Another LED upgrade thread.

[DJ Raydiate]

I could see where that could be a concern. I still think that the lexan will hold up pretty good considering that it will be a little thicker than some of the project boards that are out there. If the project boards hold up well then I should be in good shape.

 

[spyderdrifter]

Good luck with it. I hope it works out for you fine. I never doubted you using it, just thought I'd share a thought
On a bright side though, with Lexan you can at least mold/shape it better than other materials.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

Yeah that was the main reason I wanted to use it. I didn't want to piece the boards together due to the length of our tail lights plus I can make the bends around the corners. With the Lexan (or plexi), I could do just 3 boards vs how ever many for using something else. Come to think of it, I haven't even seen a 2ft copper clad board that someone can etch. I guess I'll go look that up and see what I can come up with.

Edit: No sooner did I type that, I found it on like the 3rd page of my search http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70125837 This is 36"x 24" and 1 sheet would be enough to do the entire rear lights. I wonder if it will bend into place if heated.

 

[spyderdrifter]

That's a good find. I searched for a long time trying to find something big enough. However, with my carbon fiber, it's a roll of carbon cloth that I'm going to cut to shape and cure with the proper bends in it. No molding, heating, or bending to get it to keep shape. Just need to get some resin for it.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

When I first started looking for pcb boards, the most I had seen was a 12"x12" and thought that I didn't want to piece it all together. But I may strongly consider that 36"x24" board. It's only 1/16th of an inch thick so I'm thinking that once heated, It may give a nice bend.

 

[spyderdrifter]

I had considered the same when I found the smaller ones. Now that I saved the link you supplied for the bigger one, I may have to rethink all this.

 

[We're on Boost]

I've never tried bending or forming Lexan sheet. Since it is a thermoplastic, I know you should be able to heat-form it. But when I got looking into the formability of Lexan I was surprised to find that it is even more formable than I would have thought. You guys probably know this already, but for other people viewing the thread, this is what I found, in the Wikipedia article about polycarbonate:

Unlike most thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo large plastic deformations without cracking or breaking. As a result, it can be processed and formed at room temperature using sheet metal techniques, such as bending on a brake. Even for sharp angle bends with a tight radius, heating may not be necessary. This makes it valuable in prototyping applications where transparent or electrically non-conductive parts are needed, which cannot be made from sheet metal. Note that PMMA/Plexiglas, which is similar in appearance to polycarbonate, is brittle and cannot be bent at room temperature.

Cool stuff!

 

[spyderdrifter]

Wow.. I hadn't known that. I did sheet metal work for 10 years in the army and used all that equipment. Never thought polycarbonate sheet could go in the machines without breaking. great info. That may change my plans for my set up.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

I've never tried bending or forming Lexan sheet. Since it is a thermoplastic, I know you should be able to heat-form it. But when I got looking into the formability of Lexan I was surprised to find that it is even more formable than I would have thought. You guys probably know this already, but for other people viewing the thread, this is what I found, in the Wikipedia article about polycarbonate:



Cool stuff!

Hey that's a cool find. I never knew that it was that pliable. That would come in handy making custom project boxes. If it can be formed using a metal brake, I'd like to see how it forms on an English wheel. I will just have to try some metal forming techniques after I move down to FL.

On another note, this project is still going to happen on my end. I have done some testing on some small stuff like making my own lights to go into the map lights but I need to redo them to make them look better. As of right now, all of my stuff is packed away for the time being. The official move date for my wife and I is May 3rd. Once we get the move done, I will be digging into the LED projects full force so be on the look out for some bigger updates!

 

[DJ Raydiate]

I just have a small update to post thanks to my wonderful wife. Yesterday was our 4 year anniversary and instead of her getting me something small like a card and chocolate (I got those as well ), she got me something to help out on this project. I now have 4 tubes (240) CREE P4 ambers to do my turn signals and side markers that I will be wiring to be turns as well. How cool is that.

Enough of the sappiness, even though I do have a kick a$$ wife, here are some pics.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Depending how much I mess up, I should have plenty to do both sides of the Eclipse and then some.

I will have more to update next month after the move to FL.

 

[codym]

Looks like it's coming along good man !

I always wanted to do something like this to my 1g , but I'm not the wiring expert ha

You should definitely start a build journal.

 

[MITSUMURDOK]

I have personally bent lexan in both a hand and hydraulic brake...it does work

 

[DJ Raydiate]

Looks like it's coming along good man !

I always wanted to do something like this to my 1g , but I'm not the wiring expert ha

You should definitely start a build journal.

Thanks. I haven't even really got hardcore into this yet. Also this is the build journal for the lighting upgrades

I have personally bent lexan in both a hand and hydraulic brake...it does work

Thanks, that's good to know. I will defiantly give it a shot.

 

[Blurred Talon]

I'd still use copper over lexan just for heat sinking purposes.

It's fairly hard to mess up the LEDs, I have only ever blown 2-3.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

I'd still use copper over lexan just for heat sinking purposes.

It's fairly hard to mess up the LEDs, I have only ever blown 2-3.

See, I was think of that too and I was going to do some test on different copper tape. Instead of the copper being laminated to a board, I could just put the tape down and cut pads out like I did with the Cir-Kit tape. I was going to do an array on just the lexan and do an array on the lexan with copper pads made of tape. After the arrays are made, I was going to drive them overnight and see what the temp differences were.

I have tried to to mess some of my LEDs up Some of the test batch that I ordered, I have soldered and desoldered them like 3 or 4 times. I also ran one at 9v with just a 56ohm 1/2w resistor to see how it would act. They are tough little suckers. I haven't messed with the Crees yet but if they are anything like the HPWTs then they should be good to go. I have some generic white 5 chip .05w LEDs that don't like to be soldered too long. They don't hold up to the abuse as the Hpwts

 

[Blurred Talon]

As long as you stick with good brand name LEDs, you will have no problems.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

As long as you stick with good brand name LEDs, you will have no problems.

As far as the exterior, I will be using nothing but name brand LEDs so I don't have to bake the housings apart again. For the interior, the whites I figured that I could go ahead and use the elcheapo 5 chip LEDs that I have beings that the bulbs are easy enough to change. The dash and the like, I need to find a decent RGB LED to use. I plan on doing a "MY COLOR" mod to all of the interior lights other than the map, foot, and cargo area.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

Hello everyone! I just have a small update today. I was out at the junk yard the other day and grabbed some stuff that I needed for the Eclipse. I got a headliner, black shift boot, and some other small stuff. One of the things that I grabbed was the rear cargo lamp for the hatch. I didn't need one but I knew that I wanted to put LEDs inside of the one that I had. I figured that I could do an array inside the one from the junk yard and just switch them out.

I began by carefully drilling out the post for the normal bulb beings that I wouldn't need the contact points.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

After I had all of the metal out of the housing, I took a piece of of paper and trimmed it down to fit inside the housing. I then transferred the shape/size over to some project board and added the Leds on top of it. I left a space in the center of the board for a screw so I could secure the array inside of the housing. Later after it was all soldered, I decided that I didn't even need the screw and could have had that last extra LED. The LEDs that I used are just some cheap 5-chip white LEDs from china. I got them on a great deal and figured why not. These are way bright but I didn't capture it in the pictures.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

After I knew that I did a good soldering job and everything worked, I used contact cement all around the edge of the board to secure it to the housing. All that I have to do now is to add some terminals to the wires and make it plug and play. That will be after the move to FL beings that I have a lot of things that I want to get done to the car once there anyway.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

Greetings From Jacksonville, FL! The move went well and my wife and I are still trying to get settled in. I have had some time to get some LED work done however. In this installment I worked on the side markers and the tag lights.

Lets start with the tag lights. I got a set of lights from a junk car when I grabbed the tag bracket. They are beat up but I just needed them to make the templates for the boards and to see how everything would fit.

I started by carefully cutting the lens off of the backing. I just used a razor knife with a new blade and slowly worked my way around the lens. It worked out well and came right off.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Once apart I was able to get the size that I needed for the boards. I used some project board to install everything on. Once I had the boards shaped, I used high temp black paint on the boards to create a heat barrier.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Once the paint once cured, I put a reflective tape on top of the painted surface and a copper tape on the back. I cut sections out of the popper tape to create soldering pads and to help with heat distribution.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I used 6 no name 5 chip white LEDs on each board that will give me plenty of light shining on my tag.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I still need to take my tag lights off of the car and install the LED arrays into them but that will wait until I am ready to replace the tag bracket.

Next up are the side markers. I promise that they will be more interesting than the tag lights. For these I used some non oem side markers. I had a set of clears on the car that I took off for this retrofit. I used 33 Cree P4 ambers and 6 no name 5 chip white LEDs. The side markers are going to have a switchback feature. The whites are going to be the running lights and when the turn signal is on, The white and amber LEDs will alternate back and forth. If I don't have the parking lights on, the ambers will be the only ones that flash.

I first started out by cutting the lenses off with a razor knife. Once apart, I put the lenses into a plastic bag to keep dust from getting into them while I was working on the LEDs. I then took the housings and soaked them in bleach to eat the chrome off of them.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Once the backs were chrome free, cleaned and dried, I painted them with high temp black paint.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I trace the inside of the housing on Lexan for me to mount the LEDs on. Once I cut the lexan boards out, I traced around the edged onto card stock to draw out my design.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I transferred the design onto a sticker sheet and placed it onto the lexan. I drilled the holes for the LEDs and soaked the bards to get the sticker paper and adhesive off. Once the boards were dry, out came the high temp paint. I installed and soldered the LEDs zipper style on the back of the lexan. When it was all said and done, I was left with this,

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

Ambers lit up.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Whites lit up.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

And finally, a preview of what they will look like on the car.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I still need to get a some transistors to have the switchback feature and finish installing them onto the car. I will get more pics when I finish the instal.

 

[Blurred Talon]

Are you using a voltage regulator on the LEDs?
Looking good so far.

 

[DJ Raydiate]

Thanks Anthony! I will be regulating them. The ambers will be at 9v and the whites will be at 12v. I was going to do mine like yours but I had seen that you did it first so I had to change up the design . I think I like them this way better. I may have issues down the road with the cheap 5-chip LEDs but when I do, hopefully I will be able to find some name brand whites in the 5k to 6k color range.

 

[curt-s]

You'd only be able to regulate them at 12v if you're running above 12v plus the drop-out of the regulators, or using a boost circuit. If you're not using low voltage drop-out regulators, look to be requiring 13.5 to 14v minimum. LDO, probably 13v. We all know these cars are nowhere near that on a constant basis, so your regulator will be having a hell of a time regulating 12v when you're within a volt of it, especially with the ignition off where you'd be within half a volt if not under 12v.

Keep above your drop-out voltage above the regulator, that's a pretty much solid fact of using them.You want stability, otherwise your lights are going to, well, not work so great.

That's why we run 9v regulators. No matter where you are, you're above the drop-out. It does mean you'll have to run more parallel circuits, but it does offer more stability and a simpler design (unless you want to go with a complicated constant current design).

 

[DJ Raydiate]

I have .5v LDO Sharp regulators both in 9v and 12v. The whites are only going to be on when the car is running and the ambers are going to be on the turn/hazard signal. I don't want the whites on at all when the car is off. I have other things planed for that when the time comes and they will be in the headlights.

When I go to do the tail lights, They will be regulated @ 9v. That way they will still be able to be used as hazards.

 

[Blurred Talon]

Hopefully they work out for you in the long run Ray.

I might be selling my current markers and headlights in the future once I finish my uC design and do retrofit number 4 haha, this is a sickness.