Anyone tried LED bulbs yet?
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Tried...not nearly bright enough.
The bulb replacements are also more directional than regular tail lights so they get even worse compared to regular bulbs as you get off center.
unless the fixture is designed for the leds you end up with what XS650 mentioned.
The new LED lights on commercial verhicles seem to be pretty effective, however, I'm yet to see any aftemarket units that are any good.
I think you really need to buy a complete light unit to get effective lighting. These are probably not going to be available for cars, but units for boat trailers and the like are a good idea.
You might also find that the replacement bulbs are not Road Authority approved and you risk a fine and maybe your insurance company may be less than enthused.
I think you really need to buy a complete light unit to get effective lighting. These are probably not going to be available for cars, but units for boat trailers and the like are a good idea.
You might also find that the replacement bulbs are not Road Authority approved and you risk a fine and maybe your insurance company may be less than enthused.
JHZR2
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Probably for some small out of the way marker bulbs, they would be OK.
ANd if they last longer than normal, at least you have more uptime... But I agree that they arent bright enough in standard applications.
JMH
ANd if they last longer than normal, at least you have more uptime... But I agree that they arent bright enough in standard applications.
JMH
Like others have said, it's the small viewing angle that makes LED replacements appear much dimmer than incandescent bulbs.
I'm currently running commercially available 194 replacement LED's that illuminate the gauges in my '87 Camaro. Only reason I did this is to virtually eliminate having to remove the instrument cluster (a big pain) to replace burned out bulbs. I had to replace one burned out bulb so I just replaced them all with LED's.
Before I discovered commercially available replacements, I made a bunch of home made 194 replacements in the garage:
I'm currently running commercially available 194 replacement LED's that illuminate the gauges in my '87 Camaro. Only reason I did this is to virtually eliminate having to remove the instrument cluster (a big pain) to replace burned out bulbs. I had to replace one burned out bulb so I just replaced them all with LED's.
Before I discovered commercially available replacements, I made a bunch of home made 194 replacements in the garage:
JHZR2
Staff member
wow, you do some fancy work!
JMH
JMH
While all points are valid about perceived brightness and viewing angle, there are standard socket LED bulbs that I find acceptable. Some have radially mounted LEDs in addition to the direct to the rear/front LEDs. These improve the light to the sides. I have LEDs all around on my F150 and the light output is acceptable with all but the corner lights (which also serve as the front turn signals). For that bulb I am thinking about adding another socket and directing the light to the side at 90 degrees.
Some of the 194 bulbs (dash lights etc) have a plastic lens built around the LED with an inverted cone that reflects the light radially 180 degrees very nicely.
Some of the 194 bulbs (dash lights etc) have a plastic lens built around the LED with an inverted cone that reflects the light radially 180 degrees very nicely.
Nice work!
Do you have any advice on which brand of led replacements to use for instrument panel lights?
I'v got a couple of dead bulbs in a car that look like a real pain to replace the bulbs. An idela LED candidate.
Do the LEDs work as good as incandeescants in that type of application?
I've been using them in my JEep-- my expedition rig-- for years. I'm always bouncing the bumpers off of things while wheeling, or dousing the lights under water. I used to have to replace all of my marker bulbs after an outing, now I don't have to.
Are these DOT approved?
Thanks for the compliments.
As far as replacements go, I went with the brightest LED's I could find. I looked through a Digi-Key catalog and looked down the Millicandela rating column and choose the brightest ones in the color I wanted. I wanted to go for a BMW look, so I went with red colored LED's.
FWIW, my home made LED's were blue; I didn't like it at all. Too weird looking and way too dark. Here's the inspiration for me wanting to make my own:
http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/leddash.shtml
The instrument panel in the Camaro is illuminated indirectly; that is to say the gauges aren't backlit like a lot of gauge clusters nowadays. That being the case, I don't think that the LED viewing angle plays too much of a role. I also painted the light blue "reflector" that surrounds the gauges a gloss white to help spread out the lighta but more.
The gauges are illimunated with the red LED's in a pretty uniform manner and are easily readable at night. They're a little on the dark side when compared to a factory red illuminated cluster. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.
IIRC, I used 8000 mcd (brightness) red LED's and they were around $1 a piece.
I purchased the replacement LED's from Digi-Key; There are other places that sell them, but I went with Digi-Key because they listed the specifications of the LED's where other placed didn't.
Here's a pretty good search page from the Digi-key web site:
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Criteria?Ref=251595&Site=US&Cat=32899937
Just plug in your requrements and it'll return what they have.
The only down side is these LED bulbs tend to be pricey.
Also note guys that your power draw will be a lot less than with standard bulbs.
I am going to be changing over to LEDs on my 1995 Blazer seeing I saw them installed on a friend's truck and they were actually brighter than stock.
This also will extend the life of your alternator a bit as well. Less draw, less wear.
I am going to be changing over to LEDs on my 1995 Blazer seeing I saw them installed on a friend's truck and they were actually brighter than stock.
This also will extend the life of your alternator a bit as well. Less draw, less wear.
dang I was going to locate mine I bought over a year and a half ago and install this weekend
guess I already know now what to expect
guess I already know now what to expect
What values are those resistors, I plan to make something that like for another LED setup in my car. What is the resulting voltage to the LED?quote:
Originally posted by paulo57509:
Like others have said, it's the small viewing angle that makes LED replacements appear much dimmer than incandescent bulbs.
I'm currently running commercially available 194 replacement LED's that illuminate the gauges in my '87 Camaro. Only reason I did this is to virtually eliminate having to remove the instrument cluster (a big pain) to replace burned out bulbs. I had to replace one burned out bulb so I just replaced them all with LED's.
Before I discovered commercially available replacements, I made a bunch of home made 194 replacements in the garage:
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