DIY - Changing Car Bulb Lamp to LED

The reason I am replacing incandescent light bulb to LED lights is because the advantages of LED lighting are:

• Size: LEDs can be very small and are easily populated onto printed circuit boards. 
• Efficiency: LEDs produce more light per watt than incandescent bulbs. Their efficiency is not affected by shape and size, unlike light bulbs. 
• Focus: The solid package of the LED can be designed to focus its light. light bulb sources often require an external reflector to collect light and direct it in a usable manner.
• Slow failure: LEDs mostly fail by dimming over time, rather than the abrupt burn-out of incandescent bulbs.
• Shock resistance: LEDs, being solid state components, are difficult to damage with external shock, unlike incandescent bulbs which are fragile. 
• Color: LEDs can emit light of an intended color without the use of the color filters that traditional lighting methods require. This is more efficient and can lower initial costs. 
• Lifetime: LEDs can have a relatively long useful life. One report estimates 35,000 to 50,000 hours of useful
• life: though time to complete failure may be longer. Incandescent light bulbs at 1,000–2,000 hours. 
• On/Off time: LEDs light up very quickly. A typical red indicator LED will achieve full brightness in microseconds. 

In this project, I will replace the rectangular lights. After opening the screw, looks bulb which is T2 type.

Incandescent Bulb Lamp

Many types of LED lights can be used to replace the bulb. On my first experiment, I use a Red 5x7 dot matrix LED. the reason is because it is easy to be made and installed.

The voltage from car battery is 12 volt. While the voltage needed to power each LED is 1.7 volt. Resistor is needed to reduce 12 volt into 1.7 volt. To save the number of components and place, then only use a single resistor 22 Ohm, 8 Watts. All components are placed in a Pritend Circuit Board (PCB) and each pin of LED dot matrix assembled as schematic as shown below.

Schematic Diagram

After releasing the incandescent light bulb and its holder. The next step attach reflector lamp module above using double-sided tape.

5x7 dot matrix LED

The final step is closing the outer reflector and performed tests on the system by using a 12 volt battery voltage.

LED Lamp

Performance test

These lights can be attached under the bumper as a 3rd brake or the rear fog lamp.

Installed Lamp

Have fun with this experiment.

With creative and innovative tinkering, we will get the satisfaction of creation !


Take a look to my other experiments:

• Changing Car Bulb Lamp to Superbright LED