Kev]

Would likely need an additional relay to interrupt the signal opposite the front signal, maybe with the NC swapping with a NO circuit or something like that. Can't quite get it figured out in my head right now. For me it's moot anyway - I don't have the side running lights and only front signals.

[spoke]

I tried putting a piece of fluorescent lighting diffuser in front of the front sidemarker.

It definitely hides the LEDs especially when not lit up. Not sure of the look when lit. I'll have to see it more outside in the dark.

[spoke]

Assembled an RS-like rear turnsignal today. It took forever to design LED spacers for the front and rear LEDs of the oval.

Most of the LEDs are arranged in an oval pattern. When viewed behind the car, they look like a circle. On the car the RS-like turnsignal definitely looks round. In the last pic on the car with only the running lights on, the square brake boards are on the inside and the square turnsignal is on the passenger side and the round turnsignal on the driver side.

[69porsche]

I finally got my 911 out of the shop and installed the tail, parking and brake lights! Great job in turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Great to see it so bright that I don't have to worry as much as the person behind me. My apologies for not taking pics as I was just beating the sunset to get it finished! Once again Thanks!.....means turn signals lights

[spoke]

The 911 front sidemarker and rear turnsignals with the round LED pattern (RS-like) have been added to my website. The rear turnsignals can be built with red or amber LEDs.

[Racerbvd]

Sweet!!!

[A horse with no name]

Originally Posted by spoke

The 911 front sidemarker and rear turnsignals with the round LED pattern (RS-like) have been added to my website. The rear turnsignals can be built with red or amber LEDs.

Well done Jerry!.. I would like to get a set of your new front side makers...I best get over to your web site and order a pair of them ay!

[69porsche]

Spoke,
I got my LED boards installed, the brake, side marker and turn signal they are fantastic!

I am looking at ordering the following but I need your advice before purchasing in terms of flasher requirement.
I will order a Front set of amber turn signals
Do I need a flasher? and if so which one do I need the single or dual that you offer on your website.
My car is 1985 -911 Coupe

Thanks for everything you are doing!
Gordon

[spoke]

Originally Posted by 69porsche

Spoke,
I got my LED boards installed, the brake, side marker and turn signal they are fantastic!

I am looking at ordering the following but I need your advice before purchasing in terms of flasher requirement.
I will order a Front set of amber turn signals
Do I need a flasher? and if so which one do I need the single or dual that you offer on your website.
My car is 1985 -911 Coupe

Thanks for everything you are doing!
Gordon

Good to hear. About the flasher: is the flasher hyperflashing (2x flash rate) with your LED rear turnsignal? This would be either right or left, not 4 way. If the flasher is not hyperflashing when putting on the right or left turnsignal, you may not need a new flasher.

If it is hyperflashing, then order the one for 911. The other one is for 914 with single L<>R indicator.

[RDM]

I'm sure it's somewhere in the thread here, but we're on page 36....

My tail/brake lights are wonderful, and they do exactly what they should, Except they glow dimly even when the car is off. I'm not worried about the current draw, but it just looks strange, especially with a third brake light up under the Targa bar.

What to do?

Thanks,

[spoke]

Originally Posted by RDM

I'm sure it's somewhere in the thread here, but we're on page 36....

My tail/brake lights are wonderful, and they do exactly what they should, Except they glow dimly even when the car is off. I'm not worried about the current draw, but it just looks strange, especially with a third brake light up under the Targa bar.

What to do?

Thanks,

So the brake and 3rd brake LEDs are on very dimly with the car shut off?

Do you have cruise control on the car?

During operation the cruise control senses the brake light wire and dumps several milliamperes into the brake light wire causing the brake lights to light dimly (during key on) even with the brake pedal not pressed.

Does the dim lighting decay over time? Like by the next morning?

This is interesting. If anything, the very high impedance of the LEDs isn't causing the leak but has allowed the leakage current to light them up when the car is off.

If you're into checking this out, it would be interesting to do a couple of tests:

1) With key off, disconnect one of the brake boards and see if the other LEDs get brighter.
2) With key off, disconnect one of the brake boards and measure the voltage from chassis to the brake button in the socket.