SMDs in the fog light housing, Final iteration using 90mm circles of SMD 5050 leds Options

[dangrouche]

Okay, in my continuing quest to update the incandescent bulbs in our teeners, I changed out the 35 watt bulbs to SMDs in each housing. the cost was minimal of course. I also augmented the light fog grills with "3W White LED Eagle Eye Daytime Running DRL Light Tail Backup Lamp, Stock number# 2XSKU40521" from my my favorite China vendor, Bang good.com. Cost was $5.99 for four of these eagle eyes units; I installed the other pair as daytime running lights on my other car.
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I cut out some styrofoam discs (from a take out container) and placed the assembly into the fog light lenses, added some wiring, all WITHOUT cutting any of the OEM wiring.
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check it out, one of the pics shows the driver's side bulb with the 35 watt incandescent, compared to the passenger side with the four SMDs.
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the pics are misleading. I had the camera flash off and it looks like a blaze, but in person, you see eight bright dots, of the same color as DRLs that you see on current Audis. I will try to add a better pic later.

[Mike Bellis]

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Not sure how I feel about this. Hard to tell how bright it is, so it may just piss off oncoming traffic since there is no optics directing the light. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

[mikesmith]

Holy DX ripoff, batman.

Assuming they're the usual 5050s, they're probably not too bad. I have something like two dozen of them (admittedly with optics) around the fogs on my Mini, and they're convincingly visible, but not painful.

[Porschef]

Interesting. While you're in there, would you mind measuring and posting the locations of the mounting holes for the fog brackets? I'm working on a backdate and that would be most helpful.

Thanks,

Joe

[dangrouche]

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Not sure how I feel about this. Hard to tell how bright it is, so it may just piss off oncoming traffic since there is no optics directing the light. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

no, they are not "piss me off bright" in the daytime and really look no more intense than any other cars with DRLs. In the nightime, they are not as bright as current new cars that have that white harshness. my goal was to be noticed for safety, not "look at me" I'm cool. I think its a pretty good way to outfit the car with DRLs without hanging pendants. Actually the first set of DRLs I had on this teener were pendants and I installed them on my Corrado, and they look OEM when on at nite.

[tscrihfield]

The only concern I have is the styrofoam that they are mounted to. After enough heat cycles you may run into a potential melting situation and the PCBs will then fall to the bottom of your fixture. You may want to purchase some thin Phenolic material for mounting.

[dangrouche]

Interesting. While you're in there, would you mind measuring and posting the locations of the mounting holes for the fog brackets? I'm working on a backdate and that would be most helpful.

Thanks,

Joe

Sorry Joe, I buttoned up the bumper before I could take measurements. I will do so and report back if I have to do some mods. In the meantime have you checked out Lapwauli's thread on bumper backdating. THe foglites mount on the flat rectangle flats to the left and right of the that train of black plugs on the bottom lip, you see where I marked them in black lines and the holes for the mounts occupy the upper half of the flat stamping

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...225743&st=0

[euro911]

Nice mod.

I agree, you may want to mount them to a sturdier surface ... and plug up the large hole to keep the elements at bay (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

Are these artifacts, reflections, or separate lamps?

[dangrouche]

Nice mod.

I agree, you may want to mount them to a sturdier surface ... and plug up the large hole to keep the elements at bay (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

Are these artifacts, reflections, or separate lamps?

those are not artifacts, those are the "eagle eys" from mail order and here is the lighting as it appears as DRLs

[r_towle]

post a link to these eagle eyes?

I need to add some lights to the truck...these might be perfect.

rich

[Cap'n Krusty]

Something seldom mentioned in discussions of HID and LED type DRLs is the mismatch between how incandescent bulbs and these aftermarket mods interact with the reflectors and lenses. In this case, only the lenses are affected, but a lot of folks don't think about the light source differences in adding HIDs to a lens/reflector assembly. Focus of the beam is dramatically altered, and there's NO fix for that short of a complete redesign of the unit. Take a look at modern lens/reflector design. It's a LONG way from what we had, even in the late '80s-early '90s. The focus is different, the cutoff design is different, the whole design caters to the physical characteristics of an entirely different light source.

In this case, we have a number of light sources, not just one filament, and the flutes in the lens cannot begin to perform their job.

It's not that I don't like modern lighting; My old eyes love it! However, modern light sources, applied badly, just don't get with the program!

The Cap'n

[euro911]

So, would it be better to group a denser array more towards the center where the original lamp was located?

[mikesmith]

Not really, no.

The old assembly is designed for a more or less point source (really a line) with relatively even light distribution around 360 degrees. The back half of that is then captured by the reflector and distributed forward towards the lens. By contrast, LEDs tend to have conical emission patterns, with most of the light flux close to the cone axis.

If you have a single LED (or a cluster of LEDs) in the same location as the old bulb, it will be sending most of its light directly forward towards a small portion of the lens, so the pattern will be weighted heavily towards whatever part was previously handled by the lens directly in front of the bulb. Even an LED with a wide pattern (120 degrees or so) is still only illuminating the lens from the point source, not from the reflector.

If all you want to do is present a glaring white dot to oncoming motorists, then that may be OK, but it's less effective visually than a larger illuminated area, and it certainly won't throw the same beam for the purposes of helping you see the road.

Take a look at the lenses on the JW Speaker or TruckLite LED headlights to get a feel for what purpose-designed LED optics look like. They're nothing like what you'd use with a filament bulb.

[dangrouche]

post a link to these eagle eyes?

I need to add some lights to the truck...these might be perfect.

rich

I mentioned it at the top of the thread Banggood.com (in China) and the part number is # sku040521

[dangrouche]

I appreciate your comments. I don't think they blind, but they are very very useful at night and let other drivers know of my presence. The remark,"a glaring white dot to oncoming motorists" is what I wanted to accomplish. I generally don't use the foglights, and when I do, its to alert others of my presence. I wanted to have a means to switch my DRLs on and off and the OEM foglight switch accomplishes that feature. The comment about blinding oncoming traffic is accurate, but I wanted to install something that was not that glaring, but visible during the day. And I wanted something that worked within the confines of the fog light openings. If I really wanted to be offensive, I would just put on driving beams in place of the fogs.

Since our cars are tiny by today's standards, I wanted to alert oncoming traffic, on left and right turns. The added benefit is that these bulbs do not take 35watts to run. The only filament remaining filament bulbs on the car are the four tiny ones for the dash controls, the headlamps, and the license plate bulbs (done and done 1-3-14).

[mikesmith]

In case it wasn't clear, my point was that a "glaring white dot" is less effective at getting other motorists' attention than the alternatives.

Your blinding white dot is harder to position in three dimensions, and because it's so bright, everything else about your vehicle (its outline, motion, etc.) will be lost.

[dangrouche]

In case it wasn't clear, my point was that a "glaring white dot" is less effective at getting other motorists' attention than the alternatives.

Your blinding white dot is harder to position in three dimensions, and because it's so bright, everything else about your vehicle (its outline, motion, etc.) will be lost.

FWIW, since this is a weekend car and I drive it mostly in the day hours, as far as I can tell, I can see my vehicle a block away better than without having these DRL dot lites on. I'd rather be noticed than to have someone cut me off and afterwards learn that the driver of the other car says something like, "oh, I didn't see you," like the countless instances that motorcyclists/bicyclists get hit by cars because they are slim targets blending into the background.

[dangrouche]

final iteration for DRLs, using the fog light housings.
so I got this 90mm set of SMD 5050, that has 24 lites for $14 for the pair from eBay
I installed them using that same piece of styrofoam that I used to mount eight of the SMD lites. I just did a swap out and now I really have a set of angel eyes. No I am not trying to be poser to look like a BMW. I just wanted to create a set of lites that will alert motorists of my presence when I come up behind them. I don't think they are annoying.

[euro911]

Hey, those look really cool. Who's the ebay seller?

[Harpo]

This looks to be the same thing

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-90mm-24-SMD-121...=item2a2a55b599