LED Third Brake Light with Turn Signals!

lonnie · 04-09-2009, 12:40 PM

I've been inspired by members on here to create my own version of the LED third brake light. Figured I'd get the thread creating out of the way. I will be utilizing the ideas of members that have already done the LED conversion mod. The design I came up with is below....Belive it or not it took me some time to figure out how to do this so that the signal lights would still be distinguishable from the brake light when the brake light is applied. This is what I came up with.
Attachment 6335

Right now I'm waiting for my LED's to be delivered, and in the mean time I have made my template to cut the material that the LED's will rest on. I will also be painting the inside of the housing black...I think it will make the LED's stand out more. It may not be many people interested in this type of modification, but I figured I'd post something from begining to end that way if someone wants to do it they can. This will be a very easy process that anyone with no wiring expierence can complete in 30 mins. So bear with me it is going to take about a week for the LED's to get here so in the interim I may just post pics of things that I have done to prepare for there arrival, then post pics of mounting them in the housing and final assembly and wire. This whole project should be done next weekend!

kevin1114 · 04-09-2009, 01:32 PM

Nice i can't wait to see the finished product!

NickAlero2000 · 04-09-2009, 02:08 PM

Should come out good...prolly will have to use a lot of LED's to make it turn out nice, make sure you allow for that in the template.

lonnie · 04-09-2009, 02:38 PM

Yeah I thinking now on squeezing all of that in there, but I'm excited to get this going. Been thinking about this for a long time now!

cavaliers60 · 04-09-2009, 03:47 PM

Just my opinion, but I really don't see the point in having turn signals in the MIDDLE of the car..........

lonnie · 04-09-2009, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cavaliers60

Just my opinion, but I really don't see the point in having turn signals in the MIDDLE of the car..........

Its different thats all. No reason at all I just think its cool, and no one else has it.

I also find my self drawn to the the middle of the car that is in front of me as well. There have been studies that showed that Third brake lights have reduced accidents significantly, and I'm just improving on the design...I'm sure I'm not the only one that sees the third brake light first before I see anything else.

cherrington17 · 04-09-2009, 06:45 PM

it really makes me wonder why mine isn't as bright as it should be.

w/o the red cover, it could light up my project room like it was daytime. now with that cover on it, its really dim. (nearly as dim as stock, if not more) i'm confused.

65 leds should be really freak'n bright!

lonnie · 04-09-2009, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cherrington17

it really makes me wonder why mine isn't as bright as it should be.

w/o the red cover, it could light up my project room like it was daytime. now with that cover on it, its really dim. (nearly as dim as stock, if not more) i'm confused.

65 leds should be really freak'n bright!

do they have resistors on them...could be to much? I got 2ft of ribbon style flixible leds in cool white...I don't know how many LED's that is but it cost 30 bucks so it better be allot..LOL

Hey have you tried spraying the reflecter with a more reflective material. I want to try and cut the light down so that the LED's can bee seen...don't really need it to be bright due to the fact that I hooked the other tail lights up to be brake lights as well.

cherrington17 · 04-09-2009, 07:10 PM

the plexy they are mounted in, is painted black, on the back side. (very lightly)

and no, they are wired in series.

lonnie · 04-09-2009, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cherrington17

the plexy they are mounted in, is painted black, on the back side. (very lightly)

and no, they are wired in series.

You know by having them hooked in series you are dividing the voltage between them all? Could be the source of your dim problem...of course I'm assuming that you have two leads (+) and (-) coming from the assembly. If you are running all the same color then you could hook them up parallel and give each LED the full 12v...unless they are low volt LED's

cherrington17 · 04-09-2009, 07:55 PM

3.6V. grouped in clusters of 4. and they are most definitely running at full brightness. without the red reflector infront of it.. it leaves spots in your eyes... for nearly an hour.

(made that mistake several dozen times while testing connections)

nixon · 04-10-2009, 02:05 PM

oh dear god i hated doing that...telling my friend no wait one sec before u hook that...ohh jesus thats bright

lonnie · 04-13-2009, 07:27 PM

Well got the LED's today and I ordered the wrong type of ribbon LED's. I needed the ones that your can bend when laying flat...Well I got the ones that can wrap around but not bend...So I have to order some more.

On another note oznium is a rip off. I paid and extra 4 bucks for shipping by regular mail, and the shipping cost was only 83 cents....RIP OFF indeed! They charged me a flat rate for two 12inch strips.

heineck · 04-13-2009, 07:34 PM

im interested to see how this comes out

cherrington17 · 04-13-2009, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonnie

Well got the LED's today and I ordered the wrong type of ribbon LED's. I needed the ones that your can bend when laying flat...Well I got the ones that can wrap around but not bend...So I have to order some more.

On another note oznium is a rip off. I paid and extra 4 bucks for shipping by regular mail, and the shipping cost was only 83 cents....RIP OFF indeed! They charged me a flat rate for two 12inch strips.

but then you order several things... and they still charge the same amount. rip off for you.. but i've made out well. just depends on what you order.

lonnie · 04-13-2009, 07:46 PM

They should know better the to charge me 4 bucks for that crap. Oh well but I'll have to order more in order to finish this. So now I have to order about 7 more bucks of LED's and get charged 4 bucks for shipping. The things I do to be different..LOL

cherrington17 · 04-13-2009, 07:49 PM

whats the link to the ones you ordered?

lonnie · 04-13-2009, 07:50 PM

I just thought of this insteadd of wrapping the signal LED's around the brake LED's I can make two straight lines of LED's and just divde the second one evenly for the signals. I think its like 18 on a 12inch strip so I can do 9 for the left and etc for the right. The big think now is finding a material to mount them to.

They come with the 3M adhesive on the back which is a plus! I'm thinking of just using some card board or that modeling foam?

http://www.oznium.com/led-ribbon

cherrington17 · 04-13-2009, 07:52 PM

plexi?

lonnie · 04-13-2009, 07:53 PM

This is what I am going to have to get if I don't to the double line thing.
http://www.oznium.com/led-flex-strips