should I get something thats diffused and has a 60 deg viewing angle or something that sits around a 45 or 30 deg viewing angle...it would seem that the 60 deg one is going to be on the dim side and I don't want someone rear ending me, I plan on using a clear lense for these

 

They will both look dim. You should use LED's only with clear lenses unless you dont mind them looking dim.

 

Yup, unless you are doing a pretty massive array of LEDs then you will barely be able to see them; trust me I've built 3 versions before... the only ones that looked good and actually met DOT specs was an array of 350 LEDs PER tail light all hand mounted and placed.

The ones I have at work could do it, but I'm sure you are not using those seeing the last pricing that I bought a bunch at was $8 ea. But you'd probably only need 2 to meet the STT function as long as you could get rid of the heat and direct the light correctly.

BTW - I design LED Light fixtures for aircraft (Interior and exterior) for a living.

 

I was figuring around a hundred or so a side


What sparked the inquiry was that the infinity G35 appears to use them for tail lights, the ME4-12 use them for it's tail lights, the last of the SS camaros used them for a 3rd brake light etc.........these cars have very bright brake lights..........do you guys know what they are using?

I was considering these http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/r_specs.htm

http://www.superbrightleds.com/leds.htm

also considering the R3545 or the R5015


I am open to any suggestions.

 

The G-35 is actually using Snap-LEDs from www.lumileds.com... their Luxeon emitters are great for tail lights; but need to be designed into the fixture properly.

those LEDs you are pointing out average what 10,000mcd with a 10* beam angle... a 1 watt Luxeon putts out 100 candela over a 60* beam angle... that;s about 600 times more light.

It's tricker than it initially looks I will tell you that. Those LEDs are similar to what I used; it took what I said, 350 per side to meet DOT specifications and look good. I machined an acrylic plate with the holes, epoxied the leds into the holes, painted the back silver, then wired everything in strings of 5 LEDs. Then bent the parge acrylic piece to fit where the red diffuser in the tail lights was mounted. It worked really good and looked really good; but I've since moved on to the honeycomb style.

If you want to get some of those lumileds then go to www.futureelec.com; they are the sole distributor for those LEDs. I bet you could get the whole tail light function to work awesome with 3 per side of the Luxeon Star, Lambertian pattern, red in color of course. Just be sure to mount them to some sort of metal plate to dissipate the heat.

You're going to need a relay circuit as well to create the STT function; as well as an electronic flasher.

 

"You're going to need a relay circuit as well to create the STT function; as well as an electronic flasher."

I don't know what an STT function is, don't suppose you would care to explain?

I'm aware of the Luxeon Flash but I'm not sure how to wire it in. How do those Luxeon Stars wire in? I've done work with regular LEDs and soldering them together with individual resistors for each LED and I've done a string of 15 putting them in series of three and it worked out well. Does the company have documentation on useing them I'm missing?

 

Yup, there's documentation there; just have to click into links.

I would use the stars mounted to some sort of metal to dissipate the heat. The stars have 2 pads on the PCB that you solder leads to.

The STT function - Stop, Tail, Turn. Basically a pair of relays for each side with 2 different level of resistors. There are 3 wires comming from up front for the Stop/Turn/Parking lights. One for the Stop/Turn +, One for the Parking + and a ground. To get the LEDs to do the dual-brightness levels you're going to need to wire in 2 different resistors. Basically I would use 2 5-terminal relays per side with 2 different resistors. I could draw up the schematic and post if for you if you want along with P/Ns? It's not a difficult schematic, but hard to describe in words.

I have 100's of the emitters on my desk, I work with them all the time.

 

if you wouldn't mind posting up a diagram that would be really appreciated, I was surprised at the affordability of the star emiters too, I had figured it would be a bit more expensive considering the brightness, I've never seen those before. I'll wander around the site a bit more and do some more reading, I only spent around an hour looking at all the stuff last night.
How long have these things been around?

 

Lumiled is a joint venture between 2 companies that was formed just for the purpose of designing and manufacturing these high-power LEDs. I don't know how long they have been around, but are not well known except in the lighting industry. I've been designing with them for about 2 years; I think they have been out about that long, maybe a year or 2 more.

The 1 watt stars are fairly reasonably priced, the 3W and 5W are quite a bit more, but are very bright. The difficult part about these LEDs is dissipating the heat, I will tell you that. The 5W requires a heatsink about 4" cubed to run at full power at room temp.

I'll draw up that schematic and get the parts list together for ya. Probably be a day or two, but you'll have it by monday. It'll be everything you need to build them minus wire, crimp connectors, and the metal for the heat-sink/mounting the LEDs.

 

with the one watts how big of a heat sink would I need for each one? would just a plate of aluminum work out? I would presume not so much of an issue as it needs to be finned (the heat sink)

 

Sorry about not getting you that parts list/schematic... I had a busy weekend and got cornered by one of my customers at work yesterday and got buried. I should be able to get that together tonite and either post it tonite or tomorrow.

I'll see what I can find for a heatsink that will work for you, but I would just use some 1/8" aluminum sheet, and cut that large enough to mount into the reflector and mount that with some screws and RTV. It can be finned and that will make it better, but if you have enough surface area with the plate you'll be fine as well.

 

I can pick up some aluminum sheet pretty easily, I might be able to come up with a finned piece. These look like they would work well behind a clear lense......am I correct?

 

Yup, they should look awesome behind the clear lenses... I actually have my clear tails sitting here under my desk at work.

This sux, I have to appoligize again... I'll get that posted; I just need 2 seconds to put the damn parts list together...

 

it's cool man, I know how **** happens
I'll check back later on

 

don't suppose you've had a chance to throw that list together have you?