LED Third Brake Light, My Newest Design Options

[Special_Edy]

So I originally built a 58 Red LED third brake light and was dissatisfied with the result-








It was only about as bright as the OEM incandescent so it was back to the drawingboard.

I finally had time today to solder this together, it uses 97 5mm White LEDs(the maximum amount I could cram in). The current draw is apx. 9 watts and the service life is apx. 100,000 hours. It is bright like headlight bright.





First Layer of 57 LEDs-







Second layer of 40 LEDs, Finished!!!!!!-











And finally Video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh44hn_EBz4


If there is enough interest I may make some of these for 6gc members as well as some of the other exterior lights.

This post has been edited by Special_Edy: Nov 24, 2012 - 3:01 AM

[Special_Edy]

@ broderp-
Yeah all the chips are on the same power supply(the battery/alternator). The TTL chips can handle 12volts easy, but they are sloppy about input and output voltage thresholds where the cmos are much more precise.
But in a stroke of luck my LEDs are hooked up with a common power not a common ground. So I used 2804 NPN chips to amplify the current. All of my IC chips are now cmos(military grade too )



@ everyone else-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdDN5kraOko...eature=youtu.be
Here is a video of my first working prototype.



I think next I will focus on building some led high mount brake lights while I redesign the turn signal circuitry.
I want the board shaped to fit the housing better with more animations for the LEDs and detactable IDE cables instead of a mess of wires.

So give me some ideas on the animations or sequences, what I need here is feedback!

This post has been edited by Special_Edy: Dec 20, 2012 - 2:10 AM