JaY_III
04-10-2004, 02:56 PM
The goal of the project was to fix the spoiler brake light in a VW Golf.
The Victim for this project was a 90 GTI to be exact.
1st step in this project is to remove the brake light….
And you can clearly see it here and should have a good idea what we are now working on
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20002.jpg
Next we open it up, and you should be able to tell why we have the need for this project. It appear to have water damage, and the internal working of the light have corroded away, so simply buying new bulbs is not an option for us. And the price of an entire new brake light is probably a stupid amount… So after my buddy saw what I did to my dash http://www.dubnetworks.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=16 with blue LED’s, he asked if I could help him out. And I came up with a $10 Canadian dollar solution. Simply use LED’s.
*Note: Red LED’s are a lot cheaper then blue*
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20003.jpg
So the next day I went off to an electronics supplier, and picked up 14 Red Super bright LED’s, 3500mcd @ 2.2V. And some 62 ohm resistors rated for 2 watts along with some 27 ohm resistors rated for 5 watts. Only 7 LED's will be needed, but I grabbed 14 just in case he wanted to double them up and blind the people behind him… Unfortunately he did go for that idea so we are only using 7 LED's and the 62 ohm resistor. I them marked all the positive LED legs just to make my life simpler when installing. Just for you new to LED's, the positive leg is the long one :D.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20005.jpg
We then took a speaker wire, but any dual insulated wire will do, and ran that against the plastic moulding of the brake light. We then marked out on the wire were the holes are in the back of the brake light for the LED's to go through. Once that was done, we striped off a small portion of the wire, inserted the LED in the twisted wire and used a little solder to keep the LED firmly in place.
*Note: Be sure to place all the positive sides of the LED's on the same side as the speaker wire. Any LED installed backwards will not light up.*
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20008.jpg
You should be able to see clearly all the LED's soldered into place almost ready to go into a 12V system. Only 1 more part needs to be added and we are good to go. And that would be the 62 ohm resistor you can see in the far left side of the picture.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20010.jpg
So I then attached the resistor to the positive wire with my trusty soldering iron and a little solder. It looked good so far, so time to test it out… And if all goes well it should look something like this.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20012.jpg
And this when inserted into the plastic housing.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20014.jpg
And here you can see how its placed inside the plastic housing. With the speaker wire trimed to the correct lengh, and electric tape coving up any exposed leads.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20019.jpg
Next step is to put it all back together. And as we only have copper speaker wires as our ends, we put on a male crimp lug connector on each wire. This provided with a easy way to plug the brake light back into the car. And you once again can see how it turned out here
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20020.jpg
Finally, this is how it ended up looking once installed.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20023.jpg
Some After Thoughts:
A PCB (printed Circuit Board) would have been better to use to attach LED's to other than only speaker wire. Wire did work, but IaPCB would have been better.
Crimp lugs could have been installed closer to the rest of the light as they feel a little jammed into the brake light housing in the spoiler.
But all and all I would say it was a good project and results turned out well…
So if you find LED conversion interesting, RUMOUR has it, but I cant confirm this is any way :D, that a total LED Conversion is in the works.
And any other question about LED conversion, ask away.
The Victim for this project was a 90 GTI to be exact.
1st step in this project is to remove the brake light….
And you can clearly see it here and should have a good idea what we are now working on
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20002.jpg
Next we open it up, and you should be able to tell why we have the need for this project. It appear to have water damage, and the internal working of the light have corroded away, so simply buying new bulbs is not an option for us. And the price of an entire new brake light is probably a stupid amount… So after my buddy saw what I did to my dash http://www.dubnetworks.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=16 with blue LED’s, he asked if I could help him out. And I came up with a $10 Canadian dollar solution. Simply use LED’s.
*Note: Red LED’s are a lot cheaper then blue*
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20003.jpg
So the next day I went off to an electronics supplier, and picked up 14 Red Super bright LED’s, 3500mcd @ 2.2V. And some 62 ohm resistors rated for 2 watts along with some 27 ohm resistors rated for 5 watts. Only 7 LED's will be needed, but I grabbed 14 just in case he wanted to double them up and blind the people behind him… Unfortunately he did go for that idea so we are only using 7 LED's and the 62 ohm resistor. I them marked all the positive LED legs just to make my life simpler when installing. Just for you new to LED's, the positive leg is the long one :D.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20005.jpg
We then took a speaker wire, but any dual insulated wire will do, and ran that against the plastic moulding of the brake light. We then marked out on the wire were the holes are in the back of the brake light for the LED's to go through. Once that was done, we striped off a small portion of the wire, inserted the LED in the twisted wire and used a little solder to keep the LED firmly in place.
*Note: Be sure to place all the positive sides of the LED's on the same side as the speaker wire. Any LED installed backwards will not light up.*
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20008.jpg
You should be able to see clearly all the LED's soldered into place almost ready to go into a 12V system. Only 1 more part needs to be added and we are good to go. And that would be the 62 ohm resistor you can see in the far left side of the picture.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20010.jpg
So I then attached the resistor to the positive wire with my trusty soldering iron and a little solder. It looked good so far, so time to test it out… And if all goes well it should look something like this.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20012.jpg
And this when inserted into the plastic housing.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20014.jpg
And here you can see how its placed inside the plastic housing. With the speaker wire trimed to the correct lengh, and electric tape coving up any exposed leads.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20019.jpg
Next step is to put it all back together. And as we only have copper speaker wires as our ends, we put on a male crimp lug connector on each wire. This provided with a easy way to plug the brake light back into the car. And you once again can see how it turned out here
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20020.jpg
Finally, this is how it ended up looking once installed.
http://www.dubnetworks.net/jordan/led%20023.jpg
Some After Thoughts:
A PCB (printed Circuit Board) would have been better to use to attach LED's to other than only speaker wire. Wire did work, but IaPCB would have been better.
Crimp lugs could have been installed closer to the rest of the light as they feel a little jammed into the brake light housing in the spoiler.
But all and all I would say it was a good project and results turned out well…
So if you find LED conversion interesting, RUMOUR has it, but I cant confirm this is any way :D, that a total LED Conversion is in the works.
And any other question about LED conversion, ask away.