DIY: LEDs (Part I)
 

See here: https://crxmpg.com/domelight.html

I'll fix this tomorrow, my
 

I'll fix this tomorrow, my pictures are wigging out. Suffice it to say it looks awesome.

why not just buy a special
 

why not just buy a special LED made for dome lights. It has like 9 LEDS. All you have to do is just switch it with the bulb. Also going with more LED's will waste more power. When I change from a bulb to an LED I try to use the fewest number of LED's while maintaining the same brightness or better brightness than the original bulb.

Going crazy with LED's will give you almost no difference than the original bulbs. Same thing with using resistors on a LED turn light. No point in using the same amount of power if you're switching to LED's.

I got myself a grounding kit for my engine bay and switched to LED's for the rear brake lights(all of them). My lights are brighter, my car doesn't moan anymore when it tries to start, it starts better, and probably other things I haven't noticed.

I'm not being harsh, I'm just saying if you want fuel economy you got to cut out the bling.

Re: why not just buy a special
 

SVOboy - Nicely done old chap. Where did you get the bread-board and components, Radio Shack? Also do you have basic schematics for DIY'rs? It sounds like a fun mod. I really want to do it to my turns and brake lights, if they're bright enough. With a large array, I think the power of numbers might be worth looking into.

I believe the bulbs you mention have built-in resistors within the bulb assembly to achieve the same results, and use the same amount of power. SVO's setup looks to be a lesser-expensive DIY setup that saves money, looks good, saves energy, and looks like fun to put together.

As for the engine bay grounding -- I did this on my EVO and frankly didn't notice a thing. Now on older cars with deteriorating wiring and connections, a grounding kit might be a good idea to boost current flow. Otherwise, that's more bling.

Quote:Going crazy with LED's
 

Well, firstly, I am sure that even with more LEDs I am using less power nonetheless, because the difference is very large. And in any case, the dome light had been so worthless in the past that I have left the bulb out and not used it at all, but presently, I find it very useful, I can actually see things to pick them up without bringing a flashlight to the car, so I'm glad it's brighter than it was before.

That's no fun and it's not good practice for someone intending to make custom lights all around including something I have planned for the taillights that I'll have to check about legalities on, :p

Quote:Where did you get the
 

Yep, but the LEDs I got off eBay. So yeah. I need more. I'm planning on buying some 1,000 resistor assortment so I have many in the future and don't need to figure it out and then go to radioshack and pay too much.

That's true, if you figure the percentage of the materials that I used it comes out to 3 dollars or so.

This is in fact a good DIY,
 

This is in fact a good DIY, but I would of gone with less LED's. Everything I bought have resistors too but the less LED's the less energy you waste.

As you know rh77 my car is not new. It's 7.5 years old. And you also know that nissan is not that good at completly getting the job done.

I used a voltage regulator chip when I did something similar to this. Will see if I can find it and the diagrams for it. It was cheap, used little power, and kept the voltage under control to protect the LEDs.

Please do so, sir, I'm going to be doing the rest of my lights at some point in time, and I'd like a better way to have the LEDs set up to prevent from overloading.

Hello -

Here's something that might serve as spare parts :

https://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...-LIGHT&cpc=SCH

Please note that I am NOT affiliated with geeks.com in any way (except for being a geek).

CarloSW2

FWIW, I put LEDS in my taillights. I put one LED in and compared it with the old incandesant, the LED was very dim. I am going to take it out and put the incandesant back, it seemed unsafe to me.

Peter

You need to put more than one LED in to replace the old bulb.

That is true of many LEDs (especially the cheaper ones), but not of all. It depends on how bright the LED in question is (which is controlled by both the LED specs, and how you are driving that LED). And while many of the cheaper LEDs use an older technology that isn't as bright (requiring you to use multiple LEDs for higher lighting conditions), some of the newer LEDs are bright enough to use a single LED as a bulb replacement (for pretty much all car bulbs EXCEPT for the headlights).

As an example of some of the brighter LEDs, some "Luxeon" LEDs (when combined with a proper driver circuit for the LED) are very bright. Not only are my tail/brake lights SINGLE (Luxeon) LED modules (I took the "easy approach" of buying premade "bulb replacement" modules that already had the LED and driver circuit built in), but those single LED modules are BRIGHTER than the stock bulbs they replace. And I even use single LED modules as replacements for my "backup lights" (yes, a properly built "high end" single LED module really is that bright).

So I know it can be done with the proper LEDs. Of course, if someone just buys the cheap LEDs in bulk, than multiple LEDs will have to be used to get enough light. But with the proper LEDs, it really is quite possible to get more than enough light for a tail light, using only a single LED).