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| **** Thank you Taylor for the advice! |
| 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 24 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 3 LED's in series (3.3V x 3 = 9.9V you can not exceed 12V because that is your source ’s max voltage). 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 24 LED's we know that we will now have 8 banks of LED's.
Once you have the number of LED banks you will need to determine the size of the resistor s you will put in the circuit. Placement of this part is paramount . You can choose to place just 1 resistor ; however you will need to be able to find that value (in Ω) . I chose to go with 2 resistors for simplicity . To help you calculate the size of the resistor you will need for EACH bank of LED’s Click Here. I used the following values to come up with my resistor value – {3 Total LEDs / 3.5 LED Voltage / 25mA LED Current / 12 Total Voltage}. Now if you wanted to use 8 resistors you would be ready to continue on, BUT remember that I only want to use two resistors . Now you take the series resistor value that you just figured out, and use it in 4 of the input blanks in the following calculator Click Here . Make sure to read the “Parallel Resistance” value. That will tell you the single value of the each of the 2 resistors.
We now have the basic layout for the circuit -- 24 LED’s in 8 banks on a 12V source with it broken up for the resistor as 4 banks per resistor.
*****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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| ******* This schematic's polarity is reversed. Please reverse the polarity of the LED's for proper operation.******* |
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| Step 2 |
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| Take the Philips head screw driver and remove the two mounting screws in the assembly. |
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| Once removed disconnect the power connector. Ensure that you press the lock so that it will release. |
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| Step 3 |
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| Completly take the assembly apart. This is fairly easy just becarful with the light backing plate it could be hot based on how long the light has been on. All of these parts just slide into place; however they are barbed so that once you put them on they will dig into the plastic if being removed so be very carefull when doing this or you could break something. |
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| Take the small flat tip screw driver and place it on the slanted surface of the light bulb connector, and gently pry the plastic and pull up on the connector so that the metal blade comes out of the housing. |
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| Now that you have taken it completly apart, here are the parts that you will no longer need. |
| Step 4 |
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| Take your Grid-Style PC Board and cut a piece off of it with the following dimensions with the Dermel and the cutting disks. |
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| Step 5 |
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| With that cut trace the opening of the Cargo Light assembly to the PC Board and then place your LED's on the board. While doing this ensure that you leave enough room on the sides so that the leds are close, but do not touch the plastic. With all the LED's in place (not soldered just set into place) carefully place the PC Board into the upsidedown Cargo Light assembly so that you can see how it fits into place. |
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| (disregaurd the number of LED's in this image) |
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| Now that you have an outline take the PC board and cut along the traced lines. Cut just enough so that you can fit the board inside the Cargo Light assembly. Once this is done you should be able to fit the board snug into the housing. Now we need to cut some very small tabs that are just long enough so that we can epoxy one side to the LED board, and the other side we will be pre-drilling the hole for our screw to to atach the board to the housing. |
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Step 6 |
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(OLD IMAGE!!!)  (OLD IMAGE!!!) |
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| This really isnt a serious issue, but is just a good thing to do. With the layout established take the fine point permanent marker and mark where each component is. |
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| Step 7 |
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(OLD IMAGE!!!) (OLD IMAGE!!!) |
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| Now you are ready to solder the components on the the PC board. Ensure that when you go to place eash pieace onto the PC Board that you have the polaridy in the proper direction. If you are in question of what the polarity of the LED is CLICK HERE . When Soldering the LED make sure that you attach a heatsink that should have come with your soldering Iron kit so that you ensure that you dont over heat and damage the LED. When soldering also make sure that you DO NOT bend the LED's leads from the marks up! This could potentially cause damage to the dye. |
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| Step 8 |
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(OLD IMAGE!!!) (OLD IMAGE!!!) |
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| Once ALL the components are in place you can now connect each one. To do this as effeciently as possible take the needlenose pliars and bend each of the LED leads so that they touch the right associated one and solder them together. This will elliminate the need for additional wire. At this point if you have an LED out of polarity with the rest it will cause that LED's associated bank to not function. Once all the LED's are connected you can see where you will need to add aditional wire to complete the circuit. Trim the extra length of leads and wires off so that the circuit is easier to work with. |
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| Step 9 |
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(OLD IMAGE!!!) (OLD IMAGE!!!) |
(OLD IMAGE!!!) (OLD IMAGE!!!) |
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Take your additional wire and connect it to its respective point in order to complete the circuit. In my pictures RED is the positive lead, and BLACK is the ground. I took the extra wire and cut the wire to its appropriate length, and striped the ends so that i could make a hook. With this hook i hooked it around the connection that i planned on making, and soldered it together.
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| Step 10 |
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Once the board is completed take your RED and BLACK (or whatever you used) and solder those to the leads from the factory light.
On my car: ORANGE = POSITIVE
WHITE = NEGATIVE
Please test the wires prior to final installation to ensure that you have the correct one as possitive. |
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(OLD IMAGE!!!) (OLD IMAGE!!!) |
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| With everything connected electrical tape all bare wires and zip tie all loose wires. |
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| Step 11 |
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(OLD IMAGE!!!) (OLD IMAGE!!!) |
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| Take the finished unit and place it in the Cargo Light assembly screw in the screws to affix the circuit to the assmembly. |
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(OLD IMAGE!!!) (OLD IMAGE!!!) |
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| Here is what my finished item completly assembled, and ready for re-installation in the car. |
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| Step 12 |
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| To re-install this back into the car follow the removal steps of this procedure. |
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| RESULTS |
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| OLD FRONT |
NEW REAR |
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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.** |
