nemix

Does anyone know a good way to get in contact with this company? My friend has some of the turn signals on his car and the quality looks great compared to OEM. I have some projects with custom lighting I'm playing with for my car (turn signals and brakes) and would like to grab a bulk order from them.

Only problem is I've sent them multiple emails over the last 2 weeks and haven't heard back from them. I know they're located in Taiwan, so I'm not sure if there's a language barrier. Going to have a friend who speaks the language give them a call but he's out of the country for a few weeks. Has anyone on here ordered direct from them?

nemix

Wow, literally within 30 minutes of posting this someone from DEPO contacted me to get me in touch with a sales rep, nice...lol

Mods can close this if you'd like

Spalato

iTrader: (33)

lol thats nuts. Are they stalking us? I hope they read what we think of their euro style lights

SA3R

As an ex-BMW owner, this thread brings back some nostalgia for me.

The E39 M5 or 5 Series guys were always moaning that their headlights cost upwards of $700 per side, and they all wanted the angel-eye halo rings, etc on the older cars.

Every one of them swore black & blue that they would not add a single Ebay sourced part to their precious BMWs, as it would cheapen their cars, reputations, etc.

Someone got onto these Depo branded lights as a cheap alternative, and managed to convince whole BMW forums that the Depos were German made, etc. Suddenly people were ordering them left & right.

I bought my own set (off Ebay- I didn't care) and then found the 'Made in Taiwan' mark on my set. I showed this to the forum and there was an uproar and BMW owners on that forum removed the perfectly good lights and put the stockers back in...

IMHO there is nothing wrong with the Depo stuff except that the black soft rubber they use for sealing & weatherstripping on some models of lights (BMWs had some rubbers where the hood closes over the lights) is not very UV stable and it cracks and falls apart after 2 years of outdoor sun.

TLDR: Precious BMW owners could not stand to find out that their apparently German Depo headlights were actually made in Taiwan, so pulled them out, threw them away..

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

Have the 'semi-smoked' version of the Depo front signal lights on my car. I think it's an updated look and generally really happy. But the plastic used on the face or lens of the housing is a little softer somehow. It seems to pit a little easier than the stockers. But they're cheap enough. Over a period of six years or so I just replaced them when they starting looking a little beat up.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Would you post up if they are still available? As I understand it, they discontinued them last year for the FD. EDIT: I am referring to the 99 spec front turn signals.

pomanferrari

iTrader: (1)

Bought this last week from ebay. Can confirm that it's a DEPO brand frow TW.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181561386826?item=181561386826&viewitem=&vxp=mtr
Plan is to install this DRL (LED 10W) into the running light side.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Those look to be pretty trick. 10W should be bright enough to use as a DRL. Please post pics. Glad to see some DEPOs still available. I've got a set here I want to cut up for prototyping but have been nervous to do this.

nemix

Same here David, I got in contact with their main office and the only rx7 lighting they offer anymore are the ugly chrome front turn signals. Wish I could find oem brake lights, been working on a project with my originals, I'll post some pics soon

Edit: any other products they have on eBay I'm guessing are orders filled in the past that haven't sold yet....

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

For my work, it doesn't matter what they insides look like as I paint/rubberize that anyway. Maybe I should jump on buying the set of tinted ones so I have a spare. The taillight project sounds interesting. Def post pics.

nemix

Everything's in the early stages with testing on the brakes. I've had to modify the housing to get an even red across it.




These rods are going to be back lit with superflux leds but I haven't had a chance to glue and solder them yet. Thus is just the rods being illuminated by the brake lights. Camera phone shows a lot of patchy areas on the break but it's actually pretty even should be even more even when all the lights behind it are the same... Lol


And two other side projects I'm playing with, still testing these too, angel eyes need some resistors for dimming

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Very cool. Was just thinking about the angel eye approach to the turn signals. May I ask what type of rods you are using? I've not found anything after market that transmits light well. How about the angel eyes? Are they bright enough to be DRLs?

nemix

I'm actually using the rod you used in your project, the side emitting fiber optics. I think it would work but the color 4-6" in stays yellow and then turns white again for some reason I can't figure out. I think I'm going to try to use the frosted acrylic in using in my Brake lights. The plan is to drill small holes in the back of the turn signals to wire through some high brightness 5mm leds (forgot the brand name, nichia maybe? They're rated at 24-28 lumens each no heat sink needed) the acrylic should Diffuse them pretty evenly.

For angel eyes if you go with COB leds they're ridiculously bright. So bright I think I will be running a relay to dim them at night and I may dim them just a bit during the day.... I bought eBay ones but I hear generation 2 and 3 are a lot more reliable. I believe a site called the retrofit source sells these. You can usually see the difference because they don't have a yellowish front when the lights off.

Jose A.

iTrader: (40)

Ive also tried contacting them about the turn signals since they stopped making them or at least sending them to this side lol.
Did you get an answer from them as to when will they start production or get products in bulk from them?


I would also like to get a quote to buy in bulk from them or something.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Just saw your pm, sorry about that. Call me if I can be of help.

The side emitting fiber works fine if brightness is not important. I pushed it to its limits with the technology I have and it just can't output what I want it to, and that was using 700 lumen led emitters on each end. Wasn't much brighter than the 250 lumen units I previously used and the heat output was getting up there from the emitters so I've gone back to the drawing board. So, I don't think these will work for any type of brake light technology, unless you just use them for the parking light side. For the actual brake lights, you'd need something much brighter.

What type of acrylic are you planning on using? It's pretty important you use the optical grade materials as it is designed to transmit light evenly. I've tried to use some optical grade acrylic that I frosted myself and it was just okay. The problem lies in the LED light transmission and you really need some good optics to make the light transmit evenly and without loss. I guess that is why the OEM products always look better and brighter. It's not so much the light rods, it's more the optics.

I bought some high powered LEDs (I recall they are around 200 lumens each) with a few different types of optical lenses to test. My current theory is to string together a series of the LEDs (probably at least 12 - 18 or so per turn signal) with the best optical lense (thinking an oval pattern will work here) and place these behind either a clear or frosted acrylic half round rod. At least that's the current plan

Those 5mm units look promising. I've never seen a 5 mm LED that could put out 25 lumens. The issue you usually have with these is their brightness (normally measured in MCD, not lumens) and then their viewing angle (it's usually quite narrow and you need something with a larger viewing potential).

Finally, I've got an email into the retrofit source guys about the COB LED angel eyes. I've tested a bunch of SMD units and just didn't like them but COB LED could be the ticket if bright enough. My ideal would be to find something that could serve as a DRL and then dim them at night. Would also work on turning them off when the turn signal comes on.

nemix

I'm not sure if you came across this post at another forum in your searches but it's what I'm using as a starting point for my tail light project. He lists the website I bought the acrylic from.

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthr...roject-1/page4

I don't think the guy ever finishes but he did make some awesome progress. The only thing I'm missing are the red/orange superflux leds, no one has them in Stock so I have just plain red which aren't as bright.... Might pickup some red/orange before I get into wiring.

BluRR

iTrader: (1)

I bought a set of the depot 99 spec signal lights as well. My hope is to put proper headlight type bulbs in the running/park light sections, either HID or LEDs. This would in effect function like a fog light and focus more light on the roads to help with the light from the actual headlghts.

Based on the size of the existing bulb i doubt any of the other headlight bubs could fit without adjustments to the housing. My concerns are also the heat generated by any high output bulb in the housing causing the housing to melt since it is so close to the actual bulb, Any suggestions?

rlee429

iTrader: (25)

There are new led headlight bulb out there with an external fan you can use.

I seen ones with fanless design, but extend further due to the heat sinking fins.. I got one for my prius and it lights up the road okay, not as bright as NEW halogen bulbs, but it's white and works fine. Nice thing is most of the heat in the back of the led headlight bulb and not in the housing.

Only thing I would worry about using the cree ones it might extend too much and interfere with the headlight retraction.....

nemix

Check out the Hella 50mm projector. They expensive but to find something with a good cut off that's small, I want to say that's about the closest you can get, maybe someone else knows of something smaller.

If you can do a modification to the housing to get these to fit and use an LED conversion kit you can probably run them at a cooler temperature and get the results you want. You're probably looking at over $1000 with all of this though.

00SPEC

iTrader: (9)

i like my depo 93-95 smoked turn signals, w/ LED bulbs