# Home made LED panel for tail lights



## agon813 (Sep 13, 2011)

Hello everyone. I am new here. I'm really hoping someone out there can give me a hand with this. Now, i stayed up late last night doing some research on how to make an LED panel for my car. I want to make my own custom brake light panel because I have bought the LED plug and play bulbs and they are not nearly as bright as i though. Now, I have a 1991 lincoln town car. there are two bulbs per housing and each bulb is an 1157 dual filament bulb. I have a general idea on how to make the panel but, I'm confused on what a series is and a parallel circuit is and which one would work for this specific application. My idea is to make a panel to replace both bulbs. I'm going to have 30 leds per panel. Idk if that over kill for the LED's I'm using. I'm going to be using 5mm leds. the forward voltage is 3.2-3.4 volts. the viewing angle is 25degrees. the current is 20mA and the mcd is 16,000- 20,000 I want them to work the same way the filament bulbs do. When i turn the running lights on, i want them to go on. When i press the brake pedal, i want the leds to go brighter, and do the same with the turn signal. I am a total noob at this and have some idea on how to make these boards but I still need some help. Even if someone could make a diagram I would be able to work off that. Now my car has 5 wires going to the socket. 2 wires are for ground. 1 wire is for power and the other two are for the stop, turn, running lights. Any help on this is greatly appreciated!!


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## bshanahan14rulz (Sep 13, 2011)

It's been a while since I've been over there, but HIDPlanet.com forums has lots of people doing that same thing. 

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz <<this link is pretty helpful to give you an idea of what your series-parallel array will look like. Plug in the stats and it will spit out a wiring diagram. You will still want at least a voltage regulator in addition to each resistor per string of three LEDs. Definitely try playing with that calculator. 

Also, did you already buy the LEDs? Best style to get are the 4-pin High-flux kind, not the 5mm rounds. Red-Orange is the color you want.

I believe back in the day, HIDP member AZDave sold an electronics kit for controlling homemade lighting and retaining various functions of the rear lights.

By the way, technically this is illegal, and we do not discuss illegal activities per the forum rules. I'm assuming this is going on a display car.

Hope you find your answer! Welcome to CPF


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## Mike S (Sep 13, 2011)

There's a few different ways to achieve dual brightness, but I won't discuss it here. PM me or visit HID Planet.


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## SemiMan (Sep 13, 2011)

Or you could just not create illegal taillights that do not meet recognized standards such that when someone runs into you, you are not held liable and your insurance company does not hang you out to dry ....


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## bshanahan14rulz (Sep 14, 2011)

SemiMan brings up a very valid point, something to keep in mind if you do take this out on the road. Brighter doesn't always mean better, too. Just like how taillights that are too dim can be hard to see, taillights that are too bright make the car hard to see. Not to mention those blue spots in your vision that you get from looking at something that is too bright.


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## SemiMan (Sep 14, 2011)

Case in point, I was driving behind a vehicle with "modified" tail lights yesterday. I thought his break likes were on ... nope, it was just the normal setting. When he hit his breaks, the change was there, but not as substantial as it should have been.

Personally, I would just put people with illegal HID conversions in jail for pure selfishness and stupidity. It is 100% obvious when an illegal HID conversion car is behind you. They spray way too much like upwards (and sideways) and blind you when you look into the mirror.

Semiman


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## bshanahan14rulz (Sep 14, 2011)

I have to admit that every headlamp is different, some handle the pnp kits "better" than others, even though they all are dangerous. One might claim that since they are in projectors, it is ok. Well, I've noticed halogen projectors often will put more light right in front than out at a distance, and if your foreground is too bright, it makes it hard to see what is going on in the background, or distance.

I was a part of the HID retrofitting community for quite a while, and what really made me realize how many different variables you had to take into account was the FX35 headlamp recall. Koito remade the projectors and released a version of the headlamp that performed within legal specifications. Looking at one vs. the other there was no comprehensibly visible difference. Key word being comprehensibly.


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## Yoda4561 (Sep 15, 2011)

SemiMan said:


> Case in point, I was driving behind a vehicle with "modified" tail lights yesterday. I thought his break likes were on ... nope, it was just the normal setting. When he hit his breaks, the change was there, but not as substantial as it should have been.
> 
> Personally, I would just put people with illegal HID conversions in jail for pure selfishness and stupidity. It is 100% obvious when an illegal HID conversion car is behind you. They spray way too much like upwards (and sideways) and blind you when you look into the mirror.
> 
> Semiman


 


I wouldn't go that far as long as it's a first time offender. Certainly give them a "fix it now" ticket and impound the car + confiscate the lights if it isn't done within 2 weeks.


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## HotWire (Sep 16, 2011)

I bought ready-made LED bulbs for my tail lights. I just replaced the stock bulbs with the LEDS. This can be tricky if you buy the wrong LED setup. The flasher on most cars needs the resistance of the incandescent light bulb. You may need a new flasher. I made the conversion years ago, and if you look, you'll find ready-made bulbs somewhere.


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## jammerj (Sep 26, 2011)

Usually, if you switch out your flasher for an electronic flasher, it will flash w/ led's.


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## blasterman (Sep 27, 2011)

Driving into work today I got stuck behind a trailer that was a poster child for some of the conversations in this thread. The trailer was using two thin strips of 8x SMD's on the sides and four clusters of 3x LEDs in rounds mounted on top. 

While just driving the LED's were significantly brighter than typical halogen based brake lights. When the driver hit the brakes they became blinding. It was very distracting and obviously a hazard.


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