S4 LED Taillights Finished - Worlds First?

[My5ABaby]

Some preliminary pictures. The first two pictures are with the lamp and LEDs being on a kitchen height table. The camera settings were the same between the two pictures. The LEDs are currently running with 47k Ohm resistors and I plan on changing them to 22k Ohm (meaning about 1/3 brighter). The LED picture has some glare but it's not too far from the actual brightness. It's painful to look directly at them in the dark. I test fit them through the housing and it dims them slightly and changes the throw a bit wider.

The third picture shows one of the first boards I made. I figured I might as well put up a picture since anyone who really wanted to do it could figure it out themselves. Might as well be nice...

My next pictures will try to be a direct comparison of the LEDs and regular reverse light actually in the housing.

[fc3sfreak415]

BEAUTIFUL WORK!!!! ive always wanted to see someone do this

[My5ABaby]

Thanks

I've got 1 side of the reverse lights in currently but have been too lazy to do the other side (which doesn't matter too much since my reverse switch barely works). I voltage limited them to 12v and they aren't as bright as they could be. Given that they're on for such a short amount of time I think I'm just going to run them off the alternator voltage to brighten them up some.

[88turboii]

have you thought about making a big pcb to mount all the leds and circuits to instead? or too expensive because of the size?

[My5ABaby]

Originally Posted by 88turboii

have you thought about making a big pcb to mount all the leds and circuits to instead? or too expensive because of the size?

The way the tail lights are made there's dividers between each compartment so it would be basically impossible. I already had to grind down the plastic on the housing (the part closer to the car) about 3/4" to allow the PCBs to fit. It's actually a ton of work beyond just creating the PCBs. Once I learned how to wire/mount the LEDs, resistors, etc. to the PCB, those are fairly easy, just time consuming. The wiring, modifying the housings, etc. is also a huge pain. The whole project is probably about 70 hours of work, although if I knew what I was doing from the get-go it'd probably be more like 40.

[casual_john]

I'm interested in just the third brake light. Or do you think having bulbs for the taillights, but LEDs for the third middle light would look dumb?

I believe that piece would be common among all FCs, both S4 and S5.
How much if I send you my core and you modify it? Plug and play style.
(FC guys are always on a budget, you know.)

[My5ABaby]

I think it would not look good to have a mix, but I also don't have the option of making these for other people. Sorry.

[vex]

I think I might be doing this now. Would you mind posting or PM'ing the stuff you got/where you got it from?

[My5ABaby]

I'll see if I can find any of the info, but it's been so long I don't really remember much of it. I know I got the PWM boards and red LEDs from azdave on hidplanet.com.

[vex]

Do you at least remember the cost of everything? I would imagine somewhere above $200?

[My5ABaby]

Yes, quite a bit above $200. My guess would be somewhere around $400, if not quite a bit more. I used nearly 500 LEDs as I recall, which were something like $.30/ea. The PWMs were something like $30/ea. Part of the issue is having to order so much of some of the stuff like resistors. Minimum orders are like 100 of some that I only used 10 of.