Welcome to ledcar.com. This site is dedicated to the design and development of aftermarket LED taillights. For more information take a look at our projects section.
LED Taillight of 2003 BMW 325 Ci (European Model)
2009
08.27
08.27
Our shipping costs have gone up. All orders over $20 will still receive free shipping. Orders under $20 will be billed $2 for shipping in the US and $4 for everywhere else.
2009
08.24
08.24
If there is anything you like or don’t like please let me know.
2009
05.08
05.08
I am considering designing a new PWM circuit. What would you like to see in a PWM module?
Original ledcar PWM module
2009
05.06
05.06
Ledcar 8 LED Array Filled
The 40 LED Array is no longer available. I offer custom board design services if you need arrays of a different size than available.
To achieve best light output we are working on a parabolic reflector which will be placed on top the the LED arrays. It will be molded out of plastic and then painted in chrome.
Front Top View
Front Bottom View
Here are some pictures of the Corner PCB. Each side of the car will use one of these. Each PCB will have 24 LEDs mounted on it.
Corner PCB Lit
Corner PCB lit together with 2 STOP/TAIL PCBs.
Here are some pictures of the STOP/TAIL PCB. Each side of the car will use two of these. Each PCB will have 40 LEDs mounted on it.
Top layer of STOP/TAIL PCB.
Solder layer of STOP/TAIL PCB. The PCB has 5 sections each of which can be lit individually.
STOP/TAIL PCB with LEDs and connections soldered.
STOP/TAIL PCB with LEDs Lit (dimmed for photograph)
STOP/TAIL PCB mounted in housing inside the car.
Top section of PCB lit.
Fully lit PCB
Comparison between incandescent and LED taillight.
Here are some pictures of the prototype. The LEDs in the picture are much brighter than they appear. Slow flash was used in this picture which causes the LEDs to appear a lot dimmer then they really are.
PWM board with 2 4 LEDs in series.
The LEDs are cross connected in a grid fashion.
The test circuit inside the housing attached to the car. The finished version will be two 5 x 8 array of LEDs and a smaller array for the blinker. The LEDs in the picture are actually a deep red and not white yellow.
The final design will yield a brighter and larger area but even with only 8 LEDs the array is very bright. The LED data sheets suggest the use of 12-24 LEDs min of this type for taillight applications. We will be using 80.
Since the LED PCB will just house LEDs it does not solve the problem of stop and tail functionality. Each bulb on the 3000gt is dual filament which means they have two positive leads allowing two levels of brightness for each bulb.
To recreate this effect the LED PCB needs a circuit that will light them at different levels. Usually a simple two resistor setup could be used for this but because SnapLED are high flux and require a lot of current to work a PWM circuit works much better. There are also three diodes in this circuit to prevent damage to the LEDs from electrical transients that can occur in cars.
