old man neri

Okay, I just did this a while ago and then used it as a project for school

This is not a full DIY nor is it meant to be one, it is more to give people ideas as to what they can do.

That being said, enjoy.
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The stock interior lighting of my 98 hatch sucked donkey ***** so I wanted to upgrade. I was working at a place that used a lot of LEDs. So I basically just stuck a bunch of them in there and made it work, the result was a much much brighter light that actually used less power. I will try to post up a picture of it at night but I am too lazy right now.

Here are some pictures to help show what I did. Those of you who know what an LED is and how to use one will see how simple this is to do. Those of you who don't here are some links that will help you.

http://www.theledlight.com/ledcircuits.htm
http://www.theledlight.com/led101.htm

There is tons more information out there on the web, just read and learn,

This is what your little light box inside your car on your roof looks like, well at least for me it does


This is what the circuit board I made looks like


Each LED drops 3.6 volts so the most efficient arrangement was a series containing 3 LEDs. There are 5 of these such series in parallel. I think I measured the volatage with the car running to be 13.6 volts. So I needed a 100 ohms resistor inline with each series. Here is the math:

Using 3 LEDs in series is still not exactly the voltage requirement (3 X 3.6V = 10.8V), thus a resistor will be needed. Kirchhoff’s law states that the voltage drop over a resistor(V) is equal to the current flow(I) times the resistance(R) of the resistor.
V = IR
The desired voltage drop is the difference between the supplied voltage of the automobile and the required voltage of the LEDs.
V = 13.6 – 10.8
= 2.8V
The current flow is the current specified in the LED, which is 30mA. Thus the desired resistance value is:
R = V/I
= 2.8V/0.030A
= 93.3 Ohms (Ω)
For a slight margin of safety, a resistor of 100(Ω) is used. Figure 1.0 shows the given series of LEDs. Here is a diagram of the arragment of one series.



Now, the circuit board is just placed inside the light box (with the old light bulb removed of course) Two wires are just soldered onto the contacts. Like so;



Here is the finished product


And here is a picture of my less then perfect soldering and workman ship.

Sorry about the size.


It was not a lot of work to do and the only tools I needed were a philips head and a soldering iron. The Super Bright White LEDs can get a little pricy and are not the most reliable on earth although I have not had one burn out on me yet. I got them at http://www.digikey.com , you can sometimes call these guys and beg them to send you a free small sample. You can also rice out and put in blue, red, yellow, green,...etc LEDs.

Like I said this was not meant to be a full blown DIY, more just to give people ideas of what you can do. If you have any questions I will be happy to try to answer them.

Cheers and thanks for reading.

Edit: Pics of it working. Timed exposure, i don't know how much you will get out of them





Modified by old man neri at 9:32 PM 1/8/2006


Modified by old man neri at 10:14 PM 3/29/2006

95sivee

Nice work got any pics of it lit up in your car?

old man neri

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95sivee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nice work got any pics of it lit up in your car?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Done.

95sivee

damn, thats bright, i'm thinking about doing that for my car, i got a 9 led festoon dome light that is red, and its bright, but doesnt light up car much...how much did you end up spending?

old man neri

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95sivee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">damn, thats bright, i'm thinking about doing that for my car, i got a 9 led festoon dome light that is red, and its bright, but doesnt light up car much...how much did you end up spending?</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's not exactly that bright, it is a timed exposure, it's hard to take a pic of how bright something is at night.

Nothing, I got them all from work. I think white LEDs run about $1 a piece, super brights are about twice that. Resistors are about $0.000001 a peice or something. again begotten from work. http://www.digikey.com has it all as does radio shack. If you call digikey you might be able to get a free sample.

Be creative in where you look, you might find an LED flashlight that you can canibalize (sp?) or something. Maybe you have a friend that works somewhere where he can take a few, schools have this stuff sometimes. Look around.


Modified by old man neri at 10:15 PM 3/29/2006

mrboobz

very nice ..

VN712

very creative

Jonknee

I know im waking up a month old thread , but damn that is nice.

mad-ass

hey, nice work, that seems simular work like mine

anyways, aside from the pictures, how bright is it compared to old lights?

old man neri

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mad-*** &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hey, nice work, that seems simular work like mine

anyways, aside from the pictures, how bright is it compared to old lights?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Twice-ish. Hard to say.....white LEDs almost seem a different colour if you know what I mean. It is brighter though. I don't have a light meter and eyes and pictures are very decitful for telling how bright something is.

zerovandez

iTrader: (1)

Herra nice man! I always wondered if someone can shed "more light" for us!

De_tour

i think red would suit the cabin a little better so youre eyes dont constrict

old man neri

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wspcivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i think red would suit the cabin a little better so youre eyes dont constrict </TD></TR></TABLE>

Funny you should mention that. I also was "self donated" from work some LED boards that have red, green, and white LEDs all wired up for 12V. I dumped them all over the inside of the cabin. I now have red/white/green (switch operated) right above the cup holders and foot wells for reading maps or finding things when driving. Red is good to maintain night vision, white is good to be able to see every colour of a map, and green is good for......umm.......if it's christmas maybe?

kettyheloD

It looks like very easy . I will do a DIY led flashlight . And Can you tell me where I can buy some material.