good news is i should ave a set of headlights comming from london area sometime soon with a bit of luck... and im gonna try to wangle a freebie out of the engineering company that work use to laser cut/flowjet me a set of mounting plates for the projector units in the new year. im doing a bit of research into getting the lens part of the oem headlight glasses ground down to make them clear hopefully at minimal cost and MAYBE free i know a guy who works for EADS Astrium in Stevenage who knows his onions about all things milling and machining just to give you an update

right then... ive just had a thought... the rear led's i want to use are set up for 24v not 12v the resistors in the circuit board im assuming will be of a certain value so if im running them on 12v im guessing i would have to drop the resistor value

Or if, for example it is 8 3-volt LEDs in series, modify the circuit so you have two sets of four LEDs in series, in parallel.

right then front side light question!

i have acquired a couple of LED "bars" (similar to the ones used in BMW tail lights) the ones you shine an LED up the end of and it has ridges in to deflect the light outwards... anyway my problem is do i use these or carry on with the idea of putting a ring of LEDs around the reflector in my projector units...

personally i think they would both look amazing i just cant decide on which one i want...

does anyone know if the effectiveness of a fresnel lens is dependant on the distance of the light source from the lens?

Quite likely, given that moving a magnifying glass closer to and further away from an object varies the magnification. The position of the light source behind the lens may also be a factor.

richydraper said:

does anyone know if the effectiveness of a fresnel lens is dependant on the distance of the light source from the lens?

Click to expand...

Yes

Cheers

SPD

bluedangroup:- cheers
rallycinq:- oh good your doing that short answer thing again

im thinking of placing the lenses of the projector units right up against the h/light glass maybe 5mm gap.

given that the projector lenses will be emitting a "finished" beam pattern, will the fresnel of the OE h/light give adverse effects at this distance?

richydraper said:

bluedangroup:- cheers
rallycinq:- oh good your doing that short answer thing again

im thinking of placing the lenses of the projector units right up against the h/light glass maybe 5mm gap.

given that the projector lenses will be emitting a "finished" beam pattern, will the fresnel of the OE h/light give adverse effects at this distance?

Click to expand...

Probably, as they are meant to have an 'unfinished' light source behind them, which they then magnify/bend - you could try making one unit, clip (rather than glue) the lens on and see how it looks against a wall at varying distances compared to a standard unit. Might be time the abrasive polish out after all, if you're keeping the lenses

[edit] The units you will be installing will have been manufactured, tested and approved for road use (I hope), sticking the fresnel lens in front of them might make them un-roadworhty as they might not class as being approved any more.

BlueDanGroup said:

... The units you will be installing will have been manufactured, tested and approved for road use (I hope), sticking the fresnel lens in front of them might make them un-roadworhty as they might not class as being approved any more.

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they wont be un-roadworthy as they have come out of an e-marked unit but the legalities are all a little vague (see post #13). i think ill have to bite the bullet and get the emery and polish out *wait for the unreadable post due to "wnakers crap"*

to be honest this build is all a little sketchy... but i find it hard to believe that you can buy approved projector replacements but if you should want to build your own with equipment from an approved source then all of a sudden its not strictly approved... but like i said in post #13 who ultimately would uphold the legislation?

heres where ive got to in 2 months

leds for the rear lights (red and amber) are out of the first 3 units (got another 3 to do) no whites for reverse yet tho
gaffer having a word with the local fab company about mounting plates for the projector units at some point this week
white led collection comming along for the front sidelights
guy not got back to me about donor h/light units so i think its a lost cause atm
still trying to decide whether to go for philips blue vision or night breakers
cant decide wheter to go with tinted front lamps, clear lexan lens or modify original glass lens

just thought id keep you all posted... oh yeah the White LED Dash conversion happened last week with a set of custom dials

Good to see you didn't lose interest and not bother after all, you'll have to post some pics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47570594@N07/

failing that working go on flicker and search for 'richydraper1' and you will soon be there... thats where all updates (photo-wise) will be

hey i like your pic of a cinq dash, how do you get it to look like that ?

its an aftermarket dial set, buy them off ebay et al

cut up your current dash display and stick this in its place

yeah man you got it but no ebay involved in this one (apart from the LEDs and resistors for the lighting) theres a guy i know from the celica forums that does custom dials and all sorts of decals and full body wraps amongst other things i worked with him for the dial kit!

Flickr link works fine, you'd probably gathered as much by now

I take it they are 'proper' ones then ie on some thin plastic rather than paper?

Are the standard needles white and you scraped the red off them, or did you replace them altogether?

yes mate standard needles with the red scraped off painted them white...
your right they are proper plastic ones he builds them with a clear layer then puts the colour portions on and finally he lays the face clolor they look amazing in the day or at night i couldnt be any happier


ive just talked to the guy who did the dials as they werent a perfect fit i had to cut down the speedo and heater control faces to get them to fit... turns out i gave him the wrong measurements for them... WHOOPS, so when i get a few pennies he will remake them to the right measurements... so im shipping my originals off to him so he can measure and create a "blank" at which point he will probably be offering them on his website for anyone to buy.

richydraper said:

... so im shipping my originals off to him so he can measure and create a "blank" at which point he will probably be offering them on his website for anyone to buy.

Click to expand...

Neato, I might be up for a set as long as I can have them without the text by the fuel/temp gauges. If he makes them per order rather than in batches maybe tell him about the slightly lower red line on the 1.2, maybe some people who have swapped would prefer that to be reflected on the dials.

hell put any colours anywhere and logos on the dials anywhere.

i asked him to put his "signature" on them somewhere and he did i think it was a nice touch to make it illuminated... i have a pearlescent fiat logo between the odometer and "60" too ill have to take a pic in day light. he want the originals for sizing, hole positions and scaling for the gauges more than styling so if the 1242's run a lower redline then all you would have to do is tell him which "bar" you wanted the red to start at.

sorry guys for now your out of luck on me distributing his web page and email as he is rammed with a group buy on another forum ill get these originals posted off to him and ill keep pestering him to let me distribute his details but it could be a month or so before he's ready to accept many more orders... trust me its well worth the wait