Another "demon eye" DIY

[Gixxersixxerman]

So you read the DIY for a demon eyes mod with the stock projectors...

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25740

BUT, what if your not running stock projectors and went, or are going to, retrofit.. Well for the most part if you can do a retrofit, you probably don't need a DIY for demon eyes, but HARDROCK, got me thinking about running the painted plates and LEDs..

I don't run autozone LEDs or anything like that, as a electronics tech I make my own circuits and stuff.. So a quick trip down to radio shack and picked up some parts

I already had the big 10mm LEDs for my sons science fair project, but they wasn't what I wanted for this project.. Most should k ow that LED stands for light emitting diode.. And they have a very narrow angle of light dispersal.. Head on they are bright, the more you move off center the less the emit.. Hence why the technology is expensive for use in headlight and other auto lighting applications.

I bought a pair of 5mm LEDs for this mod. Now I. The led world size doesn't mean much, the 10mm has a intensity level of 400 mcd and a viewing angle of 16 degrees. The 5mm has a intensity level of 3000 mcd, so it is much much brighter, but in these perticular LEDs the viewing angle drops to 12 degrees. That's all they had or I would've went with a border viewing angle as I want to fill the housing with as much red light as possible.

Now you can't just hook up these LEDs to a 12 volt source both have a max volt of 2.4 and 20 mA and hooking them up to a 12 volt source, well they won't last but a second, so you need resistors, in my case I went with 1k ohm 1/4 watt resistor.. I could've used 500 ohm but they didn't have them 1k will be just fine.

I also bought a switch and fuse holder and fuses



I like to do a lot of testing, no reason to hook everything up then find out it didn't work, so I picked up this cheap pilot brand cig. Lighter acc output to test everything, also used a lith. AA batt to test on my bench



All good builds need good tools


Just a quick wire up to make sure everything works



I hooked up both LEDs so you can see the difference



It might look like they are both the same brightness, but they are not


As you can see the 5mm is much brighter



So I drilled a small 5mm hole in the bottom center of the light housing


My drill bit walked some on me... I should've used a smaller sharper bit then I did


I used a good RTV adhesive just to make sure it doesn't fall out







And just mocking things up


And just a teaser



Now I wanted this subtle, I wanted this to be able to stay on all night if I choose because LEDs hardly use any power, and I don't want it to look like I left red headlight on

I'll finish the rest tomorrow, I got everything lined up and aimed properly. Just need to wire up a switch and everything

[Skorov]

Good stuff!
I'd love to try this myself with blue LEDs, but to be honest, I'm not game. Maybe in the future when I have a spare $800 for headlights I'll buy a spare pair and go nuts on them.

Keen to see your progress and where you plan on putting the switch. =)

[Lee358]

great write up i wish i saw this before the headlights ive done in the past were all put together!

[Acree]

I hate to break this to you but your LEDs aren't going to last more than a few months. They are way too close to the bulb and will have their life significantly reduced by the heat.

-Acree

[Gixxersixxerman]

Originally Posted by Acree

I hate to break this to you but your LEDs aren't going to last more than a few months. They are way too close to the bulb and will have their life significantly reduced by the heat.

-Acree

I thought about that, and there really isn't anything to be done unless I install them in front of the plates, but as these are bi-xenon a actuator is there for the flap.. And I couldn't get a even light displacement in front.. I'll do this untill they go out then replace with a different color or epoxy the hole up and try somewhere else

Just to clear things up, heat is a LEDs enemy, I have pretty standard bulbs, when these fail, I'll most likely get a pair of HPLEDs.. The high powered led "chips" can sustain up to 120*c or about 248*f those would be more suited for this, I can find them on eBay and I'm sure through lumileds or osram. Typically a hid bulb runs in the high 180-190 range, but have seen people report up to 300*.. Either way, HPLEDS are the way to go

[Acree]

Originally Posted by Gixxersixxerman

I thought about that, and there really isn't anything to be done unless I install them in front of the plates, but as these are bi-xenon a actuator is there for the flap.. And I couldn't get a even light displacement in front.. I'll do this untill they go out then replace with a different color or epoxy the hole up and try somewhere else

Just to clear things up, heat is a LEDs enemy, I have pretty standard bulbs, when these fail, I'll most likely get a pair of HPLEDs.. The high powered led "chips" can sustain up to 120*c or about 248*f those would be more suited for this, I can find them on eBay and I'm sure through lumileds or osram. Typically a hid bulb runs in the high 180-190 range, but have seen people report up to 300*.. Either way, HPLEDS are the way to go

Even high powered LEDs are compromised by the heat a filament or HID will put out when in that close of proximity. I have used Luxeon 1W, 3W, 5W, K2, Rebels, etc, in multiple different projects. If you pour through the datasheets, they all recommend never exceeding 100* C to maintain the full life span. This becomes a major issue when dealing with high density applications or high ambient temperatures, usually requiring the use of heat sinks.

I'm currently working on a dual mode dome light replacement for this car that will have a pleasant accent light in a select-able color, and then a main flood light using Luxeon Rebel Whites. Due to the packaging and power draw (20W), thermal considerations were the number one priority during board design and packaging.

The only way to avoid killing your LEDs in this application is to use a high-temperature "light tunnel" if you will. It would need to be some sort of clear plastic/acrylic that would allow you to remotely mount the LED and then run the light to the position in the projector you really wanted.

-Acree

[Mr.Jay]

Was goin to do this mod but the hassle of changin the leds when they are done stopped me. However I need to redo my headlights as the seal around the left light isn't 100% so looks like I'm goin dekon eyes as well then.

[Gixxersixxerman]

Originally Posted by Acree

Even high powered LEDs are compromised by the heat a filament or HID will put out when in that close of proximity. I have used Luxeon 1W, 3W, 5W, K2, Rebels, etc, in multiple different projects. If you pour through the datasheets, they all recommend never exceeding 100* C to maintain the full life span. This becomes a major issue when dealing with high density applications or high ambient temperatures, usually requiring the use of heat sinks.

I'm currently working on a dual mode dome light replacement for this car that will have a pleasant accent light in a select-able color, and then a main flood light using Luxeon Rebel Whites. Due to the packaging and power draw (20W), thermal considerations were the number one priority during board design and packaging.

The only way to avoid killing your LEDs in this application is to use a high-temperature "light tunnel" if you will. It would need to be some sort of clear plastic/acrylic that would allow you to remotely mount the LED and then run the light to the position in the projector you really wanted.

-Acree

I was looking into making like a fiber optic tunnel and maybe flaring out the end to give it a better light dispersal, idk if that would work as I've never used anything like that before. Attach the led on the bottom of the inside housing and rout it up that way.. I think it would be far enough from the heat of the light, and I would mount it to its own heat sink

They have some acrylic rod at the hobby shop, making a small recess in one end and polishing it up installing that to the led, wrapping the tube in heat shrink the heating it up and bending it to where I need it to go, but unless I flare it I'm thinking it will only shine a spot on the top of the housing.. Even flailing it idk if it will spread the light much more

[Gixxersixxerman]

Originally Posted by Mr.Jay

Was goin to do this mod but the hassle of changin the leds when they are done stopped me. However I need to redo my headlights as the seal around the left light isn't 100% so looks like I'm goin dekon eyes as well then.

I'm hoping I'll get 4-6 months out of them, doing it twice a year wouldn't bother me that much.. Even if it last only a month, it cost me 8$ or so and going to take longer for me to wire up the switch and run the wire then it did to install the LEDs... I've gotten good at taking the bumper and lights off, I original painted them flat black, then the retrofit and grey, this time I just wanted to adjust the projectors and aim them with the high beams..

[Gixxersixxerman]

Finished everything up.. I forgot to take pictures of the plate I used to hold the switch.. It's actually a piece of "tin" from the beetle, it just happen to be wide enough and already drilled to bolt right in, I just used my uni-bit to make a hole that the switch fit in.. It's bolted to the fuse holder..






It's really subtle which I like. I didn't want it to look like I left red headlight on, walking up to the car you can see it, but once you up on it, it just looks like a faint glow.. I'm happy with them.. Guess now ill just see how long it will last

[Euphues]

Did the heat end up ruining these? Did you ever find a solution? Sorry to bump a dead thread.

[SkAsphalt]

Originally Posted by Euphues

Did the heat end up ruining these? Did you ever find a solution? Sorry to bump a dead thread.

This is what DMs are for....

[Euphues]

DM?

[meWant]

Originally Posted by Euphues

DM?

Direct message aka private message. its one of the options that comes up when you click a persons username