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 Post subject: 3rd Brakelight w/ LEDs
PostPosted: Sat May 27, 2006 6:26 pm 
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I guess I will take it on to build a LED conversion for the spoiler brake light ... I'm currently trying to pick up a spare light assembly, don't really feel like tearing up my stock one ;)

Anyway, I'm planing on putting something like 12-16, maybe even 20 LEDs in (got to measure/test it out some). But apart from doing a "simple" conversion by just putting them in with resistors, I thought about doing a neat little anim in, by fading out the light from the outside to the inside. Don't know if it'll actually work out as planed, but I recon it should.

Any thoughts on this?

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PostPosted: Sat May 27, 2006 7:22 pm 
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Oh, and while I'm at it, I guess I will take a look at some of the miniature lights all around the interior. On my way home from Bitburg I noticed some switches get awfully hot (e.g. fog headlight switch) just from the regular illumination - all I need is a hand full of 680ohm resistors, got a bunch of ultra bright LEDs, that should take care of any heat issue ... see this page for some samples ...

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject: Re: 3rd Brakelight w/ LEDs
PostPosted: Mon May 29, 2006 10:26 am 
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Garry wrote:
I thought about doing a neat little anim in, by fading out the light from the outside to the inside. Don't know if it'll actually work out as planed, but I recon it should.

Any thoughts on this?

You could set it up like on the new Mercedes (I think):
Check the travel of the brake pedal (question is how to do that?), the more it is pressed down, the more LEDs are on. 8)

Ben

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon May 29, 2006 10:59 am 
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I recon that is more or less out of the question - that would require more than basic input from the onboard computer system that handles stuff like the ABS ... only other chance would be to continuously read the speed, and if there is a certain percentage in decrease per time interval AND the brake is applied, blink or do whatever ...
For now, all I plan on doing is replacing the brake light assembly without re-building the whole car ;)

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 30, 2006 5:40 am 
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Btw, could use somebody who's in the States ... got a brake light, but the seller only seems to want to ship UPS to the US, not APO let alone international mail ... tnx!

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:02 pm 
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OK, took a closer look at the light assembly today ... looks like it should be rather easy to build something nice ... also have received some info on accelleration sensors which could be used to detect strong braking, to react by e.g. flashing the brakelight rapidly, only problem is they are relatively expensive (20+€ a piece) ... can get one to experiment with ...

So, I've got three "levels" of implementing this:
    * Basic version, LEDs on/off based on the power to the light assembly
    * Version with fade-out when brake is released
    * Version with fade-out and emergency flashing if hard braking is sensed

I'll post some details once I get a first version done ;)

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:40 pm 
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Btw, short of crashing, what are typical braking G values? Stef, any idea?

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:37 am 
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Are you looking at making these to sell? I might be interested in the third option.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:00 am 
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Let me get one done first ;)

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:51 am 
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RTZSS wrote:
Are you looking at making these to sell? I might be interested in the third option.


...and how long before you have them available for other models. Specifically Y-bodies. This sounds like a really cool idea if you can make them plug and play. There are a lot of guys on the vette forums that will buy anything new just to have something different so you could probably sell a few hundred easy

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:59 am 
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Will you be at Bitburg next weekend? I'll take a look at your brake light to see the size of the housing ... electronics won't be too large, but ... I done checked, while the housing is slightly different on the outside between the late 4th gen F-Bodies, the inside is equal, so the same circuit board would fit both Camaro and Firebird (though I will have to look at a high spoiler brake light, which is supposed to be different from the low spoiler version)

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:24 pm 
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doesn't look like i'm going to make it this month, but I won't know for sure until later in the week. Although i think you've pretty much have to take the whole fascia off to get it out. I'll take some measurements tonight.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:37 pm 
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I'm wondering, does anybody know a car that has an LED brake light? I was wondering how many LEDs they have in their third light ... I'm wondering whether 20 (dual row) will be enough ...

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:29 pm 
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http://www.lastofthebreed.com/Installs/LEDProjects/3rdBrakelight/LEDThirdBrakeLight.html

Outstanding write-up another f-bod owner did on his 3rd brakelight LED mod 8)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:33 pm 
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Nice ... 72 LEDs ... OK ;) sure put enough in there ;)

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:51 pm 
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Lancer033 wrote:
doesn't look like i'm going to make it this month, but I won't know for sure until later in the week. Although i think you've pretty much have to take the whole fascia off to get it out. I'll take some measurements tonight.

Its late in the week. Whats the dealio?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:10 pm 
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finally got around to opening up the brakelight ... w/ putting 5mm LEDs in the case, I asume anything more than 30 LEDs will be too many ... working on a preliminary circuit setup, I'd prefer not to have two circuit boards in it, so I need some space for the controller chip and additional bits and pieces ...

First pics coming up soon ...

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:34 pm 
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Anybody got an idea what kind of tech values the LEDs used in comercial LED solutions have? Stef, any idea what Audi uses?
I could get some 3000mCd or 9000mCd white LEDs ...

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:24 am 
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Well ... others order other - hmmm - Stuff from Thailand, I just got me something, too ...

Bunch of High-Output (11000mCd) LEDs, white and blue (7000mCd, to replace some of the interior, high temperature lighting some time) ... already did a trial run with two white ones behind the brake light encasing ... looking good, should be good to see in day and night ... will start putting it all together, hopefully the basic or V2 version (sequential and/or w/ fadeout) will be up and running for Bitburg next week! :)

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:55 pm 
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OK ... just finished the "V2" circuit ... 28 LEDs, 7 groups, with microcontroller ... no G-meter yet, but works nice already ... LEDs come up with some quick on/off for 1s, then do some inside-to-outside sequential lighting three times until all stay on ... subsequent braking with less than ~2s in between just keep all LEDs on ...

Just got to see whether I can actually get it hooked up tomorrow ... ;) If so, you can take a look at it in Bitburg ;) Also still have to see how I can glue the whole encasing back together ... :D

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Garry Glendown * '99 Firehawk Convertible

"Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you."
"Speed doesn't kill - suddenly becoming stationary on the other hand ..."


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