LED light replacement issues

Originally Posted by Fountainhead

You're right Digit, it never dawned on me to suggest that, I took it for granted! Anytime I and the guys I work with buy LED bulbs we always connect them to an adjustable supply and gauge the brightness vs. voltage, sometimes adjusting the voltage lower than 14 will maintain the same brightness but drop the operating temperature of the LED array tremendously (we either rewire the LEDs or use one large resistor instead of a handful of 0805's like some bulbs get). Dropping the temps (by dropping voltage and decreasing power dissipated) really increases the lifetime of an LED. Most of the FleaBay LED bulbs are crap anyway, gotta rebuild them to get them to last.

Originally Posted by synolimit

You can rebuild a tiny little led bulb??

Originally Posted by Fountainhead

Haha, no, I meant the larger LED flat arrays, larger 7440/7443 type bulbs, etc. We have SMT solder station, and the right tools, we can take them apart to the component level, we're all electrical engineers involved in circuit and PCBA design, so it's very simple to take apart even the smallest of LED lights, we also have a microscope and magnifying glasses like the dentists, etc. Sometimes we even order discrete parts and build our own for learning/experimentation, etc.
Honestly we've never disassembled the 194 size bulbs, no need to they don't run warm anyway, not the ones we've tested.
Good point though.

Originally Posted by synolimit

What bulb do you suggest for the map light, plate light and that little bulb next to the headlight?

I have 2 orange LEDs on the side and I want to replace this yellow one.



Maybe the orange turn signal bulb too

Originally Posted by Fountainhead

Hi Synolimit,

I haven't replaced mine yet so I have nothing that I have tested long term. We ordered some really cheap FleaBay items I can't recommend that when we have more time we'll analyze and see what it takes to kill them, hehe.

I would stick with the more expensive variants with a warranty, I've got my eye on a few at autolumination.com but haven't pulled the plug yet.
As I think I've mentioned in other threads I'm wary of the really high power types that may get too hot and melt something in my light housing.

When we settle on a set I'll let you all know what we find.