B8.5 custom tail light diary

[Drunktank]

Got a chance to disassemble one side of lights today. There's no individual wiring for LED's, they're all on 7 different circuit boards, so there's no reusing the factory LED's. The boards also curve with the lights, so you can't use strips, as they won't bend sideways.

Soooo, it looks like we're going to be making board replacements for these. I have a bit of experience making custom Arduino's and such in Kicad, but I'll need to re-familiarize myself with it. If anyone is ever interested learning about PCB's, Sean Hymel has a great Kicad tutorial series on Youtube.

I can get down to 3 boards per side if I just do the brake lights, and ignore the running lights. I don't really see any reason to mess with the running lights for this. The plan is to start by sticking the boards in a flatbed scanner so I can use the board shape to make the new ones. I've already snipped off the components of the board so it will sit nice and flat on the scanner.

Do you already know how to recode the tails and where to tap in for the additional wire for the turn signal?

I was thinking about that the other day, and I don't have any re-coding tools, and don't really care to get one. I was thinking I'll interface with the harness for the sidemarker turn signals and the 3rd brake light to get individual signals for each.

I've never understood why just because you CAN have your brake light double as a turn signal in the States, why you WOULD? Especially since you separate them by default in other countries. Why make it more complicated? Who knows.

[btb.tyler09]

Got a chance to disassemble one side of lights today. There's no individual wiring for LED's, they're all on 7 different circuit boards, so there's no reusing the factory LED's. The boards also curve with the lights, so you can't use strips, as they won't bend sideways.

Soooo, it looks like we're going to be making board replacements for these. I have a bit of experience making custom Arduino's and such in Kicad, but I'll need to re-familiarize myself with it. If anyone is ever interested learning about PCB's, Sean Hymel has a great Kicad tutorial series on Youtube.

I can get down to 3 boards per side if I just do the brake lights, and ignore the running lights. I don't really see any reason to mess with the running lights for this. The plan is to start by sticking the boards in a flatbed scanner so I can use the board shape to make the new ones. I've already snipped off the components of the board so it will sit nice and flat on the scanner.





I was thinking about that the other day, and I don't have any re-coding tools, and don't really care to get one. I was thinking I'll interface with the harness for the sidemarker turn signals and the 3rd brake light to get individual signals for each.

I've never understood why just because you CAN have your brake light double as a turn signal in the States, why you WOULD? Especially since you separate them by default in other countries. Why make it more complicated? Who knows.

You can use factory LEDs if your willing to cut the traces on the PCB. Designing a custom PCB would be sweet though. Been trying to convince an EE friend to do it for me.20200827_140152.jpeg

Sent from my LM-V600 using Audizine mobile app

[Drunktank]

So I got into the office to use the scanner. Very strange stepping foot into there again, haven't been in there since March. i got some scans of the boards, and then cleaned them up in inkscape, where I could then export as a DXF file, which is what Kicad needs for a board shape file. Time to start designing some boards! Need to find suitable LED's resistors, headers, etc. etc. and then get them all designed on the boards.

You can use factory LEDs if your willing to cut the traces on the PCB. Designing a custom PCB would be sweet though. Been trying to convince an EE friend to do it for me

Interesting! I hadn't thought about that and obviously the factory LED's are very robust. From what I've seen with my lights here, there wouldn't actually be room for the wires. The plastic reflectors that sandwich the board practically touch it. have you been able reassemble without getting those wires pinched? It looks delicate.

[btb.tyler09]

So I got into the office to use the scanner. Very strange stepping foot into there again, haven't been in there since March. i got some scans of the boards, and then cleaned them up in inkscape, where I could then export as a DXF file, which is what Kicad needs for a board shape file. Time to start designing some boards! Need to find suitable LED's resistors, headers, etc. etc. and then get them all designed on the boards.






Interesting! I hadn't thought about that and obviously the factory LED's are very robust. From what I've seen with my lights here, there wouldn't actually be room for the wires. The plastic reflectors that sandwich the board practically touch it. have you been able reassemble without getting those wires pinched? It looks delicate.

This is great. nice work. Since it may be helpful, i used these amber LEDs for the top row.
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail...M4BAKWCWBXB353

They have red ones too since you are replacing those. i think i ended up with 150 ohm resistors, but not entirely sure.

And yeah, i got it back together. The wires are glued to the pcb, so they don't move much. My problem was getting the tail light apart cleanly my first attempt was with a dremel and was terrible. Second time i tried to be more careful with a combination of temp swings and an xacto blade, but i cracked the lens on that one. I haven't touched this project in a year now, but would like to get back on it.