LED tail lights,

Hi,Did a search but didn't find much info. What size or shape led bulbs fit into standard teardrop tail light housings? I'm paranoid about a} melting my brake light lenses again , b}not being seen at stop light. Also where can I get them?
Thanx, Tom

Tom,
I have tried LED lights but they do not give as bright a light as the standard due to our socket pointing to the side and not straight out. I have also tried those LED light that have a circular illumination and they, too, are a waste of time and money. I saw two cars at Morro Bay that worked a third brake light into the top of the rear grill and it does not show unless lit up and is really the best answer for warning the person behind you ( who is probably on a cell phone, eating a sandwich and adjusting the radio ) that you are stopping. Give it a try.

Happy Stopping Trails,
Dusty

I haven't seen anything LED based that's all that bright in our tail light configurations, either.

You might try here, though:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=CAR

gn

As per the latest 356 Registry magazine, Jim Franzen is planning a run of 12-volt LED taillights for the 356. He already has 6-volt versions. You can see samples at his website: http://www.culayer.com/356.htm.

Tom

If anyone is doing a custom speedster, the flat faced '39 Ford tail lights I used are super bright LEDs (Techtronics- $100 a set) that also have a "rapid fire" pulse stage in the first 1.5 seconds of the brake lights coming on then, they stay on.

Alan -

All you need now is a 'blue dot' in the middle of those tail lens!

The LED lights Tom mentions look great, if expensive.

But, I noticed that they are designed to work with all single contact sockets.

I think one bulb in our tail lights is dual-filament.

I don't know about $200 but it does not look all that difficult to make your own to fit in behind the lens....

http://www.sca40.com/led/

The kit with 72 leds is the right configuration to go with..

but you could take a circut board stock from radio shack and make your own a lot cheaper you will need a reziser doide so they flash correctly

or an electronic flasher (not a electric mechnaical one)

I went thru 3 electronic flashers before I had one that would operate the LED's

Which import car does it normally fit on. so we in the club can get it if we want to convert to LEDs?

I like Alan's set-up, and when I get my IM back on the road I'll probably go LED.
Ron

Update....
I'm working with a company to produce the 356 speedster tail light assembly with a super bright LED. This may take a while but when done, will out perform those cheesy street rod lights. My intent is to offer a water tight and brighter tail light assembly at a reasonable price. ~Alan

http://www.culayer.com/356-12.htm

Sheesh! Only an arm and half a leg for those!

~WB

Don't kill the messenger. I just did a Google search and this is what I came up with.

$20.000! .... I am shooting for around 50% of that and has a total sealed unit with a rapid fire mode that pulses the brake lights four times in 1.5 seconds and then on steady until the pedal is released.
I used the manufacture's '39 Ford tail light on the " candy" the white speedster and nothing compares to that light .

I'm game. Sign me up for a prototype.

Alan, is that twenty thousand dollars or 200 dollars with a misplaced decimal point or 20 dollars with an extra zero?

Alan, do you have any idea how long it would be before these could be available?

They tell me 6 - 10 weeks ....

Will they be something we add to our existing lights or are they totally new units?

I asked that they look into doing the lights both as an insert and a tail light.

Alan, Sign me up for a pair of inserts. As long as they are just 10,000 not 20,000.

I'm in for 2 sets

I'm very interested.

Looking forward to more information.

Add me to the list.

Now you've got me thinking. I have been doing some research on LEDs.

Looks like I can get 45-50 LEDs in a turn or tail housing for a Spyder. I found red and amber ones at digikey that are 5 candlepower each. An 1157 bulb is rated at 32 candlepower on bright, only 3 for running light. So I am thinking they should be plenty bright, even off angle. We have a 2.5" circle to work with in our repro lights.Either the regular 5mm LEDs or the new Luxeon stars would work. It is about $20 for 100 LEDs plus a couple of resistors. I'll also need a thin plastic board and a drill pattern, then lots of careful soldering, which is no problem for me. I guess I would pot them in epoxy afterwards to insulate the back side, as our taillight housings are metal. The LEDs will last forever, as long as you control the current passed through them. If you run 1/2 the max current, the brightness is nearly indistinguishable from max current.

Just what I needed, another project! Darn you guys!

Ah, you know you love it.

Danny -- Don't forget a heat sink on the back side of the circuit board. Contrary to popular belief, LEDs do get hot. Having built some props with LEDs, let me tell you that you'd be surprised at how quickly the stars can heat things up in a very concentrated area.

I've been pondering doing the same thing. The taillights on the Hoopty are patheticly dim, so I figured I couldn't do WORSE than they already are! Being such little cars anyway, being more visible is better, especially when hitting the brakes in traffic!!

I know the Luxeon stars need some serious heatsinks, but the regular leds run pretty cool, especially when the current is kept lower than max rated value. I think I would rather go the regular route and not have to deal with all the heat.

Alan--if your leds will be a drop-in for my VS I'd like a set.

Where do you stand on this led project? ---Jack

They tell me 6 - 10 weeks ....

You can fool the human eye to think a LED is much brighter than the average current and thus the heat it generates really is by pulsing the LED on with high current but for a short duty cycle. If you flash at >60 Hz, it will look continuous and very bright while staying cool. See "http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/5/5/11" for the details. I can supply the circuit design for this if there is interest.

Tomm

I read that link, thanks Tomm. It doesn't appear that the brightness increases that much for red light. It says that red pulsed leds appear 1 to 1.3 times as bright. I am still debating whether or not to delve into this further and make some led turn/taillights.

Guys the CU Layer lights are the way to go. I had the 6 volt versions in the 356 I restored and day or night you could CLEARLY see the lights for the first time EVER. Quit pissing and moaning they are $200 bucks because safety in being seen is a big deal and as a bonus they won't melt your taillight lenses either?

Oh yeah I almost forgot the twist in bulb type LED's (cheaper)don't work as good because the trick in the CU Layer lights is the individual LED bulbs are aimed and focused at the correct angle to be seen in the stock location of a 356 Porsche or a replica speedster.

The CU Layer units are made for tail lights that are wired different than most of ours.

According to the person at CU layer, unless you have the original tail light, not the replica tail light that most of us have, it won't fit.