LEDs?

[PoorManQ45]

Has anyone replaced any of the light bulbs in their Infiniti with LEDs?

I am thinking about making up an array of about 25~50 12Volt LEDs. Has anybody done this before?

What are the brake lights bulbs? Clear incandescent, Red Incandescent, or something else? How much space is there to work in the tail lights? I'm thinking that a 2in x 2in or 4in x 4in PCB board would be large enough

Also, in the tail lights, are there two seperate bulbs on each side? One for brake lights, and one for parking/running lights?

Is there a minimum Ohm load that the LEDs would have to be? If so, what?

I think it would be very cost effective in the long run, because as you probably know, LEDs last an average of 25 years.

[AZhitman]

Q45 is VERY finicky with bulbs, most non-OEM will either go bad prematurely or will cause a "bulb out" reading on the dash.

[PoorManQ45]

Q45 is VERY finicky with bulbs, most non-OEM will either go bad prematurely or will cause a "bulb out" reading on the dash.

Hehe. That's what duct tape is for

I don't think that there would be a problem with the LEDs burning out though. I do understand what you are saying about the "error" message.

I did a search and found that member Zinkie... Has installed an LED conversion in his 91q. Can you give us/me some more info.

[zinkie13]

All I did was replace bulbs with LED bulbs of the same type. I donno what you are looking to do but I have a friend that does custom LED modifications that I could ask.

[AZhitman]

Where did you get these LED bulbs? Who makes them? Where can I buy LEDs?

You HAVE GOT to be kidding me.....

[PoorManQ45]

You HAVE GOT to be kidding me.....

Why is that? I don't thikn any members on Nico have talked about these LED replacement bulbs before.

So, where can I buy these bulbs? Who makes them? How much?

[AZhitman]

I am thinking about making up an array of about 25~50 12Volt LEDs.

What are the brake lights bulbs?

Clear incandescent, Red Incandescent, or something else?

How much space is there to work in the tail lights?

I'm thinking that a 2in x 2in or 4in x 4in PCB board would be large enough

Also, in the tail lights, are there two seperate bulbs on each side?

One for brake lights, and one for parking/running lights?

Is there a minimum Ohm load that the LEDs would have to be?

If so, what?

SSSSSEEEEEEAAAAARRRRRCCCCCCHHHHHHHH

[elwesso]

Here you go... You dont even have to go to the top for it..... Heaven forbid we do some extra scrolling

[redmanfx]

Here you go... You dont even have to go to the top for it..... Heaven forbid we do some extra scrolling

See! This engaging conversation is what I have missed..... Nice to be back..

red

[elwesso]

Glad to see you back...

BTW... I do think you are well overdue for some pictures.!!! I want to see this 250k beast!

[Q451990]

I've thought a lot about this project. The 90-93 Q has two 1157 dual element bulbs. One element for tail, one for stop. HP designed the tail lights for the Caddy that first sported them... they're called SnapLED, but there's a solder on cousin called SuperFlux and another one that more resembles the G35 type setup with an LED in a reflective conic housing.

As far as the dash indicator, there's a sensor that sends a 12v output back to the ECU when a tail lamp or brake lamp is out. I feel sure you could eliminate the system by putting 12v from the brake circuit directly to this wire. I'd rather duplicate the load with resistors, but there are several options... duct tape not being one of them in my book There are too many other important messages that can show up in the same place, not to mention the trip meters that I use to keep track of business miles.

Check out:

http://lumileds.com/solutions/solution.cfm?id=1

Every time I get serious about this mod, my head starts to hurt reading all of the technical data.

Good luck!

Heath

[zinkie13]

I bought the bulbs off of ebay....They looked great!! No hazing for doing it the easy way!

[Jesda]

Installation process was no different?

[zinkie13]

Bulbs were the exact same and so was instalation. However.....you would get a fast blink unless you change your blinker thinger. you can get that at autozone and it will make it so it recognizes that leds use less power so it doesn't blink fast

[Jesda]

What I'm curious about is how they look. The G35 uses clear or somewhat clear lenses to allow the LED to penetrate. On the Q it goes through the same colored plastic. How does it compare to before and to the G35?

[pito11213]

The LED's end up looking like red dots through the lens. They dont shine very bright because of the lens.

There is no real cosmetic gain for the rears. If they have led for the front signal light then that would look good.

[97Q45t]

Yes. I'm in the process of LEDout my lights.

First of all, replacing the old conventional bulbs with LEDs is NOT cost effective at all. The part cost and labor time that you would spend on this project would exceed a HUNDRED times more than the $0.99 bulb and 3 minutes labor to replace the old burnt out filament bulb. I do this simply just for the fun of it, and the bling bling factor, if it has any.

The first step was the map/reading lights. I'm not doing the gauge light yet. Imagine it will be pretty difficult not to have all the bright spots since I got plenty of standard T1-3/4 5mm white LEDs and trying to use all of them. Those have a 20 degree of viewing angle. I utilized 36 LEDs on each size so the light output was very decent, approx. about 2 times brighter than the old conventional bulb. I don't recommend using ONLY resisters in series with multiple series of the LEDs. When the engine is running, the voltage could spike up 50V for some moments. Those moments are very short, they have little effect on the slow acting and high power filament bulb. They do, however, have a huge effect on the fragile LEDs. Those spikes could easily triple the current goes throuh the LEDs and burns them out. So, if you use only 1-3 LEDs, in series resistor is acceptable because of the easy of replacement. But in a bulk of 50 LEDs, it is better not to use the resisters only.

I designed a voltage regulator circuit using a linear voltage regulator LM317T so the LEDs won't burn out and the light output stays the same no matter if the engine is running (14.40 V) or not (12.40 V). My circuit draws 18mA in each series. Maximum current output for the LM317T is 1.5A means it can handle up to 150 LEDs @ 20mA with 3 LEDs in each series. If you using up to maximum allowable of 150 LEDs or anywhere near that than a heatsink must be installed since the LM317T does heat up. I'm using only 36 LEDs per LM317T, plus the LEDs only lights up for a short period of time hence I didn't use any heatsink.

My circuit draws about 250 - 300mA. I think the stock conventional bulb has about the same current draw of 0.3A. The warning light shouldn't come on if the LEDs circuit draws some moderate current.

I might do the tail and brake lights before the gauge consider the tail is a little easier than the gauge because of the bright spots problem on the gauge. Like Health suggested, the SnapLEDs would be a perfect solution because they consider relatively cheap ($0.38 each if you buy a bulk of 60 pieces) and their nominal current draw is 70mA ( 3 and 1/2 times more than the standard 5mm). That translates to about 2-3 times brighter than the standard 5mm LEDs I'm using. And the best part is they have a 70 degree of viewing angle.

Circuit schematic will be followed. Check my page in the sig for more pics. I will draw the circuit design if anyone need it and post on my page when I got some times this week. I will constantly update this project because it might take a while. Anyway, good luck with yours.

D.N.




Modified by 97Q45t at 12:55 AM 12/19/2004

[PoorManQ45]

I designed a voltage regulator circuit using a linear voltage regulator T317 so the LEDs won't burn out and the light output stays the same no matter if the engine is running (14.40 V) or not (12.40 V). My circuit draws 18mA in each series.

My circuit draws about 250 - 300mA.

From the power that each series draws, and the overall power of the circuit, does that mean that you have a total of 15 series circuits, or 7 series circuits?

I might do the tail and brake lights before the gauge consider the tail is a little easier than the gauge because of the bright spots problem on the gauge.

When doing the Gauge cluster lights:

Will the LEDs be adversely affected by the attenuation knob(dimmer)?

What are you mounting the circuit to? Are you using a PCB board?

Also, are you using any cluster holders for the LEDs? What I'm refering to is a small plastic piece that can usually hold about 5~20 LEDs. All you do is plug in each individual LED, and then there is a Positive lead on one end, and a Negative lead on the other end.

Can you post a schematic whenever you get the time?

What are the specifications on the capacitor that I circled in the picture?

[97Q45t]

From the power that each series draws, and the overall power of the circuit, does that mean that you have a total of 15 series circuits, or 7 series circuits?

The overall currents draw I stated is just an estimate. The actual current drew by the circuit is 18mA x 12 = 216mA or might be a little off by 5%. On each circuit board, there're 2 rows of 6 resisters on the sides. Each resistor is in series with 3 LEDs, hence there're 12 series, each series has 3 LEDs and 1 resistor.

When doing the Gauge cluster lights:Will the LEDs be adversely affected by the attenuation knob(dimmer)?

I haven't done the gauge light for my Q yet. However, I had done the gauge for my Sentra about 4-5 years ago. I used 1 blue LED with a resister in series in placement for each regular bulb. The top half of the dimmer does have an affect on dimming my LEDs, but I'm sure it also based on the value of the resistor you pick. I didn't really get to use the dimmer since 1 LEDs in no way is more powerful then a regular bulb.

What are you mounting the circuit to? Are you using a PCB board?

I'm using a 2" x 2.5" predrilled PCB bought at a local electronics part store.

Also, are you using any cluster holders for the LEDs? What I'm refering to is a small plastic piece that can usually hold about 5~20 LEDs. All you do is plug in each individual LED, and then there is a Positive lead on one end, and a Negative lead on the other end.

No, I'm not using that. I don't think I ever seen one before. I'd prefer to use PCB since it offers me the solution for an intergrated circuit. I could solder the electrical components on the same board as the LEDs board. Less one circuit to worry about and save space.[/QUOTE]

Can you post a schematic whenever you get the time?

Definately will. I'm waiting for a friend to come back from out of town so I can borrow his MS Visio to draw the circuit. Otherwise, I might go to school tomorrow and use the computer there.

What are the specifications on the capacitor that I circled in the picture?

They are output capacitors, value of 1uF. The input capacitors (brownish color next to the T-317) are 100pF. Beside the 12 resistors for the LEDS, there's 2 more resistors on the back side of the circuit, to determine the output voltage. And that's all. Very simple.

[Trung1130]

Here is the cluster that I am attempting to LED for my taillights/brake lights.There is a lot of math involved as well serries circuits as well as parallel circuits. By the way I am using 5mm LEDs. I have been able to do the Blinkers with an amber 4 cluster led but it blinks too fast and i need to go to autozone and find a regulator. I used 3mm LED's for the Front Turn Signals. Its important to use ohm resistors as they disperse the voltage as desired. I plan on using PCB for the brake light or just fiberboard with lexon and screw into the housing.

[Trung1130]

For a tutorial for LED schematics got LEDLIGHT.com, it has a lot of good info.

Oh yeah for my brake light cluster should i attempt a double row 3mm LEDS for the symbol or a single row 5mm LEDS or mix that and have it match the thickness of the original Infiniti symbol

[Q451990]

How about running something like this to regulate the voltage? It's a DC/DC convertor that costs about $50.

http://www.meanwell.com/product/sd-50/default.htm

I'm using it for my NEO MP3 player - it's the only thing that stopped some of it's skipping issues. I don't know how it would handle quick spikes of power, but I suppose you could re-route the circuits so that the brake or turn signals could power a relay coil and the LED's would get their power from this...

Heath

[97Q45t]

How about running something like this to regulate the voltage? It's a DC/DC convertor that costs about $50.

That is not a bad idea . One 12V 4.2A regulator could power the whole LEDs system up to 630 white LEDs (typical forward DC voltage of 3.5V) with 3 LEDs in series. If you use the clear red LEDs (typical forward DC voltage is about 1.7V), which is the best for teh tail/brake lights, then the number of LEDs is doulbled up to 1260.

By the way, Brien, here's my circuit diagram:


Modified by 97Q45t at 1:21 PM 12/19/2004

[PoorManQ45]

Where do you guys buy the parts for the LED circuits?

I checked out partsexpress.com , but they don't seem to have that good of a deal.

[97Q45t]

Mostly on eBay for LEDs, ICs.Here're the LEDs I bought. Comes up about $0.25 each:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...45570

[Trung1130]

I ordered mine from the same place. I also orderd mounting brackets from ebay, 1/8" shrink tube, bell wire, printed circuit, and thick aluminum 6" inch pie pan.

[aaronl]

I just saw that you are in Houston. Check out Ace Electronics on Antoine just south of 34th. There will be more stuff in there than you can imagine or know what to do with. They have super bright LEDs.

http://www.ace4parts.com/

aaronl