Since I found out that the LED festoon bulbs available retailed at over $15 each, I have made my own using Dick Smith/Tandy parts for $4 each for much higher intensity, or $2 each for standard brightness, resisted to fit and work in standard festoon holders, in 6 and 12 volt systems without any re-wiring.

If anyone is interested, I will post pics and detailed instructions of how to do it, it's VERY easy, not even necessary to solder (but better to).

Cheers,

Mick

yeah im interested mate

yeah me too :alien

post away man

OK, I'll post up the pics and instructions tomorrow morning as I'm currently still at work and don't have my pics here.

Really this is so easy you won't believe it.

Cheers,

Mick.

Will be interesting to see.

Mark

Prices of High intensity Light Emitting Diodes must have come down....
The last ones I bought were $10 each....
VERY Bright about 10mm OD... clear but show up red...

They were the brightest....

Lee

I'll be watching....

I've seen the LED tail lamps in New Trucks at night....
They must use a resisitance to lower the brightness when the tail lamps are on and when the brakes are applied the lights go extra bright....
and they NEVER wear out.....

You can buy very bright LED torches now....
around $30... Batteries should last for ages....

The only Light Emitting Diodes I've seen on cars are the high level Brake lamps...
and they are Not the ultra bright LEDs...
just the 5 cent ones...

Lee

just tested one... i didn't think you could control the brightness as much as what i did...
would make switching between parking and braking brightness real easy.

I fiddled a bit, one thing to remember is that the LED light is very directional , I built a festoon globe to fit in Semaphore as test, with 2 leds facing forward & 2 facing rear, but the mess I made was not as bright as a normal festoon,
I bought one of the $10 "very Bright" interior light festoons, which had 2 very small leds, it was almost as good as the standard interior light bulb but only lasted 3 weeks until it conked

[ Edited on 26-7-2006 by kombikim ]

I will be working with 5mm High Intensity LED's resisted for 12v systems, for 6v just replace the resistor with a one quarter Watt 220 ohm for both single LED's and clusters. 5mm are easily fitted in interior, tail lights, just about anywhere.

All High Intensity LED's, white or coloured, have 'water clear' lenses, so they have no colouration until voltage is applied.

LED's are extremely tolerant of variations in Voltage levels, so the values I have used are approximations which will suit LED's with voltage requirements from 2 to 4 volts.

If you think that the unit you make is too bright, increase the resistor value by 10%, if too dim, decrease the value by 10%

I have used these coloured HI LED's for my tail lights, as I have clear lenses:

High Intensity 5mm Red LED (16000mcd @ around $2 each)
High Intensity 5mm Amber LED (16000mcd @ around $2 each)

For this demo I'll use a White LED for coloured lens applications. These LED's are EXTREMELY bright, DO NOT LOOK directly in to the lens end of them when they are switched on.

Tools you will need:

Side cutters
Electrical crimper

Optional:

Soldering Iron and fine solder.

The parts list, all supplied by Dick Smith, with a big thanks to Mark at Underwood for all his assistance:

High Intensity 5mm White LED (8000mcd @ around $3 each)
One quarter Watt 560 ohm resistors - for single LED's
One quarter Watt 470 ohm resistors - for LED's in clusters of up to 3 in parallel.
A 10 pack of the smallest male uninsulated bullet connectors (around $2.50)

First, cut off the wire crimp part of the bullet connector, so you're left with the bullet tube itself. Trim this with side cutters to about a 5mm long tube section and round it out again with the crimper or pliers like this:



Next slip the tube over the anode (the positive - the longer leg of the LED, leading to the smaller of the two metal segments inside the clear plastic lens) and trim off the anode leg like this:



Next trim either leg of your 570 Ohm resistor to the same length as the shortened anode leg and insert both into the tube, then crimp:



The unit is now complete. Some pics of the white single and two and three coloured clusters, and my assembled clear lens tail lights lit off a household 12v power supply:











As you can see, VERY bright. You can see the camera compensating for the brightness with the clear lens unit unlit and then powered.

They draw less than 30 milliAmps of current as singles, less than 50 milliAmps as clusters, produce less than one quarter Watt of heat and have a lifespan of 20 years.

You can add solder to the crimped area, and the legs of clusters if you choose.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Mick.

I've been using 8 of these lights in this resisted configuration for 4 months now in my car with no problems at all.

Three HI reds in my spoiler hooked up to the brake lights and 5 HI blues inside as idiot lights.

Hi Mick,

I'm curious to see your tailights "on" at a distace of say 20m or so, from the prespective if I was following you in my car. Can you do night and day shots if that's possible

Cheers

As soon as they are fitted, I'll get the shots.