Light Up Skyline Sign

[Al]

Adobe Photoshop and illustrator are the shitest programs around. The programs are designed to make something simple into the most complicated, time comsumming work Use Windows paint!!!

/rant over.

Here is a schematic, drawn by hand, scanned, then completed using Paint.

PS: When buying the LED's ask the assistant what value resistors to use, i used one resister per LED.

[heslo]

Thanks buddy but one thing, what are the resistors used for?

[Al]

To increase the lifespan of the LED's, and to ensure if one LED does blow the others wont follow.

[heslo]

No worries, just started painting mine, hopefully all goes well

[Craved]

i used a single resister with them all running series from memory..

1.5 volt hi brights..

i just asked the jaycar assistant aswell .. they told me which one to use and it worked fine ..

one day i might unbolt it and get the part number for that resister and double check.

[heslo]

After mine is completed, hopefully tonight, I'll do the same and post my part numbers

[R33_Rob]

I have an S1 skyline. Do you think i should i get someone to pour paint stripper over the word SKYLINE. Obviously being careful not to spill it onto the rest of the part

[heslo]

The series 1 rear garnish needs to have the letters SKYLINE (in silver) stripped, then you need to paint over the surround, careful not to get the letters. I'm not sure if I'd use paint stripper however, to remove mine, I just used polish to remove most of it, scraped off the remainder and then polish again; worked wonders

[heslo]

Well just finished and I must say it looks great! As for the part numbers, this is what I used...

LEDs: 16x 3.5v 10,000mcd LEDs (Jaycar part number: ZDO156)

Resistors: 16x 220ohm resistors (Jaycar part number: RR0556)

Hope that helps anyone else trying to put this thing together and thanks to Al and Craved!

Edited June 21, 2006 by heslo

[Al]

Well just finished and I must say it looks great! As for the part numbers, this is what I used...

LEDs: 16x 3.5v 10,000mcd LEDs (Jaycar part number: ??)

Resistors: 16x 220ohm resistors (Jaycar part number: RR0556)

Hope that helps anyone else trying to put this thing together and thanks to Al and Craved!

You got me worried now....................

Why are you using 3.5V LED's when you have 13.4V supply?

Are you running "clusters" of 4 LEDs in series? You do realise that, in this configuration, should one LED fail the whole cluster fails.

All my LED's are rated at 12V, are connected in parallel and i used one resister per LED (this also drops down the 13.6V to about 12V), because if you use 1 resister for ALL the LEDs you still run a risk of all the LEDs failing should one blow . Resisters are so cheap, why risk it ?

On a previous post you also stated that:

The series 1 rear garnish needs to have the letters SKYLINE (in silver) stripped, then you need to paint over the surround, careful not to get the letters.

Does this mean you hand painted the garish?

I did not bother to remove the silver, i gave the garnish to the spray painter and got the whole thing painted over, so it looked like a S2 "SKYLINE" facia. Due to the letters being "lifted" from the surface (i can't think of the right word ), you just use the sharp blade as a scrapper and peel off the paint from each letter, then you polish each letter to remove any left-over paint. This will leave you with sharp lettering and a garnish that is an exact colour code to your car.

[Al]

Heslo,

If you have finished, can you post up pics?

[heslo]

I will do so mate, I've only done this one as a test to see how it would look so I didn't take it to the spray painters, my car is white so I painted it myself using an enamel based paint from a spray can (I masked the letters) and I must say it looks DAMNED close! When my car goes in for repair (due to some assholes jumping on my car) I'll be sure to get them to also paint the garnish properly.

As for the configuration of the LEDs, I am using the resistors to drop the 13.4v to a 3.5v feed. I worked this out using the following formula...

(Vs-Vr) / I = R

Vs: Voltage of the LED (3.5v)

Vr: Voltage of the power source (~13.4v)

I: Current draw (0.05A)

Therefore...

(13.4-3.5)/0.05 = 198ohm

So in that a 200ohm resistor will do but I went for a little higher with 220ohm

Too late in the night now to get the camera out but tomorrow I sure will take some photos and upload them here for you to see

Edited June 19, 2006 by heslo

[Al]

So you are using my layout with the resisters and LEDs (ie: one resister per LED)?

Been a while since i used that formular ; see what happens after 6yrs of boards replacement and no component level repair :. Now you got me doubting whether i used the same LEDs and possibly the same resister . What's the colour code?

[Al]

I will do so mate, I've only done this one as a test to see how it would look so I didn't take it to the spray painters, my car is white so I painted it myself using an enamel based paint from a spray can (I masked the letters) and I must say it looks DAMNED close! When my car goes in for repair (due to some assholes jumping on my car) I'll be sure to get them to also paint the garnish properly.

DAMN you must have more patiance than me It would have been a PAIN to mask each letter properly!

Also an added tip: (that i did not use myself)

If you can see the LEDs through the paint, try to file the top of the LED, flat, to dispurse the light, as an LED is designed to be directional.

*Try it on one first, before doing all of them.

But it also helps to paint a black base coat first.

With mine i put a piece of black stick-on sponge, in-between each letter, right in front of the LEDs.

[heslo]

Yeah buddy, your layout, works like a charm using my resistor/LED configuration As for the color code, not sure off the top of my head but I'll have a look tomorrow as I have some left over.

As for the painting, it was fairly easy...

First I got contact and placed it over all of the letters, next I got a stanley knife and cut around the letters, removing any of the excess contact so that only the letters themselves were covered. After all was prepared I coated the garnish with two coats of black enamel paint and allowed it to dry. To test if two coats was enough to stop the light I placed one of the LEDs behind it and sure enough, it did the trick! Then I got the white enamel, sprayed on two coats of that, allowed time to dry and peeled off the contact being careful not to damage any other areas.

Worked a treat as you will see tomorrow when I post pics! As I said, I'll probably get it color matched by a pro when I get my car done but for now, this is more than adequate!

[Craved]

couple of questions, i have to make one of these for a friend soon, what is that circuit board you are using?

has it just got the 5 lines of conductivity so you use that instead of wires?

im guessing jaycar has this board as well.

with the filing of the end of the LED is there a limit of how much you should file it? or just make part of the top flat?

oh and side note - ive been pulled over plenty of times at night and this mod as a brake like has never been mentioned to me once.

[heslo]

Yep, just the lines for conductivity, Jaycar sells the board, not sure on the exact name, just ask them for a PCB and they will point you in the right direction

[Craved]

cheers mate

[Al]

Craved: It's called a "PCB Bread Board", at least that's what they used to call it. The board i bought came in a size, roughly 2"x10", if you look closely at my board pics you will see that i had to join 2 pcs together to get the right length. It has multiple lines of conductivity, i just cut it down to fit, ensure you break the lines as shown in my hand-drawn pic.

With the LEDs, just file a little to make the peak of the dome flat. Just do one at first, then test.

heslo: PICSORBAN!!

[Craved]

i have heaps of board at home, but it doesn't have the metal backing on it, i could use wires, but that looks neater and easier.

i used wires when i ran mine since they are in series and didn't have the board lol

still works as you can see.