Well since I've mastered the 5th gen, I have begun work on a 4th gen taillight. What design would you guys be into? I can do a large circle that is dim with parking lights and then fills in and gets brighter with brake lights. Or I can try to make it uniform. Any ideas? I am designing a board in CAD as I type and I just cannot decide how to do it. Here is the space to work with...
The blue areas need to be avoided. So it has to sit in the red portion. I was thinking also maybe like the FX35. I'm open to any and all suggestions.
Dan
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Last edited by soccer3303; 11-11-2005 at 12:33 PM.
I will take a picture of my led tail lights. And show the progress on mine. Hopefully i will be finishing them soon. I used all the premade led boards but i have i think 120ish leds in mine.
^^ wait wait wait... you have 120 LED's per taillight? That is WAY too many. Also are you using a PWM for dimming and an LM317 for regulation? I'm curious to see how you did it. I think I have a pretty good design down for the brake and turn signals.
I have not used anything for dimming or regulation yet. I used the premade sets off of the big trucks. and just modified it all so it has all the red out. So all that is left is the exposed led's. I used a circle set, and a rectangle set, and then a little round led bulb for the reverse light. It is incredably bright. and probably not at a good angle, but its not done yet. I used fiberglass resin for filler until my dad got this filler stuff from his work that i am usign now. I havnt touched them for about 6 months, becuase i have been so busy, but i will try and hurry and finish them up.
i'd love to be able to get rid of the divider between the turn signal and reverse area. maybe put in a single board with LEDs for both the turn signal and reverse lights on that board.
but the circle thing sounds like a great idea, the outer most ring is lit with the lights, and the brakes would fill in the circle.
^^ First the problem is that if you remove that piece you can see straight into the taillight with no obstructions and can easily see the circuit boards. Makes it look bad. But I think I found a solution... stay tuned
Second, I was even thinking this... you have the ring dimmed and then when you hit the brakes, the ring goes to full brightness as well as the area of the ring lighting up to full brightness. I think that sounds pretty cool. But I chose something different for this retro. Stay tuned
What if you dremel off that divider at the top or the taillight to make a full triangle? or maybe a triangular outline and then the circle inside, i don't know...a lot of possibilities..wow
That's a thought but the lens and the housing both slope towards the top so it would mean the lens would be closer to the LEDs at that point, meaning a different look pattern. Also, the rear of the housing would have to be cut to include that triangle. A lot of custom work that might not even fit. Who knows why they made it that way in the first place.
Wow looks good. I am goign to pick mine up right now. ITs at my parents house, my dad was doing some things to them, but i will light them up and take pictures tomorrow when i get home. I wont be home till late tonight.
Here is the brake light. I did not anticipate how highly diffused the lens was. You cannot make out really any of the LEDs. But I think that once I set the lens in it's final position (about 1-2 inches closer then now) the LEDs will pop out from behind the lens.
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