Home made LED tail light skorpion

[Hajok]

After many busted filament bulbs I tried a multi led rear / brake light a few years ago. Although it was pretty durable, it's brightness was below par, especially when braking. Still, slowly the socket disintegrated and finally the lamp itself split.

A bit crude DIY solution was found: using a 12V "warm white" led strip (leftover) cut into 10 cm pieces is used. A total of 30 leds (12 tail light / 18 brake light) , tightly secured with adhesive tape, tie-raps en hot glue will do the job for years. Hopefully.

The led strip can be cut into 5 cm pieces, every piece dimensioned for 12V power supply.

rear light

brake light (the picture is dimmed due to auto camera exposure)

The rear light consists of the two top rows, therefore pointing downwards. The three remaining strips are the brake light. At least the ouput is improved: much brighter tail light and brake light and license plate is again illuminated.

For further optimalisation I put some aluminium adhesive tape on the bottom of the cover, except for a small window of about 1 by 3 cm. This way excessive light downwards is prevented.

[harold]

Could you show a picture of the other side, where it connects to the socket? Where did you get your LED's from?

[Hajok]

Rear attachment

Just soldered the strands straight onto the terminals.

The LED strip can je purchased at any internet shop. I bought it at a length of 5 mtr/ 15ft at Conrad (netherlands) 60 leds/mtr, about 7W/mtr. It is a waterproof version with 3M adhesive.