DAKSTER
Beam me up Scotty!
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I don't like the standard lights because I think they are too dim, but Altezza tail lights look gay.
Heres my solution.
The tail light assembly itself need the outer lens removed gently with a heat gun. Since it will be a few days till I have a heat gun handy, I will make a start on the LED strips I plan to use.
I've already discovered of course that these LEDs will not work in the indicators... white behind white = ummm white...
I've got some yellow LED indicator globes I may use, or I may order some yellow LED strips the same as these... I did try painting these yellow, but trust me its a fail...
You can of course buy these LED strips in different colours, for use in interiors, sub boxes etc. If you want flashy effects, each roll comes with a single controller which can give various flashing patterns like a xmas tree. Only one controller is a bugger if you want 14 different sets of lights all flashing independently I guess but how far do you want to go lol...
You can get RGB versions too, which change colour.
So.. just so you can see the general plan. I plan on removing the outer lenses on these tail lights (held on by some kind of sika-like material, a heat gun appears to be the only way to do this) and installing LED strips inside the original lights.
The end result will be something like this... only with a more complete set of nicely arranged LEDs. These are simply pushed in through the original globe hole to see what they would look like.
Until I get the lens covers off, lets have a look at the LEDs.
This is a 5m roll.. 300 LED's in total, sealed in a waterproof resin cover. Each metre of LED strip uses 3.2W @ 12v. It comes with a single controller that has various flashing xmas light style patterns, but I won't be using this.
The roll was $12.50 free post from ebay.. 'buy it now' is $30 or so, but most of the auctions are won at around the $15 mark, so bid, don't 'buy it now'.
You can cut these into desired lengths. Each section is 3 LEDs, about 50mm. So long as you cut by sections, you can cut any size you want. A pair of sharp scissors does this neatly and easily. Each 3 LED section has a little electronic part, I have no idea what it is but obviously its the reason they cut in 3s.
You are cutting so as to leave the copper contacts intact on either side of the cut. Here's one end after cutting.
Then you need to expose the contacts. If you plan on making this an individual light, you only need the contacts on one end. If you plan on running them as a series (good for going around corners, or reducing wiring quantities), you will need to expose the contacts on both ends.
Solder some wire onto the contacts. I've just used some crap speaker wire for experimenting, but its probably good enough anyway. They really dont draw a lot of power.
Some dodgy soldering here, the other thing I really need is a smaller, hotter soldering iron.
This one only has wires at one end. I could run a couple wires from the other end too, and connect another strip in series without issue.
The other thing to remember here is LEDs are polarity sensitive. If you get - and + reversed they just wont work. Check before soldering lol. The result is pretty bright !! and this 300mm section is using about 1w of power.
I'll update as I get all the pieces ready and the outer lenses off.
Heres my solution.
The tail light assembly itself need the outer lens removed gently with a heat gun. Since it will be a few days till I have a heat gun handy, I will make a start on the LED strips I plan to use.
I've already discovered of course that these LEDs will not work in the indicators... white behind white = ummm white...
I've got some yellow LED indicator globes I may use, or I may order some yellow LED strips the same as these... I did try painting these yellow, but trust me its a fail...
You can of course buy these LED strips in different colours, for use in interiors, sub boxes etc. If you want flashy effects, each roll comes with a single controller which can give various flashing patterns like a xmas tree. Only one controller is a bugger if you want 14 different sets of lights all flashing independently I guess but how far do you want to go lol...
You can get RGB versions too, which change colour.
So.. just so you can see the general plan. I plan on removing the outer lenses on these tail lights (held on by some kind of sika-like material, a heat gun appears to be the only way to do this) and installing LED strips inside the original lights.
The end result will be something like this... only with a more complete set of nicely arranged LEDs. These are simply pushed in through the original globe hole to see what they would look like.
Until I get the lens covers off, lets have a look at the LEDs.
This is a 5m roll.. 300 LED's in total, sealed in a waterproof resin cover. Each metre of LED strip uses 3.2W @ 12v. It comes with a single controller that has various flashing xmas light style patterns, but I won't be using this.
The roll was $12.50 free post from ebay.. 'buy it now' is $30 or so, but most of the auctions are won at around the $15 mark, so bid, don't 'buy it now'.
You can cut these into desired lengths. Each section is 3 LEDs, about 50mm. So long as you cut by sections, you can cut any size you want. A pair of sharp scissors does this neatly and easily. Each 3 LED section has a little electronic part, I have no idea what it is but obviously its the reason they cut in 3s.
You are cutting so as to leave the copper contacts intact on either side of the cut. Here's one end after cutting.
Then you need to expose the contacts. If you plan on making this an individual light, you only need the contacts on one end. If you plan on running them as a series (good for going around corners, or reducing wiring quantities), you will need to expose the contacts on both ends.
Solder some wire onto the contacts. I've just used some crap speaker wire for experimenting, but its probably good enough anyway. They really dont draw a lot of power.
Some dodgy soldering here, the other thing I really need is a smaller, hotter soldering iron.
This one only has wires at one end. I could run a couple wires from the other end too, and connect another strip in series without issue.
The other thing to remember here is LEDs are polarity sensitive. If you get - and + reversed they just wont work. Check before soldering lol. The result is pretty bright !! and this 300mm section is using about 1w of power.
I'll update as I get all the pieces ready and the outer lenses off.
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