LED warning lights

YellowSquare · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 12:17 pm Post subject:

Are the warning lights ba7?? and the regular lights ba9?? And do yu ned the bulb holder for the regular lights as well??

YellowSquare · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 12:53 pm Post subject:

And whatabouthis one to hanbdle the directional problem. Seems to illuminate in every direction.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/ba9s-ba7s/ba9s-led-bulb-6-led-360-degree/8/

'69Custom · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 1:26 pm Post subject:

The bulb type depends on the year of your car, if I'm not mistaken. Late models use Ba7s bulbs throughout. I don't know when the changeover year was but I think the early models were Ba9s all the way around.

What you're interpreting as directional problems isn't literal. The warning and T/S lights are reversed polarity, meaning the power is directionally sensitive. With incadescents, it doesn't matter, but LEDs have to have the power flow specifically, and it's directionally opposite of the way the speedometer is set up for those three lights. Buying LEDs for those means either some rewiring or buying reverse polarity LEDs.

You can get everything you need from Sven:

http://auto-hub.com/
_________________
-Tim

1969 Frankenbug
1965 Ford Mustang
:2gunfire: F-U-M-P!
~"I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken." ~The Boss
Please excuse any typos as my iPhone doesn't speak English very well.

KTPhil · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 1:30 pm Post subject:

The "directional" issue he mentioned is the direction of the emitted light, not the "polarity" problem you are talking about.

'69Custom · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 2:07 pm Post subject:

KTPhil · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 2:57 pm Post subject:

Stock filament bulbs throw light in all directions (well, a hemispherical pattern). An LED typically shines in a very narrow beam. So gauges designed for the stock bulb may not distribute light evenly if it comes from an LED bulb, and can actually appear DIMMER, not brighter.

'69Custom · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 4:23 pm Post subject:

YellowSquare · Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 8:35 pm Post subject:

Yes. That is what I meant. This bulb http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/ba9s-ba7s/ba9s-led-bulb-6-led-360-degree/8/ Has multiple leds, and they face in everydirection. but it is a ba9 and im on a 73, so wont work for me. I checked out autohub. But I was hoping to do this for a few bucks not 66 lol. I also contacts superbright and they said it was plug and pla. I said they were Reverse polarity and they said its ok they will work. Didnt make sense to me. But Im probs going to order the ones of autohub.

'69Custom · Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 8:48 pm Post subject:

Spuds like they want to make a sale. It takes a lot of extra wiring and new two-terminal bulb holders to get a standard LED to work as a warning light. I would've been concerned if they would even fit, width-wise, where they need to slide into. They also aren't really 360° lights because there isn't anything projecting forward. Still, they aren't the right base for you do it doesn't matter anyway.
_________________
-Tim

1969 Frankenbug
1965 Ford Mustang
:2gunfire: F-U-M-P!
~"I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken." ~The Boss
Please excuse any typos as my iPhone doesn't speak English very well.

Goshen · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 6:14 am Post subject:

I received the following set of BA7 LED bulbs from the website Auto-Hub.com but i have to tell you quite honestly that i am very DISSAPOINTED with the results of the white LED Speedometer illunination bulb... You can see here by the pic... it is not as bright as i thought it would be from the description

Look so you can see compared to the VDO gauges

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

What can be done about this ?... because i am not at all pleased with the result.

_________________
My '64 Pan Meyers Manx Dune Buggy "Lady in Red"
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=659260

My '67 Split Window Bus project :
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=634144

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'69Custom · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 7:17 am Post subject:

Older speedometers with single bulb illumination suffer this problem the worst after an LED conversion. The technology still isn't awesome enough to be a perfect replacement. There isn't much you can do about it unless you want to paint the inside of your housing to be more reflective or convert your high beam indicator to a night light.
_________________
-Tim

1969 Frankenbug
1965 Ford Mustang
:2gunfire: F-U-M-P!
~"I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken." ~The Boss
Please excuse any typos as my iPhone doesn't speak English very well.

Goshen · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 7:44 am Post subject:

BWD · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:18 am Post subject:

Goshen · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:36 am Post subject:

BWD · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:53 am Post subject:

Joel · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:31 am Post subject:

arizonabuckeye · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:57 pm Post subject:

'69Custom · Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 1:36 pm Post subject:

If you go Joel's route, note how deep he sunk the strip into the housing. There's a trade off here. Going deep you lose some face/surface illumination. Going high you end up with the LED light pattern visible on the face and, in the case of early speedometers, light reflections on the chrome center ring lip.
_________________
-Tim

1969 Frankenbug
1965 Ford Mustang
:2gunfire: F-U-M-P!
~"I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken." ~The Boss
Please excuse any typos as my iPhone doesn't speak English very well.

arizonabuckeye · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:32 am Post subject:

Bump - hoping for a picture of the front from Joel...

Joel · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 12:34 am Post subject:


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