Door lights

[Bitsyncmaster]

Here are some photos with 40 ma. total current (12.5 volts). Looking straight on to the lens it's very even but when you get to some angles you can still see the ring of LEDs. One photo is no lens which shows the 16 LEDs on the round circuit board.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Here is a side by side inside house at 12.50 volts with NOS (incandescent) and my new LED board. One is in the dark, other is with lights on (note I have LED lights inside my house). The red color is really the same but my camera displays not true colors with LEDs.

I will have to do a compare outside. Usually LEDs don't look as bright in sunlight as incandescent.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I made up a board with amber LEDs and they look more red than amber. I wonder if my supplier sent the wrong parts. So now I'm not happy with the red (look a little orange) and the amber (look a little red).

The lens has a low pyramid shaped top surface. I'm thinking that is causing the four images of the set of round spaced LEDs I see when looking at an angle to the lens. I may try to machine one flat.

Back to buying more LEDs to test.

Red is 665nm, orange is 630nm, amber is 590nm.

[Dhennick99]

Once you have a design finalized, I'll be a day one buyer. Your upgrades are the best!

[Bitsyncmaster]

Well I found the amber LEDs that match the color of the lens. I sanded the pyramid off the outside of the lens with 120 grit wet sanding. That did eliminate the image of the circle of lights when viewing at an angle. It makes the lens look frosted with that grit of sanding. I think I will try sanding with finer grit and putting a polish on that surface just to see the result.

Well just tried with the lens reversed (flipped so diamond pattern is outside). I love the look of it now.

I was running my old door lights with it flipped also.

Now sanding does take a lot of time. The plastic is very hard and you don't put a lot of pressure on it when sanding.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Did some more experimenting. It does not matter which side is outside with the sanded surface but running it inside will keep oils off the "frosted" side which would remove the "frosting").

I tried the painting of the walls of the black rubber and not sure if that helps anything. I would need to have both black and silver side by side to compare. That will come after I get the production circuit board done.

I've been thinking of a better way to produce the production boards. Yes I could order round boards at about $3 each but I'm considering getting an array which is many board made from one large board. The array is V scored so you can break the boards apart. Of course you can not break apart a round V scored board. I will then have a hole in the center of the board and I can mount 10 or more on my lathe and turn the boards round.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Well all forms of shipping are really bad now. I waited for another LED I found where the specs looked more like what I needed. That shipping took 11 days. It was finally shipped to our local distribution center then it got shipped to DC. UPS and FedEx are the same.

Anyway those LEDs are much better as far a having a red color than most of the others more amber than red. The spectral frequency from red, amber and orange is very narrow. Also the eye does not see red as good as the higher frequency light so manufactures looking for the higher lumens in their specifications want to call amber red. Nothing seems to beat the old 5 mm red LEDs I used 15 years ago that were manufactured for traffic lights (now obsolete).

These new LEDs don't seem to look much brighter at 20 ma then 10 ma. Since they are rated to 30 ma max that lets me just use a resistor to set each string current. Now if you want to run max current you should use a regulated current source. I'm still not ready to order production PCBs yet since I may still keep searching for a better LED.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Well I've decided the LEDs I got on my last order are the best ones yet. The red color is good and orange are good for the amber lights. I went ahead and ordered circuit boards. The boards ended up costing $1.08 each which is higher than I guess it would cost. I had to pay NRE charges getting break away boards. I don't expect many sales of these since it requires the customer pulling the LENS, the bulb and socket, then cutting the socket off and soldering the two wires on my board. Then if they want to sand off the pyramid off the lens to get really even light.

Boards will take 4 to 5 weeks to arrive. I did put a center hole in the board so I can machine (many at a time) round on my lathe.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Well I got the new boards and installed them in my car. Result looks very good but I don't expect many owners to want them because it requires you cut your lamp socket off and solder the wires to my board. I had the rubber pulled out also so I could put some hot glue where the wires enter which holds the board in.

NOS rubber seems to be the same condition of my originals so not much reason to replace the rubber or lens.

Sanding the lens flat will probably help with any LED or bulb. It does frost the side to disperse the light. I ended at sanding the final result at a 45 deg. to the sides thinking not to follow the molded horizontal and vertical pyramids cast into the lens. The lens is a hard plastic so it takes a long time to hand wet sand it. I did not chance to use a machine to sand them since it is hard to hold onto. I put the lens in with the sanded side in. That way no oils from you fingers can get on the frosted side. Also sanded the sharp edges off the sides to help when the lens is removed or inserted.

I did paint the inside of the rubber with a silver paint but not sure if that aided anything.