LED retrofit on the side markers.

[Jesse Veitch]

Slowly the whole car is being converted from ugmo incandescents to LEDs.

The side markers on the front bumper as stock only act as running lights.. no blinking with the signals.  I wanted to change this too, so I rigged up a little regulated circuit to deliver a constant voltage to the LEDs, and increase that voltage upon blinking.





Then I needed to waterproof them since they would go inline to the corner lights.  So I potted them with thermal potting compound.  I made a couple extras because I figured someone I know would want them.. they got scooped up quick!



Next I printed off the PCB design I made on the computer and transfered it to some PCB board and cut out the shape of the marker.



Here they are after the acid etch with the toner removed.



And now with the solder paste attaching the tiny SMT resistors on the top.



Then I soldered on the LEDs, these are LumiLEDS Snap150 LEDs.  They are designed for automotive use, and they produce a DOT certified amber colour.  These are the same LEDs you'll find in high end beamer/benz/lexus tails.  All the cheaper cars use knockoffs.  After soldering on the LEDs I painted the boards "chrome"



Now the stocker side marker and the after market guy are cut apart.  The OEM unit was much better built, much heavier, so I used it as the backing piece and just attached the clear after market lens back onto the stock housing with JB weld.





All Done:






Now for some illuminated action...

Here's a comparison of the clear stock bulb in the amber housing.  Amber coloured bulb in the clear housing, and of course the LEDs in marker mode.

All 3 of these pics have been taken on manual mode with the same shutter, aperture, and iso settings.

Here's the stocker, clear bulb amber lens:


The after market clear lens with the amber coloured bulb:


And the o-so-much-better LEDs:


I hate the colour of the amber bulb through the clear lens.. doesn't really even look all that amber, you can tell more in person.. doesn't look right at all, that thin film of amber on the bulb isn't enough of a colour filter.. and thus the reason the clear lens is slightly brighter than stock.  No matter though, the LEDs have perfect colour.. I like how they're less orange and more yellow than the filtered light bulb above.. soon that will be replaced as well.

And finally, here's a video so you can see the blinking feature that I added.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZRFxkLkPGg

[Jared Grant]

good fuckin job man. quite the project for something as small as side markers.

[John Hartman]

holy hell, mad skils!!  Thats just insane. Printed circuits and acid etching at home?  Wow...

[Jesse Veitch]

Thanks.

It's actually not such a big deal to pull off.  You just need a laser printer to print the design, then use an iron to transfer the toner from the paper onto the copper clad board.  Then you just dunk it in the etchant.. which is 2 parts hydrogen peroxide (buy at drug store) and 1 part muriatic acid (got mine at lumber world)

If you think this is insane, I can't wait to see you'll say about my tail lights.. Just started populating the board with parts the other day, It's completed now, hooked up to the computer accepting code.. now I just need to finish the tail lights themselves.

[Remi Raymond]

You ran all this by hand? Jesus man. I'm assuming you're an Electrical engineer, or is this just a hobby?

[Mark Guthrie]

thats pretty sweet man!!!

[Zach Holt]

LED GOOOOOOROOOOO lol nice work man

[Sy Haw Wong]

Those are pretty mad skills.

If you are up for another challenge here is something i found in the past, which I thought was pretty damn cool.
The guy changed all his interior panel lights with LEDs...super bright and nice lookin.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-exterior-interior/274519-how-light-gauge-cluster-leds.html

[Matt Pratola]

accepting code?  I can imagine what that means...

What was the difference in voltage levels for blink on / blink off?  Did you use the same difference as the stock signal light, or..?  If blink off was a bit less, i think it would look even better, but anyways it looks verrry cool

[Josh Royle]

wanna build me some?

[Jesse Veitch]

Thanks again.

Hobby turning small business.  I do all kinds of LED lighting.. architectural, general indoor lighting, hell, I've even upgraded my bench grinder with LED lights.

Before: 20W power draw.


After: 6W power draw


My warm white LED fixtures I make to replace MR16 type bulbs and such are pretty nice if I do say so my self.. at 9W each they will replace a 50W halogen, last for 25-50 years.. and look bad ass, I machine them from solid aluminum on my lathe.





I'm working on the interior of the car... I have the footwell lighting and reading lights done.. I'll snap a pic of that soon.

As for the technical side of things,  You just connect the regulator ground to ground, the red wire to the running light wire, and the blue wire to the signal wire.. the 3 wires that go to your signal light bulb in your headlight, it's right above the marker light, super easy to splice it in.  The voltage going into the regulator/blinker boards I made is irrelevant, it will put out a constant 7.62V for the running lights, which works out to ~55mA through the LEDs with a 2.49ohm resistor for each series of 3.  Then when the signal is triggered the output increases to 9.66V sending ~150mA through the LEDs.  The signal trigger can also supply power to the LEDs so they can blink without the running lights on for daytime use.

As for making a pair, I could do it, but it's a decent amount of my time invested.. and all high quality parts.  The LEDs themselves are worth over $1 each with shipping, so that's about $35, then the clear corners themselves, unless you have some already.. are about $35 I think.  Copper boards, regulators, solder, etchant, time.. I could do it for about $140

[Edwin Nigam]

Im interested in a pair but wont be buying them right now

[Mike Schmid]

Looks really good man, it's a cool project.  A car with stock body, nice wheels, lowered a bit with a bunch of really cool little touches that you don't notice right away would impress me way more than a body kit and gigantor wing and that like the usual 'show' cars. 

That's still the biggest problem with LEDs now is the price is still a little too high.  A few years from now when the price keeps coming down and they get more widespread I think we'll only see LEDs. 

[lyle chavez]

Impressive skill on display...

[Ryan Coft]

Cheapest place for decent LED's?

Truck stop (as in big-rigs).

I bought a trailer tail light for 25 bucks. That light (once the cover is off) is made up of tons of LEDS on a circuit board. I think it was 40 or 50 LEDs.

Out came the Soldering Gun, un-soldered all the LED's from the board. Done. Down side is that you get some shorter leads for the LED.