Project Drl In Progress

[ahmed24]

Began working on my LED DRL project. I'm waiting for an old toyota switch to arrive from eBay (£3). I'm going to paint that black and put a decal on it to say DRL (On/Off). Also waiting for a voltage regulator PCB circuit board to arrive. This will keep my DRL LED's voltage at a constant 12V instead of having the fluctuation between 14.4v and 12V.

Anyway here are a few pics of the work in progress:

Currently i'm using the clear acrylic cover with drilled & polished holes for the LED's but i'm considering either changing it with a frosted version or to get a headlight lens cover that looks like this and cut to size and cover the clear acrylic with it:

[fjcfarrar]

Began working on my LED DRL project. I'm waiting for an old toyota switch to arrive from eBay (£3). I'm going to paint that black and put a decal on it to say DRL (On/Off). Also waiting for a voltage regulator PCB circuit board to arrive. This will keep my DRL LED's voltage at a constant 12V instead of having the fluctuation between 14.4v and 12V.

Another quality project under way. The regulator is not needed for three technical reasons:-

(1) The resistor-fed LEDs tend to self-regulate light output for small voltage fluctuations much better than filament bulbs because LED light output is approximately proportional to the square of the running current. Also, regulators need an inherent minimum voltage drop to control properly; so you would need a 10V regulator if the system voltage drops to 12V.

(2) The car's own voltage regulator system means that the 12-14.4 volt range is the change in steady-state voltage with Battery temperature and charge-level and does not suddenly or quickly alter. i.e. even filament bulbs don't visibly brighten if you blip the throttle at tick-over as they would with old cars.

(3) Adding a regulator can only increase component-count/complexity and thus reduce reliability without any advantage.

[ahmed24]

Thanks for your advice.

Question for you: are you sure I won't need the regulator? Because my LED circuit board and resistors were calculated based on 12v supply and the resistors are to match that 12v supply?

[fjcfarrar]

Thanks for your advice.

Question for you: are you sure I won't need the regulator? Because my led circuit board and resistors were calculated based on 12v supply and the resistors are to match that 12v supply?

The calculations are for a nominal 12V supply which would include the usual automotive variation. Note: if you do choose fit a regulator anyway, as the car's voltage drops to 12V, a 12V regulator is likely to drop to 10 or so Volts because an excess voltage of a volt or two is needed for it to work - hence the regulator needs to be 10V type to provide a constant output. If you are going to be thorough, regulator or not, temporarily run via cigar lighter etc. and just check the resistors do not get hotter than you would expect.

[ahmed24]

The calculations are for a nominal 12V supply which would include the usual automotive variation. Note: if you do choose fit a regulator anyway, as the car's voltage drops to 12V, a 12V regulator is likely to drop to 10 or so Volts because an excess voltage of a volt or two is needed for it to work - hence the regulator needs to be 10V type to provide a constant output. If you are going to be thorough, regulator or not, temporarily run via cigar lighter etc. and just check the resistors do not get hotter than you would expect.

Thanks :) since i've already ordered the regulator, when it arrives i'll plug it into the cigar lighter and monitor the voltage with a voltmeter on a long journey and see how it works :) If it doesnt do much good then I'll just leave it out in my wiring :D I'm also waiting for some frosted headlight lens to arrive and will be attempting to make 2 types of lens and see which one ends up looking better

[Parthiban]

Wow that is amazing work how you've set the LEDs into the acrylic! Where are you planning on fitting these?

[ahmed24]

Wow that is amazing work how you've set the LEDs into the acrylic! Where are you planning on fitting these?

The lens has been cut and shaped to fit into the fog light insert section. Currently there's a black cover in that spot. I will be removing this cover and building the DRL into it.

The acrylic lens picture above is 1 option for the lens. I am attempting another option which is to cut a light-reflection sheet and drill it with the holes for the LEDs and then cover that with a headlight lens (not as transaparent as the regular acrylic) and also put some seperators to give a sqaure look between LED's rather than a round look (if you know what i mean)

I was considering building it into the OEM headlight to try and get a 2011 version OEM look. But i dont want to do it on my stock headlight. I might buy one from eBay from a breaker to experiment with it. Non HID versions go quite cheap on eBay not sure if i should settle for that for the experiement and if it works i can just open up my OEM ones :D

[Tango]

Here's a version someone has done on an IS-F

[ahmed24]

Here's a version someone has done on an IS-F

That looks nice :D but what would have been nice would be if it was longer and curved around that area. The custom DRL options are much better on the IS-F fog area because there is much more space to work with :D

[Tango]

That looks nice but what would have been nice would be if it was longer and curved around that area. The custom DRL options are much better on the IS-F fog area because there is much more space to work with

Agreed, but the IS-F intakes next to the fogs are open and functional whereas the IS250's are blanked off. I haven't seen a pic of the IS-F DRL mod in daylight but I imagine the LED strip looks a bit pants hanging in the breeze, so to speak. If you can get the 250 DRL mod behind a lens, it will look much better.:)

[ahmed24]

If you can get the 250 DRL mod behind a lens, it will look much better.:)

That's the idea. I dont like the idea of having LED's sticking out without any covering lens (it gives a really cheap look). I'm currently experimenting with a couple of different lens options (Got plenty of acrylic in my garden). Another option i was considering is to convert the black blank cover into a complete lens and make it look like it's a part of the fog housing. (Still trying all these methods, not sure which i will go with until i've tried them all)

[ahmed24]

The calculations are for a nominal 12V supply which would include the usual automotive variation. Note: if you do choose fit a regulator anyway, as the car's voltage drops to 12V, a 12V regulator is likely to drop to 10 or so Volts because an excess voltage of a volt or two is needed for it to work - hence the regulator needs to be 10V type to provide a constant output. If you are going to be thorough, regulator or not, temporarily run via cigar lighter etc. and just check the resistors do not get hotter than you would expect.

I got my voltage regulator PCB yesterday. The board uses a low drop out regulator which has a drop out typically of 0.5V @ 1 amp, so even if car voltage drops to 12v, the regulator will still give 11.5v output. I'm going to hook it up to the cigar lighter and a voltmeter during a long 2 hour drive and log the voltage fluctuations and see how often the output drops below 12v. If it constantly hovers around the 12v area then i might use the regulator :)

[fjcfarrar]

The calculations are for a nominal 12V supply which would include the usual automotive variation. Note: if you do choose fit a regulator anyway, as the car's voltage drops to 12V, a 12V regulator is likely to drop to 10 or so Volts because an excess voltage of a volt or two is needed for it to work - hence the regulator needs to be 10V type to provide a constant output. If you are going to be thorough, regulator or not, temporarily run via cigar lighter etc. and just check the resistors do not get hotter than you would expect.

I got my voltage regulator PCB yesterday. The board uses a low drop out regulator which has a drop out typically of 0.5V @ 1 amp, so even if car voltage drops to 12v, the regulator will still give 11.5v output. I'm going to hook it up to the cigar lighter and a voltmeter during a long 2 hour drive and log the voltage fluctuations and see how often the output drops below 12v. If it constantly hovers around the 12v area then i might use the regulator :)

Your low drop-out regulator should be fine. The system voltage should not drop below 12V at any time the engine is running. While you have your test set-up, see if the incoming voltage to it varies to any real extent in practice. Remember added parts are added sources of failure and should be avoided unless they resolve a genuine problem.

I look forward to the final result of what I am sure is going to be another very high quality mod. I admire the care you take in adding these little niceties - which in your case are never tacky.

On a different and future subject: Auto door-mirror action needs to be capable of being disabled otherwise if something appears tight up to the car while it is parked; you can't then avoid scraping the mirror when you start up. You might think that unlikely - try Sainsburys car-park!

[ahmed24]

Remember added parts are added sources of failure and should be avoided unless they resolve a genuine problem.

Thanks for your response :) If I do end up using the regulator, I'll probably end up putting it into a small project box with quick disconnect clips so that it can be bypassed should anything go wrong :)

On a different and future subject: Auto door-mirror action needs to be capable of being disabled otherwise if something appears tight up to the car while it is parked.

Very good point :) I'll keep that in mind

[MattB]

Very good point :) I'll keep that in mind

If the mirror close on lock, is done like the IS200 Mod was - which swapped the positive and negative feed to the mirror fold switch in the door.

Then if you pushed the close button down before starting the car then they would stay shut.

I have looked fairly in depth into this project and it is not an easy one, finding the wire route through the car is painful, even with the wiring diagrams.

[Mitsumaniac]

If the mirror close on lock, is done like the IS200 Mod was - which swapped the positive and negative feed to the mirror fold switch in the door.

Someone did this mod already? Link?

[Parthiban]

If the mirror close on lock, is done like the IS200 Mod was - which swapped the positive and negative feed to the mirror fold switch in the door.

Someone did this mod already? Link?

Yep I've got it on my car as many others - have a search for "mirror closure" by a guy named Geoffers, wiring diagram and all is there.