Custom Led Tail Lights for 2001 Toyota Yaris

[boschfi1984]

hwt mcd led's did you use? thanks

[priamol]

Nice Tutorial! What Resistor did you use?

[qwertyui90qwertyui90]

V = IR

also WTF is up with the music ? It's a toyota Yaris

[mackieattack]

@qwertyui90qwertyui90 I've got a boombox and an amplifier in my Yaris so what's up with the what's up?? ;)

[sillydude99]

also one more question. What math did you use to find out what resistors you needed?

[mackieattack]

@sillydude99 I'm sorry but I don't have the time to describe all the steps for building this. It's pretty basic and I used ohm's law to calculate the right values for the resistors. I used empty sockets to hook it up to the original wires.

[rjhall90]

@mackieattack You used ohm's law with the amount of voltage and current the stack of LEDs require?

[mackieattack]

@rjhall90 Yes, the leds get 5 mA and another additional 15mA when braking (20 mA total). Check out the pdf in the description. My solution is quite low tech but it's been working flawless for 3-4 years. Pulse width modulation is another solution.

[rjhall90]

@mackieattack I had considered PWM as a better solution as well, as it allows you to get a more even amount of light across the tail lights' area. With about 50% duty cycle it should be reasonable and visible enough for daily driving use.

[sillydude99]

Oh i dont think my car will tell me if my light is out. Ha its a pretty basic car. But if it does ill keep that in mind. But heres my main question. How in the world did you hook it right up to the original wires? like what did you use for that. I am so lost at the moment on this lol

[sillydude99]

also im wanting to use these as brake lights too. will these do where they stay lit and when you tap the brakes they become brighter?

[sillydude99]

hey what kind of leds are those? im looking on building my own for my 2011 tc. any help would be greatly appreciated

[mackieattack]

@sillydude99 Hi! I bought the leds from a company called Besthongkong a couple of years ago. I'm not sure these are the exact ones I used but google for BURLC333W20BA25 and you will find red 5mm high intensity led on their site.

WOW! Soon 20k views! :D

[sillydude99]

@mackieattack Thanks man. Could you also help me with this then. How to actually hook them up? i know i got to solder them and all. I get the just of it. I know i need to get some type of board (cant remember the name) to hold the leds on. Also i know i need to wire them but thats where it gets confusing. HOw do you determine what type of resistors you need, and also how to run it all to plug right back into the car. (if you know what i mean). um if you want u can fb to make things simple

[sillydude99]

@mackieattack Thanks man. Could you also help me with this then. How to actually hook them up? i know i got to solder them and all. I get the just of it. I know i need to get some type of board (cant remember the name) to hold the leds on. Also i know i need to wire them but thats where it gets confusing. HOw do you determine what type of resistors you need, and also how to run it all to plug right back into the car. (if you know what i mean). um if you want u can fb to make things simple

[mackieattack]

@sillydude99 Check out the description for this clip. There is a link to a pdf with the schematics I used to build my taillights. All in all, it's quite lowtech design and based upon very basic electronics knowledge :)

[sillydude99]

@mackieattack Thanks man that actually helps out quite a bit. Now do all cars have 13v going to the tail lights or is that different depending on the car, and how in the world do you hook it up to the original wiring?

sorry for all the questions. Ive never actually done anything electrical like this.

[mackieattack]

@sillydude99 I'm not sure about the voltage but it should be somewhere around 13-14 volt I think. I found some empty 1156 sockets (can be seen around 1:14). Some cars might indicate that a bulb is broken when using leds because of the much lower power consumption. A solution is to connect a high wattage resistor in parallel.

[jsdodge90]

Do you take orders, for custom LED tails? I have a 2003 Maxima that I want to put LED's in my tails and I would like to know how much that would be.

[mackieattack]

@jsdodge90 Sorry, no orders. It's way too much work handbuilding stuff like this. But it seems like there already are led taillights for the 2003 Nissan Maxima. Just google for "nissan maxima 2003 led tail lights" and you will find them! :)

[njedda]

what is the name of the song in the playground?

[mackieattack]

@njedda Hi! Just check at 1:37 in the clip! :)

[GTAinHDgamer]

thanks for the schematics man!!! I realy appreciate that!!!

[aldo3g]

good job man!

[mackieattack]

@aldo3g Thanks!

[packardbell66]

@mackieattack heey man cool , looks neat i have searched but could find that plate you ussing.

whats the name of plate that you ussing..?

greetings from netherlands

[mackieattack]

@packardbell66 Thanks!

I don't know the exact name of the plates/boards I'm using but you will find it if you Google for "predrilled prototype pcb" (printed circuit board).

[onavianva]

is that a german plate?

[mackieattack]

@onavianva Near, swedish plate!

[DeeJKz]

great song choice! K.White approves!

[mgl995]

Very nice! I want to do something like this to my Blazer.

[stixs18]

who drives a yaris

[mackieattack]

@stixs18 People who care about having a reliable car with good milage. I don't need a fancy car to be awesome. Do you? ;)

[stixs18]

@mackieattack true 

[thamoja]

@mackieattack no to be an ass but fords are just as reliable (its true i looked up the numbers) get better gas mileage on many models and in in many cases are safer,

could you like make a how to for people like me who have no electrical knowledge but have mechanical knowledge

[mackieattack]

@thamoja Choose whatever you like. It's as easy as that! I don't try to persuade everybody to buy a Toyota. I'm not even sure that my next will be a Toyota but it will probably be asian :)

[meiermotorsports]

nice song. looking to do something like this for the tails of my 05legacy

[roizano]

Hi ,

Very Nice Idea !!!

Do you know how many mcd (8000-10000) you used in your leds???

Roi.

[mackieattack]

@roizano Thanks! I can't remember but I bought them from a place called Besthongkong. Unfortunately, their website seems to be down at the moment. My leds have a quite narrow beam angle which make them intense directly from behind and not that strong from the side. When I brake, the light from the leds reflect on road sign way way back. It looks cool... :)

[mrg3orge]

Very nicely done! Could you please direct me to where I could find a kit to build a board like that? I am dying to try this!

[mackieattack]

@mrg3orge It's not that hard to build yourself from scratch with a predrilled experimental pcb board and basic electronics knowledge. My version is quite lowtech and each led get 5mA and a additional 15mA (20mA total) from the brake circuit when you brake. Nonetheless, it's a basic and robust design with few parts that can fail and all leds are still working after 3-4 years! :)

[FIcaraudioBTL]

@mackieattack wow DUDE teach me

[Jasedaace]

what editing program did you use. and nice job btw. but do you know where i might find aftermarket tail lights for that same car??

[mackieattack]

@Jasedaace Hi! I used iMove which is bundled with Mac OS X. Sorry, but I have no clue where to find aftermarket tail lights for the "old" Yaris. There is plenty for the current model on Ebay.

[bradrsavidge]

wow great job!

[lanosextreme999]

Good job

[mackieattack]

@lanosextreme999 Thanks!

[AliGhanizad]

can u make a step by step guide to do this, because i have always burnt the leds while converting 12-3 volts . They work for like a minute and then burn out.

Tell me what else u used apart from resistors for protecting the leds. :)

Awesome JOB

[mackieattack]

Hi!

Thanks for you feedback! Unfortunately I don't have time to make a full tutorial right now but I will try to help you:

I'm using red 5mm high intensity leds from besthongkong (google it and you will find them). Each pcb has 28 leds and they are connected in 7 groups. Each group consists of four leds connected in series and each led have a forward voltage of 2.0 volt. This means that the four leds "consume" a total of 8 volt.

[AliGhanizad]

well thanx a lot. the next time i work with leds, i wil definately keep all this in mind. :D

[mackieattack]

(part 2)

To get different intensity for position and brake light I feed the leds with 5mA from the position light and an additional 15mA from the brake light. The leds gets a total of 20mA when braking and are really bright.

I've also connected a diode at the power source to protect the leds from reversed voltage. The diode draws about 1,3 volt I think. To calculate the resistor for each group (4 leds) for the position light "current feed": (13,5-1,3-8V)/0.005A=840 ohm.

[mackieattack]

(part 3)

Resistor for brake light current feed: (13,5-1,3-8V)/0.015A=280 ohm. I think these are the correct values.

My design is very low-tech and rely on a stable power source. If the voltage goes up, the current through the leds will increase too. I good idea is to feed the leds with a voltage regulator to make sure you have a stable source. Limiting the current to 5mA to dim the leds is not optimal and PWM-circuit (pulse width modulation) would be better.

I hope this helped! :)