I think it would look great but the pontiac will not look close to the FB if that's what you're aiming for Anyway, keep us posted please, Make it happen and sell it!
I moded the tail light all red, and it looks much "cleaner" I'll have to think how to do your PONTIC mod with LEDs
I`ll try to duplicate the PONTIAC from the Fastback Taillights with LED . the LED i ordered are nearly white or only little red when disengaged so ypu wont see the PONTIAC on the first sight when light is off.
I want to make the modified lense easy to install with no mods needed on the original Cables . Iam thinking about an adapter that fit into the Lamp bulbs
------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
*** nuclear winter cures global warming ***
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03:55 PM
Austrian Import Member
Posts: 3919 From: Monterey, CA Registered: Feb 2007
Hey, I see you have yellow/amber lens covers. How did you get those? I was always wondering if I could get notchies in Europe. I know Europe doesn't allow red turn signals..
-M
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04:02 PM
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
I think it would look great but the pontiac will not look close to the FB if that's what you're aiming for Anyway, keep us posted please, Make it happen and sell it!
I moded the tail light all red, and it looks much "cleaner" I'll have to think how to do your PONTIC mod with LEDs
hehe you sound like the " ... dude where is my Car ... " guy
btw. my Fiero is Black and my outer Taillightglass is also tinted black ( little ) so basically almost the same idea
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04:03 PM
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
Hey, I see you have yellow/amber lens covers. How did you get those? I was always wondering if I could get notchies in Europe. I know Europe doesn't allow red turn signals..
-M
here in Germany there are a lot US Cars with the original red turnsignals for the amber lense , its only dirty and supposed to be the normal white lense . the rest is the bad light and my camera i guess
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04:06 PM
Mr.PBody Member
Posts: 3172 From: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Registered: Oct 2006
you must be veeeeery carefully when you lift up the clips that hold the outer glass to the lamp body And only do it when the Lamp was longer time in a warm room , i took mine into the house, positioned it infront of the radiator and waited 2 hours. The Lenses (Red and White parts )came out very easy
------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
*** nuclear winter cures global warming ***
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12:50 AM
swisscheese Member
Posts: 537 From: somewhere over the pond Registered: Oct 2005
I did some research into this type of mod as well. I haven't got all my parts yet but here are a couple of links you might want to look at before you start building:
The DOT German guys from TÜV will make a rain dance if they see that ...................
..... schweig er still, grindbärtiger .....
didnt intend to sell them or use them while driving on official streets its just a project
but to make the thing streetlegal i would need to buy 6 of the Hella Universal Kits with ABE and rearrange the LEDs (asked already an TÜV engeneer about that )
------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
*** nuclear winter cures global warming ***
[This message has been edited by Fieromaniac (edited 11-28-2007).]
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12:47 PM
Dec 14th, 2007
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
what does that warning sticker say on that package? I bought a bunch of LED's from one of the sellers on ebay, and they dont have stickers like that on the package. I can only guess it says something about not handling them with bare hands, and ive been making taillights for motorcycles, and made a custom mag light with uv blacklight LED's.
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01:46 AM
Mr.PBody Member
Posts: 3172 From: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Registered: Oct 2006
to make the L.E.D. tail lights work do u have to have any additional electronics? or can you just wire them right up? i bought a couple sets of 2.5" round red L.E.D. tail light conversion with.. and some one said id need some more electronic parts to make them work....
------------------
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02:30 AM
fieroX Member
Posts: 5234 From: wichita, Ks Registered: Oct 2001
different colored LED's have a different "voltage drop" across the diode. This means, that if you have an LED that operates between 3.4 and 3.8V, you dont want to hook them straight up to a 12v source or you will burn it up. Now you could wire up 3 of them in series and it would work, as the 12v source wont burn the diode out. Ideally you want to make it perfect so you would also want to install a 220 ohm resistor on the positive side of the last resistor in line to the power source.
Check these out, they have helped me understand LED's a ton better since i have been experimenting with them lately.
what does that warning sticker say on that package? I bought a bunch of LED's from one of the sellers on ebay, and they dont have stickers like that on the package. I can only guess it says something about not handling them with bare hands, and ive been making taillights for motorcycles, and made a custom mag light with uv blacklight LED's.
yellow Sticker says : Attention observe precautions for handling electrostatic sensitive devices white sticker says : 10mm RED LED , 70000mcd , 1.9-2.3 Vf , 625-635 Wd , 300 pieces
------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
*** nuclear winter cures global warming ***
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09:05 AM
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
to make the L.E.D. tail lights work do u have to have any additional electronics? or can you just wire them right up? i bought a couple sets of 2.5" round red L.E.D. tail light conversion with.. and some one said id need some more electronic parts to make them work....
i will install stabilized powersources for every cirquit to save the LED from powerspikes of the starter
------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
I have done quite a bit of research on LED's and I can tell you that you will need to have a resistor for any LED array. Everything that I have read says to run them in series arrays utilizing parallel for supply and ground, simply put you will need to have several resistors. Use this website to set up your arrays, it seems to work best: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
On another note, the picture shows stoplight, Turn signals and Backup lights. I do not see Tail lights (parking lights). To answer a question from earlier you CAN hook your LED's up to a 12V power source and with the proper resistor they will work fine. The thing that I had to do is figure out how to make the Parking lights and the Brake Lights work off the same Diodes (LED's). LED's are not voltage variable, in short they burn at the same intensity with 12 V as they do with 8 volts so what you do to Dim them is turn them off and on very fast. I am using a 555 timer circuit and have prototyped my circuit, it works good on the breadboard. Total cost purchasing the components from Radio Shack was about 5 bucks. If anyone is interested in the circuit basics go here: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/555timer.htm
Hope I did not hijack this at all, I am very interested in this thread and will be watching the progress closely.
Good luck !!! Marty
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08:09 PM
Jan 5th, 2008
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
Another nice project ! I have to ask though, do you have plans to take more advantage of this Led setup...like sequential turnleds, grouping leds so they show a particular shape when lighting up...you could do some weird stuff good luck !
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04:35 PM
Jan 6th, 2008
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
Another nice project ! I have to ask though, do you have plans to take more advantage of this Led setup...like sequential turnleds, grouping leds so they show a particular shape when lighting up...you could do some weird stuff good luck !
i was thinking about 2 or 3 styles/wiring variants to be able to change the style of the taillights from the driverseat
------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
I have quite a few led's of different sizes and shapes. How can I tell how much voltage/current they require? Like how do I tell if they are a 10mm 70000mcd LED or 10mm 140000mcd
oh and the little "flag" in them is always the pos. lead ?
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10:50 AM
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
I have quite a few led's of different sizes and shapes. How can I tell how much voltage/current they require? Like how do I tell if they are a 10mm 70000mcd LED or 10mm 140000mcd
oh and the little "flag" in them is always the pos. lead ?
the mcd number alone tells you nothing because you will need to know the angle of the LED a LED spot with 350.000 mcd and 60° Angle has the same brightness like an 5.000.000 mcd spot with 10° angle so its hard to find out the correct mcd . best would be if you take an Lux meter or you will need an goniometer http://www.laser2000.de/index.php?id=367933
or you use a simple trick :
take a candle , a piece of paper with a spot of oil in the middle. if you hold the paper in front of the candle , the spot will be brighter . now if you have a lightsource on the other side of the paper with the same distance like the candle to the paper , the spot will be invisible when your lightsource has 1cd = 1000mcd. if the spot dissapear with the distance doubled , your light will spread over an area 4 times bigger = 4000 mcd .
If your candle is 10cm away from the paper and your led is around 40cm from the paper when the spot become invisible , your LED has around 64000mcd
typical voltagelevels are infrared : 1,2 ..... 1,8 V red : 1.6..... 2.2 V yellow , green 1.9 ......2.5 V blue , uv , white 3....4 V (typ. 3.4V )
anode is the longer foot kathode the shorter
------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
*** nuclear winter cures global warming ***
[This message has been edited by Fieromaniac (edited 01-06-2008).]
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11:34 AM
Jan 8th, 2008
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
Really nice project you have there man, can't wait to see this unfold.
IMO, I would redesign the Pontiac lettering, not as tall and skinny, Maybe a little more stylized? I would do the whole part without the lettering and then go from there.
*ka-ching!* Just my 2¢.
(edited to korect speeling)
[This message has been edited by HC (edited 01-08-2008).]
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07:15 PM
Jan 9th, 2008
Mister Member
Posts: 1975 From: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Registered: Aug 2004
I know it's too late in the process since you already got 580 LEDs, but I think RED LEDs would have looked better in the overall look of it. They are probably not as bright or good, but when you have this many, it should have worked nicely.
Good luck anyway man, and please keep the pics coming
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01:20 AM
PFF
System Bot
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
me thought that the RED LED will be in a red case but as you see its white clear for some reason but they emmit red Light as you see some posts above.
thats one of the problems when you order stuff from the other side of the world .... in my case from hongkong
i think i have to tint the outer taillight cover in black then like you suggested before ------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
*** nuclear winter cures global warming ***
[This message has been edited by Fieromaniac (edited 01-09-2008).]
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03:09 AM
Jan 12th, 2008
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006
too bad that i cannot take Pics atm .... i killed my cellphone (k800i) so no digicam atm till its back
on topic :
i choose to make FIERO in the middle because with only 200LED i couldnt find a good looking pattern to realize PONTIAC and i already have " Pontiac" on my rear bumper @FIE RO iam not afraid of the inspection because the lights dont come into my daily driver they are for my blue 84 sport for meetings and fun only it has "5 Day plates" no inspection needed btw. the blue thing will get also one of these here :
made by a friend of me
------------------ 1984 Fiero Sport 1987 Fiero <- Ethanol powered Batmobile 1984 Fiero SE 1999 Chrysler Grand Voyager 3.3 LX <-LPG powered family car
*** nuclear winter cures global warming ***
[This message has been edited by Fieromaniac (edited 01-15-2008).]
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03:31 AM
Jan 16th, 2008
Fieromaniac Member
Posts: 980 From: Hamburg, Germany Registered: Nov 2006