DIY LED lights cheap

mike996 said:

Am I understanding correctly that you cut X number of LEDs from the strip and then solder insulated wires +/- appropriately and that's it, no other device - resistors, whatever - need be added? Also, the brightness is regulated by the number of LEDs?

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The ones I have can be cut in series of 3 LEDs. On the section, there are 3 LEDs and one resistor, they are made to work on 12 volts so you just need to solder the wires on the little pads for whatever number of LEDs you need. You can connect them to either positive or negative ground with the proper polarity since the strips are insulated.

If you use LEDs for flashers, you either need a flasher relay with a built in load resistor (I ordered a few from China) or just add a 10 ohm 10 watt resistor in parallel with the LEDs on each side, the resistor will let the flasher relay "think" there are bulbs and it will work correctly.

Jean

As you can see mine also can be cut in threes. I believe next to the R is the resistor.

I don't think these draw anymore amperage that the old incandescent bulb, probably less.

I modified a headlight shell I got from my friend's shop. He has a bunch of those and will never sell them before he stops working on bikes so he gave it to me so I could modify it. Since this is a 7" reflector, my fingers could not get all the way to the rim from the bulb hole, I used a old dentist tool to push the strip as much as I could to get a good glue bond, but it wasn't quite enough so I dabbed some silicone all around to make sure it did not move on the first bump on the road.

I am looking at H4 LED replacements on evilbay, I will order one and see how bright it is and what kind of power draw they have.

The strip I put in draws 150 Ma which is a bit less than 2 watts.

Jean







Here you can see the LED strips with the cut points at every 3 LED

Here is another light conversion I am doing. This light is on a 1947 Triumph, the taillight is very small, so I folded the strips so the LEDs are very close to each other and then I used silicone to glue everything in place.

These are pictures of the light before the conversion





I made a little module from flexible printed circuit material and glued those inside with silicone




And this is how it lights up first with only the taillight and the with the brake light on




Jean

Nater_Potater said:

Jeandr said:

swooshdave said:

Triangle Bulbs 3528-IP65-White-60L Pure White LED Strip Light, Waterproof LED Flexible Light Strip 12V with 300 SMD LED https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EHHLD8/re ... Qub0JBGJWF

5 meters for $8 with free shipping. Did you use warm or cool white?

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I used daylight LEDs, they are on the blue side rather than looking like weak candles. I think the cars see a bluish light better than reddish/yellow light.

Jean

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Agreed that the cool (6000K) grabs more attention, and, as I found out with the LED headlight conversion, the blueish light really makes reflective signs and road stripes stand out.
As for tail lights and winkers, the warm (3200K) tones work better, as they're closer to the light that needs to come through the lenses. The cool LEDs will work there, but you'll find that the warm tones appear brighter.

Nathan

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Nathan: sorry for the stupid question but what does '6000K' and '3200K' refer to? Is that the lumens? This is another problem I'm having, tracking down the appropriate light strip: there are a million of them out there on fleabay etc, but many don't say anything about their intensity output (the lumens). What should I shoot for?

K is the color of the light.

K = Kelvin.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

Nielsen said:

...what does '6000K' and '3200K' refer to? ...many don't say anything about their intensity output (the lumens). What should I shoot for?

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As Swooshdave noted, "K" is for Kelvin as relates to the specific wavelength of light. His link gives a good description of such and the ranges you'd expect for different lighting conditions. Since original equipment incandescent bulbs transmit wavelengths over a broad range, we can use them in red, yellow, or clear lenses equally well. Where we run into differences between LED versus incandescent bulbs is the specific wavelengths of light that are transmitted. LEDs "create" their own specific wavelength of light without the burden of being filtered through a colored lens. Consequently, if you try to run a "cool" (6000K) LED behind a red tail light lens, hardly any light will come through, since the LED isn't creating anything down in the <3000K range that the tail light lens filters. Therefore, LED's color needs to be selected for something close to what the ultimate filtered color is to be. In other words, red for tail lights, yellow for turn signals; you get the idea. You can use warm/3200K LEDs with great success for turn signals and instrument illumination, but they'll hardly light a red tail light.
With the current LED market availability, you can custom match the color to the intended usage with ease.

Nathan