How do I upgraded my front sidelights to an LED light?

[davidwfaulkner]

This is a tutorial on how to upgrade the EV2 front sidelights to super bright white LED's.

LED sources:
1. Ultra high brightness LED, 17000mcd 3mm type - 5mm type is available from ebay here for example

2. 50 pcs 5mm White LED 17000mcd & Free Resistor on eBay, also LEDs, Components Supplies, Electrical Test Equipment, Business, Office Industrial (end time 29-May-08 01:40:30 BST)
but don't use the supplied resistors unless you connect one to EACH LED and then don't connect the LED's in series

3. Maplin > 3mm White LEDs. But you need greater than 15000mcd otherwise they will not be bright enough....and you MUST use a series resistor in the circuit otherwise they will blow.....for one LED 560ohm is OK, for 3 LED's in series 220ohm is OK - giving about 25mA.

Experiences:
....so why I hear you ask do we not put 6 in series with one resistor ?......because each LED "drops" about 3 volts across it, you also need to take into account the battery voltage which will vary between 12 and 14.5 volts......and you need a voltage "overhead" to ensure the current remains reasonably constant (at about 25mA) over this voltage

After a lot of experimenting I found that 3 LED's in series with a 220ohm resistor gave the best results, and there are 2 chains so if one blows the other will remain lit.

Procedure:
As you can see from the photos I drilled 6 x 3mm holes in the back of the lamps and secured it all with a hot melt glue gun which also holds the resistors and wiring in place, OK so it doesn't look very pretty but no one can see the back of the lamps and it does an excellent job of waterproofing it !
I left the bulb holder in place but removed the bulb.

At night they look really good and give a very white appearance similar to Audi and other expensive up-market cars, also they should never blow.