Signature light for cheap

[whodat]

Bought a pair of Cree high output LED strips, rated for 565lumens and 6.5 watts per foot. https://gorecon.com/product/12-flex...h-power-flexible-light-strips-cree-led-white/ Unfortunately the math doesn't work out, because they also spec that they draw 285ma which works out to 4 watts. I measured it at 205.5ma @ 12.45v which works out to 2.55w. So the actual wattage consumed is less than half of what they spec, makes you wonder if the other specs are also fudged.
My son built himself an integrating sphere so if I get curious enough I'll pass it to him and have him give me an official measurement of lumens. Regardless they're pretty bright.


Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

And stickied it on where the signature light goes.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Then I drilled a hole, tessa taped the wires and ran them into the bike. I crimped on a connector to the customer accessory wire

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

And tessa taped it to match factory. Then I soldered in a 5a fuse to the mating connector (I was out of fuse holders for that size) and connected it to the light wires.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Then I taped everything up, ran the wires and added some zip ties as needed to clean it up.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

And the first test showed three dead chips. Sometimes they'd work, sometimes they'd flicker, sometimes they were off. I pulled that one off, contacted the seller, and installed the other one.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

And here's what it looks like with the replacement

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

[fulltimer]

LOOKS GREAT! But have to laugh. The first one looks like someone missing a tooth.:roflblack:

 

[whodat]

There were some cursewords said, but hey this kind of stuff happens. At least I had a spare on hand, I'll just have to wait to see what the seller says before I can carry on with the project for that one. The annoying thing is that it worked fine on the bench but failed once installed. Poking the dead section did usually bring it back to life. Grr.

 

[whodat]

Seller made good, sent me out a new one after seeing the pics. These are the ones I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PZDSZH2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[troop]

Hell .. I bought a set of (4) amber strip lights on ebay from a USA vendor for $6. Mounted (2) sets on the frunk lip and (1) strip on each side of the lower control arms. I routed the wiring to the accessory connection under the frunk. Very happy

 

[whodat]

Yup but these are significantly brighter than any regular strip light and it was intended to replicate the look of the signature light for cheap. Trust me, if I could have found a cheaper light anywhere near this brightness level I’d have bought it. You should know by now that I’m cheap. I have a few rolls of regular cheap LED strip in different colors and brightness. Nothing else I’ve seen comes close.

 

[troop]

I also tried brighter, but had similar results as you, with chipsets failing within the strip. This time (current) I went for amber for both day time visibility and accent. I have plenty of very bright LED white lights to the front. The strip lights are actually quite effective in darkness. Your current frunk lip lights are certainly bright! YMMMV ..

 

[whodat]

Lots of times to get LEDs brighter the manufacturer will overdrive them which shortens their life considerably. At a measured 205mA these are not being overdriven, it just uses better chips. But longevity is a concern, nice thing is now I have a spare.

 

[Rattlebars]

I replaced mine with a set of switchback sequential signal lights. bUrp refused to warranty my $180 signature light because the "dealer" did not report it when I told them it was burnt out (just like your bad one). Video shows my current set up with amber rolling lights in the grill and the sequential switch backs as signature. Details at the link in my sig. When you've been hit as often as I have, conspicuity is a primary goal.

 

[whodat]

Update. Once again one bank of LEDs in the array failed. These don't seem to be able to take any kind of bend at all. Oh well. The seller had sent me a new set so I had three to work with, one of which had a bad chunk so I cut all of them apart and re-spliced them together differently. Ran two where I previously had the one, and took the chunk left over from cutting out the bad set and installed it vertically behind the grille. Can't recommend these particular LEDs, they're way too expensive for how fast they fail.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

 

[whodat]

And once again Troop was shown to be correct. The strip failed yet again. I gave up and bought a cheap set off amazon that are not as bright but less than a fourth the price. If they last more than a month I'll be money ahead. Removed the bright strips, cut down the new strips and installed them in the same place. Then I took the other pair from the 4 that came in the package and replaced the one I had behind the grille.

Failed light
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Replacement
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Replacement lit
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Currently waiting for some RTV to dry that I used to fair in the ends of the strips, once that's done I'll take a reassembled pic of the lights on.

 

[whodat]

Words and whatnot to reach the minimum.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Again. I'll update the thread if these fail also.