Appearance & Detailing Interior & Exterior Appearance Modifications

White LED Daytime Running Light DRL

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Old May 2, 2018 | 10:10 PM
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Default White LED Daytime Running Light DRL

I haven't seen anyone post this since I had been searching how to do it. What I wanted was the front turn to be a white DRL, white parking light, and amber turn. Camaros use a dual filament bulb with the high brightness filament being for DRL and turn. The signals are combined for signal and turn by the DRL module. I found the wiring for this and was figuring out how to do this when I found an off the shelf solution. The only place that sells these is VLEDs, they are not a sponsor that I know of, but nobody else sells these. The only negative is they are expensive.

The bulb they sell is a switchback (white/amber) with what they call an HDRL controller. Bottom line, it works exactly how I want. During the day it is a very bright white DRL. At night it is a white park lamp. When the signal comes on the white goes out and it blinks amber. I did switch the turn signal relay so as not to fast flash, no need for a load resistor.
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Old May 3, 2018 | 05:49 AM
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Sounds cool! Have any pictures?
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Old May 3, 2018 | 06:06 AM
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Following
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Old May 3, 2018 | 08:10 AM
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Originally Posted by 99SSLSWON
Sounds cool! Have any pictures?
Yeah I can get some... after it stop raining here!
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Old May 3, 2018 | 12:41 PM
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I did the same thing, but just used a high powered amber LED in the housing and then added another to the side, so I get a wrap around effect. I actually like the amber DRLs much better than white. I use the fog lights as white DRLs

Don't mind the pic in the signature.. that's stock... and how it looked years ago. Now it's quite different
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Old May 3, 2018 | 02:19 PM
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Used the same thing on my trans am
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Old May 15, 2018 | 01:39 PM
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I've read some other bulbs (or module) that do the the same thing that C5 people use. Can't for the life of me remember what it's called, but maybe search around the corvette forum.
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Old May 26, 2018 | 10:11 PM
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Any update on a setup that functions like this but isn't the vled option? It's looking like 180 for bulbs and the controller through them and they don't even have the controllers in stock
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Old May 26, 2018 | 10:14 PM
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I'm using these as strictly amber and they work really well. They also sell a switchback option or reds for the tailights...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0742R3GLT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_mjIcBbMJK38E2
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Old May 26, 2018 | 10:19 PM
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Originally Posted by EnergyCC
I'm using these as strictly amber and they work really well. They also sell a switchback option or reds for the tailights...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0742R3GLT..._mjIcBbMJK38E2
Im trying to accomplish what op is looking to do. I want a white running light both in the day and at night that has a amber turn signal at all times. With the standard amber/white switchbacks the DRL is amber along with the turn signal, but as soon as the headlights are on it becomes a white running light with an amber turn signal.
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Old May 26, 2018 | 10:49 PM
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Originally Posted by GtoProject
Im trying to accomplish what op is looking to do. I want a white running light both in the day and at night that has a amber turn signal at all times. With the standard amber/white switchbacks the DRL is amber along with the turn signal, but as soon as the headlights are on it becomes a white running light with an amber turn signal.
The VLED switchback has the option of using another controller they call it HDRL. This box allows what I wanted and you want. White for day and night and amber for turn only. If you connect it so the white is dim at night and bright during the day if you choose. I went the VLED because they had this easy solution to what I wanted to do but they are $$. The HDRL takes the signal for turn signal and DRL and seperates them. If you don't use this controller then it would be a real pain to try to accomplish this.

I never have taken any pictures because I was messing with the front side marker... I've decided to go with a very dim amber for the side marker. I tried white and it was way to bright, well and that isn't legal.

Brian
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Old May 26, 2018 | 10:57 PM
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Originally Posted by 00PewterSS
The VLED switchback has the option of using another controller they call it HDRL. This box allows what I wanted and you want. White for day and night and amber for turn only. If you connect it so the white is dim at night and bright during the day if you choose. I went the VLED because they had this easy solution to what I wanted to do but they are $$. The HDRL takes the signal for turn signal and DRL and seperates them. If you don't use this controller then it would be a real pain to try to accomplish this.

I never have taken any pictures because I was messing with the front side marker... I've decided to go with a very dim amber for the side marker. I tried white and it was way to bright, well and that isn't legal.

Brian
This is exactly what I'm looking for but you're right, they are super pricey. I might just have to run a standard switchback for a while and wait until I have some money burning a hole in my pocket lol. I'm sure there's a way to bypass/modify the drl module, but the plug and play/reversible nature of the vled kit is tempting. I'm going with a white side marker as we'll, hopefully they aren't too bright, but as cheap as those bulbs are replacement won't be an issue. It is a legality thing to not have the orange side markers but I just think they're super ugly. I'll see how long I can drive around without issues running the white ones

Last edited by GtoProject; May 27, 2018 at 07:16 AM.
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Old May 27, 2018 | 07:17 AM
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I found that vled's sell the individual HDRL controllers pretty cheap, depending on how they pick up the factory wiring it may be possible to just buy the controllers and use them with conventional switchbacks in the same way. It looks like there are 2 wires in and out of the controller itself and a second wire coming out of the switchback bulbs themselves. I'd assume the wires in/out of the controller are the standard wires to the stock turn signal. But where exactly does that second wire from the switchback go?
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Old May 29, 2018 | 10:12 PM
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Originally Posted by GtoProject
I found that vled's sell the individual HDRL controllers pretty cheap, depending on how they pick up the factory wiring it may be possible to just buy the controllers and use them with conventional switchbacks in the same way. It looks like there are 2 wires in and out of the controller itself and a second wire coming out of the switchback bulbs themselves. I'd assume the wires in/out of the controller are the standard wires to the stock turn signal. But where exactly does that second wire from the switchback go?
Their switchback has two "wires" coming out of them. The little wire can be connected to the parking lights so that it dims at night. It dims by like 10X. Since these are pretty bright, I thought dimming was pretty important. The big wire has three wires inside it, amber, white and ground. The HDRL has three wires in and out... --IN-- would be bright filament / dim filament / ground --OUT-- amber / white / ground. I imagine that HDRL could be used for with any switchback pretty easily. If I had known this I may not have paid for their bulbs and just bought the HDRL controller. They put effort into making their stuff look high-end and high quality and the heat sinks are robust. FYI one of the bulbs failed after 1 day, but they quickly shipped a replacement to me.

Make sense?
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Old May 30, 2018 | 06:05 AM
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Originally Posted by 00PewterSS
Their switchback has two "wires" coming out of them. The little wire can be connected to the parking lights so that it dims at night. It dims by like 10X. Since these are pretty bright, I thought dimming was pretty important. The big wire has three wires inside it, amber, white and ground. The HDRL has three wires in and out... --IN-- would be bright filament / dim filament / ground --OUT-- amber / white / ground. I imagine that HDRL could be used for with any switchback pretty easily. If I had known this I may not have paid for their bulbs and just bought the HDRL controller. They put effort into making their stuff look high-end and high quality and the heat sinks are robust. FYI one of the bulbs failed after 1 day, but they quickly shipped a replacement to me.

Make sense?
Yea that makes perfect sense. I think it really could easily work with a standard switchback bulb, there just wouldn't be a dimming feature for the running light is all. And at 30 bucks + cost of switchbacks compared to 130+, it may be something to look into for me.
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Old May 30, 2018 | 11:12 AM
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Originally Posted by GtoProject
This is exactly what I'm looking for but you're right, they are super pricey. I might just have to run a standard switchback for a while and wait until I have some money burning a hole in my pocket lol. I'm sure there's a way to bypass/modify the drl module, but the plug and play/reversible nature of the vled kit is tempting. I'm going with a white side marker as we'll, hopefully they aren't too bright, but as cheap as those bulbs are replacement won't be an issue. It is a legality thing to not have the orange side markers but I just think they're super ugly. I'll see how long I can drive around without issues running the white ones
its really easy to bypass the drl module. just splicing a couple wires behind the radio. theres a write up on it somewhere.
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Old May 30, 2018 | 11:15 AM
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Originally Posted by ss55539
its really easy to bypass the drl module. just splicing a couple wires behind the radio. theres a write up on it somewhere.
I'm not trying to exactly bypass the drl module, just attempting to make it perform differently than stock in a way that simple wiring changes are unable to modify.
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Old May 30, 2018 | 04:01 PM
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Has anyone actually used VLED? $160 is kinda steep but if it works as advertised and has longevity I wouldn't mind dropping the coin. I've been interested in doing this for awhile to match my BLS headlights and 6000k fog lights..
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Old May 30, 2018 | 09:29 PM
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Mine are VLED. They work well as advertised. One failed on day one, but with electronics if they are to fail it usually is pretty quick. No idea on the life, but they look high quality and the heat sink is large.

The problem isn't bypassing the DRL. The problem is splitting the signal for turn and DRL. It would require running a wire from an input to the DRL module to the lamp and using a diode or something so the voltage doesn't backfeed... and if you want dimmer for park it is more complicated AND if that signal power isn't enough it would require a relay. It is doable, but isn't particularly simple. I thought about doing this, but found the simple solution that just cost money
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