Fun With LEDs! Part II

[Kenny]

Got a bit bored with the heat up here, so I played around with the front side markers. Popped in a row of red LEDs and two clear LEDs to try and get the "brow" light a-la euro car... I'm happy for the 2 hours it took for the one side.

I used red cuz it was what I had laying around. I'll do the other side clear led and see what I like... But I #$%^ hate soldering this stuff, so It'll be a while till I get the urge again.








I also got around to putting in some PIAA led light bars in the front too.
Got really tired of the blue HID and yellow fogs. They match quite well I think now. Pulled the bulbs from the fogs and will probably put happy face stickers on them . - till I replace em with Hella micro Ds....




Figured out how to get my camera to take night shots and decrease the glare... fun shots:







cheers all.

[Knigh7s]

ooo looks nice!

btw, do you use a resistor pack or anything when doing this? I dropped in an 194 wedge LED into my license plate lights and it blew my brake light fuse

[Kenny]

Resistors?
Yup. You need em.
Soldered on a resistor at the head of the red string of LED; somewhere around the 700 Ohm. And a ~2K Ohm on the two clear LEDs.

Did I mention how much I hate soldering?

(The PIAAs were plug and play fogs.)

[Knigh7s]

Resistors?
Yup. You need em.
Soldered on a resistor at the head of the red string of LED; somewhere around the 700 Ohm. And a ~2K Ohm on the two clear LEDs.

Did I mention how much I hate soldering?

(The PIAAs were plug and play fogs.)

Yes you did! LoL - I kinda like soldering, sept when you're in the middle of something and you set the iron down on the table instead of in the holder, to go reach for it in the holder and realize you just burnt the shii out of something you are working on.... Or does that only happen to me! LOL

I'll figure it out someday. I found a LED resistor Calc online... just need to learn how to use it the right way!

[Gussie2000]

Holy s...

It's a invasion ship mami

Looks very good though !

Can you make a write up about how to do it step by step. ?

[tom4bren]

"you just burnt the shii out of something you are working on.... Or does that only happen to me!"

Nope, you're not alone. I was soldering a stained glass thinggy for wifey a while back - so much solder on those things - a big drip landed just south of ground zero.

It's always fun too when you're using shrink tubing and it slides down near the solder joint before you're ready - *&^%*&^

BTW Kenny - didn't mean to jack your thread. Your lights look great & I agree that the white will be much better than the red.

[Ldub]

ME LIKEY . . .

[mdwyer]

Nope, you're not alone. I was soldering a stained glass thinggy for wifey a while back - so much solder on those things - a big drip landed just south of ground zero.

It's always fun too when you're using shrink tubing and it slides down near the solder joint before you're ready - *&^%*&^

Luckily, solder doesn't hold a lot of heat. Give me solder splatters over a dose of high-temp hotglue ANY DAY.

This from the guy who has a rain jacket full of holes because he couldn't control his soldering iron.

Anyway, I like the effect on the lights. Looks pretty decent.

[WormGod]

Looks like the Disney Parade. A bit too colorful for my taste, but nice job.

[Kenny]

I really like the headlights and PIAAs together - legal?

not legal in what sense?
The photo makes em more blue than what they are - they come off as diamond white to my eyes.

The photo also makes the side marker more red than what it is too....
But I am probably going to go clear when I pick up a new pack of LEDs.

[twistedsymphony]

that would so get you pulled over DAILY in my state.

cops hate seeing blue/green lights on cars that aren't police cars.
yes even those "diamond white" ones...

nice work though.

I personally like soldering, I do it quite frequently...
a nice spring holder with a sponge and a set of helping hands (total cost of about $15 from radio shack) and any soldering job becomes twice as fast and infinitely more pleasant.