Benny's first DIY : LEDs on an Ikon

[greenhorn]

not as bright as i wanted them to be. Planning to upgrade them to bigger high brightness LED's
the lights are not blue . they are a bluish white. check out the previous posts for the actual LED color. i think the white balance was messed up in my can when i took it

[Fountainheader]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

Attachment 99319
not as bright as i wanted them to be. Planning to upgrade them to bigger high brightness LED's
the lights are not blue . they are a bluish white. check out the previous posts for the actual LED color. i think the white balance was messed up in my can when i took it

Nice work. But looks like you wanted the Regn number to be in a stealth mode

[greenhorn]

its quite readable from behind , but this pic's got it blurred

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

its quite readable from behind , but this pic's got it blurred

I try to make my number plate as inconspicuous as possible. Looks like you want to draw attention to it. How many LEDs did you use? And also, are these two sets of lights?

[greenhorn]

there are two lights, each gets 2x3 LED's ( similar to the interior lamp PCB) . Will post detailed pics this weekend when i upgrade the LED's

[greenhorn]

didnt get time to upgrade the taillamps, but did swap the LED's in the interior light with bigger ones. I swear this is the last time i post pics of the interior lamp, and will show the numberplate lights next time

the earlier ones(two rows in the back) were smaller and more bling ( blue white in colour). these are pure white and brighter too!

[archat68]

I'm running four white power LEDs in series directly in my Zen. The LEDs are square with four legs, very bright and operates on 50mA. Look at the below mentioned datasheet for example:
http://www.vishay.com/doc?81260
These type of power LEDs are available in market. The white ones are available at Kolkata for about 15-20 Rs. a piece.

[benbsb29]

Archat, thanks for the link. How exactly do you refer to these LEDs at a shop, for example say 5mm LEDs?

[archat68]

its called a power LED, square ones with four legs or else you can take a printout and show them.

[greenhorn]

the board and the DIY adapter to fit in the bulb's socket

how it fits where the bulb used to

testing!

stuck inside the numberplate light assy with double sided tape ( I love that stuff)

lit up!

[shreyasma]

I went shopping and ended up buying 100x10mm white LEDs and !00x520 ohms resistors and 5xuniversal PCB (2inchx3inch)

Price:
Rs 2.75 per LED
15 paise per resistor
Rs 5 per PCB

I am no electronics guy. I went to this shop on SP road in Bangalore and just asked for LEDs thinking i will connect in series. But the shop keeper was keen on knowing what i was upto as he till date never had a person buying only 100 pieces. reson being he was a wholesaler. When i explained the DIY plan, he suggested me to use 520 ohms resistor with each LED as the brightness will be uniform. Made sense to me as he was earning only Rs15 for 100 resistors.

Okay, Brought the stuff home and also purchase a soldering kit for 50 bucks from the same guy. First tried my hand at soldering and was feeling confident. Then planned the way i needed the lights. Also used a sand paper to make the LEDs rough as the light looked like a spot light that a wide spread one.

Note to all electronics guys: You may puke looking at my circuit diagram and the way i have soldered.


Here is the circuit diagram.



Rest of the pics are self explanatory. I did the same for the Tata safari roof lights and the number plate light also. Will post the pics later

[greenhorn]

hey, the last pic is for the number plate lights right?
did you have to take the number plate light apart ?

shreyas, bend the outer LED's outwards, increases the spread of teh beam for the numberplate lights

[greenhorn]

520 ohms and one LED might not be the best option.

1 - you are wasting about 75% of the power on the resistor
2 - at 14.4V, the resistor is dissipating almost 250mW, its max power dissipation. they will get hot and may die soon.

If they do, consider changing to 2 or 3 LED's in series and reducing the resistor values ( will be glad to help you with the values ) . You might have slight variation with the engine on and off, but the resistors and LED's should live longer. they are cheap, but removing the thing and desoldering/resoldering them is a pain

PS: I recently had a chance to see the Prices of some LED lighting stuff, and the prices are 10x how much its costs to make these. Isnt DIY great

[shreyasma]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

If they do, consider changing to 2 or 3 LED's in series and reducing the resistor values ( will be glad to help you with the values )

Arey bhai..please do help with the values. i dont understand all these even if i try.

[greenhorn]

LED Series Resistor Calculator

I would recommend 100 ohms in series with three White LED's
270 ohm, half watt ( bigger) resistors with two white LED's

these values will be different for other colours