| Author | Message | ||
     Rah7777777 |
So I finally got around to building that one-of-a-kind custom LED brake light! Also installed some LED turn signals (w/relay) traction grips and grip heaters! here is a pick of my switch mounting location for the grip heaters.........  anyhow, to the good stuff.............. so at first the rear looked like this.....  yes, yes! ugly you say!!!!!! I AGREE!!! I got super lucky and XBOB (THANKS!!!!) wanted to trade his already chopped and powdercoated rear piece for my ugly stock piece. so we traded........but i can't show you yet! I wanted my brake light to be bright, very bright! so it was off to the drawing boards...or circuit boards!  so after de-soldering many many many of these LED's from various boards from different tail lamp housings......    I was able to get the board in shape. with the help of my little dremel friend.   with fine tuning, i got it to fit nice and snug in the housing.  now it was time for mounting all those little LED's    I ran them all in individual circuits. 9 circuits in all. Each one in series. the two outer circuits have 3 LED's and one resistor each. I can't remember which resistor i used now. but it kept juice to the LED's right at there rated 2.3 volts each. with the center rows, there is 6 LED's in each circuit. at 14 volts (normal system operation) each LED's gets right at 2.3 volts.  lots of solder time! kinda hurt the hand after a while! so i joined all those little wires up for the three different circuits. #1 ground #2 constant power (driving lights) #3 Brake light I could have done it alittle easier by just having 3 wires come out of the board, but i stuffed it with too many LED's. so i didnt have room to run jumpers across the board. so 18 little wires had to do.  so thats done. now what about my license plate light since i switched to a chopped grater, you ask????? I drilled 6 holes to install some clear LED's. I used some chrome LED holders. (could not find black metal ones)  Here is a basic pic of the 6 string LED's. Its basically 2 different circuits. each with 3 LED's and one resistor.  what a wiring mess........ but it works!  also installed some basic LED turn signals. Honestly, don't like them too much. I'll have to upgrade the LED's! here she is, with just the running lights (no brake applied) (both side sets only, 6 LED's total)  here is brake applied, so all 48 LED's light up the sky!   Its BRIGHT!!!! real freaking BRIGHT! The camera can't pick it all up. When you hit the right angle, it hurts your eyes. Im impressed with the job. I love how it looks with the brake not applied. having just the two little strips on each side of the lens and then the pretty license plate lights. looks good to me!  | ||
| Glitch |
Good job! With the write up too. Nice going. | ||
| Sub65chris |
very nice i will be using this post for a reference later. great job! | ||
| Fireflyer |
Great post. | ||
| Brad1445 |
awesome | ||
| Treadmarks |
Great job man. I think I found my next mod! | ||
| Isham |
You should sell a few. I'd buy one. | ||
| Rah7777777 |
Sell some? Hmmm........ I like the direction your going in Isham! What would you'll be willing to pay for such a light? I have no idea what to charge. I would have to sit down and look at the costs spent and what not. if anyone is serious, send me an offer and we'll go from there. I would have no problem in building a few more. Of course i'd have to make it look a little "neater", if i sold one :-) For those of you who are going to build your own, be very careful on the LED's you use! DO NOT use those cheap everyday 2-prong LED's! They are not bright enough! The LED's i used are from Phillips (lumileds) and there out of taillamps off of some european cars. If you look at the close up pic, you can see I used half 5mm dome, and half 3mm dome. 4-prong LED's. the 5mm ones are brighter, but i couldnt get enough for the whole board. but those 3mm are pretty bright as well. so I just did every other one 5mm/3mm. came out perfect!!! | ||
| Glitch |
Sponsorship, and you'll be able to have BadWeB as a customer base! | ||
| Rah7777777 |
Sponsorship, exactly how does this work? Im in the dark in that area. | ||
| Glitch |
If you sponsor the BadWeB. You can advertise your wares here on the BadWeB, just like all the other sponsors here. You can sell your tail light, and any other products you have, or come up with. You get a link to your website, banner ads, and your own area in the sponsorship area on BadWeB. And if someone with out sponsorship tries to start selling tail lights, we stop them, protecting your consumer base here on BadWeB. | ||
| Rah7777777 |
I see! makes perfect sense to me. So do you have to donate a percent of the sale, or is there minimum amount one must donate per month? How does that work? My initial thoughts were to show off my light, not sell them. but after thinking it over, i would love to build some and sell them. But i want to do it the right way. and thats only if there is a demand. and the price is fair. | ||
| Isham |
Make em 50 bucks and i'd buy one. Most companies would charge 200 bucks for a product like this but you wont get many sales if it's up that high. When you feel comfortable doing the buells you could even build lights for other bikes. The Jap riders would give you even more money for them. I'm starting to see LED mounted onto rearsets now also You could buy a bunch of LEDs from www.mouser.com | ||
| Rah7777777 |
Unfortunately $50 would be a no go. Theres close to that just in parts. Those dag um LED's are not cheap. (and with 48 of 'em) If i were to sale them (after setting sponsorship up) i would probably just buy them, instead of de-soldering a whole lot of them from various boards (not sure i can gather too many more tail lamp housings up) I was thinking $150 per board. (w/full one year warranty) but thats testing the waters. If there is any interest, then i'll have to set up sponsorship and go from there. P.S. anyone know how to set up sponsorship? | ||
| Badlionsfan |
PM Blake, he's the man who'll take your money. | ||
| Rah7777777 |
ok, well if i do get any serious buyers, i'll get with blake and see how much of the cut he wants, haha!! But im not really going to try to sell my heart out here. | ||
| G234146 |
Very cool!  | ||
| Sleez |
robert, they turned out real nice. good job i am working on one as well, that is programmable, you can have an arrow scroll when you turn and say "STOP" when you apply the brakes. or you could program anything you want it to say or do! more to follow. | ||
| Teddagreek |
I work in the Traffic Industry Lumileds are in quite a few different brands of LED Traffic Signal Lamps... Very Cool mod..... | ||
| Rah7777777 |
just as an update with the whole selling idea. I have at least one serious buyer for $150. And I have sent emails to the proper folks about sponsor status (Blake. but no replies yet) So i guess i'll get started on #2 and hope Blake gets back with me soon. But I need to order some LED's so I guess it will be a slow process anyhow. | ||
| Manimal |
Sorry, i'm playing catch up. I missed your post earlier but Rah. Nice job on the custom tailight. I bet with the quality of LED and the amount (48) its dam near hard to look at. It looks pretty clean though. Nice Job | ||
| Rah7777777 |
Thank you! But as an update, I have found out that only half of the LED's i used were authentic lumiled LEDS! If you look at my pic, the 5mm big dome LEDs are some knock offs!!! The small 3mm LEDs are the real deal! So I have put in a rather large order for the real deal Lumileds in. And plan on building all future boards with only lumileds. i do not want any premature failures. Im planning on building a few boards for sale. And trying to work out the details with Blake on selling them here. (he is out of town right now) And at the same time trying to get a website up and running. Once I get with Blake some more, I'll hopefully be able to tell you'll what that site is! | ||
| Diablobrian |
Your brake light looks great! I wish I had the money to buy one. I know that the aux LED brake light strip I added below my plate is a big attention getter, and I'm sure that this is an even better option than that. Good job, and a great detailed write-up.  | ||
| Kyrocket |
I'll hopefully be able to tell you'll what that site is! ...and possibly branch out to pick up some of the old school tuber crowd????} | ||
| Rah7777777 |
"...and possibly branch out to pick up some of the old school tuber crowd????}" I'd love the chance to make some for the older buellers out there! Problem is getting a hold of a bike so i can model it off of. But I will see what I can do. I'm really excited about doing this. And hope it goes well. Ive come to the conclusion that (for the XB models) I'll do a complete tail light assembly (sealed w/new lens) for $175 or with built in turn signals for $185. and offer a $20 rebate to anyone who returns there old housing. But more details to come. Gotta get with Blake some more......... As $60 a month to sponsor is a little steep right now, since I don't think i'll be selling tons of these bads boys. But hopefully, it will get to the point where 60 a month is no big deal. we shall see. | ||
| Buellshyter |
I dont want to be a party pooper but you can buy these off the internet specifically for the XB. | ||
| Teddagreek |
http://www.heavycycles.com/ | ||
| Ccryder |
Robert: Just a word, or two, to the wise, "Market research". Some people have already gone down this road with high end LEDs and lower end LEDs. Before you go investing too much in this one product you may want to research what's left of the market you are going after. Neil S. | ||
| Rah7777777 |
I did some research, and found there is NO one that comes close to my price! especially for the quality! One well known company sells the sealed unit for $344. another company for $259. and another i found has an LED board for $89, but half of the board is turn signals. leaving only half for brake lights, defeating the purpose if you ask me. oh and last but not least we can't forget about the LED "replacement" bulbs, which are well known for being crappy. So I think my pricing is more than fair. $175 for a sealed unit (housing, LED board, Lens) add $10 bucks and i'll install turn signals. Plus send me your old housing and i'll give you $20 back! so you could come out of the deal, for $165 (after housing core) for an LED sealed tail lamp thats super bright with built in turn signals. or $155 (after core) and have just a bright bright brake light My second board is much much neater than the first one (posted above) and I believe the quality is excellent. Oh, and a full 1 year warranty. Plus, i'm being a realist here. i know i'm not going to make millions on these things. Just figured its a good way to make a little change, and supply some good buellers with a quality product thats not outrageously priced. And im not investing too much into this all. The website is pretty cheap. Who knows................... | ||
| Dwunundabkr |
on ya mate no harm in trying and hope all goes good for ya i hope the exchange rate comes up soon so i can order one |
