D@ve
02-01-2006, 11:09 PM
I just installed a centre brake light in my 2nd gen TR and i thought i might try give a tutorial but i dont have a digital cam so it might be difficult to understand. but i will try to explain everything as best i can.
The centre brake light in a TR has a direct link to the battery via the brake pedal even wen the cars off!! (well mine does)
I removed the entire light and enclosure, (the most important part is the silve bit and red filter, this is where it will al go. To remove the current globe pull DONT TWIST, omg how many ppl i have seen try and twist. U twist the black thing the lights in to get it out the enclosure but not the globe its self.
First things first u hav 2 choose the right amount of LED's, right amount of resistors and right LED's and resistors, they are not all the same.
I have already done the calculations and found that i needed 14 LED's and 7 resistors
Parts:
The LED's are ones i got from Dick Smith Part No. Z 4074
(make sure they r red lights as they actually have a clear outside)
The resistors i also got from Dick Smith were 330 ohms with 5% tolerance.
(the ones with 2 orange stripes a brown and then a gold stripe, in that order)
I had 2 long wires about 22cm long, one for positive one for negative. (Thick enough to easily handle 12-15v to ensure no problems.)
A proper wire stripper makes this job alot easier and so does a proper crimper.
5mm Bullet connectors Male and Female, u only need one of each, but i suggest buying them in packs of 15, 20 or 30 they are my favourite connectors, its wat im using on my sound system.
Soldering iron, solder and skill. lol
Heat shrink tubing, not completely necessary but recommended (can be bought at Dick Smith)
Wire cutters and pliers.
Okay now the fun begins:
Completely strip the 2 long wires and cut 7x(6-7mm) pieces out of the tubing.
1.
Tin the 2 long wires with the soldering iron. (cover it in solder so that it is easier to attach the parts). (DO NOT SMOTHER IT, just a thin layer of solder which appears as though u changed the colour of the wire so it is chrome, not copper.)
2.
Now pick one LED and put one tubing piece (6-7mm long) on the negative leg of the LED and wrap the rest of that leg around one of the wires so that the LED uses the tubing as a spacer and so that the LED is up right. (The negative leg is the leg coming out of the small side of the LED (if u look inside it has a rectangle piece with a slice thru it the smaller piece is the negative side)). (only wrap the leg around once, dont worry about the excess) (The negative leg is the shorter one, i just noticed this and added it)
3. Solder the LED about 1 cm from the end of the wire, so that the negative leg is positioned as in step 2 (Try not to bend the positive leg). Repeat the procedure with 6 other LED's making sure there is almost exactly 2cm between the centre of each LED to the one next to it. Make sure all LED's are as close to being inline as possible as it can be a ***** to try and move them around a bit after. (There should be a total of seven evenly space LED's with tubing around the negative leg). (Try to solder as fast as possible as if u take too long u can damage the LED's, i did this, i gotta replace 2 this wednesday wen Dick Smith is open)
4. after they are all on, facing the right way and evenly spread cut off the excess of the negative legs and put them in a place where u wont lose em so u can bin everything later. (Put a finger on the bit that ur cutting off as if it goes flying u might not find it till a couple weeks later wen it shows up in ur foot :redface:).
5. Try make all the LED's face the same way (positive on the left negative on the right etc) and bend all the positive legs individually so that they have a right angle in them that is about 2-3mm away from the long wire. The leg should bend so that it runs parallel to the long wire, with 2-3mm gap between the 2.
6. Cut off the postive legs so there is about 1cm of each of them running parallel to the wire.
7. Now for the other LED's, grab one and put it down next to one of the LED's that have been soldered to the wire. Try to accurately bend the negative leg of the unsoldered LED so that it is about the same distance from the wire as the others (LED's in a line, if u hold the wire so the LED's are vertical the unsoldered one is about the same height as the others) and cut the leg so that it is about 1cm and overlaps a soldered LED's positive leg.
8. The next step is to trim the legs of the 2 LED's which are going to go together so that the unsoldered one is about centre between 2 soldered LED's. (once again careful not to overheat the LED's) Repeat step 7 and 8 for the rest of the unused LED's.
9. Okay know u should have a wire with 7 LED's attached with spacers and LED's soldered to the other LED's, now for the resistors. Pick up a resistor and place it so that its up against the newly soldered LED's positive leg and up against the bottom of the LED, it should run parallel to the leg, that general direction. Wrap a leg of the resistor around the positve leg of the LED and leave the other resistor leg pointing up past the LED. (it doesn't matter which way the resistors face as they work both ways.)
10. solder the resistor leg and and LED positive leg without overheating the LED and with out connecting it to the long wire (this can become a problem). cut off the legs of the resistor and LED so that it intersects the long wire and protrudes about 2-5mm, or wateva is needed so that the connection doesnt break. Place heat shrink tubing over the complete connection and resistor so that the tubing comes up to the bottom of the LED, hold it there while blowing it with hot air, holding a soldering iron close to it or using something that makes heat to shrink the tubing. If its good tubing it should cover almost the entire resistor and connection skin tight. (The wire can stick out the end as long as it doesnt hav a chance of touching the long wire).
11. repeat step 9 and 10 for the other resitors. After that trim back the long wire so that it is as short as possible.
12. Okay now the tubing in this is optional but it does help prevent damage to the LED's, i just dont know how well i can explain it. Bend the resitor leg that is sticking out downwards so that it makes a right angle to the resistor and then bend it again about 4mm down the leg so that it runs parallel to the long wire, bend all resistors legs the same so the all point the same way. Now pick up the other long wire thats just been sitting there. Bring it under the LED's so that the wire runs along all of the bent resistor legs. Dont just go and solder them all.
13. Okay now for the hard part 2 explain so try stay with me. Say the end of one of the resistors legs is the front, k, u want to solder the resistor that would be all the way at the back first. Solder it to the Wire so that the wire seems to have about the same length of wire coming out each end of the LED set up ( The LED's should take up about 14cm so the wire shoul have about 4 cm hanging out each end ) Then after that, slip some more heat shrinking tubing over the wire so that it covers the connection but doesnt interfere with the next resistors leg. You may have to cut the legs a bit so they fit. Repeat this with each one slowly moving to the front, this way u will have protection on the wire all the way down. This wire with all the protection is the positive wire.
14. Okay this is where mine is probably different to yours, I was unable to disconnect the connection under where the light is mounted, it is white and long connection, i gave up and just cut it and put bullet connectors on each wire, a male on one, a female on the other, that way i dont mix positive and negative. The black wire is the negative. Solder a little wire about 5-6cm long to anywhere on the long wire on your LED set up which has no protection on it (the wire with the LED with spacers directly soldered to it).
15. Take the silver and red thing that the set up will sit in and mould the positive wire ends around so that it follows th curves on both sides (make sure the wire wont come into contact with any other part of the set up). (i havent thought of a really good way to keep it secured quite yet, but by wat i can see it doesnt really need it.) Attach a wire to the positive wire (the one with curves at the end) at either end and slip a heat shrinking tube piece over as much as the connection as possible.
16. Fit the appropriate connectors to the ends of the wires attached to the setup, remember the positive has all the protection and the black wire in the car is negative (u can check this with a voltmeter if u dont trust me) Try not to stuff up the connectors, if the negative in the car is male, the one on the setup should be female, and vice versa. After the connectors are all on plug it all together and put it all back in ur car. And there u go an LED brake light, i'm currently thinking up how to do the rear tail lights. U should never have to replace the LED's if any1 was wondering (But then again i did overheat 2 soldering and i gotta replace them) I cant show pics as i dont hav a camera. :cry:
I am willing to help someone put it together if they need it, well only during January and other school holidays or weekends. Good luck ppl and pm if u encounter problems, the LED's are only 90c each and the resistors even cheaper so it is cheap and relatively easy, depending on how well i explained it.
The centre brake light in a TR has a direct link to the battery via the brake pedal even wen the cars off!! (well mine does)
I removed the entire light and enclosure, (the most important part is the silve bit and red filter, this is where it will al go. To remove the current globe pull DONT TWIST, omg how many ppl i have seen try and twist. U twist the black thing the lights in to get it out the enclosure but not the globe its self.
First things first u hav 2 choose the right amount of LED's, right amount of resistors and right LED's and resistors, they are not all the same.
I have already done the calculations and found that i needed 14 LED's and 7 resistors
Parts:
The LED's are ones i got from Dick Smith Part No. Z 4074
(make sure they r red lights as they actually have a clear outside)
The resistors i also got from Dick Smith were 330 ohms with 5% tolerance.
(the ones with 2 orange stripes a brown and then a gold stripe, in that order)
I had 2 long wires about 22cm long, one for positive one for negative. (Thick enough to easily handle 12-15v to ensure no problems.)
A proper wire stripper makes this job alot easier and so does a proper crimper.
5mm Bullet connectors Male and Female, u only need one of each, but i suggest buying them in packs of 15, 20 or 30 they are my favourite connectors, its wat im using on my sound system.
Soldering iron, solder and skill. lol
Heat shrink tubing, not completely necessary but recommended (can be bought at Dick Smith)
Wire cutters and pliers.
Okay now the fun begins:
Completely strip the 2 long wires and cut 7x(6-7mm) pieces out of the tubing.
1.
Tin the 2 long wires with the soldering iron. (cover it in solder so that it is easier to attach the parts). (DO NOT SMOTHER IT, just a thin layer of solder which appears as though u changed the colour of the wire so it is chrome, not copper.)
2.
Now pick one LED and put one tubing piece (6-7mm long) on the negative leg of the LED and wrap the rest of that leg around one of the wires so that the LED uses the tubing as a spacer and so that the LED is up right. (The negative leg is the leg coming out of the small side of the LED (if u look inside it has a rectangle piece with a slice thru it the smaller piece is the negative side)). (only wrap the leg around once, dont worry about the excess) (The negative leg is the shorter one, i just noticed this and added it)
3. Solder the LED about 1 cm from the end of the wire, so that the negative leg is positioned as in step 2 (Try not to bend the positive leg). Repeat the procedure with 6 other LED's making sure there is almost exactly 2cm between the centre of each LED to the one next to it. Make sure all LED's are as close to being inline as possible as it can be a ***** to try and move them around a bit after. (There should be a total of seven evenly space LED's with tubing around the negative leg). (Try to solder as fast as possible as if u take too long u can damage the LED's, i did this, i gotta replace 2 this wednesday wen Dick Smith is open)
4. after they are all on, facing the right way and evenly spread cut off the excess of the negative legs and put them in a place where u wont lose em so u can bin everything later. (Put a finger on the bit that ur cutting off as if it goes flying u might not find it till a couple weeks later wen it shows up in ur foot :redface:).
5. Try make all the LED's face the same way (positive on the left negative on the right etc) and bend all the positive legs individually so that they have a right angle in them that is about 2-3mm away from the long wire. The leg should bend so that it runs parallel to the long wire, with 2-3mm gap between the 2.
6. Cut off the postive legs so there is about 1cm of each of them running parallel to the wire.
7. Now for the other LED's, grab one and put it down next to one of the LED's that have been soldered to the wire. Try to accurately bend the negative leg of the unsoldered LED so that it is about the same distance from the wire as the others (LED's in a line, if u hold the wire so the LED's are vertical the unsoldered one is about the same height as the others) and cut the leg so that it is about 1cm and overlaps a soldered LED's positive leg.
8. The next step is to trim the legs of the 2 LED's which are going to go together so that the unsoldered one is about centre between 2 soldered LED's. (once again careful not to overheat the LED's) Repeat step 7 and 8 for the rest of the unused LED's.
9. Okay know u should have a wire with 7 LED's attached with spacers and LED's soldered to the other LED's, now for the resistors. Pick up a resistor and place it so that its up against the newly soldered LED's positive leg and up against the bottom of the LED, it should run parallel to the leg, that general direction. Wrap a leg of the resistor around the positve leg of the LED and leave the other resistor leg pointing up past the LED. (it doesn't matter which way the resistors face as they work both ways.)
10. solder the resistor leg and and LED positive leg without overheating the LED and with out connecting it to the long wire (this can become a problem). cut off the legs of the resistor and LED so that it intersects the long wire and protrudes about 2-5mm, or wateva is needed so that the connection doesnt break. Place heat shrink tubing over the complete connection and resistor so that the tubing comes up to the bottom of the LED, hold it there while blowing it with hot air, holding a soldering iron close to it or using something that makes heat to shrink the tubing. If its good tubing it should cover almost the entire resistor and connection skin tight. (The wire can stick out the end as long as it doesnt hav a chance of touching the long wire).
11. repeat step 9 and 10 for the other resitors. After that trim back the long wire so that it is as short as possible.
12. Okay now the tubing in this is optional but it does help prevent damage to the LED's, i just dont know how well i can explain it. Bend the resitor leg that is sticking out downwards so that it makes a right angle to the resistor and then bend it again about 4mm down the leg so that it runs parallel to the long wire, bend all resistors legs the same so the all point the same way. Now pick up the other long wire thats just been sitting there. Bring it under the LED's so that the wire runs along all of the bent resistor legs. Dont just go and solder them all.
13. Okay now for the hard part 2 explain so try stay with me. Say the end of one of the resistors legs is the front, k, u want to solder the resistor that would be all the way at the back first. Solder it to the Wire so that the wire seems to have about the same length of wire coming out each end of the LED set up ( The LED's should take up about 14cm so the wire shoul have about 4 cm hanging out each end ) Then after that, slip some more heat shrinking tubing over the wire so that it covers the connection but doesnt interfere with the next resistors leg. You may have to cut the legs a bit so they fit. Repeat this with each one slowly moving to the front, this way u will have protection on the wire all the way down. This wire with all the protection is the positive wire.
14. Okay this is where mine is probably different to yours, I was unable to disconnect the connection under where the light is mounted, it is white and long connection, i gave up and just cut it and put bullet connectors on each wire, a male on one, a female on the other, that way i dont mix positive and negative. The black wire is the negative. Solder a little wire about 5-6cm long to anywhere on the long wire on your LED set up which has no protection on it (the wire with the LED with spacers directly soldered to it).
15. Take the silver and red thing that the set up will sit in and mould the positive wire ends around so that it follows th curves on both sides (make sure the wire wont come into contact with any other part of the set up). (i havent thought of a really good way to keep it secured quite yet, but by wat i can see it doesnt really need it.) Attach a wire to the positive wire (the one with curves at the end) at either end and slip a heat shrinking tube piece over as much as the connection as possible.
16. Fit the appropriate connectors to the ends of the wires attached to the setup, remember the positive has all the protection and the black wire in the car is negative (u can check this with a voltmeter if u dont trust me) Try not to stuff up the connectors, if the negative in the car is male, the one on the setup should be female, and vice versa. After the connectors are all on plug it all together and put it all back in ur car. And there u go an LED brake light, i'm currently thinking up how to do the rear tail lights. U should never have to replace the LED's if any1 was wondering (But then again i did overheat 2 soldering and i gotta replace them) I cant show pics as i dont hav a camera. :cry:
I am willing to help someone put it together if they need it, well only during January and other school holidays or weekends. Good luck ppl and pm if u encounter problems, the LED's are only 90c each and the resistors even cheaper so it is cheap and relatively easy, depending on how well i explained it.