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Hi all. Just thought I would share a quick project I did to convert one of the bullbar indicators to LED. Links to photos-sorry, having trouble loading them onto the site
The old holder for the globe in the bullbar indicator was rusted out. Was going to try and buy a replacement but was looking at around $60 pair, and I'm short on cash currently.
LED's I used were from a strip I had laying around from an old flourescent tube conversion. Just cut the strip to the length I needed and file off the paint over the copper strip to solder to.
I was initially going to use 4 LED's (in series on this strip) and just use a resistor to control the current to the LED's (LED's are current controlled, not voltage, if you weren't aware). Problem is that with 4 LED's in series it was getting close to the voltage of the car system, so any variation in car voltage was going to make a bigger difference to current going to the LED's. (white LED have a forward voltage of around 3.2v, so with 4 that is 12.8v). With the variation in voltage seen in car systems it was making things difficult, plus there seemed to be a lower voltage out of the indicators for some reason and the initial ones were really dull. Reduce resistance a little and the chance of overcurrent was very high.
I remembered I had these little LED constant current controllers stashed away, after I had faffed away for ages! https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.ph...oducts_id=1180
The guy running this website is awesome and really helpful. Highly recommended for anything LED related. Anyway, these limit the current to the 60ma, spot on what these were running in the light. Just solder them on as shown in the data sheet-pin 1 to battery +ve, pin 4/back is soldered to the LED +ve side, the rest are no connected.
This worked great and a simple solution for $1 each. Selections there for other currents as needed.
Due to the voltage overhead needed I went with 3 LED's in series and this turned out to be more than bright enough
This is what it looked like soldered up
Next part was mounting it. Decided on KISS once again-glue the LED strip to some aluminium that will rivet in to the housing. The auto silicone will handle the heat and and the aluminium will work as a bit of a heat sink, not that much should be needed for the purpose here anyway (the strip was just laying on some alloy in the flouro tube replacement, so this is better even). Just riveted it in close to the front of the housing
I also drilled another hole to allow water to drain out hopefully. I've never liked "sealed" things if its not for underwater use, as water inevitably gets in there but doesn't get out, then rusts things out bad. Hopefully it will drain better now
And this is how bright it ends up
I'm happy with that-brighter than the other side running the normal globe.
Time taken was way too long intially based on me faffing around with resistors and power supplies not working properly. I also had one part of the strip being stupid for some reason (nothing has gone fast on this car, at all). Once I settled on the final design its probably a 30min job, and if you made 2 at the same time would add maybe 10 if that. The strip was laying around, and the current controller is only $1 each. Cheap as to make and well worth the saving if you can solder
If you need to buy an LED to do this job you would probably be looking at around 0.5W (power of my set up), probably available in orange already. Could go up in power and just under drive it a bit. You would need to choose a driver appropriate for that, if its single LED it would run higher current to achieve 0.5w. If you need help choosing something I can have a look for you. Chances are you throw something out that would do the job at some stage though-an old LED house light globe. Normally the driver that dies on those.
Anyway, hopefully this is helpful to someone else who has issues with a light and wants to fix/mod it on the cheap
Cheers, Stu
The old holder for the globe in the bullbar indicator was rusted out. Was going to try and buy a replacement but was looking at around $60 pair, and I'm short on cash currently.
LED's I used were from a strip I had laying around from an old flourescent tube conversion. Just cut the strip to the length I needed and file off the paint over the copper strip to solder to.
I was initially going to use 4 LED's (in series on this strip) and just use a resistor to control the current to the LED's (LED's are current controlled, not voltage, if you weren't aware). Problem is that with 4 LED's in series it was getting close to the voltage of the car system, so any variation in car voltage was going to make a bigger difference to current going to the LED's. (white LED have a forward voltage of around 3.2v, so with 4 that is 12.8v). With the variation in voltage seen in car systems it was making things difficult, plus there seemed to be a lower voltage out of the indicators for some reason and the initial ones were really dull. Reduce resistance a little and the chance of overcurrent was very high.
I remembered I had these little LED constant current controllers stashed away, after I had faffed away for ages! https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.ph...oducts_id=1180
The guy running this website is awesome and really helpful. Highly recommended for anything LED related. Anyway, these limit the current to the 60ma, spot on what these were running in the light. Just solder them on as shown in the data sheet-pin 1 to battery +ve, pin 4/back is soldered to the LED +ve side, the rest are no connected.
This worked great and a simple solution for $1 each. Selections there for other currents as needed.
Due to the voltage overhead needed I went with 3 LED's in series and this turned out to be more than bright enough
This is what it looked like soldered up
Next part was mounting it. Decided on KISS once again-glue the LED strip to some aluminium that will rivet in to the housing. The auto silicone will handle the heat and and the aluminium will work as a bit of a heat sink, not that much should be needed for the purpose here anyway (the strip was just laying on some alloy in the flouro tube replacement, so this is better even). Just riveted it in close to the front of the housing
I also drilled another hole to allow water to drain out hopefully. I've never liked "sealed" things if its not for underwater use, as water inevitably gets in there but doesn't get out, then rusts things out bad. Hopefully it will drain better now
And this is how bright it ends up
I'm happy with that-brighter than the other side running the normal globe.
Time taken was way too long intially based on me faffing around with resistors and power supplies not working properly. I also had one part of the strip being stupid for some reason (nothing has gone fast on this car, at all). Once I settled on the final design its probably a 30min job, and if you made 2 at the same time would add maybe 10 if that. The strip was laying around, and the current controller is only $1 each. Cheap as to make and well worth the saving if you can solder
If you need to buy an LED to do this job you would probably be looking at around 0.5W (power of my set up), probably available in orange already. Could go up in power and just under drive it a bit. You would need to choose a driver appropriate for that, if its single LED it would run higher current to achieve 0.5w. If you need help choosing something I can have a look for you. Chances are you throw something out that would do the job at some stage though-an old LED house light globe. Normally the driver that dies on those.
Anyway, hopefully this is helpful to someone else who has issues with a light and wants to fix/mod it on the cheap
Cheers, Stu
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