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DIY flood lights under headlights?

JeepFreak21

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Cameron Park, CA
I'm trying to figure out how to replace those marker/blinker lights under my headlights ('96 and older at least) with something more useful. (I'm putting marker/blinker lights in the bumper.) I would love to turn those lights into flood lights, while still keeping a stock look.

I wasn't able to find replacement lights with totally clear lenses, but I could replace the plexi myself if the obscurity made this impossible. Other than that, the lenses are 8.5" x 2.75". Is that shape going to make for a worthless light?

I found some insanely bright LED flood lights that are the right size and would work great, but they are $800 for the pair!
rofl.gif
I could solder a bunch of LEDs to a board and make it fit behind the lense, but are they going to be useless without a good reflector?

Should I be looking into some other technology, like HID?

Have any of you done anything like this???

Thanks,
Billy
 
The small LED lights that dirtbound has are supposed to be pretty awesome. May fit behind the lens with some work?
 
This might be able to be adapted to fit, it wont look perfect as it is 2x6.
http://www.quadratec.com/products/97028_101.htm

Yeah, I saw that, and the PIAA backup lights that are a similar size. I'm going to see if I can get a spare lense and shine a few lights through and see if I can get usable light without switching to a clear lense. If so, that might work great.

Thanks,
Billy
 
If you're interested in doing a little more fabbing, you can buy light heads with reflectors from a place like dealextreme for very cheap. Depending on which ones you buy you could end up with "flood lights" that are brighter than your headlights :thumbup:
 
If you're interested in doing a little more fabbing, you can buy light heads with reflectors from a place like dealextreme for very cheap. Depending on which ones you buy you could end up with "flood lights" that are brighter than your headlights :thumbup:

THAT is a good idea! I'll check that out!
Thanks,
Billy
 
bright yes, but distance, no.

with an LED the light is directional away from the diode, not in all directions away from the filament like a normal bulb. it's more about lenses over the diodes than about reflectors behind them... unless you are facing the LEDs back towards a reflector like the new hella 4000 LED models they debuted at SEMA this year are set up

HELLA%20011%20WITH%20BORDER.jpg
 
bright yes, but distance, no.

with an LED the light is directional away from the diode, not in all directions away from the filament like a normal bulb. it's more about lenses over the diodes than about reflectors behind them... unless you are facing the LEDs back towards a reflector like the new hella 4000 LED models they debuted at SEMA this year are set up

HELLA%20011%20WITH%20BORDER.jpg

Awesome, thanks. Very informative!
Billy
 
bright yes, but distance, no.

with an LED the light is directional away from the diode, not in all directions away from the filament like a normal bulb. it's more about lenses over the diodes than about reflectors behind them... unless you are facing the LEDs back towards a reflector like the new hella 4000 LED models they debuted at SEMA this year are set up

HELLA%20011%20WITH%20BORDER.jpg

Just to be clear (pun intended), the lights that have the LEDs facing forward (unlike the Hella 4000), look like they just have a clear lense... is there something fancy about that clear lense, or were you just pointing out that the obscure lense I'm starting with will likely be a hinderance?

I shined a rather bright (205 Lumens OTF) flashlight through the marker/blinker light and the output was pretty pathetic. Like, not even useful... so, something has got to change if this is going to work.

Thanks again!
Billy
 
no they are not just a flat clear lens, they use special optics designed to increase the distance of the light coming from the diode by focusing the light in one direction, here is an image so you can see what I am talking about.

Acriche-220V-Lens-BK-XA46--39568.jpg


there are many different styles and shapes of lenses, that one is a 45° spot lens there are also flood type lenses designed to throw the light in a wider arc.
 
no they are not just a flat clear lens, they use special optics designed to increase the distance of the light coming from the diode by focusing the light in one direction, here is an image so you can see what I am talking about.

Acriche-220V-Lens-BK-XA46--39568.jpg


there are many different styles and shapes of lenses, that one is a 45° spot lens there are also flood type lenses designed to throw the light in a wider arc.

Oooookay, good to know! Do you have any idea where one could pick up some of those lenses?

Thanks for the info!
Billy
 
they are on ebay all over the place, most get shipped from hong kong directly. if you order some pay close attention to the shipping charges as they can be ridiculous depending on where you order from. they also make bases that go onto the board around the diode to hold these lenses in place. check out ebay for led lenses then look at the sellers other auctions or their ebay store to see what's out there. I have a 20w LED but I still havent gotten a lens for it, here is a pic of it running on 12v directly off the battery:

IMG_20110303_211342.jpg


IMG_20110303_211457.jpg


I have it mounted to an old computer cpu heat sink to keep it from burning up that's why it looks so huge in the second pic ;)

here also as a comparison is a pair of 3w 3 LED units that I got from ebay for $9 with free shipping from hong kong a couple of years ago:

IMG_20110212_170059.jpg


they are similar to these http://www.plasmaled.com/mr16_led_light_bulb.htm

they are extremely bright, but beyond 15 feet or so they barely throw any light on the wall at all. they would make excellent rock lights but I haven't been able to figure out how the big boys get that much distance out of the LED light bars. the only thing i havent tried yet is chaining a ton of the smaller lights together and see if that increased output adds to the distance at all. from what I have read though the lens is the most important factor in getting the light to go further.
 
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