capt512
02-03-2012, 04:42 PM
So I got my car back from the tintman today and have decided that an LED third brake light wouldn't be a bad idea at all. I know FBM had a thread kinda similar for a while but the last thing that had been said was it was too expensive to do...
I looked around but didn't find any other threads though I can't ever get the search on here to work like I want.
I looked around and didn't find any of the Federal LED deck lights that were in factory housings listed anywhere...so though it can't be all that hard to make one myself...
So I already had a stripped out third brake light housing to experiment with. Some of the CV members had used one of the LED driving lights in red that you can get at advance auto, but I was never very keen on it as it didn't fill the housing at all, and now they don't even have red at my stores.
So I then went out and got some breadboard from Radioshack and grabbed the biggest "red" LEDs I could find...They were called Ultra High Brightness 10mm Red LED (Intensity: 400mcd, Wavelength: 660nm, Viewing Angle: 16 degrees, FW current: 20mA, FW supply: 2.4V). I then grabbed some big resistors (aka I had no idea what I was selecting so I just grabbed some big ones and said what the hey lol) the resistors were 1 Megohm 1/2 watt, 5% tolerance. I then grabbed my 12 volt battery charger and hooked one resistor up to 1 led and then the negative and positive cables...result nada. Flipped connections...nada. Then took the resistor off and the LED turned white and I guess burned out...I did this 3 more times...I don't know why lol.
I also had some 3mm LEDs I got off Ebay for inside cupholders etc, that already had resistors installed inline for auto and tried them, they worked but were the wrong color and with the resistors attached way to thick to go through breadboard.
So I colored the breadboard to represent how I would like to layout the LEDs, as well as made a diagram with the blue circles representing the red LEDs, and then the resistors...
So here is the thing...I have wired things up in cars, homes, etc plenty of times, but when it comes to resistors etc I am clueless. Is there any simple way that can be explained to me as to what I need to order LED & resistor wise to set this up? Or should I just get some SMD strips in red and try to make them work somehow?
Here are some pictures
Big LEDs on breadboard...
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g147/jamnbak2u/IMAG0702.jpg
Breadboard with layout how I planned?
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g147/jamnbak2u/IMAG0703.jpg
On a program, blue circles are LEDs, and resitors of some size? thrown on there?
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g147/jamnbak2u/CircuitBoard.jpg
I looked around but didn't find any other threads though I can't ever get the search on here to work like I want.
I looked around and didn't find any of the Federal LED deck lights that were in factory housings listed anywhere...so though it can't be all that hard to make one myself...
So I already had a stripped out third brake light housing to experiment with. Some of the CV members had used one of the LED driving lights in red that you can get at advance auto, but I was never very keen on it as it didn't fill the housing at all, and now they don't even have red at my stores.
So I then went out and got some breadboard from Radioshack and grabbed the biggest "red" LEDs I could find...They were called Ultra High Brightness 10mm Red LED (Intensity: 400mcd, Wavelength: 660nm, Viewing Angle: 16 degrees, FW current: 20mA, FW supply: 2.4V). I then grabbed some big resistors (aka I had no idea what I was selecting so I just grabbed some big ones and said what the hey lol) the resistors were 1 Megohm 1/2 watt, 5% tolerance. I then grabbed my 12 volt battery charger and hooked one resistor up to 1 led and then the negative and positive cables...result nada. Flipped connections...nada. Then took the resistor off and the LED turned white and I guess burned out...I did this 3 more times...I don't know why lol.
I also had some 3mm LEDs I got off Ebay for inside cupholders etc, that already had resistors installed inline for auto and tried them, they worked but were the wrong color and with the resistors attached way to thick to go through breadboard.
So I colored the breadboard to represent how I would like to layout the LEDs, as well as made a diagram with the blue circles representing the red LEDs, and then the resistors...
So here is the thing...I have wired things up in cars, homes, etc plenty of times, but when it comes to resistors etc I am clueless. Is there any simple way that can be explained to me as to what I need to order LED & resistor wise to set this up? Or should I just get some SMD strips in red and try to make them work somehow?
Here are some pictures
Big LEDs on breadboard...
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g147/jamnbak2u/IMAG0702.jpg
Breadboard with layout how I planned?
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g147/jamnbak2u/IMAG0703.jpg
On a program, blue circles are LEDs, and resitors of some size? thrown on there?
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g147/jamnbak2u/CircuitBoard.jpg