Has anybody tried any of these in their car? I thought that they would be a good visual safety upgrade for cars.

I saw some very well made ones at Auto Zone made by a company called Jam Strait.

They list bulbs of varying brightnesses for use behind clear and tinted lenses.

The only 2 problems that I have come across is that:
1) Auto Zone does not carry all of the types available
2) there may be a probelm with the flasher working properly due to the reduce current load.

Real (from those that have actually tried them) experiances and findings are welcome!

Mark any comments, you seem to working with a lot of LED's of late?

 

LEFT LED's Right bulbs


Left bulb... RIGHT LED's

 

looks like bulbs are brighter.

 

Are they more expensive also?

 

86GXL where did you get those LED lights?

 

www.superbrightleds.com I DONT recommend them... they were very easy to deal with but the LED's were VERY dim... i purchesed the 19 cluster 1157's with wide angle veiw... they sucked... they are bright enough to use them in the blinkers but they do flash faster (which is fine with me)

 

I paid $50 for 4 1157 style clusters

Also i plan on putting LED's in EVERYTHING except the brake lights untill i can find somthing that is bright enough... This includes dash lights, side markers, Door lights, Dome light, hatch light, Everything...

 

i was reading a site that said "These installations will require an electronic flasher unit available at your auto parts store." What does that mean and why is it needed/what does it do? Can you just replace normal bulbs with them without any other things, cuz i remember reading somewhere you need some regulators or something for every LED bulb

 

When you use them for blinkers they will flash faster because of the low power draw... it makes the car think that a bulb is out so it makes it flash faster so you know... also when you put them in the brake lights your "STOP" light will come on telling you one of you bulbs is burnt out... also due to low power draw.

So you dont HAVE to get anything to correct it as long as you dont mind your "STOP" light coming on and your blinkers flashing faster.

 

naww.. just hookup something that uses lots of extra power when braking! Like an airhorn, lol.

(Edit...Remove long signature)

 

hmm interesting, so how do you hook up the flasher unit to the LEDs? how does that all work?

 

6 Ohm, 50 Watt resistors can be connected across the turn signal bulbs to simulate the load of a regular filament bulb (2 Amp load). This will solve LED related turn signal problems such as hyper flashing, no flashing or burnt out bulb indications.
One resistor is required for each turn signal bulb. Includes gel filled moisture resistant splice taps.

Connect one wire to ground and the other wire to the turn/brake wire. You do not have to cut your car's wires. Squeeze splice taps with pliers. One Load Resistor required for each turn signal bulb.

 

That's not quite right. The flash rate of flasher units is a product of the current draw, because it works by heating a bi-metallic strip that opens and closes the contacts. Changing the current draw changes the flash rate. It's not a deliberate warning feature as such, it's just the way they work.

I dunno about the indicators, but getting the brake light warning system to work propery is a lot of hassle. A recent AutoSpeed article covered building a high-stop light from high-intensity 10mm LED's, and a subsequent article covered a system to stop the warning light from coming on unless a bulb actually blew. A large ceramic dropping resistor did the job but it got too hot with sustained use (i.e. sitting at traffic lights). The resistor ended up with a cooling fan that switched on with the brake lights!

 

Cool thanks for clearing that up... Thats the only thing i wasnt to sure off. Thanks.

 

I did that to my sister's accord one year for april fools; wired her brake lights into her horn. SOOOO funny.

 

wouldve been funnier if you had wired her horn to her brake so that everytime she breaked, the horn would go off......

 

i think thats what he meant. break lights go on, horn sounds.

 

86GXL, thanks for the pictures! That was what I was afraid of, not bright enough!

The bulbs I found are supposedly much brighter, they even recommend that if you have clear style lenses that you don't use their brightest bulbs - the Hyper-Bright series, they are reserved for tinted lenses and are listed as "blinding"

For clear lenses they have regular "bright" led bulbs

Here is the link: www.jamstrait.com

Even the bulb construction looks better the the site that you mention (I've been there before, some good stuff), check it out and tell me what you think...

 

They just used plastic enstead of metel for the construction of the bulb. Its not that that counts its the LED's. Your not supposed to run a red LED bulb in a red lense because the red lense will defuse the light making it dimmer. Hence why we have white bulbs and colored lenses. Plus White LED's have a higher MCD than red and will be brighter. Kinda wierd that they say that red is brighter behind a lense than white.... but whatever

 

86GXL, I hear what you are saying about the white versus red, BUT, depends on how more light each outputs. Red or white, won't really matter if the red ones are bright enough.

This bulb is not made with standard single LED's, they are bright chip-style units:

1157-HR Hyper-Bright Red
7 cd HP chip LEDs 630nm 15 LED
Visual Test Results: BLINDING
Recommended for: All Red Lenses
May be too bright for clears lenses

The regular bulbs use the usual style LED's:

1157-SR Super-Bright Red
30º Viewing Angle 15 LED
Visual Test Results: Very Bright
Recommended for: All Clear Lenses and Newer Red Lenses

Notice the rating on the hyper units...7 cd not 'mcd'

 

Standard automotive circuit does not use gates. Current flows both directions out of a tee; step on the brakes, brake light circuit goes on and the horn goes on. Press the horn, brake lights go on.

Not much on wiring?


Although, I dunno, I would have felt pretty bad if it caused her to break.... shouldn't that have been broke?

 

sweet... well test em out and let me know how it went... and take pics

 

does this mean that throwing a resistor in the mix could slow down the flash rate?

 

I have some that I bought some time ago (at least 1 year ago).

I got them at
http://www.superbrightleds.com/other_bulbs.htm
but I am sure the cheap ones are all the same construction.

I think it was around $6 per bulb, and let me tell you, they are not bright enough. You don't want to use them as brake lights.

At the time (again, that was at least one year ago), it seemed you had to shell about $40 to get a bright enough led bulb. Maybe good ones can be had for far cheaper now, but I dunno.

Hugues -

 

Well, one advantage of the LED light is that it draws much less current (than an incandescent), so having to put a resistance in the mix to avoid the 'brake warning light' to come on or the flashers to blink too fast is a little bit of a pain.

Hugues -