I agree, that might look good if it were not too hard, but probably easier to accomplish with the 5mm board than the Cree board because of the fewer numbers of emmitters.

Price sounds good. Sign me up

Thanks

David

Very well done! I'm in for a set!

+1

I'll take a set. Where do I send the $$

Thanks all for the interest in the brake lights.

Here's how we will do this. I'll wait about a week to see how many sets are needed.

Then I'll order PCBs (will take about 2 weeks to fab) and order parts. At that point I will ask for payment through paypal.

The sets will be built one PCB at a time at my US-based production facility in my basement . Once built and tested they will be shipped.

The clips at this time are hand made from brass sheet and hold the board quite firmly. I hope to get these made out of plastic but that effort is still on-going.

I will take a set of the 5MM ones as well.

Will you be working your way around to making the whole taillight cluster LED?

I'm in for a set. Wow that video is alarming...how does anyone see us at all with the stock ones ?

One set please.

In for 1 set.

I'll take a set.

Thank's Irv

+1

I'm in for a set as well.

You know I am going to have a set of these for my car. We just are not ready for them yet...

Looks great. I will take 1 set.

An update on the 5mm LED lights; I have been testing the prototype set of 5mm LEDs to understand the temperature rise when the brakes are applied. This is the highest power dissipation state and will generate the highest temperatures.

The prototype with 63 LEDs and maximum current runs very hot. I've measured temperatures over 100C which is way too high. I've cut the current down a bit but the circuit still runs very hot.

My goal is to keep the temps about 40C above ambient. To do this, I had to turn off 12 of the LEDs to reduce the power dissipation. Now the circuit runs around 60C (room temp is 23C).

Even with the reduced current and number of LEDs, the circuit still puts out way more light than the 1157 bulb and is on par with the CREE board.

With this info, I decided to reduce the number of LEDs to 48 which will still give a wall of light. The board is about 1/4 inch taller than the prototype should work well.

I need to test this board out so I will build only 1 pair to begin with so I can evaluate the thermal performance of the unit.

Sorry for the delay but I need to make sure these work well before doing any mass building.

Glad to hear you're double checking the heat dissipation. I need a set, just want to see which variant you actually get fabbed.

I built one PCB with high power Cree amber LEDs to use as turnsignals.

The PCB was mounted in the turnsignal housing using brass clips. The one on the end is quite long and doesn't hold the board as tight as the brake light.

Click to view attachment

This pic shows the skew of the boards in the housing so that they're pointed directly behind the car. If made on one board, the brake lights would be quite deep in the housing.

Click to view attachment

When I built the Cree amber board, I didn't think the LEDs were quite as bright as the red LEDs so I increased the current to 70ma (brake lights are at 40mA).

Here's a comparison of the original turnsignal bulb and the amber Cree LEDs.

I think I went too far with 70ma. It is very bright.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxb6IvHO_SA


Here's what the turnsignal light looks like with just parking lights on. I'm only running about 3ma in the LEDs. These put out about as much light rearward as the little side light does.


Click to view attachment

About the 5mm boards, I found a Cree LED which should put out as much light as the Vishays but with a wider 1/2 power angle. I ordered the Cree LEDs and will build one more board and test it. Sorry for the delay but I want to make sure the board is a good as can be for everyone.

I just love that you are addressing the brake and turn signals will you also do the taillight? That way the whole rear will be LED's.

I am definitely down for a set of these when you get the final version done and Scotty tells me it is time for taillight assembly.

I am even more excited now.

I would recommend front turn signals, and the option of the side lights as well.

I would love to go full LED. Headlights, and Fog Lights included. I will one day.

I'm in for a set when your ready.

+1 (Brake)

I would love to be able to "show off" my LED taillights at Route 66 Classic March 21st.... But I will be patient.

It would go well with my LED front turn signals.


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

Will take a set when ready.

might be in for 1
thank

I have to agree with monkey boy - it would be crazy cool to be able to convert all of the lights to LED! I would totally be in for that.

Spoke, I'm in for a set when you are ready. These are fantastic.

Very impressive

I am in for at least one set.

When are you going to get this done slacker???

I just received some new 5mm LEDs from Cree that have a wider 1/2 power angle and run at less current. I'll build one PCB this weekend to try it out.

Power dissipation and resulting temperature rise are what I've been struggling with on this project with the 5mm LEDs.

The parking light setting is no problem. The brake light setting is the issue.

The goal is to manage the heat when the driver stands on the brake indefinitely and not have the unit fail. Both taillight housings on my car have melted plastic above the brake bulb from the heat of the bulb when standing on the brakes like in stopped traffic.

If these work out I can go to fab with the PCB and get things moving.

Glad you are experimenting to see what style/configuration works best in terms of light/heat. I'm waiting to see what is the "best" configuration, but I'm sure I'll be in the market when the design is finalized.

Have you considered replacing the melted area with a piece of metal as part of the solution?

I built another 5mm LED board with Cree C503-AAN-CY0B LEDs which have significant light output. The goal was to run the LEDs at about 1/2 the current of the original Vishay 5mm LEDs.

The lower current would allow the boards to run at much lower current/power/temp while putting out the same light.

Only 51 LEDs were installed and run at about 25ma. The results were very encouraging. The light output is equal to the high power LED Cree boards which I use to compare light output.

The light dispersion of these 5mm LEDs is much better than the Vishays and just about equal to the high power LED Crees.

With the original 5mm LED boards with Vishay LEDs I determined that just over 7W of power would give a temperature rise of about 40C. This board dissipates just over 6W so temperature rise is around 30C.

OK, I'm finally ready to move forward with a PCB based on the 5mm Cree LEDs. Results were good with my test board.

This board will run at even less power as I will stack 4 LEDs in series instead of 3 like the original board.

This board will have 56 LEDs running at 25ma for the brake setting and about 4ma for taillight. The board will burn about 4.5W when lit for brake. I estimate a temperature rise of about 25C which is fantastic.

I should be done with the layout this week and hopefully go to fab next week.

The image below shows 8 LEDs facing to the left which would be populated if this board were used as a turnsignal replacement. The 8 LEDs would illuminate the side marker.

Cree also manufactures an amber LED in this series. I will build a couple of these with the amber LEDs to compare the output before offering these for sale.

I haven't done anything with the affected area. The cracks aren't bad but do show the signs of burning 20W in a bulb only 1-1/2 inches below the housing. I now have the high power Cree LED boards installed so there will be no more heating of the housing.

Mark, I'd like to take you up on the offer of a housing. I only need one since the boards need to be interchangeable left to right.

I want to investigate doing the brake and turnsignal on one board.

Issues include:

1) The internal housing separators will have to be cut away.
2) A divider between turnsignals and brakes need to provided.
3) PCB fastening to the remaining parts of the housing needs to be worked out.

The board will have to be at an angle such that the LEDs point directly behind the vehicle. The needed angle can be seen below. With the edge of the turnsignal PCB at the outer perimeter of the housing, the brake LEDs will be quite a bit deeper in the housing.

Spoke,

As I mentioned in a PM, I have received the prototype brake light boards. Dad and I disassembled his taillights yesterday and gave one a try to compare OEM with the LED board. Big difference. They look good! Dads car is 98% original 914-6 and the taillights gaskets are shot and reflectors have started flaking their reflective chrome finish off. The brass mounting clips are perfect! One observation, it was a bit challenging to get the bulb socket end in. When installing a new bulb the glass itself gives you leverage to push and turn in. Without the glass what has been your technic?


These are pretty cool and when we get our buckets cleaned up and put together we will post photos.

If anyone has an extra set of taillight buckets, reflectors, and lens that are still useable I would be interested. We would like to keep dads original set OEM and have a set we can dedicate to LED.

Glad you got them lit up. I remembered that I didn't mention how to install the bulb bases in the sockets. They can be tricky. I've gotten so used to them cause I've installed and removed these a hundred times.

The trick is to put your finger in the socket like in the pic. This will give enough pressure and friction to install.

Note: That's the first time that anyone has ever said "Just put your finger IN the socket to install it."

Bravo!

Boards were ordered last week.

Will have the bare boards in 2 weeks. Should be able to start deliveries a week or 2 later.

Cheers

Is the video with most current incarnation of the lights posted? Seems like some of your posts were showing the evolution of your design. Thanks,

Paul

The video shows the rev 1 5mm board on the passenger side. The rev 2 5mm board will use more efficient LEDs (less current, similar intensity, wider 1/2 power angle) and will run cooler.

I built one rev 1 5mm board with the efficient LEDs. That board is shown in a couple of posts ago in post 285. This one used 51 LEDs whereas the rev 2 5mm board will use 56 LEDs. The light output for the 51 LEDs was on par with the high power LED board which is my standard.

I can do a video with the 51 LED board later this week.

That is exactly what we ended up doing.

While we had the taillights apart our OCD kicked in and we had some cleaning to do and ordered new seals. The OEM style bulbs (not LED) the car came with had slightly melted the bucket and reflector. Dad seems to remember back in the 80's having a brake light on the left side that stuck on one time. He thinks that is what did it.

I have the rev 1 5mm (I think, correct me if I'm wrong Spoke) and they are a very big improvement in both day and night IMO.

Spoke,

Do you have an idea of the cost?

Thanks,

Mark

$90 + shipping.

This will include:
2 PCBs with 56 LEDs each.
Pigtail with 1157 base to plug directly into existing bulb socket.
6 clips to mount the boards to existing light housing.

Thanks! Let us know where and when you want $$$

So these are brake lights only at this time? Turn signals upcoming, or can we buy two sets of these and convert all at once?

Thanks, much appreciated.

Paul