Rear Red Turnsignals Double as Brakes, Increase Brake Lights with Rear Turnsignals Options

[Spoke]

Engelbert designed a solution for the 911 to allow the rear turnsignal to double as brake lights for a larger brake footprint. I believe he is planning to market it for the 911 guys. Because of the layout of the 911 rear light housing, to install the module in the housing, the housing has to be removed and opened up.

I thought this would work well for the 914 and should be easy to install as access to the rear housing and wires is in the trunk. Engelbert was ok with me basically copying his solution.

Here's a link to his 911 solution:

rothaus (Engelbert) 911 RTS to Brakes

The RTS-Brake module would reside below each rear light housing. One for each side. Here's the module being tested on the bench.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5h_pG7AQ9A


The module has 6 wires. Brake-in, Brake-out, RTS-in, RTS-out, and 2 grounds. The wires have QC connectors and go between the OEM wiring and the light housings.



The IN wires have male connectors and the OUT wires have female connectors.



On each side, pull the brake, RTS, and GND wires from the housing. The wires connect to the IN wires and the OUT wires goes to the housing.

On my '71, the RTS QC connectors don't have insulation so a short piece of heat shrink provides the insulation.



Once the RTS connectors are insulated, pull one wire at a time and install.





Here are the modules in action on my 914. My 914 is set up to always have the running lights on with the ignition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHFrilGntQM


I built an extra set if someone would like to try them out. If folks are interested, I'll be selling these for $45/pair.

[Montreal914]

Very nice product! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

Just to be clear, on the combined turn signal/brake setup (video in post 18), what happens when you hit the brakes with the turn signal on, does the turn signal splits back from the brake so you still have a brake light on next to the flashing light?

In your first video, you had EU lenses with red LEDs in the back. Always difficult to see the shade of the light on camera. Was there a big difference betwheen the red of the brake lens portion and the red through the amber portion? If not, could the turn signal board be populated with both red and amber LEDs to serve as two functions? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) I definitely love the idea of having more brake lights, but I want to keep my EU lenses and amber turn signal.

Looking at buying your products but since I am not about to drive my car (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) , I am sort of waiting for the ever going product improvement and selection. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[Spoke]

Very nice product! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

Just to be clear, on the combined turn signal/brake setup (video in post 18), what happens when you hit the brakes with the turn signal on, does the turn signal splits back from the brake so you still have a brake light on next to the flashing light?

The brake and turnsignal are locked together and act as one light. If brakes are on and turnsignal active both brake and turnsignal will flash on that side

In your first video, you had EU lenses with red LEDs in the back. Always difficult to see the shade of the light on camera. Was there a big difference betwheen the red of the brake lens portion and the red through the amber portion?

Red LEDs behind amber lenses provide more light output than red LEDs behind red lenses. Keep in mind that the lenses were designed to filter most wavelengths from white incandescent lights. LEDs do not need colored lenses to project their colored light.

The pictures below show my 914 with amber RTS lenses with red LEDs. At night one cannot tell that red LEDs are behind amber lenses.

If not, could the turn signal board be populated with both red and amber LEDs to serve as two functions? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) I definitely love the idea of having more brake lights, but I want to keep my EU lenses and amber turn signal.

There are a couple of issues having red and amber LEDs on the RTS board. To have separate brake and RTS circuits would require an extra wire for the brake. The connection to the vehicle is via BA15S (15mm; Single) bulb base which is a single conductor. Also there would not be enough room for all the LEDs as can be seen in the board layout below.

LEDs with dual or triple colors require individual LEDs to be mounted together like the Broadcom HSMF-A222-A00J1 shown below with red and amber LEDs mounted together. These have very little light output (80mcd) versus the Cree LEDs I use (20000mcd).