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dezldave961 Total posts: 808
Dave P.2004 Regal GS Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Location: Omaha, NE (was Rome, NY long ago) Age: 41 |
 Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:57 pm Post subject: |
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BTW - just saw your LED post on RGS.org, and for those who missed it, it's pretty slick (especially considering the small scale for those courtesy bulbs). Reminded me of 9th grade electronics, making rough etched boards with markers and tape. Awesome job.
We're actually d*cking around with some $5 tail bulbs for our racing sleds, because they now have an LED/battery-powered rule, after some big crashes happened due to lights not being on with a dead engine on the track (our reigning Pro champ, Jacques Villenueve, got hit at ~90mph 2yrs ago).
They're trying to mandate a $50+ factory Yamaha LED tail, but we've found this one at Wal-Mart:
(here's a guy testing it for bi-mode use on his trail sled, putting a resistor in-line when brake isn't applied)
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v60/squidward731/Snowmobile/06%20rev%20440/?action=view¤t=P1010748.flv
We're running it on one of our sleds with all power always applied, via a gel-cell 12VDC, in conjunction with the traditional bulb running from the engine's 12VAC still.
Main thing is keeping high intensity at side angles, which that trailer light surprisingly offers, due to alot of reflective angles. Curious if you've come across anything else we may be able to look into?
- Dave
_________________
2004 Regal GSX - YouTube channel Stattama T67BB, A2W IC, ST5, heads, L32, GMR diff/chain (11.46 w/ Z7 T66, IS3t cam)
2006 Grand Prix GXP - K&N intake and mufflers only, basically stock for me
2012 F-150 EcoBoost SuperCrew 4x4 - stock DD and roadtrip vehicle
1998 Daytona GTP #838 - I/C*d MP112 L26 - Rust in Peace, engine saved |
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| corvettecrazy Total posts: 40
Rob2000 Other Car Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Location: ROC Age: 37 |
| Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:13 pm Post subject: |
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| beyondprecision03 wrote: | | it was definitely you, i talked to you for a few minits. you told me how you were on the regal forum and i was like yea me2 and then you told me about how you had a century haha |
That's awesome. Small world huh?
| dezldave961 wrote: | BTW - just saw your LED post on RGS.org, and for those who missed it, it's pretty slick (especially considering the small scale for those courtesy bulbs). Reminded me of 9th grade electronics, making rough etched boards with markers and tape. Awesome job.
We're actually d*cking around with some $5 tail bulbs for our racing sleds, because they now have an LED/battery-powered rule, after some big crashes happened due to lights not being on with a dead engine on the track (our reigning Pro champ, Jacques Villenueve, got hit at ~90mph 2yrs ago).
They're trying to mandate a $50+ factory Yamaha LED tail, but we've found this one at Wal-Mart:
(here's a guy testing it for bi-mode use on his trail sled, putting a resistor in-line when brake isn't applied)
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v60/squidward731/Snowmobile/06%20rev%20440/?action=view¤t=P1010748.flv
We're running it on one of our sleds with all power always applied, via a gel-cell 12VDC, in conjunction with the traditional bulb running from the engine's 12VAC still.
Main thing is keeping high intensity at side angles, which that trailer light surprisingly offers, due to alot of reflective angles. Curious if you've come across anything else we may be able to look into?
- Dave |
For those who want to see what he is talking about without logging into rgs.org you can check out http://www.bonnevillepro.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=12103 Same thing content, just more pictures and descriptions than what I posted on rgs.
And thank you, I had a lot of fun doing it and learned quite a bit, which was the point.
Damn, 50 bucks for a simple LED TL. I actually have played with those little trailer lights. The one I used had 3 LED's in in and did have a nice wide angle to see it from. Not exceedingly bright or anything but it did work and was visible during the day.
I don't know your size requirements and jazz like that but the number of module truck (semi) lights that have started to come out is amazing and many of those have pretty good output.
Even something as simple as http://www.oznium.com/oval-led-lamp would probably work pretty well for what you are talking about. You may be able to find better prices online but very few places can match their customer service.
For me, I would probably end up trying to make something for it...
Example: third brake light
Automotive tail light
Lot's of choices, depends how much work you want to put into it and what you want to spend. |
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| dezldave961 Total posts: 808
Dave P.2004 Regal GS Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Location: Omaha, NE (was Rome, NY long ago) Age: 41 |
| Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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Ya, our main concern is the wide angle of high-visibility. Since LED's have an inherent characteristic of only ~15deg sweep of straight-on intensity, it's hard to find a design/housing that lets you see a strong light from almost 90deg away from mounting. I've seen a few approaches to this, but only a couple I liked.
Vid that kinda gives a hint at worst-case scenario (this guy was having trouble, but you can see the dust that kicks up during cold night racing, which is when some of the wrecks happened to bring up this topic for us)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bDADQiMEks |
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| corvettecrazy Total posts: 40
Rob2000 Other Car Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Location: ROC Age: 37 |
| Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:53 pm Post subject: |
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I can totally see where you are coming from with the visibility and dust now that you showed the video.
The LED's in my post above have a 70 degree viewing angle. Which if I remember correctly is where the light reaches 10% of its peak intensity and is measured from the center line axis of the LED.
Maybe it would be a good thought to use higher power LED's and place the outer ones at an angle towards the outside of the sled? This would mean greater intensity no matter where you are behind the sled.
Slightly off topic of LED's but do you guys do something special to keep the track on or is it not uncommon for someone to rip it off? I've always though when you corner hard and fast like that, that there is a risk of pulling the track out. |
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| dezldave961 Total posts: 808
Dave P.2004 Regal GS Joined: 23 Nov 2003 Location: Omaha, NE (was Rome, NY long ago) Age: 41 |
| Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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We run them with a bit more tension than you'd normally run a trail sled, and the track/clips/rails are application-specific for ice ovals. They usually only de-rail on someone if they don't keep up on those aspects of the setup/maintenance. Going upwards of 90-100+mph on ice, and taking a sharp left turn 20-30x per race, we definitely take care of the equipment as best we can.
As for the viewing angle, that 70deg with diminishing brightness seems close to typical, even if it's slightly better than most. I've seen that the housings are what do the best job of keeping a strong beam seen at almost any angle. I'll take some pictures this week of what we have (same as link of that one on a seat I posted the other day, but I'll show some angles).
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How about underhood hidden strips of white LED's, for night-time parking lot pimpin'? I'm sure a clean & effective setup would be cool for a few folks who are always out mingling with some soup'd up engine setups, to show off or tinker with, without having to always grab a flashlight/cellphone. Even if you didn't want to sell something, offering a simple schematic or sources for cheap parts would be cool (believe me, I hate dealing with money in this lower-level car market as much as anyone, because it's like squeezing blood from a rock, so I hardly ever market things).
Have you seen the random things that old ClubGP guys like BackInBlack have done over the last decade? http://www.backinblackgp.com/ I've done a couple of his, along with 1 or 2 minor things from this old n00b mod list collection: http://tacgp.clubgp.com/faq1.htm ... Your diagram wouldn't need to be so elaborate, just basics like when I do various MSpaint schematics for projects like the push-button start in my buddy's LS6 Camaro (pic link) |
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| corvettecrazy Total posts: 40
Rob2000 Other Car Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Location: ROC Age: 37 |
| Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:02 am Post subject: |
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I have no problem sending you a few LED's if you want to play with them or something similar to that. If I knew I wasn't going to be pretty slammed in school for the next few weeks I would say I would drive over for a little DHP and LED play time.
If I were going to do some basic under the hood stuff or foot wells and similar I have (and would continue) to buy already made stuff from someplace like Oznium. Their tiny modules or some of the waterproof flexible strips are more than enough for under hood basic parking lot chat lighting.
The circuit you saw me use in the little map light bulbs is a simple LM317 current regulator setup.
The two sources I use for information on that are:
http://users.telenet.be/davshomepage/current-source.htm
http://www.reuk.co.uk/LM317-Current-Calculator.htm
With the second link having a calculator for figuring out what resistor values you need.
Something like the 3rd brake light I have a picture of above, I again used an LM317 but set up as a voltage regulator. (I did that because the superflux LED's are much less sensitive and forgiving to current fluctuations as opposed to the high power LED's in the map light bulb)
Diagram and calculator
http://www.muzique.com/schem/lm317.htm
If you haven't noticed I sort of have a thing for LED's so I am more than willing to help on this.
I had not seen any of the BackinBlack or CGP projects before this point. Some of them are pretty neat that's for sure. |
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