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| First you need to figure out some particular values for the LED’s that you are working with. You will find this in the product specifications information. You need to know the "Typical DC Forward Voltage", and "DC Forward Current" range. With this information you need to then decide how many LED's you wish to use and measure the voltage that your power source supplies.
With this project I have determined that I am going to use 72 LED's. The voltage comes from existing factory wires for lighting (use a Multimeter to make sure). With this knowledge and the information from the LED specifications, we can determine that we can only use 6 LED's in series (2V x 6 = 12V you can not exceed 12V because that is your source ’s max voltage if the car is off. Now when your car is ON the car will produce a 14.7V MAX due to teh alternator charging cycle). Now that you know the max number of LED's you can have in series , we can now call that a " bank ". Since we have 72 LED's we know that we will now have 12 banks of LED's.
Since we have setup this circuit to produce the proper voltage with just 6 L.E.D's in series we will not need resistors. Our bank of 6 L.E.D's will provide 2V accross each L.E.D at 12V (Car OFF), and 2.45V at 14.7V (Car ON). Since the L.E.D's that I used in this write-up have a maximum Voltage of 2.7V we are well within our operating ratings.
We now have the basic layout for the circuit -- 72 LED’s in 12 banks on a 12V source. From here we want to divide the 12 banks into two 6 bank groups.
*****MEASURE THE VOLTAGE IN YOUR CAR PRIOR TO MAKING ANY SOURCE VOLTAGE CALCULATIONS! NO VOLTAGE IS REGULATED ANYWHERE FOR LIGHTING. TYPICAL VOLTAGE IS 12.2V WHILE OFF and 14.2V WHILE THE CAR IS RUNNING********
With all of that done all you have to do now is setup the board with the components and figure out how you want to run the wires. The following is a diagram of what I originally had written up to this build, but I slightly modified it as I built it.
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| ******* A schematic's is in the works.******* |
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| Step 2 |
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| Take the Torques bit and remove the two screws that are retaining the brakelight onto the car. Then disconnect the two bulbs from the housing. |
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| Step 3 |
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| With the brake light housing removed you will see what need to be removed. All the F-bodies third brake light housings look the same from the back so this part is universal. This process MUST NOT be rushed, because if you miss cut the housing then you have to deal with that and sometimes that is not easy. |
| Begin by removing parts of the plastic housing with a Dremel and a cutoff disc. ONLY remove the BROWN portions above the base. You will have to do this in chunks so have patience. |
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| Once you have the chuncks removed use a sanding pad on the Dremel and carefully sand the base as smoth and flat as possible. This will become your mounting surface for the L.E.D Array. |
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| Step 4 |
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| Now that the housing has been prepared we will focus on the L.E.D array. To create the board you will need to cut two pieces and mend them together. I trimed off the top and bottom portion of the PC board. I then laied the numberd solid side against the back of the housing measuring where I would make the first cut of the board. Ensure that you do this with the copper holes facing upwards. I cut along the 13th whole line. |
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| (you can skip this portion if you buy a biggerboard) |
| Now that you have the longer portion of the board cut flip reminder of the original piece and cut the remainder of the board. I cut on the 12th hole so that it gave myself enough board so I can sand it to a perfect fit. |
| Two the two portions cut the portion you need to workwith now is the point where the two boards meet. The goal is to sand enough off so that when you put the two pieces together the holes will line up and sit next to eachother uniformly. I did this with a Dremel sanding drum on slow. This will require some patience to get it right. |
| To mend the two portions together I took some solid wire and trim it into two short pieces. I then bent them into two U shapes, and set them into the end holes. With the two pieces level, and alighed I soldered the wire into place which ensuring the boards are level and alighed. Flip the board over and flaten and trim the otherside of the wires. Then solder those points. After this and you are sure that the holes are alighned, and level take the two part epoxy and glue the two boards together. While doing this DO NOT fill in any of the holes because they will be used for components. |
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| Step 5 |
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| With the board built now you need to place the components. Set the components on the board so that you have 2 groups of 6 banks consisting of 6 LED's in SERIES. This step can be very complicated due to the compact nature of this design. I will have a schematic up online in the future. |
| Solder each component on the board as close to the board as possible, but not toget clouser than 1/4 inch. |
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Step 6 |
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| Bend each of the leads to connect to each other to build the 2 groups of 6 banks consisting of 6 L.E.D's in SERIES, and solder the connections. |
| If jumper wires are required then go ahead and solder them inplace now as well. |
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| Step 7 |
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| With the L.E.D array built and wired clean up the brake light housing in preperation to installing the L.E.D array. |
| ******Test the array BEFORE you attempt the next portions!****** |
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| With everything ready to go place a moderate line of hot glue allong the bottom edge of the lights mounding surface, and immediatly place the light array into place on your light housing and press firmly. |
| With this portion complete I used 2 VERY SMALL screws to provide extra securtiy that the L.E.D array was affixed firmly. Pre-drill these holes and exercise extreme caution when screwing in the screws because if your pre-drilled holes are not large enough you will crack the housing and that will need to be sealed as well. |
| Once the optional screws are in place use the hot glue gun and seal around the rest of the sides of the unit. |
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| Step 8 |
| With the unit 80% sealed, and properly functioning you will need to seal the backside of the array. I chose to use weather strip putty all over the back of the unit and then encased that with electrical tape. This will enable me to repair the unit in the future is it ever needs it (which I really doubt it). You can also chose to use hot glue as well. If you decide to do this then spread a heathly coat of hot glue all over the back of the array ensuring you seal the whole unit. Once this has cooled then you are all set for the next step. |
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| Step 9 |
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| Strip the four wires enough to thread the housing with the wires and fill the housings with hot glue. This step will enable you to make this unit plug and play into your car. |
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| Step 10 |
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| Re-install the unit into your car, and prepare to show others that you REALLY ARE stopping!! I will have a flasher schematic to add to this for it to flash as well. |
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| RESULTS |
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| Standard Legal Notice |
| *** All information in this write-up is complete to the best of my knowledge, and when properly done will have no adverse effects. I will not be held responsible or held liable for any direct or indirect malfunctions, destruction, personal injury, or damage to property as a result of your attempt to perform this write-up*** |
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| If you have any questions what so ever concerning this or any other F-body related topic please feel free to contact me, and I will do my best to awnser that question. Thank You for stopping by! |
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** All Data (i.e. schmatics, how to's, and ideas) are copyright protected. Any use of this information for personal profit is prohibited, and is punishable by law.** |
