Re: [DML] Door LED's

["Cameron, Peter" <cameron@xxxxxxx>]

Owen made a very good point here, that one gains some tens or 
hundreds of milliseconds in turn-on time using LEDs vs incandescant 
for brake lights, which can be the difference between being hit from 
behind and not. Are LEDs available for the Delorean brake lights?


>Disclaimer:  I have no knowledge of the specific LED kit in 
>question.  I don't have LED door lights on my DMC, and when I do, 
>I'll be building them myself from my own hand-picked ultra-bright 
>LED components.
>
>That said, red and amber are probably the smart choices.  Here comes 
>the reason why, in the form of more information than you probably 
>ever wanted to know about LEDs:
>
>LEDs work by emitting light directly; not by filtering the light. 
>For example, a red LED will actually emit red light.  You don't need 
>to (and in fact you cannot) filter the LED light to make it any 
>other color.  The brightest red LEDs actually have a transparent 
>lens that looks perfectly clear when off, but the light is still 
>red. 
>
>By contrast, incandescent bulbs emit an orange-white light, which is 
>filtered by a lens to make it red/amber/whatever.  For example, a 
>red lens removes the non-red parts of the light, leaving the red to 
>pass through.  This hints at part of the reason LEDs are more 
>efficient -- they emit the desired color directly, so you don't have 
>to filter them to make them red/amber, throwing away much of the 
>light in the process.
>
>LEDs in the red/orange area of the spectrum have been around for a 
>long time, and have seen a lot of development.  Advances have 
>gradually permitted shorter and shorter wavelengths, giving us 
>yellow, green and, recently, blue and violet.  The cooler colors 
>(green/blue/violet) are harder to make in high-output form.
>
>To make a light that looks white to humans, you need to mix the 
>three colors we can see (red, green, blue).  You actually need a 
>little extra blue, because our eyes are less sensitive to blue. 
>Blue LEDs are usually less powerful, too.  Thus, a "white" LED is 
>usually four LEDs in one package: red, green, blue, blue.
>
>In addition, to give the LEDs and even whiter appearance, almost all 
>"white" LEDs use organic phospors that "glow" and enhance the 
>output.  These break down over time, dimming the output (whereas the 
>LED elements themselves will last just about forever).
>
>So, to summarize, if you use an LED that's the correct color to 
>begin with, you're benefiting because red and orange LEDs are some 
>of the most bright and efficient LEDs around, and because they're 
>turning electricity directly into light that's the color you want 
>anyway, AND they'll probably last longer than your car without 
>breaking or fading.  If you use "white" LEDs, you're using hybrid 
>LED/phosphor technology that will fade over time, cost more to begin 
>with, and require more electrical power.  On top of that, you're 
>going to put it behind a red (or amber) lens and throw away all the 
>non-red (or amber) parts of the light anyway.
>
>Aside from being more efficient, LEDs have two other major 
>advantages:  1) they're solid state (i.e. no moving parts), which 
>makes them last almost forever, and 2) they turn on instantly, 
>whereas incandescent lights fade on over the course of approximately 
>0.1-0.2 seconds.  For this reason, I believe LED brake lights are 
>safer.  0.2 seconds might not sounds like a lot, but at 65MPH, 0.2 
>seconds is about 20 feet, which I believe could make a difference in 
>a rear-end collision situation in some cases.  The instant-on effect 
>is quite jarring and grabs the attention like nothing else.  If 
>you've ever been behind a vehicle with LED turn indicators or brake 
>lights, you've probably seen what I'm describing.
>
>If you've made it this far, here's one thing I'd recommend doing if 
>you're going to use a production LED kit:  Make sure the LED color 
>matches your filter color pretty closely. 
>
>For example, if you put a red LED behind a blue filter, you WILL NOT 
>GET BLUE LIGHT.  You'll get almost nothing -- black.  This is 
>because the red LED emits only red light, and the blue filter 
>removes everything but blue, leaving NOTHING.  You would never do 
>this in practice, of course, but the same idea applies in putting a 
>red LED behind a red filter -- if the filter doesn't match the color 
>of the source light, the output will drop off severely.
>
>Regards,
>Owen
>
>VIN 10470 "1 21 GW"
>
>
>
>M. P. Olans wrote:
>>
>>
>>  Hi all,
>>       For everyone who has converted their door lights to LED's, I have
>>  a question: did you go with white LED's or red and amber?  What is the
>>  advantage/disadvantage with red and amber LED's vs. plain white?  I
>>  saw them on a car at the last show I was in and the owner said he had
>>  used red and amber LED's but felt he should have gone with white
>>  because he thought they would be brighter.  I don't know enough about
>>  LED's to know if that makes sense or not, and I know some people from
>>  the DML have done the conversion and others sell them, so I figured I
>>  would pose the question here.
>>
>>  Thanks,
>>  Matt, AZ-D VeeP
>>  VIN 16816
>
>
>
>
>
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