led taillights!
take the center two rings out an dstick a bright LED style "replacement" bulb in there and it will look perfect imho. I know that is how some of the VW's do it although they use the ring as a blinker as well
that is more how i pictured it, going cheap makes the lights look cheap. or at least different and more of a truck style. filling in the area with as many LEDs as possible gives a more clean look for certain areas, except i would fill in the center area with superbright LEDs for the brake.
I will have to change to a smd led I can't pack these superflux that close together. I can make an array for the middle and set them back from the lens so it will be diffused.
It will look like this
It will look like this
Last edited by turboIIrotary; Jun 1, 2011 at 03:40 PM.
brighten up the center section, i honestly don't like that anyone is actually attempting to use brighter brake lamps over the parking lights. also looks a little out of place without the amber running lights. try thinking of it like this: outer rings for tails and turns all on for running lights, center section can be diffused or filled in with brighter LEDs for turn and brakes.
of course this all adds to cost but for $400 that SBG made their light sets for then this should still well be within reason for parts cost to produce.
don't make the same mistakes they did by having the tails be too dim for brake lamps. the turn signals don't necessarily have to be brighter than the amber marker.
also, to break up the monotony of the brake lamps turning on filling the whole area with light, a divider can be used to have a dead black spot between the outer ring and the brake lights. having a functional third brake light would also help with this in your examples, if omitting the divider idea.
just some things to think about for ideas.
of course this all adds to cost but for $400 that SBG made their light sets for then this should still well be within reason for parts cost to produce.
don't make the same mistakes they did by having the tails be too dim for brake lamps. the turn signals don't necessarily have to be brighter than the amber marker.
also, to break up the monotony of the brake lamps turning on filling the whole area with light, a divider can be used to have a dead black spot between the outer ring and the brake lights. having a functional third brake light would also help with this in your examples, if omitting the divider idea.
just some things to think about for ideas.
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; Jun 2, 2011 at 12:16 PM.
brighten up the center section, i honestly don't like that anyone is actually attempting to use brighter brake lamps over the parking lights. also looks a little out of place without the amber running lights. try thinking of it like this: outer rings for tails and turns all on for running lights, center section can be diffused or filled in with brighter LEDs for turn and brakes.
of course this all adds to cost but for $400 that SBG made their light sets for then this should still well be within reason for parts cost to produce.
don't make the same mistakes they did by having the tails be too dim for brake lamps. the turn signals don't necessarily have to be brighter than the amber marker.
also, to break up the monotony of the brake lamps turning on filling the whole area with light, a divider can be used to have a dead black spot between the outer ring and the brake lights. having a functional third brake light would also help with this in your examples, if omitting the divider idea.
just some things to think about for ideas.
of course this all adds to cost but for $400 that SBG made their light sets for then this should still well be within reason for parts cost to produce.
don't make the same mistakes they did by having the tails be too dim for brake lamps. the turn signals don't necessarily have to be brighter than the amber marker.
also, to break up the monotony of the brake lamps turning on filling the whole area with light, a divider can be used to have a dead black spot between the outer ring and the brake lights. having a functional third brake light would also help with this in your examples, if omitting the divider idea.
just some things to think about for ideas.
although i think it would better with a dim amber marker in the tails, after thinking about it i'm not sure if there is a law against it. the tails aren't supposed to have amber markers but the sides and front of the car can. doubt anyone would complain about it though, assuming the turn indicators are obvious versus the amber parking lights.
Last edited by RotaryEvolution; Jun 3, 2011 at 05:06 PM.
I won't let go
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,871
Likes: 23
From: Chi -> Maidstone
Weren't those Roxshox (I can't remember his exact forum name) designed lights?
I've been wanting to do some LED lights as well. I've seen what seems to be a lot of interest in these lately which is definitely good.
I've had several ideas which have been a bit of a mix of others' here, but just haven't dedicated any time to it.
Since light has an additive effect (don't know what kind of %age, eg two lights are twice as bright as one), why not user slightly smaller LEDs to get a higher density to create a smoother ring (if not using some diffuser).
I'd say stay away from any diffuser unless you're getting some extremely high brightness LEDs as they will only cut your output. Every manufacturer that you see with LED tails have them designed with direct view of the LED itself (as far as brake lamps themselves. Running lamps are another story).
Good luck and looking forward to seeing a completed version.
I've been wanting to do some LED lights as well. I've seen what seems to be a lot of interest in these lately which is definitely good.
I've had several ideas which have been a bit of a mix of others' here, but just haven't dedicated any time to it.
Since light has an additive effect (don't know what kind of %age, eg two lights are twice as bright as one), why not user slightly smaller LEDs to get a higher density to create a smoother ring (if not using some diffuser).
I'd say stay away from any diffuser unless you're getting some extremely high brightness LEDs as they will only cut your output. Every manufacturer that you see with LED tails have them designed with direct view of the LED itself (as far as brake lamps themselves. Running lamps are another story).
Good luck and looking forward to seeing a completed version.
Would love to see how bright those really are in the sunlight. On another note, I ordered these to fix my SakeBomb LEDs:
http://ledsupply.com/endorstar-3up.php
I am going to try the red-amber ones for the center of the brakes and the amber ones for the turn signals. My guess is these will be very bright but we shall see. To power them I am using this:
http://ledsupply.com/flexblock.php
This will allow each of the brake lights to run at 700mA, or at the brightest setting. The turn signal will be wired up to one of these for the same result:
http://www.ledsupply.com/03023-d-n-700.php
Finally, I also bought a few lenses to try but they will probably cut down on the angle too much. For $1.50 why not see?:
http://www.ledsupply.com/carclo-optics-3up.php
I got the wide angle one and then one of the elliptical ones for fun.
Should be in early next week and then I'll see how I can wire them into the mess of SakeBomb wiring. It's not pretty.
http://ledsupply.com/endorstar-3up.php
I am going to try the red-amber ones for the center of the brakes and the amber ones for the turn signals. My guess is these will be very bright but we shall see. To power them I am using this:
http://ledsupply.com/flexblock.php
This will allow each of the brake lights to run at 700mA, or at the brightest setting. The turn signal will be wired up to one of these for the same result:
http://www.ledsupply.com/03023-d-n-700.php
Finally, I also bought a few lenses to try but they will probably cut down on the angle too much. For $1.50 why not see?:
http://www.ledsupply.com/carclo-optics-3up.php
I got the wide angle one and then one of the elliptical ones for fun.
Should be in early next week and then I'll see how I can wire them into the mess of SakeBomb wiring. It's not pretty.
I'm either going to use the rebels or snapleds for version 2 where the center will light up. You can probably remove the two led rings that are used for brake and just use the rebels. That might clear up some wiring.
Last edited by turboIIrotary; Jun 19, 2011 at 03:37 PM.
I think this will work for you. For me, I am trying to work with the current SBG design and fix it so current GB members will have an option. I am going to leave the two outer rings used by SBG but tie them in together so both will come on with the parking brakes. This will brighten up a bit the parking lights and with the center brake section fixed, I am hopeful these will be acceptable to use. What really needs to be done though is to replace the outer rings with leds like you used.
I think this will work for you. For me, I am trying to work with the current SBG design and fix it so current GB members will have an option. I am going to leave the two outer rings used by SBG but tie them in together so both will come on with the parking brakes. This will brighten up a bit the parking lights and with the center brake section fixed, I am hopeful these will be acceptable to use. What really needs to be done though is to replace the outer rings with leds like you used.
That's the plan. I ordered enough for one taillight assembly and will then test the light output compared to stock (and the SBG units).
^ Cool. I just redid mine with an amber ring for the turn signals that comes on with the two parking circles and then the center lights up for the turns. Will post up some pics soon.
