Modifying Factory Camaro for Sequential Tail lights with LED's
 

I posted this at the camaroz28 forum and nobody commented so I thought I'd post it here. I've been working on modifying my 94 Z28 lights so they are brighter and better lit with LED's . I also wanted sequential tail lights that looked better than the 3 bulb modification.

I inserted 16 vertical banks of 6 led's in the factory housing and wired them to an atmel microcontroller which can make them light up any way I want via programming. They are very bright and show up well thru the VHT nightshade. Below is a link to a video of them in action. I have to do the other tail light next and finish the program to interface to the car, but so far they seem to work well. They look much better in person, the video camera can't capture the brightness like your eye. In person they are ruby red looking, not as white-bright contrasty


http://wayneg.smugmug.com/Other/Cama...CzSxN&lb=1&s=L


http://wayneg.smugmug.com/Other/Cama...illights-L.jpg

Wow man that looks cool when they slide from the inside to the outside. I am going to subscribe for updates!

Those look awesome. How complicated is the programming?

Cool!

That looks awesome!! I recently bought a replacement set for my car so I could try something like this out. I'd love more details on it.

sick!

The programming is pretty easy. Interfaced with the atmel chip is a TI TLC5940 chip which drivers up to 16 LED Channels per chip and you can series them, so 2 chips will do both sides of the car. The atmel chip is a microprocessor and basically you send the TLC chip commands in C in the format of

Tlc.set (channel#0-15, brightness value 0-4095)
Tlc.Update

so

Tlc.set (0, 4095)
Tlc.set (8, 2000)
Tlc.update

would light up the first bar on the left side of the tail light at full brightness and about halfway across another bar at half brightness


The Atmel chip (or you can use an arduino) has inputs that can watch the brake wire, turnsignal wire, parking lights wire, and run the appropriate routine for that input condition.

When I'm done I'll post the code.

The hard part so far is drilling the 96 holes in the housing and fitting the leds. I'll post some pics soon.

dude this is very, very cool. What would it cost for me to send you my tail lights for you to outfit them?

I would want a basic setup, just LED's with a sequential effect for the turn signal, plain 1-2-3 or the cool gradual blend would be cool too!

If you would want to do that let me know, otherwise props on a unique and sweet idea!

I'd like to know how much for my lights as well. PM if you'd like. This is really cool.

thats cool

I always wanted seq. tails on my WS6.

Looks good !!

wow. thats amazazing

Those are pretty damn cool.

What sucks, is that there's a company on Ebay that's selling them for 2nd gen firebirds. I wish someone would make them for 4th gens as well.

So cool! This gives me some inspiration to do my own like this. Looking forward to more info and pictures.

where did you get the modules?

wont this do the same thing
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sequential-L...in_100&vxp=mtr

idk how much you paid. here is a 3 bar type. it looks like you have alot more than 3 though

and that does lookcool

great idea. I like it

Still making progress
 

I got both lights done except for the weatherproofing, car doesn't see any water except washing, I'll get to that when I know it's bullet proof. Here is a pic of the back of the housings

http://wayneg.smugmug.com/Other/Cama...hts-back-L.jpg

This is different from the ebay item because it controls at least 16 channels of lights per tail light and you can control each channel individually to create any effect you want. I didn't buy it, I'm making it from scratch. When its done I'll post the details to build it, parts list, LED's used, and instructions to install. The LED's cost 30 cents each so 204 x .30 ~ $70.00, the chips and electric components cost about $15.00, and the computer chip (Arduino) costs between $23 and $50.00 depending on which one I have to use for all functionality.

Here's another video of them mounted, the lighting is better so you can see the color, they are still just running a programmed sequence. I'm writing the code to handle their operation. It's more complicated than just brake, turn signal, parking lights, hazzard. The computer has to monitor all those inputs and figure out what to display and what priority. I should have it figured out by the end of the weekend. This is also gonna grow with a small front mount controller to do special effects and will display what they are doing, and it will provide outputs to control the front turn and park lights to eliminate the factory flasher and maybe possibly they will become LED too.

Click picture to launch video:
http://wayneg.smugmug.com/Other/Cama...ilights2-M.jpg


This is a Video of the Ebay 3 Light Sequential controller which can't compare for brightness or effect: (It also Melted my housings because the Outer bulb is replace with an 1157 which is too close once mounted and the heat of being lit up melted the outside lens)

http://wayneg.smugmug.com/Other/Cama...Untitled-M.jpg


Here is a link to my Camaro Gallery:
http://wayneg.smugmug.com/Other/Camaro/9438600_K59Md2

this is sweet. subscribed! i always wanted to do the LED turn signal on my taillights where the LED makes the arrow as the signal is on. see it on alot of ambulances. would like a set of these done on my 00 SS let me know!

Yeah I have a sequential kit for my car (kit is for the TA's but can be easily modified for Camaro's) but haven't hooked it up yet. Got my kit for under $100, let me see if I can dig up the vendor name...