Led tail lights, prototype

[Keith V]

I made a LED tail light protype this weekend. Its a piece of trash, but proves some things and exposes other things. It was definitly worth doing.

It looks like it will be necessary to make new lenses since as noted bysomeone else the new style lenses dont work well with LEDS. That shouldnt be too hard.

Also hand wiring leds is a major PITA, def need a circuit board




View attachment 6843

 

[Matt Colie]

Keith,
How did you do the Brake/Tail differential?
Matt

 

[Keith V]

Matt, i have two ways, my fav at this time is using alternating rows. So row 1,3,5,7 are brake and ros 2 4,6 are taillight.

The other way is a controller, or even just resistors for the taillight.

 

[Russell]

Looks good Keith

 

[Cadelec]

I realise this is not what you are trying to do but this is what My PO did

 

[RF_Burns]

I made a LED tail light protype this weekend. Its a piece of trash, but proves some things and exposes other things. It was definitly worth doing.

It looks like it will be necessary to make new lenses since as noted bysomeone else the new style lenses dont work well with LEDS. That shouldnt be too hard.

Also hand wiring leds is a major PITA, def need a circuit board

Keith,
I had done some experimenting installing off-the-shelf brake/stop light assemblies inside the GMC tail light. I tried both the OEM GMC MH tail light lens and the later van style. Both style did not play well with the tail light lens. Some LEDs would be bright and others were dim. It seems you need a lens around each LED to properly focus them. I finally gave up and installed a 1157 style red LED lamp and both styles of lens played nicely with it.

An 1156 white LED lamp works great with the backup lens.

 

[Keith V]

I wonder if a diffuser would help...