Yes you did, and you deserve the credit on that one. Great Job. The eclipse sounds like the best way to go and use LED lights for the brake light/turn.

wouldn't it be easy to tint the clear plastic piece with some nightshade spray?

leave the bottom unsprayed and it will give you the eclipse look.

That is exactly what I'm thinking. That's why I tried it with the window tint first just to see if it would give me the effect I was looking for. I'm also think about changing out the clear lens to a piece of plexiglas and maybe getting it further up into the housing.

Sad but true. Different light set up to begin with. But, they still may be able to pull it off. The tail light is composed of two seperate lights hung together one if front of the other in such a way that a simulated semi-cone is created. Without the half moon light panel hanging in front it would not achieve the same effect.


It's you.

Alright, I am no expert by any means but there is only one way I can see this happening and looking like the concept, and unfortunately I don't think it is possible with the stock lights. Others have touched on it (eclipse rather than afterburner, diffused lighting, etc.) but I have yet to see it all compiled the way I see it happening. Basically, it's like this:

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6...terburners.jpg

In the image we have 3 separate sections. Section A is the brake light area. When the brakes are applied the circle in A will glow brightly. At all times section B should be lit with a softer glow (and by softer I don't mean less bright, just not a glaring red; more a pinkish glow).

Section C is the most important part in the setup. Without it it won't work, not even tinting would make it work in my mind. Section C is a conical half-circle/half-ellipse that sort of resembles a very shallow funnel. It must be a solid material that will reflect the inner brake light but will not allow light leak from the outer running light area. Section C shroud is a physical barrier between the running light bulb/bulbs and the brake light bulb/bulbs. There must be minimal light leak from section B to A (some can be allowed provided the glow from section B is bright enough to fool the eye). The "shroud" separating the 2 sections would have to physically touch the lens cover of the light so no light could leak around to section A and cause it to light up.

The second most important part of the setup would be the placement of the running lights, which just happens to be why the AAC-style will not work. The running lights MUST MUST MUST be diffused. You can't stick a string of LEDs/cold cathode tube pointed outwards and expect it to mimic the concept's look. My solution lies in the conical shape of the divider shroud between the 2 sections. Instead of pointing those LEDs straight out the back, stick them to the hidden side of the shroud and point them inward at a highly reflective surface which reflects the light outwards. This will give the effect that the light is more evenly distributed along the outer rim.

That's basically how my mind sees it working. Not a simple solution by any means but there is little doubt in my mind that it would resemble the concept's look.

I don't think that would work. The light is still coming from the same bulb. Only difference is that the brake light is brighter. I think this would work if the filament is more toward the base of the bulb and you could direct the light downward that way.

The more I look at the concept light I believe it was achieved using two chambers and two bulbs.

I like the idea of using the LED circuit board in front of the existing bulb, and replacing the clear plastic with that. I'll see if I can find my 3156 bulbs and see how they work in place of a 3157 bulb.

If they work to control the tail lights then this would be good, as you can using the existing wiring and not have to cut anything.

Good write-up. Just to throw another curve in there, we don't want even distribution on the outer edge, we want a fade... Or at least the appearance of a fade to black. Will probably have to settle for an illusion of a fade because of the size constraints.

There's also a caveat I want to throw out there... Law and safety requires a minimum brightness of running lights. If you're tooling down the highway at night, and someone rear-ends you, and they prove you modded your lights, the accident COULD be blamed on you.

I think I know how to do it, but it's probably not an easy mod, and will require a lot of LEDs. I am going to add this to my list of LED projects, and will post back when Ive made some progress.

You are close, the outer section B can be made by defusing red/orange LED's through a piece of glass and the inner part by custom biulding PCB using small low power red LEDs and larger higher power yelllows. The concept is easy its the fabrication and cost thats a bitch.

An Eclipse effect could work also but would need extra depth to accomodate a light source behind the LED board( which appears to be bothe red and yellow.

:popcorn:

OK I screwed around with an old Trans Am tail light (honey-comb style) and found that there is one more step....put reflective foil on the BACK of the eclipse lid. This intensifies the parking light (afterburner effect) and spreads the light out a little more evenly.
As far as the burners adjusting I had to make a change........
Use the park light as just that...BUT BUT BUT, wire the stop/turn side of the original bulb to a "String Potentiometer" attached via a spring to the gas pedal. I tried the park light and it went out at 0 throttle (never good at night), but the stop/turn is already off and when I apply voltage from the "pot" it gets brighter and brighter and oh hell we are blazin baby!!!!
Now I gotta fit it in a tiny little SS tail light...DANG!:mad0260:


By The Way...would it not be easier to wrangle Fbodfather into getting GM to make some??

yup, very important part.

I managed to try the 3156 bulb in the 3157 socket. First off, you have to shave part of the bulb off to make it fit, but it will work, but only as the brake/turn signal light.

I also pulled out the LH IN RS tail light. Anyone want the part number? 92212647 and runs about $50 if one wanted to order this to mess around with.

I think the best idea is using a board of LEDs for the brake/turn signals, and then use a regular bulb behind the LED board for the afterburner. I would also chrome paint "Part c" just below the clear lense to get the light to reflect off.

Oh on these tail lamp there is a blue sticker covering a hole. That would be a great location to run the two wires feeding the LED board.

This is with a lot of LED's i think i got the afterburner looking good but the brake light is ok but can do better.

looking good!


still think we need to scuff/diffuse the chrome inside the main can to help even out the light diffusion.


can you show us a break down of what the internals look like?

Give me 10 min to re-size them.

This pic is with the red lens removed.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

And this is the same pics, There is 3" of depth to the rear lens and i did put 2 layers of tint on the inner lens.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

This is the back of the tail light hosing you see two sets of wires one is for the afterberner LED's and the next set is for the Brake light LED's

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

One more pic of the hosing with nothing in it.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

This is the hart of all the light it the 1/2 Moon that i made as you can see its Dark there are 2 layers of 20% tint on the lens, And a lot more as you will see.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

In the next 2 pics you can see that on the outside of this 1/2 Moon i have almost 50 LED's all red but if need be you can add some yellow ones to add to the look.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

The 2nd pic.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

This pic is of the back side of the 1/2 Moon you will see a lot of Small wires.:sm0:

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

This is inside that 1/2 Moon look at all the LEDs in that part.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

One moor pic of the inside for you.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1261626242

I want to thank bolteon593 for the help and all the rest of the members on Camaro5 for all the help.

I have one more thing i want to try If i have a relay on the brake side that will run a resister on the afterburner side will that not make the afterburner lees brite as soon as you hit the brake.

2SSRS-

...DAMN

You're leading the pack on this one. You're so close. Keep it up man.

Here is one more lens in front of all the LED's.

:word: I personally think you smacked it right on the head of the concept design. 'Direct Hit'


Sounds good, I was thinking you could mount the after burner leds to the back side of the eclipse and then you would get an intense light towards the center that difuses out due to the placement of the leds and reflection. Now your running lights should look more like the concept and when you apply the brakes the brake light comes on solid red and bright, no worries about tickets for poor brake lights. ;)


2SSRS,
Your work is cool and definitely shows serious thought and exicution. I like what you've done a lot. If I designed some I'd have you build it. :headbang:

I honestly dont think a handful of LEDs is the answer. Look at the concept pics. The lighting needs to be backlit and etch onto reflective sides to give a burning glow effect. The sides need to be reflective and the center tinted.

2SSRS is looking better, seems to be more of a halo rather than eclipse in the pics tho.

The damn step in the housing will screw us getting light diffused out to the edges properly. Looks like a new one is required. :(

BINGO!! I think we have a winner. But the question is... can anyone do this?