LED Tail light

[DB92]

I want to donate to the most skilled and motivated DIYer two printed circuit boards loaded with superbright red L.E.D.s for the purpose of discovering if they will look good and fit in an nsx tail light housing.
These were originally designed for a 2001 yamaha R1. If it works i will do it to
mine. I am not trying to sell anything, I just want to see if this works on someones spare tail lights before i try it on mine.

 

[MJK]

I assume you've seen them, but clearcorners has done a few:

JDNSX has also done this DIY:

 

[D'Ecosse]

Those are effectively just an 18 led array - might be simpler to just replace the stock bulbs with multi-array leds in a std base that just plugs in & no rework necessary to the lamp housing. There are dozens of variants around in the market for flash or dual intensity stop/tail.

 

[DB92]

WOW, I have not seen that clear corner product. That is awsome!! Im going to check the price on those today.

 

[AU_NSX]

WOW, I have not seen that clear corner product. That is awsome!! Im going to check the price on those today.

The yellow NSX is NOT clear corners. It is a company in Japan.

 

[nsxhk]

D'eccose,

I've tried those LED bulbs... it's didn't work out quite as well as I thought it would. LED bulbs look best when they're shooting straight at you. Our oem taillight bulbs are installed at an angle.

Henry.

 

[DB92]

Thanks a bunch for the info without rippin on me. I should have searched more before posting.

 

[D'Ecosse]

D'eccose,

I've tried those LED bulbs... it's didn't work out quite as well as I thought it would. LED bulbs look best when they're shooting straight at you. Our oem taillight bulbs are installed at an angle.

Henry.

Actually Henry, the outer-most one is perpendicular and the inner one is at an angle - I also tried this earlier tonight however & wasn't that impressed either.
One of the problems is the holes are on the small side to get a decent size led array in there. Best bet is to take a set of lights apart and mod them with either full linear or circular arrays as in the pictures above. I may pick up a spare set of lights to play with! There may be yet be a better led bulb for this applicaton but neither of these is it.

The pics below show
1) a couple of LED 1157 options - the tower one has 3 leds on the end & 15 around the "tower" sides (these actually look great in my motorcycle tail light); I could get this one to fit & the result is shown below; next to it, a 24 led array - 18 on the face & 6 more radially (this one would not fit in the hole); also shown are a std 1157 incandescent as well as stock & PIAA 168/194 bulbs (there was no difference in these two options - didn't have a red led wedge to stick in there)

2) The parking lights only - led bulb is on the right side

3) Brake lights only - again led in same position.

 

[khappucino]

from http://www.superbrightleds.com/other_bulbs.htm

any idea what the rough dimensions of the rectangular arrays would need to be?

from my guess-stimation it would take about 40 1.5x1.5 led arrays to fill both left and right rectangular grids, anyone concur?

at $9.95 a pop its roughly $400+ for led + pcb. aligning all 20 squares on each side would be a trial in patience me thinks.

just a thought

 

[DB92]

The yellow NSX is NOT clear corners. It is a company in Japan.

Ok,thats nice. I Dont see what that had to do with my enthusiasum for the Clear Corner product.

 

[Dave Hardy]

I may pick up a spare set of lights to play with!

Good Luck. I've been trying to get my hands on tails for prototyping a new housing as was talked about a few months back. I've got one cracked one that worked well enough to prove the theory, but now I need some decent ones to pull molds from. Every time they come up for sale they are super expensive though. Apparently made of gold or something.

 

[nsxhk]

Maybe instead of removing the lens, how about cutting the the whole backside out and leaving the mounting screws in? That way, we don't have to worry about damaging the lens and have a whole lot of room to work with.... yeah?

Henry.

 

[rbirling]

Anyone who has made their own LED taillights: What LEDs did you use, and how many. Were they similar in brightness to the original lights? I'm not talking about the plug in replacements, but complete DIY replacement. Thanks.

 

[jdnsx]

In this thread I did a DIY write up on where I bought my leds and how I did the job. I am going to do another set here soon when I get time to see if I can get the quality high enough to sell. The problem is taking the lights apart can cause cracks fairly easily. You cannot simply cut out the back because you lose the mounting studs. The studs sit right behind the leds.

 

[jdnsx]

Here's the write up.

 

[rbirling]

Thanks. I had read the thread before, but missed the writeup. So you used premade
LED arrays. Anyone else make their own from scratch?

Here's the write up.

 

[nsxhk]

In this thread I did a DIY write up on where I bought my leds and how I did the job. I am going to do another set here soon when I get time to see if I can get the quality high enough to sell. The problem is taking the lights apart can cause cracks fairly easily. You cannot simply cut out the back because you lose the mounting studs. The studs sit right behind the leds.

Hey jdnsx,

Any updates? You taking orders?? :tongue:

Henry.

 

[jdnsx]

I was working on a steam cabinet to see if it would aid in taking the lights apart but the best option still seems to be a tub of very hot water. The tub seems to saturate the glue with heat so you have more time to work the front and back apart.
I know this does not sound like much progress but getting the lights apart, without breaking them, is 75% of the job.

Joe

 

[nsxhk]

Joe,

I have a set of taillights sitting here waiting for you, just let me know

Henry.

 

[Ouchdamn]

Hello, I just stumbled across this neat forum and saw there are some led lovers here. I have made custom leds for many cars and motorcycles, usually invloving gutting the original lamp and installing a panel then re-sealing. It's better to do it that way to ensure uniform brightness across your whole lens, plus you can screw around with designs of the lights as well behind the lens. I've also retrofitted many local energency vehicles to led's so bright it will literally stop you dead in your tracks. I'd be happy to share my knowledge with other led lovers!

 

[MJK]

Hello, I just stumbled across this neat forum and saw there are some led lovers here. I have made custom leds for many cars and motorcycles, usually invloving gutting the original lamp and installing a panel then re-sealing. It's better to do it that way to ensure uniform brightness across your whole lens, plus you can screw around with designs of the lights as well behind the lens. I've also retrofitted many local energency vehicles to led's so bright it will literally stop you dead in your tracks. I'd be happy to share my knowledge with other led lovers!

Welcome, glad to have you around!

Be sure to check out this thread too.

 

[Ouchdamn]

Welcome, glad to have you around!

Be sure to check out this thread too.

Thank you!

 

[Voomva]

Hey DB92,

I dont want to try them in my NSX, but I bet that they'll look great in my 2000 R1!!!!