cdrod

Anyone have experience with the Digitails LED tail light conversion kit?
I'm thinking of installing this on my '72 convertible project. It's gonna be my daily driver and want quick and bright brake lights. Thanks!

Rodney

https://digi-tails.com/1971-72-cutla...light-panels-0

cdrod

digitails

rjohnson442

Cool but 219! I bet if you went to radio shack and watched youtube for 15 min. you could be in business for about 40 bucks and an hour of your time. cut a hobby panel to fit the light housing and daisy chain all the LED's you can dream of for each light. 20 min. of youtube and you cold make them blink a sequence.

RandyS

Bravo! I realize your intent here is to simplify installing LED's on proto board for DIY tail lights, which I applaud, but there is just leeetle more to it. LED's all have an optimum operating voltage and current. Put too many in series and they won't light, put too few, and you let the 'magic smoke' out. I agree $219 is waaaaay too much to pay for something that should in reality cost about $29.95 to DIY. (actually about $15.00 if you don't need them to do tricks).

4speed455

Most electronics need that smoke. If you let the smoke out they don't usually work right.

rjohnson442

That's way I said 20min of youtube would get you a circuit board few cap and resistors and you'd be good to go. the LED will only draw as much power as it needs, a test light doesn't blow when you hook it straight to the battery. BMW's for example have a voltage/resistance sensor for the tail lights.( to tell you when a tail lights out on the dash) If you just crammed a bunch in there and hooked it up. it would work ya but it would also say the light is out.

MDchanic

I let the smoke out of my computer once. Had to buy a whole new motherboard.

That smoke's some expensive stuff.

- Eric

hookem horns

Not quite as custom, but has anyone tried replacement bulbs like this? Might have to replace the flasher for blinkers/hazard lights to work with LED's
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pl...FepFMgod2HYAgA

Thinking about buying LED's for all my interior bulbs to keep the yellowed lenses from getting any worse, especially the map light.

MDchanic

I tried lamps like that a few years ago - they weren't half as bright as the stock bulbs.

New ones are probably better, but I haven't had the urge to mess with them.

- Eric

70cutty

I did a lot of projects using LED lighting strips. It's very simple on a 12-14V, it comes with 3M backing tape, make a shape stick it on, daisy chain and power up.
They can be cut to 3" (3 LED's) size and every 3" there is a micro processor. They draw as little as 125-130mA per foot, we have wired 16'(5 meters) on a single fused wire without burning out anything. you can probably do more but I wouldn't recommend.

70cutty

New ones are better, they got a lot brighter in last couple of years but I still like my stock lights. Shoot, I still have the original light bulbs in my Cutlass, never been replaced.

Edit: my car is a 52k mile original documented and I put last 36k miles on it.

RandyS

Right on the money! 12v SMD LED Flexible strip would be the way to go. The Pure White is VERY BRIGHT.

MDchanic

Oooooh. That's cool. I just bought one, even though I have no idea what I'd do with it.

- Eric

oldcutlass

I don't know it's hard to beat the price of 1156 and 1157 bulbs.

MDchanic

100% right.

I'm thinking of using those lights as a work light I can connect to the battery, though.

Actually, at those prices, I wonder if I can attach strips of the waterproof LEDs to the underside of the hood and the insides of the fender liners to use as an always-ready high-quality under-hood trouble light that won't kill the battery.

- Eric

RandyS

Yep, you could run them for days on a well charged car battery.

70cutty

I really don't like the look of led or hid lights on old cars. It just looks out of place, to me at least.

Miles71

HI Cdrod:
I love the theory of using LED lights in automotive applications.
I have been looking for replacement solutions that I could use on my car.
The link you posted looks interesting.
The PDF is quite detailed and even tells you about the flasher change.
The only thing I could not find was the Lumens for running lights and break light modes and the total current.

So far, all of the LED solutions I have seen are much dimmer (fewer lumens) than the stock incandescent bulbs.
Lower wattage is Great, but lower Lumens are Bad.

Example:
Typical incandescent 1157 low 38, High 402 Lumens and cost 1 buck.
Most LED 1157 will only be 50% as bright and cost $10-20
If anyone finds a LED 1157 that is brighter than an Incandescent version, ping me. Thanks.