Dual intensity LEDs

[jsalda]

Going to convert my 97 tailight to LEDs, but how do you do the dual intensity LED part(LED is one brightness for running lights and brighter for brake)? Is it a special LED or do you do it with the wiring?

[Hudson]

Its a voltage thing, less voltage, less bright.

As for using LED's, you want to build your own? check out www.superbriteleds.com, i have bought super brite LED's fropm them for many protects, and i'v always been pleased with the result.

Basicly, the charts will tell you the following
A: brightness
B: voltage required for max brightness (or max tolerance before they want to blow)
C: vieiwng angle (how direct the resulting light is, narrower angles means more of a beam, wider angles mean morespread)

now as for making a tail light..thats really up to you. If you want running liht and stop light brightness changes, you needto design two basic curcuits, plan on buying some resistors because i promise you the voltage and amps comiong out of the bike are WAY too much.

First, you need to addup two voltages.
one: what voltage do you wantto use when run as a running light
two: what voltage gets added when you hit the brakes.

The Total Result (with your resistors and all combined) needs to be less than or AT the 'max tolerance' for the LED's you end up using.

Basic idea is this, for running lights, you are supplying them with maybe %25 max using leads and resistors, but when juice comes across the leads for the brake light, it adds in another %60 to %75 to bring them up to full brightness.

there are more ways to make the cuicits than i can detail here, but a little googling should get you a great idea of how to do it.

One thing i CAN help you on, is how to mount them, just fashion a plate of plastic that will mount into your tail light behind the refractor, and drill holes of the right size to hold the LED's. space them about one forth of aninch from each other, or a little more if you like. Make sure you pay close attention to the long leads and the short ones, LED's only work when hooked up to - and + right.

If an LED is getitng hot, its going to burn out, tweak your voltage and such down, if you want to make them a little adjustable, throw a adjustable POT in there somewhere to adjust the two voltages a little this way and that once you get your resistors sorted out.

A little planning, and a little time with the iron, and you have yourself a home made super bright OMGIMSTOPPING! beam of death tail light.

I'll be doing this myself down the road, but i haven't gotten to it yet on my list of to-do's.

good luck, and post results!

[Black_peter]

Hmm could have save you some typing..

http://www.katriders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13162

[jsalda]

Thanks guys. Got several pieces of acrylic laying around from various aquarium projects, that's what I plan on mounting them with. As for sorting out the resistors and voltages, I let my father figure that out, he's the electronics genius. I'll definately take pics and post a how-to once all is done.

[Red-line]

There's always the easy route.... just use one of these LED replacement's that fit in a standard bulb socket...

[jsalda]

Yeah, I thought of that Red, but I want to update the look, so I'll spread the LEDs out throught the whole assembly.

[Black_peter]

Hmmm
you mean like this?

[jsalda]

Exactly Peter. It looks like you have 29 LEDs in there, is that correct? What luminosity are they?

[solidfish]

did u just count the dots?

[Black_peter]

Exactly Peter. It looks like you have 29 LEDs in there, is that correct? What luminosity are they?

Yes 29..
9 are running the other 20 are brake.
They are 10KMCD..

[Jax]

I just bought some 10mm 60000mcd ones for my brakes lights and using the 5mm 10000mcd ones for the running lights...also I have some amber ones that I'm going to attempt to make into turn signals..now just to get a template of the inside of the 600's tail lamp...that is the hardest part...

[Black_peter]

I just bought some 10mm 60000mcd ones for my brakes lights and using the 5mm 10000mcd ones for the running lights...

WOW!! That is gonna be bright!
Please take some pics etc.. I'd like to add it to my How to..
(Or write your own.. you good at it!)

also I have some amber ones that I'm going to attempt to make into turn signals..

Over compinstate for the turns. I thought mine were bright but I am disapointed. I used 7 10K MDC ambers and it could be twice as bright.
So I suggest using as many as you can space out (for fullness)
but go with a total MDC of atleast 150K MDC!

now just to get a template of the inside of the 600's tail lamp...that is the hardest part...

I started by tracing the lens, then trimmed it until it fit into the houseing
the way I wanted. I used cardboard.

[jsalda]

I was planning on using some 3mm for mine, thus I could pack them in tighter so that the individual LEDs would not be as apparent. Right now it's looking like 45 yellows (@3000mcd) for each turn (135mcd) and 113 for the running/brake for a total of 936mcd when brake is on. That's a lot of drilling and wiring, but I figure it'll be worth it in the end.

Jax, I've got a template that I made just by measuring the tail and drawing out in Illustrator, what file format do you want it in?

[Black_peter]

Guys,
Remember that when planning your lights you don't need that many. The lens will distribute the light.
Also remember my tip on using individual resistors.
This came into play this week as I noticed one burned out LED.. One.. If I had run my LEDs in series or
had ganged up LEDS to one resistor I'd be in bad shape.
I think I actually burned a resistor not an LED..

[Black_peter]

EDIT: jsalda.
If you are really going to run that many LEDs
you might want to think about etching a PC board.

I also think you can buy 100 10kMCD LED
for less than 200 3K MCDs..