Finally starting my retrofit w/ custom switchback turns

I have had the parts lying around for way too long and after many design changes, I have gotten around to starting my retrofit. I guess I got sick of having the parts consuming my "project room"...I figure starting this thread might also help keep me on track a bit better.

In the same vein as my license plate lights, I have figured out a way that I "needed" to design a few circuit boards and get what (I hope) will end up being a pretty neat end product.

At this point I've only gotten the LEDs mounted to the switchback turn signal boards. There will be 24 LEDs in each strip under the headlights. On each side, 12 white and 12 amber. The LEDs alternate down the strip.

Here is a blank board and one with the white LEDs installed:



Top board white only, bottom board both amber and white:



Two complete boards (LED-wise):



The backs loaded with flux:



I'm at a standstill right now as I wait for cleaning chemicals to deal with the flux. These boards are as simple as I could make them to keep most components in "control boxes" that will be under the bumper. Only remaining components on these boards are a few resistors, diodes, and a plug connector.

The "control boxes" will have most of the heat producing components including voltage regulators, capacitors and a microcontroller with some custom code on it. The microcontroller will control the intensity of the white LEDs when the headlights are turned on (dimming to a certain %). I have VLED bulbs that will go in the corner so I'll try to match the dimmed intensity when headlights are on.

The switchback function will be handled in a circuit based on one I found on HID planet and modified for my needs.

Once I finish these boards, I'll do some testing and post more pictures with the LEDs lit. As they are now, they won't work.

If you have any questions or comments, let me know.

It looks clean. I'm interested in how it turns out. My only regret from when I did my retro's is not adding LED's.

I like the LED's but in our head lights I'm on the fence about it. Either way it should be awesome.

how will you get those boards to fit? doesn't look like they're flexible

agginline86 said:

how will you get those boards to fit? doesn't look like they're flexible

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my guess is these ones just fit in the straight part under high beams and low beams

Brad2274 said:

my guess is these ones just fit in the straight part under high beams and low beams

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You're right. That's where they will go. Basically, I'll remove the reflector bowls that were there for the single stock bulb on each headlight. The strips above will span the resulting gap. At least that's the plan. Once these boards are cleaned up, I'll be able to get a better idea of how they fit.

The strips might just seem longer. From end to end, they're just over 12.5" and the LEDs are spaced out just under 1/2" (just under 1" from one amber to the next and one white to the next).

HomerJay said:

You're right. That's where they will go. Basically, I'll remove the reflector bowls that were there for the single stock bulb on each headlight. The strips above will span the resulting gap. At least that's the plan. Once these boards are cleaned up, I'll be able to get a better idea of how they fit.

The strips might just seem longer. From end to end, they're just over 12.5" and the LEDs are spaced out just under 1/2" (just under 1" from one amber to the next and one white to the next).

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yeah i was trying to imagine the scale, but it's tough without seeing it next to the headlights

can't wait to see the results!

i was actually gonna ditch the reflector buckets as well, but i modified them because they should reflect more light from my strips out, tested and seems to work. without those the strips seem to light up the whole headlight and the light from the strip doesnt looks as solid

Brad2274 said:

i was actually gonna ditch the reflector buckets as well, but i modified them because they should reflect more light from my strips out, tested and seems to work. without those the strips seem to light up the whole headlight and the light from the strip doesnt looks as solid

Click to expand...

In my case, the board will effectively block off the reflector buckets. I do have clear reflector strips that go where the OEM ambers went and will sit about 1" in front of the LEDs. I was concerned that they'd be too dim. Sounds like it might be for the best in the end. We'll see...as I'm sure you know, this is a long, involved project and I've really only started to put things together.

I do have a spare set of headlights into which I'm putting all this so I'm not really in too much of a hurry, though.

sounds like you have it planned out. mines just been trial and error, finally got one strip mounted as i settled on a design, now i have to copy it over to the other reflector and paint everything, adjust projectors, then mount it all and figure out how to wire in the strips to my car, all this by sunday