Quick questions Tim. Why did you decide to go with red led's, wouldn't white be brighter not having to go through the extra layer of color (sorry for lack of technical terms)? Just wondering if you just felt like trying red or thought white would be too bright. Thanks.

 

thanks for sharing

 

Great job. I want to do this to my sedan, too.

 

(I'll jump in here Timmah)

Big negative there 5150. If we take a trip back to 5th grade science class, you'll remember that light is actually comprised of all colors of the visible spectrum. When light passes through a translucent object (such as the red plastic lens of the tail lamps), all portions of the light except for the color of the translucent object are filtered out. Simply put, a red lens filters out all but the red portion of the light. So if the light behind the lens is an all red LED, little to none of the light will be blocked by the lens. Conversely, the light from a white LED contains very little light in the red portion of the visible spectrum, so most of the light would be filtered out by a red lens.

So by using a red LED with the red lens, a high percentage of the light passes through, which makes it brighter than a white LED.

(<< climbs down off soapbox)

 

nice work Tim!

 

Radio Shack [motto: "You've Got Questions? We've Got More Questions."] may or may not have high power load resistors of the size needed. Figure on needing at least a 30W resistor to simulate the missing incandescent turn-signal bulb. You probably can't go wrong with the 50W type sold by the same place selling these 3W LEDs.

 

Ouch Just looked at the price of these 3W LEDs. $25 each

 

Okay, so the red LED is producing red light and not being filtered through a red painted bulb.

 

One more from the Timmah-pedia of mods. I like this one.

 

Yes the LED is red. There are no filters or anything.

 

I would just spend the money and get the resistors from them too. You can get the ceramic ones that will do the same job but why not just get the nice ones with the heatsink and everything all delivered with the same order?

 

Me too!



Yeah to get LED's with enough output you are going to have to spend some cash. These are the best style on the market right now. If you wait a little while the price will come down. You also may be able to find this same type for less if you shop around. I have had very good luck with them so it's worth the money for peace of mind.



Thanks!

 

No prob at all Mike!

What you are working on is even better IMO. I think if Kevin can pull it off he will sell quite a few of those. Figure this cost ~$60 to do and the approx price of the module will be $100. It's well worth it.

 

I hope this is up when I get home. When will it be moved?

 

I'm going to move it in the next couple days but there will be a "moved" link still there.

It will live in the lighting section so you can always find it over there.