I started today building PCB boards for my headlights, as I've been gathering supplies in the last few weeks.

I've spent over 450$ in lumileds in Red, Amber and Yellow. I've also bought multiple tail lights, headlights, and corners.

I started by opening up my headlights with the oven trick. 215 degrees worked for me. I first took some measurements and drew up what I think would be a good PCB circuit for the frontward facing amber turnsignals and running lights. This was previously a challenge to do in LED for a ranger due to the fact there are no quality solutions for plug-n-play bulbs up front.

Here is the design I have so far. I have it set with 56 superflux. My plan so far is to run the outer ring as my running lights with a voltage regulated 12V from a sharp-regulator. I will use the remaining interior LEDs for the turn signal circuit. I bought PWMs so I could make the LEDs dim, but I don't know if I want to do that. I ask for you opinions. This thread will progress as my project evolves.



It fits so perfect. I smiled so wide when I first put this cardstock inside of the lamp and imagined how the PCB would glow at night. :D

 

wow, thats gonna be INTENSE! going to be awsome man.

btw glad you manned up to the ven trick with the lights. 215 ftw

 

that is going to b awsome.... i cant wait to c more pics... i think u should do a hid projector retrofit to these headlights also... they would look awsome

 

Wow, going to be nice. I think the outer running lights should probably be ran dim, depending on how dim they actually would be. It might also be neat if you could run them all as dim running lights and have the center LEDs alternate between dim and bright for the turn signal function. If it is possible that is what I would do.

 

Already working on the projector retrofit, I have morimoto mini H1's for that.

 

Tonight I feel I've finished the PCB design for the headlights. 56 LEDs, which consist of 4 concentric rings. I will need to put a few jumper wires here but that's not going to be a problem. 224 Holes will need to be drilled per PCB, 448 for both headlights! Outermost ring will be run at 60ma for running lights (No PWM) - Inner rings will be run at 60ma for turnsignals. Some of the clearances are pretty tight - I sure hope I don't have problems acid-etching this.

 

thats gonna be ledtastic. gl with the etch

 

WOW! BIG project!! I'm sure it'll turn out like all your lighting projects: amazing!




Are you doing tails too? I assume the red is for tails. Could you tell us your method for disassembling the tails??? I have a mod idea in mind that's been done once on a ranger, though a failjob it was. lol.

 

This will be awesome when it's finished.

It seems like you have a lot of projects on your plate right now

 

Just to make things more complicated.... Do you know how badass it would be when you blink for it to start in the center and go out to the outside? With one ring turning on at a time. That would look so pimp at night. Talk about attention getter.

 

you are the lighting king

 

Yes - doing tails also.

I just bought aftermarket tails. I'm going to paint the chrome white to match the body.




I separate them by buying 2 sets, and dremeling the lens off one set, and the body off the other. You need to ruin one set to keep the good body, and one set to get a good lens.

Once you have everything off but the part that is glued on you can use the oven trick on these.

 

Yes, doing heads/tails/corners on Both of my trucks, (with a projector retrofit of mini morimoto h1's on both) and also doing full pcb retrofits on all of the IX lighting also.

Yeah, that's sequentials. I can do that with microcontrollers, but I don't know if I want to yet. I might do it with the tails on the IX.

Thanks.

 

man this is going to be amazing, can't wait to see them finished!

i second dixie, you ARE the lighting king haha

 

This is the design I have for the corners. 28 Superflux per corner.

 

Holy ****

 

Here is an update showing how to use Voltage regulators on the circuits to protect them from voltage spikes - very useful not just for LEDs, but other circuits as well.

 

Today I worked on the headlights some more, by cutting my holes and semi-mounting my projectors. I started off by measuring the size of the parabolic reflector in the projector unit and making an ellipse in cad that was the same size. Printed out the ellipse, and centered it in the opening of the headlight using existing marks that make up the factory reflecting surface. I made lines with a sharpie, and cut carefully with a dremel. After a few cuts, I'd size up the projector, and make more cuts until everything fit basically how I wanted it to. Here are the results:





I haz projectorz...










Because of the care I took, aiming is going really well. Here is the HID projection in my basement:



Here is one right hand headlamp with the projectors, with the other right hand headlamp stock halogen.



The fixture I have to aim everything and simulate the front end of the truck(s)




and lastly - a video comparison: (CLICK BELOW TO WATCH)

 

I want projectors soooo bad

 

I hope to have them installed in the truck soon. I need to finish my turnsignal circuits.

 

Love everything youv have done so far.. Looks great

 

Those are awesome! Can't wait to see how they turn out.

 

So I was looking for projectors for my fog lights: Check out what I've got!

 

This is gonna be so sweet its not even funny...

Where do you find the time to do this stuff?

 

I just experiment from time to time and get lucky. I took one apart (I can't even remember why) and I noticed "hey, these have 2 eyelids- I wonder how it would look if I cut off 1" - and then I did that. After I did that I put it back together with the bottom eyelid on top by mistake (I had cut off the wrong one) and it looks way better than if you did that the other way.