S4 LED Taillights Finished - Worlds First?

[My5ABaby]

Here's the project I've been working on that will debut at DGRR. Pictures is only the stop lights lit up, but I also did the turn signals. I'll get a picture of those later.

Due to the auto exposure the third brake light doesn't show well but it's two rows of 8 LEDs.

My next task, if possible, is to get rid of the reflector and put it somewhere else (reverse light area).

The second picture I messed with in Photoshop to show the individual LEDs more clearly.





Partial picture of the wiring. I spliced in probably 20 wires into the existing harness.

[My5ABaby]

Also, there are ~60 LEDs per section (excluding the 3rd brake light of course).


--- Post also reserved for more pictures ---

[vex]

That's pretty cool, did you do the boards yourself?

[My5ABaby]

Originally Posted by vex

That's pretty cool, did you do the boards yourself?

Basically everything is custom. The only thing that could be considered premade are the PWM (Pulse Width Modulators) seen in the third picture (green things with all the wires run to it). The circuit boards for those were made/designed by someone else and I installed all the parts onto them. Otherwise, every LED, wire, resistor, etc. was installed by me onto blank circuit boards.

To avoid confusion, the PWM are used for dimming. They turn on and off the LEDs numerous times per second which is unnoticable to the naked eye, but does create a dimming effect. I use them for the running lights.

Here's one of the boards pre-cutting.

[RoughRex]

Nice work, Can't wait to see how they look in person

[vex]

Looks pretty cool, I may have to keep my S4 Tails so I can do that sometime.

[My5ABaby]

Originally Posted by RoughRex

Nice work, Can't wait to see how they look in person

It took quite a bit of time. I'd say I put in at least 60 hours on the project. I won't even talk about cost... They're basically untested so hopefully nothing will go wrong (at least until after DGRR).

[Herblenny]

WOW! Pretty cool! You need to show us what it takes to do them I thought about doing this for my FD.. Some day..

[PercentSevenC]

That, my friend, looks sick.

I actually prefer the S4 tails, and this looks like a great way to "modernize" them.

[N.RotaryTech]

Imagine that in S5 tail lights. :drool:

[My5ABaby]

Originally Posted by Herblenny

WOW! Pretty cool! You need to show us what it takes to do them I thought about doing this for my FD.. Some day..

Thanks.

I'm contemplating on offering a retrofit service. However, I'll likely not do it and, if not, will try to do a write up. It would be for an S4, but the process will be similar for other models.

Originally Posted by N.RotaryTech

Imagine that in S5 tail lights. :drool:

I have seen several S5 retros, but no S4. All of the S5 I have seen do a single circle of roughly 20 LEDs.

[Rotary#10]

2 thumbs for you work and creativity... Looks very cool!!

[My5ABaby]

Originally Posted by Rotary#10

2 thumbs for you work and creativity... Looks very cool!!

Thanks. I need to get up turn signal pics to bring it all together. My next step is finishing the reverse lights. Im going to run at least 60 LEDs per side putting out 10ish lumens each. Depending on how bright that is I might bump it up to 100 per side.

[yeti]

Nice. I'm planning on doing my s5 tails one day.. Anyway I'd be willing to invest in your business if you plan on selling.

[Phoenix7]

Ok, a few important questions:

1. What's the output per LED?

2. How much current are you running to them?

3. What's the light spread look like?

I wanna see a wall lit up by the lights please!

Great job on the mod for sure, it look less like an EG from behind!