This is a notch above what Pat did in his tails. I'm not sure what brand his are, but I will be making my own array, using adjustable controls, and very powerful LEDs.

When the night comes I will be getting a before video to show the crappy output of my Recon tails. I will also replace them one at a time so I can do a side-by-side comparison.

 

 

Just to stir the water a bit. Another retro on a Mitubishi Galant w/ a strip of Philips Lumileds:






Here is a video of the full brightness of them (ignore the sound):


So far I haven't even touched them yet and I'm pleased with them

 

Pat used OE LED panels pulled from Range Rover tails.

 

subscribed

 

yep which puts his a notch above raptors setup

raptor, i was not comparing the brightness of hids to leds, i was comparing these to a drop in set of hids, your hids are just as bright as drop ins but are properly aligned and have a cut off on them. these leds will have no reflector, and a lens that is not made for leds. they will be aimed straight back right at the driver behind you and in an improper housing for the bulb, which is far from the OEM standards that you believe these will be. if you want to do a proper LED taillight retrofit you have to do what patman did

those pics you just posted is a perfect example, those things are way too bright, yeah you will be seen but at what cost? damaging the vision of the people behind you...once you get these put together i want a video of you staring into them for 2 minutes and see if you like it

also to make it legal how are you going to aim the lights to the side to make sure it can be seen at an angle?

 

Oh okay, I was wondering that

How so? Because his were soldered together by a robot?

You're talking about the optics. Some LEDs need reflectors and they are used in conjunction with projected optics (just like my headlights) to intensify or spread the beam. The Osram 5mm LEDs in the OEM Land Rover tails only have a viewing angle of 25 degrees, they NEED the frosted optics to spread it further, and safely. Superflux LEDs have their own optics built in that span 70 degrees (they are also low-power, I'll get into that later). Along with the fact they will be behind a fluted lens further breaks this up. My high-powered Luxeons for my CHMSL will have a optical projector on them to span the power through 130 degrees of conical spread.



As is 100% of every tail lamp on the road today.... but go on....

What bulb? I'm not using bulbs (the exception being the reverse light). And no, these will be in fact getting a lot closer to the DOT standards compared to the eBay specials I have on now.

The only difference between mine and his is the fact they are 5mm LEDs, in a round pattern, with a pretty cover around them so you dont see the PCB.

There are power in numbers. IIRC, he has ~600 LEDs. Thats about 1,200 lumens. His setup is overkill, but the luminosity isn't what I was going for. The brightness difference between the running and brake (my main reason for doing this retrofit) is immense.

I don't understand the point. Mine aren't going to be any brighter than the LED you see in the taillights of Escalades, S-class Mercs, 3,5 or 7 series BMWs, or Lexus' for that matter. The Philips Lumiled is the honda civic of OEM LEDs. There are trillions made every year and would need yours, mine, and everyone else's hands and toes in this thread to name off all the cars that use these carbon-copies. If anything, mine will be less intense due to the spacing and placement of a fluted lens.

I will have two LEDs aimed at a 90* point from the rear of the vehicle. This satisfies FMVSS section 108. But if you go look in Patman's build, he omitted this part.

 

I would never mess with tail lights solely for insurance purposes. What happens if somebody rear-ends you because your home-made brake lights stopped working or a connection came loose? I don't think insurance would cover that.

 

Insurance would have to prove that the collision didn't knock the connections out. I've been to many auto accidents of the rear driver claiming that the front vehicles lights dont work, and it always ends up with him getting cited for following too closely.

Everything is still on its way but I got my new 5000K bulbs in (see my alignment thread)

 

I just realized the perfect idea: window tint.

I'll look into some 50 or 70% tint and apply a thin film to them. That way I get the darker look without messing with VHT.

 

i vote 50%. its not very dark in my opinion. i was messing around with a scrap piece when i had another layer of 50 put on windshield and held it up on headlight and it barely darkened it up at all.

 

VHT is so easy man. its very hard to screw up.

 

Look at my taillights...

Parts showed up:



Perf board





555 timer and socket:



Rectifiers and heat sinks:



Clamps and various resistors:



My PWM/Vreg will arrive tomorrow as it passed through the Jax sorting facility an hour ago. My LEDs are still showing a departure end of Texas. If they don't show up tomorrow then I'm sure they'll be here Monday. So my deadline is looking to be a complete project by Tues/Wed.

I'm excited to see how this turns out, I've got two people here locally also awaiting results, they want to pay me to do theirs

 

interesting build man. curious how the window tint is gonna work for ya too. cant wait to see a finished result, may take the time to do a set myself if it looks good