Enzie

I didnt even know superbrightleds had a customer service thing

But cool! good job getting bulbs that worked O:

Im gonna have to look into that company cause im thinking of chaning the interior dome lights in my car to orange or re to match the orange lights in the radio/spedometer >_>

biglilsteve

iTrader: (2)

Thanks! And I highly recommend autolumination...they have a much larger selection of products as well. The website is a bit quirky, but they have tons of options.

biglilsteve

iTrader: (2)

So I finally got to see them at night and I am pleased.

These appear to have comparable brightness to the 45-LED towers I got from superbrightleds (the ones that kept blowing my fuse). It somewhat surprised me because these cost less than half as much as the others and only have 16 LEDs!

I have photos below, but they aren't very good. My girl took my camera and while my Evo takes great pics in well-lit environments, it is poor and inconsistent at night.

This first pic is with BOTH tails swapped out with the LEDs.



This next pic is with the LED in the left and the incandescent in the right. Any noticeable difference?



Pics are crappy, but are definitely accurately reproducing the relative brightnesses of the stock vs LED tails. What the pics are not depicting is the color reds being emitted. While it isn't a huge difference, the LEDs definitely make the stocks look washed out and cheap.

MightyP

iTrader: (1)

Yep, they look the same in the pictures. I look forward to some clearer pics where I can see the color difference. So what made you go with the 16 bulb lights vs the 48 bulb and 60 bulb ones? Was it just the price? You know if the ones with more bulbs give off more light?

Thanks again and good work.

XerotC

more glare?

biglilsteve

iTrader: (2)

I will try with my cam once I get it back from my girl, but I honestly doubt the difference will register on anything less than an SLR (which my camera is not, sigh).

Please believe the color difference is not dramatic, though. It just deepens the red a bit, but nothing extreme.

I really didn't want to step down to the 16-LED units but they were the best that were offered in CK-type. Everything with more LEDs was only available in standard 7443.

I have inquired with autolumination regarding offering more options in CK-type for 7443.

EDIT: There is no glare, just the inconsistency of my camera (different ISOs being used automatically, I believe).

MightyP

iTrader: (1)

Guess I need to do some homework. No idea what CK-type means

biglilsteve

iTrader: (2)

My apologies...I don't know why I just assumed everyone would get what that is!

7443 sockets are used primarily for dual filament/intensity bulbs (for use with tail/brake lights, or tail/brake/turn signal when the car uses the tails for turn signals). Because of this they have two sets of positives and negatives, one for each filament/intensity.

Most standard 7443 sockets are wired in a manner that places one positive and one negative on each side of the socket. We are unlucky enough to have CK-style sockets that have both positives on one side and both negatives on the other. Nice illustration below:



This difference in wiring does not affect filament bulbs because they don't care which way the current flows (my best guess...).

It does, however, cause the LED to blow a fuse when the brakes are applied. The first intensity works perfectly fine, but when the brakes are applied, the second intensity is what causes the fuse pop.

You can either pull apart the base of the bulb to rewire the bulb yourself according to that diagram, or you can rewire your car's sockets to match that diagram. I wasn't up for either of those, so I just found an LED vendor that offers them already wired to this specification.

And thanks to SquallLHeart for some help through PMs regarding this topic.

messyjesse87

do u have a link??? cant finf "ck-style" leds on the site anywhere.....

biglilsteve

iTrader: (2)

The only two options they currently have for 7443 CK's are the 15 LED Wedge Matrix for $7.99 and the 16 LED Light Tower for $9.99. They are the 9th and 10th items from the top of the page.

There isn't explicitly a link for the CK's. I had to email them to ask which 7443's they offered in CK and Chris emailed me back telling me those two are available. When you place your order, you need to add this line in the notes section: "Need GNPHOLE CK 7443 led bulbs per Chris".

They'll send you the CK ones and mine work flawlessly!

biglilsteve

iTrader: (2)

And P, I never answered your last question. I assume that ones with more LEDs are going to emit more absolute light. The thing is, for all practical purposes, I believe you hit a plateau when dealing with the red tail lenses. There is no way that the 45 LED towers I had before were truly 2.8 times brighter than the 16's I have now.

Right now the main benefit I could see from having more LEDs is going to be a more full and even spread of light in the reflector housing. But a side by side comparison between my 16-LED and the incandescent rendered no difference in fullness...

messyjesse87

Why didn't u go with the matrix? Seems a better bulb since it has a wider angle and will utilize the reflector more...

biglilsteve

iTrader: (2)

The matrix didn't have as many side-facing LEDs as the tower. I liked the balance of the 8 side-facings and the 8 front facings of the tower.

The tower fills the housing identically to the filament bulb...which is a big deal since nothing has as full of a beam pattern as a filament bulb.

MightyP

iTrader: (1)

Do you know how many lumens your taillight bulbs are putting out? I ask because I've considered doing a swap like yours, but I also want to lightly smoke the taillights, so I don't want to lose brightness.

It appears a standard 7440/7443 bulb puts out 400 lumens. The brightest LED replacement I've found puts out less than 300. (http://shop.3bspecialties.com/Vision...9SMD-White.htm) I don't know whether or not they're CK-type and would even work, but since your bulbs look as bright as regular in pictures, I was hoping you know what they're rated at.

Thanks

biglilsteve

iTrader: (2)

I really wish I could provide you with some sort of objective measurement but I can't. Autolumination doesn't list the measured output of their bulbs.

Honestly, though, I'm not sure if it would have been helpful. The 45-LED towers I tried from superbrightleds are only listed at 30/120 (tail/brake) lumens on their site. Their brightness compared to the stocks was practically identical. My current 16-LED towers also are practically identical to stocks.

I'm gonna venture to say that comparing the output in lumens of a red LED tower to a clear filament bulb is going to be apples to oranges for this purpose. When you shine a 400 lumen clear bulb through a red lens, I'd bet a small fraction of those lumens actually make it through once all the non-red wavelengths are filtered out. Shining a 120 lumen red LED through that same lens will yield just about all of the brightness and color that were originally emitted. 120 lumens of pure red vs. unknown lumens of red that are filtered from white light.

That's why everyone recommends matching the LED color with the lens it will be used behind.

And it's going to be tough finding CK-type 7443's. Something I'm considering doing to remedy this is to rewire my tail light sockets. Switch the positive and negative leads around to turn that CK socket into a standard one.

TC-Maverick

Okay, pardon my abruptness, but...... BUNK LUMENS! Use LOGIC. Love the rewire idea.. might do it myself.. anywho...

Allow me to use a couple examples to let you into my train of thought.... Choo Choo
1. Military issue flashlights(oldschool L-shaped ones with interchangeable lenses) Include Red lens, why? To use in the field. Why red? Red is nearly the lowest glare producing color. Red does not reflect well therefore allowing soldiers to see what they are doing without attracting attention to get shot.
LEDs true power is when the eye can see the actual LED directly. 90% of these LED bulbs rely on reflecting light off the inside housing...

2. Police cars: equipped with red light fixtures inside to illuminate just enough to see what he/she is doing and not produce glare being too bright.

3.Aircraft: same

4. Look at a light spectrum chart... The section marked "Visible Light" yeah Red is at the edge.. [its like looking at the difference of halogen bulbs and HID headlight bulbs on the spectrum; as they too have a difference in color and brightness]

5. Stock TC Tail Light housing: They are plastic colored Red. Not some polarized lenses designed to filter certain parts of the light spectrum. They just Tint the light.

6. Window Tint(example): makes light darker

Lucky 7. Moral of the story is you are taking a naturally darker light hue and tinting it darker resulting in nearly the same brightness even if it is a Light Emitting Diode. Use White. Thats why factory doesn't use red bulbs like they use amber in turn signals. The ONLY benefit to using red bulbs in red housing is IF (hope you don't plan on this) your housing gets broke for whatever reason and the bulb still works then you wont need brake light tape.

MightyP

iTrader: (1)

^ Kinda true.

First, red light is used in the above applications because it allows the operator to see details without losing natural night vision. How visible the operator is to others has very little to do with it. Red flashlights to allow military to read detailed maps, red gauges allow pilots/policemen to see small instruments.

Second, all tinting, whether colored or dark, filters light. Polarized lenses actually bend light (which is why you can't wear polarized sun glasses in certain applications, like flying a plane). Red lenses filter out all wavelengths other than red. Blue lenses, yellow, etc all do the same by filtering out all other colors. Thus, a red lens over a red LED functions just like a clear lens, a won't reduce light output much at all. However, put a red lens over a blue LED and and you will have significant light reduction.

This is a bit overly simplified, as there are other contributing factors to light output, color, etc, but it's basically how it works.

TC-Maverick

That diagram is not accurate... for my standard LED bulbs at least. The High + is closest to the outside edge. I did not have to open the base either. I simply got the jumper cables hooked up to my battery... found the polarity. Then grabbed the needlenose pliers pulled the -ground over next to the other -ground. Kept the outside +(high) where is was then ran the other +(low) along the edge of the wedge and folded to contact where it needed to.

BOOM! THATS RIGHT LADIES AND GENTS!
The EASIEST FIX to the Standard/CK brake light socket issue. Thanks to all you out there that clued me into the workings so I could Get Er Done

TC-Maverick

Yes well aware of the night vision. maybe should've stated that too but i thought i was overdoing it already, nevertheless the result is still the same from a less intense light spectrum. I'm still sticking with light reduction no matter what color the lens unless its clear.

MightyP

iTrader: (1)

LOL, okay. Oh, and in case I haven't said it before. Welcome to the forum!