led taillight idea
 

i was bored in paint and made a quick draw up. i got the idea from an aston martin vantage the red is brake/tail and yellow is turn signals. Do you think it will look good?

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...Rear_Under.jpg

Did you watch Top Gear last night and saw that...LOL....I like how it looks granted you use high quality LED's but I am preety sure that majority of the people here will say it will look like shit...

Sometimes the best thing you can do with the FD..... is leave it alone :)

we have a forum member that is from Germany (I forget his username) that has something similar. He only has the red line across the top. On his car it looks alright...

Hopefully he'll see this and provide a pic

do it because you can. if you don't like it you can always got back to stock later.

i saw it on youtube today actually while i was trying to find pictures of aston martins.

I'm still trying make something different and I came up with this. Not your normal look but not too far out there that it is ricey. Kind of reminds me of the charger just toned down a lot.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...879431_184.jpg

I'd say if you follow the lines of the taillights, or make them curve and not be straight, that or your previous design could look cool. I know you'll use high quality LEDs so the light output would be good. What about the turn signals?

For the turn signal I was thinking of putting another line of amber leds on the inside edge of the red. Also to give it a little flair they will be segmented in about 4 parts and sequence. Kind of hard to explain but I will make a drawing. I will have to change the lens like my blue car in my sig.

I just bought one of these so i can make my lights sequential. I also bought diffuser material from lowes it is the frosted type for ceiling lights hopefully it will work.

http://www.ti.com/tool/msp-exp430g2

Here is a closer look. I tried to make my lines flow but I am trying to do this in paint so its difficult.

thin vs. thick

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...d-lights-1.jpg

You mean like this?

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1347449045

kind of but without the extra leds on the bottom and the leds are going to form a bar instead of the individual look. My signals are going to be the same shape as my brakes but on the inside and segmented so I can make them sequential.

Does anyone know how to replicate the amber section of the taillight in red? This is the only thing that is slowing down progress!!!

Yay for Microsoft Paint..

Hey turboIIrotary, what do you think about something like this?

Attachment 655801

Could make the lines thinner of course, but *shrugs* I just had this in my head. :P

I like to keep it small and simple with an array that big it will be blinding and that will take forever to solder.

I think you could replace the amber section with red prismatic lens material:

HitechledProducts.com | Welcome

Or you might just replace the entire amber and red with one cut piece of the above. Either way, it has a clear prismatic section that you glue to the outer red section. I've also read (but not seen) that you can go to Home Depot and use a clear poly material (they have a bunch of different thicknesses), spray paint it candy red, and then glue on the inside a sheet of the stuff you use to cover fluorescent lights as it is prismatic as well.

Some options for you.

On another note, I've been working on a set of continuous glow LED DRLs inset into my 99 spec turn signals. I've come up with something that looks pretty good but I'd like them to be a bit brighter. I now work at a University that has a rapid prototype development lab that includes several high end 3D printers. So, I am going to take my design to them and see if they can replicate the LED DRL "rod" that I made and turn it into a piece that is notched in the back so I can inset a row of LEDs into it to be used to backlight the LED rod which will then be sandblasted so it is opaque. Should look just like the Audi style DRLs of today. The point is if you'd like, I could inquire for you as well. Maybe they could design and build an opaque unit for you that might work some way. Food for thought.

David, wouldnt sandblasting the rods to an opaque cause the lights to be dimmer?, consequently the opposite of what youre going after? IIRC, the smoother/higher gloss the finish will produce more clarity/brighter results

^ Probably but I think I can get the brightness I am after with what I have proposed. Here is what I would like the end result to look like:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...8&d=1387241553

So, I am after the "opaque" look of how they are doing the DRLs nowadays. My side emitting fiber optics rod works well but is not bright enough for my taste. I've done a new set in clear with a mirrored backing (and with line cut into the back to disperse the light) but this design is hampered by the bends I have to put into the side emitting rod ends to get the new units to fit into the bumper. In other words, I have to bend the rod ends too much and this limits the amount of light that makes it through the "bends", thus cutting down on the brightness. So, my 3X as bright LED emitters are no brighter than the originals.

One solution to this is to reduce the bends but I'd then need to take the bumper off to fit in the new turn signals. I can do this as the car is at the body shop now but I'd like to do something that would just slide right in so I can remove the units easily if I need to.

So, my current thought is to use an opaque rod and backlight it with a row of LEDs. This would eliminate the need to use "end cap" LED emitters, or the part that currently hinders sliding in the unit. As the LEDs I use are damn bright, I think I can get the brightness I need, even with the opaque acrylic rod.

I've heard back from the rapid prototype lab and they want to do this so I'll play around and see what I can come up with. Have always wanted to see how 3D printers work so it should be fun regardless.

anyone know what taillights this rx7 is running?

Those are custom LEDs.

looks like RulerMark's FD.

^ Yep, they are.

Sooo.....has anyone made any progress on R&D? :D