Farewell Incandescent Lighting (96 Talon TSI AWD LED Conversion)

[Bud92gsx]

I just got my first set of leds in.5 more sets to go.

There are also some panals I might get.I'm modding my center tail right now.

Blurred you should make doubles of everything.So you can start selling a drop in kit!

 

[Blurred Talon]

I just got my first set of leds in.5 more sets to go.

There are also some panals I might get.I'm modding my center tail right now.

Blurred you should make doubles of everything.So you can start selling a drop in kit!

I will make a DIY kit after someone pays for one. I'm not worry about doing any of them until I get my my project finished and installed on my own car.

 

[Blurred Talon]

I started etching boards this weekend. I used a 2:1 mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide and Muratic Acid, worked great.

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After etching the boards went into a water bath.

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Once I was done etching the boards I neutralized the acid with baking soda. I'll be deposing of this at the local dump's Hazardous Waste Unit next weekend.

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Here's all the boards I etched. I still need to make more and I need to buy more copper clad.

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All the boards are labelled so they are easy to identify.

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They also fit where they are supposed to, some needed a bit of trimming and a couple will need to be redone.
Front Turns.

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TALON Name Plate.

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Brake lights.

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Turns signals (the first board needs to be redone).

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Center section. At fist I was going to put the boards in from the front.

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However with the lens and the complex curves I decided to put them in from the back. Of course I still need to populate them and then enclose them.

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[Blurred Talon]

I then decided to start working on populating one of the LED brake/marker boards.
I started by wrapping the board with chrome vinyl.

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Then I got out the SMD resistors.

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These suckers are small, thank god for sticky paste flux and my mag lamp!

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I then put the first couple LEDs in and soldered them.

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Then laid out more resistors.

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Paste flux and more soldering.

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All the resistors soldered in place.

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All the LEDs in place and ready to be soldered.

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1 board complete! Many to go The leads are only temporary.

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I then threw the board into a tail light to see what they looked like. The board is only powered at 5 volts here.

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I then switched the board to 12V (will not be running this high in the end) to simulate brake lights.

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Here's what the board looks like just sitting in the housing.

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Over all I'm very happy with how it all came out. You can't see the individual LEDs which is exactly what I want.
I've got lots of work to do now getting all the brake/marker boards soldered and ready to go. I also need to figure out how to properly get my Vregs working and then design my power supplies.

 

[Bud92gsx]

I would gladly pay for a DIY kit..

Unfortunatly.I just made one with replecement leds.But you have something I do not, the center tail lit.

Actually What would a DIY one cost for just the Talon part on the center tail..It would make a nice gift for someone I know.

 

[screamingdemon]

I'd definitely be interested in some taillights done like this if the price wasn't crazy expensive. Looks like your doing a great job and I'll be keeping up with this thread so I can see the outcome.

 

[1Badvan]

Impressive!

I wanted to light my reflector bar up across the back of my Summit Wagon (similar bar to Talons) with LEDS, but after seeing all the work it takes, no way in hell I'm trying to tackle that job

 

[Blurred Talon]

I would gladly pay for a DIY kit..

Unfortunatly.I just made one with replecement leds.But you have something I do not, the center tail lit.

Actually What would a DIY one cost for just the Talon part on the center tail..It would make a nice gift for someone I know.

I'd definitely be interested in some taillights done like this if the price wasn't crazy expensive. Looks like your doing a great job and I'll be keeping up with this thread so I can see the outcome.

Thanks guys.
If your are interested in LED work please PM me.

Impressive!

I wanted to light my reflector bar up across the back of my Summit Wagon (similar bar to Talons) with LEDS, but after seeing all the work it takes, no way in hell I'm trying to tackle that job

Thanks!
It's a lot of work but I think it pays off in the end.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Pm sent..

 

[Blurred Talon]

Got almost all of the boards for one tail light done. I still need to redesign the final board that goes right in the corner.

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Here they are in the tail light. The boards are not mounted so it looks a little off.

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With the lens on running at 5 volts. On the corner of the light I need something to defuse the LEDs but I'm not sure what. Again the boards aren't mounted so they look a bit off.

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With 12V on them to get an idea of full brightness.

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I got one of the lower center section boards done. I still have another to do and 1 more that I might redo completely. The board in the pictures needs 2 more LEDs but I don't have the right SMD resistor on hand.

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Here's all the center section boards behind the center section to get an idea of what it will look like. These are run at 9V via my Vregs.

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I also did a bit of testing to see how hot things are getting and left the lower center section board on the 9V Vreg for about 15-20 minutes. The temp never rose from what's on the gun.

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I've still have a lot left to do, I haven't even started working on my power supplies or PWMs yet, I need to protype them first on the bread board. I need to drill more boards so I can populate them with LEDs and resistors for the other tail light. I also need to sit down and play with some of the amber LEDs on the bread board to see what mA to run them at for the name plate LEDs, I'm thinking around 50-60mA will be good. I want them bright but not brighter then the brakes or turns, close to the same brightness as the markers is fine though.
I also need to buy more copper clad board and PNP Blue.

 

[Aww_420]

WOW, Mad props for all that work. Jeez!

 

[dsmgabe]

Great work dude

 

[Blurred Talon]

Thanks guys!
I just bought another brick (1200) Lumiled Superflux LEDs off eBay.

I'm currently redesigning my boards to fit even more LEDs.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Blurred.Have you noticed that the white leds in the red housing is brighter than red ones?

Found that out the other day when my reds came in.

Also I found the more you move the lights torwards the lens.The brighter they show up as well.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

Also white through a red lens will show up somewhat amber/orange looking. I would prefer to go with Red LED's to keep that pure red look.

 

[Blurred Talon]

Actually red-amber LEDs are the correct wave length to give off the most light when they pass through a red lens. This is why myself and others, including professionals and OEMs, use red-amber LEDs.

My boards are quite different from the PNP bulbs you are using Bud. If I have my boards close to the lens you can see the individual LEDs which is what I do not want. Plus my main board has over 200 LEDs alone, thats not counting the other 4 boards in the housing or the center section or the other tail light. Trust me when I say they will be plenty bright.

 

[Bud92gsx]

The ones your using are acually brighter than the ones I'm using .

Well when I light up my reds its dull compared to, being on the sun when I light the white.

I prefer mine closer to the lens..IDK.You can definatly tell it's been modded if you can see the individual leds.I guess that just preference I think.When I did my center tail, they were so close.Then I did my right tailight.And I had to recut my mount, to make it closer to the lens.

I'll update my picture, when I get a new solder gun.The center looks a tad different now than it did in my current avitar.Much more straight..

 

[Blurred Talon]

The human eye sees white as brighter even though this might not be the case. This is why people love the whiter/bluer halogen bulbs. The eye tricks the mind.

I just want one solid bar of light with no hot spots for my tails.

 

[boricua86]

I have to say nice works. The sequencing is probably the easiest part. The only design flaw for that is that I believe I see you have the turn signals made to turn on all at once...to sequence them I believe you would need to separate the led columns to create the sequential look. Another way I think would help with not seeing the columns of leds is to create an array of leds in between the ones you have. That new array will also help when you make them sequential.

 

[Blurred Talon]

They Turn Signals LEDs have seperate grounds because the micro controller I'm using is switched ground.
I might add more LEDs to it though, we'll see. However when I tested my Sequencal front turns everything looked good and I had the same LED spacing. The only issue was I had an empty spot because I had no LEDs there.

 

[boricua86]

They Turn Signals LEDs have seperate grounds because the micro controller I'm using is switched ground.
I might add more LEDs to it though, we'll see. However when I tested my Sequencal front turns everything looked good and I had the same LED spacing. The only issue was I had an empty spot because I had no LEDs there.

Ohhh ok now that makes sense. So What kind of controller are you using? I would be doing the led conversion on my taillights right after I fix the problem with my motor.

 

[Bud92gsx]

<What do you think?

I'm not digging the bottom of the center tail yet.I have some more sanding to do, to get the center brighter. The bottoms for the corners are cut and solderd.I just have not put them on and hooked them up yet.

So far so good on the top tho.I have not made the board for the turns yet either.

 

[Blurred Talon]

Ohhh ok now that makes sense. So What kind of controller are you using? I would be doing the led conversion on my taillights right after I fix the problem with my motor.

The controller came from a fellow HID Planet member, Stupid Pig. You can build it yourself but it requires programing so you need to know C or Basic (one of the two, can't remember which). Since I don't know code, I bought them from him.

<What do you think?

I'm not digging the bottom of the center tail yet.I have some more sanding to do, to get the center brighter. The bottoms for the corners are cut and solderd.I just have not put them on and hooked them up yet.

So far so good on the top tho.I have not made the board for the turns yet either.

Hard to tell from the picture but it looks good so far, needs more light on the bottom though.

 

[Bud92gsx]

Well when I posted that last post.I had a close up..IT will get more on the bottom..Probably gonna get that going tonight actually..


The bottom is gonna get more indeed..Especially on the tails..The middle I'm not sure what to do yet.

 

[Paching]

Actually red-amber LEDs are the correct wave length to give off the most light when they pass through a red lens. This is why myself and others, including professionals and OEMs, use red-amber LEDs.

Where did you find the "red-amber" leds? All I've found are amber or
red. I've googled and yahooed and couldn't find'em I've been checking this thread to see if anyone ask's but I couldn't wait any longer. I'd appreaciate your direction.