The Energon Pub

I'm trying to replace the LED's in my Hella Optilux angel eye fog lights. I've never messed with LED's before. Not sure what I'm doing. The only source reference I have is an old thread on Grandamgt.com that talks specifically about this subject.

http://www.grandamgt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9908

Particularly post #14 pay attention to.

Not sure what I was getting into, I bought a couple of LED's as an experiment at Radio Shack. I got 5mm Red, 12VDC, 20mA, 1.5mcd, with integrated resistors. Part#276-209. Peak emission wavelength 697 typ. Viewing Angle(deg):36.

Did I make a mistake and should I go get different LED's? Just never messed with this. Feels wrong. I used a resistor calculator at http://www.luxeonstar.com/resistor-calculator.php to check resistor size.

Anybody know what I actually need to get?

Thanks.

If you're unsure, it might just be better to buy a new lamp. Unless you're doing it to customize your fogs. I'm not big into wiring LED's like that so I'm not really sure what you should go with.

Yep, trying to change the dismal blue LED's that came with the lights to a more fitting red, that'll go with all my vinyl grafxwerks.

Hope you don't get pulled over. It's illegal in Ohio to modify the color of your headlamps to one that emergency vehicles use.

Anywho. According to your calculator (and what that post said), you'd need a resistor equal or greater than 91 Ohm 1/8 watt.

Shouldn't be too hard to find one. That is the nice thing about LED's and resistors. If you can't find one at that exact size, just go larger and you'll be even safer.

I'm more of a Luxeon LED lightsaber builder so car headlamps are a little above my knowledge on the subject.

TheMuffin wrote:Hope you don't get pulled over. It's illegal in Ohio to modify the color of your headlamps to one that emergency vehicles use.

Anywho. According to your calculator (and what that post said), you'd need a resistor equal or greater than 91 Ohm 1/8 watt.

Shouldn't be too hard to find one. That is the nice thing about LED's and resistors. If you can't find one at that exact size, just go larger and you'll be even safer.

I'm more of a Luxeon LED lightsaber builder so car headlamps are a little above my knowledge on the subject.

Just one more thing they could get me for. I run a blue license plate bulb that pretty much keeps you from reading it at night, don't run a front plate at all, have reflective red vinyl all over the car, and run offroad only fog lights with 100 watt bulbs. But for the most part, they won't even be able to see the red circle around the fog light because it's so absolutely bright, and I typically run with my fogs on 100% of the time for effect. But they'll look nice when I wire the Angel eyes to the parking lights.

I'm just not sure I have the right LED's. Everyone else seems to have used leds with volt ratings of 2-4ish and I have 12 volts. Wondering if that's going to cause a problem on the relay circuit, it'll be drawing a lot more I'd think then what others got. I might have overdone it.

Edit: Maybe like these instead...

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=family

Pontimax 01 wrote:Yep, trying to change the dismal blue LED's that came with the lights to a more fitting red, that'll go with all my vinyl grafxwerks.

Like Muffin said, it's illegal. In fact, putting red in the front is a huge no no since red is used only in the rear of the car, I even think it invalidates your car insurance. Is it really worth it?

GetterDragun wrote:

Pontimax 01 wrote:Yep, trying to change the dismal blue LED's that came with the lights to a more fitting red, that'll go with all my vinyl grafxwerks.

Like Muffin said, it's illegal. In fact, putting red in the front is a huge no no since red is used only in the rear of the car, I even think it invalidates your car insurance. Is it really worth it?

I'm obviously not worried about it, and it's nobody here's car.

I'm just curious about how to wire up some LED's.

I'm curious how much longer you'll be driving your "modified" car before you get pulled over. No offense...

I like my "modified" car, a whole lot more then I'd probably like you. No offense.


Anyway, Muffin, I took those particular LED's back, and got some 2.6v 5mm's. Had to recalculate the resistor, but one thing I noticed is a large discrepancy between the various online calculators. Not sure whose "more right" at this point. Radio Shack flat out has nobody that knows anything about this. They are more interested in signing up Cell customers and selling toys. I remember when Radio Shack was like a nerd haven. Nobody there even knew how to a voltmeter.

So...you know running Fog lamps all the time can pretty much blind other drivers, right? Not so "cool" when you get a guy to wrap his car around a tree or streetlight.

I think a some of you need to grow up and let others do as others do. We have plenty of others around that can monitor and enforce traffic laws, here they are called the OSP. And driving with fog lamps on is not illegal here, so cry about something else. Or go hang out at any car forum and actually look at the plethra of dangerous illegal activities going on on the roads, and decide if a fog light is really worth crying about when there are others driving around playing games like "ghost driver" or street racing.

So save your judgements for someone that might care.

And reserve your comments to knowledge of LEDs and making them work correctly.

It's going to be so funny when you're in court for one of any of the crimes you're committing.

Then again...100 Watts is not very bright at all. About as bright as a normal lamp.

Shadowman wrote:It's going to be so funny when you're in court for one of any of the crimes you're committing.

Then again...100 Watts is not very bright at all. About as bright as a normal lamp.

It's so funny it matters enough for you to keep going on about. And it's funny you think I'd end up in court for something as simple as a non-moving violation.

I've never been ticketed for any of my changes before, and about the only downside is it gives them probable cause. Which has happened, as I got pulled over for not having a front license plate, but the cop was much more interested in knowing if I was out drinking and driving at 2am. When I told him no, he started complimenting the car actually, and we chatted for a bit about cars. Then I went home ticket free. Hell, he didn't even tell me to put my front plate on, which was his original reason for pulling me over.

Let's do the math, pulled over 1 time in 6 years with nearly all the same offenses on the car, number of tickets received - 0. Number of times pulled over for moving violations to which they could have said something about the non-moving violations while I was there - too many; actual number of times anyone has said anything about the non-moving violations - 0. So I doubt what I'm doing with the car is pissing anyone but the most uptight off.

No, compared to HID beams, 100 watt fogs aren't distracting enough to be of concern, as fogs are generally aimed low and broad across the road surface, out to about 25-30 feet. But yes, 100 watts actually is a fairly large halogen bulb, and paired with the right reflector, it could be highly annoying.

Pontimax 01 wrote:It's so funny it matters enough for you to keep going on about. And it's funny you think I'd end up in court for something as simple as a non-moving violation.

I've never been ticketed for any of my changes before, and about the only downside is it gives them probable cause. Which has happened, as I got pulled over for not having a front license plate, but the cop was much more interested in knowing if I was out drinking and driving at 2am. When I told him no, he started complimenting the car actually, and we chatted for a bit about cars. Then I went home ticket free. Hell, he didn't even tell me to put my front plate on, which was his original reason for pulling me over.

Let's do the math, pulled over 1 time in 6 years with nearly all the same offenses on the car, number of tickets received - 0. Number of times pulled over for moving violations to which they could have said something about the non-moving violations while I was there - too many; actual number of times anyone has said anything about the non-moving violations - 0. So I doubt what I'm doing with the car is pissing anyone but the most uptight off.

Wow! One cop didn't give you a ticket?! You are some kind of hypnotist.[/sarcasm]

Pontimax 01 wrote:No, compared to HID beams, 100 watt fogs aren't distracting enough to be of concern, as fogs are generally aimed low and broad across the road surface, out to about 25-30 feet. But yes, 100 watts actually is a fairly large halogen bulb, and paired with the right reflector, it could be highly annoying.

It's only really a problem on wet roads, where the reflection causes major glare for the other driver(s).

too bad for anyone that doesn't like it. I'm doing it, and I hope it continues to bother you. So get over it.

Nothing constructive to the original topic, don't post. Simple.

Edit: You actually remind me very much of Tramp.

Pontimax 01 wrote:too bad for anyone that doesn't like it. I'm doing it, and I hope it continues to bother you. So get over it.

Nothing constructive to the original topic, don't post. Simple.

Edit: You actually remind me very much of Tramp.

Tramp! That was it. I couldn't remember his name.

I actually like this thread. It's about total recklessness and disregard for the law. Spectacular!

Pontimax 01 wrote:too bad for anyone that doesn't like it. I'm doing it, and I hope it continues to bother you. So get over it.

Nothing constructive to the original topic, don't post. Simple.

Edit: You actually remind me very much of Tramp.

I think people were just trying to help ou (though yea, Shadowman, you're out of control on this one). It's not that it's illegal, but if you hit somebody or they hit you, your car insurance would not cover you since your car is "illegal".

IT is ok to do the modifications, as long as you are parked when showing them off. Doing it for show is alright, but you can get in trouble if you have them on when driving. I have gotten warnings for having a neon purple licence plate frame. Just obey the laws and you will be fine. If you drive around with red LEDs on the front of your car, you will be picked up in a heartbeat.

Show me what you are trying to change. I may be able to help you out on what you are trying to do.

Evolution Prime wrote:
Show me what you are trying to change. I may be able to help you out on what you are trying to do.

Here's a pic of the assembly. Sorry it's blurry, I borrowed it from the site I listed in the first post.

http://www.grandamgt.com/forum/attachme ... 1046791280

What it is made up of is a yellow power wire from the switch relay and a black ground. The yellow has a factory resistor on it. The wires go thru the rubber boot in the picture, it acts as a grommet to carry the wires and LED's into the back of the light fixture. The LED leads and solder points rest inside that boot, so they have to be pretty clean solders. The two LEDs are in parallel. Hella gives no specs on the original LED's or the resistor, but others have used volt meters to figure out that the resistor is in the neighborhood of 240ohms. The original LED's are a white-ish blue. They are bent 90 degrees so that they fit the length of the boot when inserted.

Supply voltage is 13.8 volts from the car. The LED's I have now are 2.6volt, 28mA. The online calculator I used calculated 430ohm resistors, so I got the closest next step up - 470ohm 1/2 watt. But now I'm finding on many other calculators that 330 seems more appropriate. Maybe the calculator I used didn't account for 2 LED's?

I tried yesterday with a pack of 1.49 LED's. But I messed up I think, because I couldn't tell the short lead from the long on one of them, and I believe I ended up with the negative going to the others positive, as only one LED would light.

Thats what sucks about LED's. Many times the leads are the same length and only through trial do you figure out which is which. Just keep flipping them till you find the right one. And about that resistor. It doesn't matter. A higher resistance only better protects you.

TheMuffin wrote:Thats what sucks about LED's. Many times the leads are the same length and only through trial do you figure out which is which. Just keep flipping them till you find the right one. And about that resistor. It doesn't matter. A higher resistance only better protects you.

On the resistor, would a higher value resistor than needed dim the LED? If it did, it'd work out better for me, as I'm not going for blinding red, just a kind of... subtle glow. I'd think the resistance would keep the LED from achieving full power. But I'm just guess?

I wouldn't think so. I think you would actually want a lower resistor if you wanted it dimmer...But it's getting super late so I more than likely am wrong. All I know is when I was building direct drive sabers, you could use whatever resistor you wanted as long as it was higher than or equal to what you needed to drive the LED. Never noticed one dimming because of that.

TheMuffin wrote:I wouldn't think so. I think you would actually want a lower resistor if you wanted it dimmer...But it's getting super late so I more than likely am wrong. All I know is when I was building direct drive sabers, you could use whatever resistor you wanted as long as it was higher than or equal to what you needed to drive the LED. Never noticed one dimming because of that.

No the higher resisitance, the dimmer the LED will be. Those resistors are typically are in series with the LED. They are current limiting resistors. The brightness of the LED depends on the current running through it. The more current, the brighter it is. The higher resistor value, the less the current will be. If you have no resistor in there, the LED wil burn out fast. As for the LED, the longer lead is the anode. If both are the same, look at the LED. It will look like there is a flag in there. The flag points to the anode. Here is a picture for you

It's been interesting to read up on the LEDs, as I've always wanted to use them for toy customs and displays, etc. I'll have to find this again when I get into it more.

As for the car itself and the illegality or not if its state, maybe you could post a pic of it? Like someone said earlier, if some of the mods you've done are only for shows when it's parked, it shouldn't be a problem when you're driving around.

I was also thinking... doesn't red light cut through water and fog better than white light?

Thanks Evolution Prime, that diagram helped. The leads looked the same length to me, but I got them right now, both LED's are functioning. I also went with the 330ohm resistor this time, and they aren't that bright. It's subtle, and with the fog on, you actually can't see the red. So I'm going to wire the Angel (hence forth Demon) eyes to the 194 bulb parking lights. That way I can just leave it in a parking lot and have my lighting on, but when I go to full illumination, the fogs cover the red and no ticket. But they look hot when I had the car outside idling in the driveway, melting off the snow.

Rogue. wrote:It's been interesting to read up on the LEDs, as I've always wanted to use them for toy customs and displays, etc. I'll have to find this again when I get into it more.

As for the car itself and the illegality or not if its state, maybe you could post a pic of it? Like someone said earlier, if some of the mods you've done are only for shows when it's parked, it shouldn't be a problem when you're driving around.

I was also thinking... doesn't red light cut through water and fog better than white light?

As requested, a pic of one of the completed lights. Really I don't see how anyone could throw a huge fit over them. They are subtle, and the fog lights completely overtake the red when I kick them on.

Edit: And the rest of the car should anyone want to see. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/302779