Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

Scott,
with the lesser light, lesser expensive led's I put in I did in fact have one in backwards with polarity and just reversed it, end of problem.

Led's are great but slightly more technical like everything nowadays. Does anyone have a good, representative photo of your units in place at night to show before and after brightness?

My car is going to get a new, known provenance serpentine belt tomorrow before driving it to Carlisle with the Wazoo group April 6 then to Bowling Green May 15. I didn't get maint. records and don't know its age but it seems to me that it might be old enough in years to not depend on it on the Interstates in the middle of nowhere.

Is the polarity thing an issue if you put leds in your interior lights?

Lance

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

No.. At least not with the kit I installed from Corvettehid.com

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

How have the Scott kit lights worked out? Do you like them? I just got a new serpentine belt, oil change, grease job in prep for some driving to Carlisle and the Gathering coming up over the next 8 weeks or so. My punch list is done.

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

Hey Scott,

The bulb assembly is awesome and everything you said they would be and more. I have no polarity issues whatsoever with my Gordon Killebrew switch assembly. What I love most about it is the color of the light and when I compared to the stock bulb there was no question next to the yellowish color that provides very little lighting to begin with. When compared to the other LED bulbs that I had there is also no question that this assembly will out perform anything else out there, period!! The best part is the low power usage that you designed these with is perfect considering I have a lightweight Odessey battery too from the power drainage perspective during use. I turned off all the lights in the garage and these illuminate so well that I can see how it will help during emergencies or just showing off the LT5 on cruise nights. These are awesome; thanks again Scott!! :cheers:

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

These lights are a nice improvement over the regular bulbs. The improvement is a combination of more light and the light being white instead of yellowish.

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

The light from the LEDs are in fact more white looking. Many of the replacements festoon type LED assemblies I tested were spec'd at 5000 or 6000 K in temperature. I chose 9000k LEDs specifically for that ultra white look. It makes 6000k look yellow when held side by side.
Also I chose 15deg not 130deg light projection to keep the light directly on the LT5 and not in the eyes of bystanders. The BIG win I think is in using a parallel series arrangement such that the current load is kept extremely low compared to others I saw. In some cases 4 times the brightness with half the current :dancing

I'm looking around at other of the many incandescent lights for replacement. Fortunately there is a wide selection of the common
bulb types out there both in color and intensity. That is good because in some locations it seems to me you don't want extreme brightness.
A few examples would be the vanity light and tail lights. (who wants to blind the driver behind you?)

The one assembly that I am looking into is the CMHSL lamps.
Those not only draw BIG current (in the order of 10amp) but they also suffer from burning of the circuit board. I replaced a few bulbs some years back. If I can't find a suitable replacement assembly that exactly matches ours I'm going to build one. I'll start a new thread with my findings.

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

Hey Scott,

I love the mod and thanks again for doing this.

I know I could have replaced all the interior bulbs for less, but for ease of research I went with the group buy that Daryll arranged from Corvette HID and waiting on those to arrive.

As for the CMHSL, I did mine with the Harbor Freight part and for the price and ease of install it was a good conversion that Andrew showed from CF: http://www.zr1.net/forum/showthread....harbor+freight

I would like to get rid of all incandescent bulbs if possible and already switched out the Euro (Porsche) side markers on my car, but don't have a solution for the tail/brake/turn signals with my Euro lamps there.

I appreciate all the help from this forum to update stuff like this. :handshak:

Craig

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

Just in case the discussion about Kelvins as a measure of color tickled your interest as Scott has discussed his choices which worked well here's a link which shows you something of what you get. For cameras this is an extremely important setting as lighting often is the "mood" of the photo with it's shades of color. http://www.eaglelight.com/c=Zmu7rf9X...r_temperature/

The lower the number the more towards a reddish hued light it is. That's why incandescent bulbs have a reddish yellow cast to their light. The higher you go up into the 7-9000 kelvin range the more you begin to get not a white light but a bluish light. What we normally think of photographically as "white" light is somewhere in the middle around 4,000 kelvins or so. What that approximates in the 4-5000 K range is bright daylight color about noon on a clear sunny day. Even the 5,000 K lesser leds I put in mine at night which are less bright than Scott's but are brighter than the ones I replaced from the factory have a slightly bluish tint to them. Just take a photo and it's instantly obvious.

You could design led's of a kelvin range to give you just about what color hue you like but with enough of them in the array using led's like Scott's excellent ones you could have very, very bright lights but not have the bluish cast.

Like everything else more modern there is an array of choices and costs. Inside the car I would not want bluish, bright interior lights as it's a cold, kind of hard light photographically but something with a slightly warmer temperature maybe even down around 3,000 to 3,500 Kelvins. One of the reasons people so enjoy sunrise and sunset photos is that the light is a warm light, a slightly reddish yellow light that is softer than either extreme. It is all about mood in photos and to some degree glare and angle for shadows when you talk about light. I'd think the interior of a car would be effected no less by the hue so getting some Kelvins relationship in your head is not all bad if you change.

It's all a matter of taste and Scott has done a great job with this.

If you are thinking of doing more in life with led's the knowledge of Kelvins becomes kind of important as all lights have hues to them....to the best of my knowledge.

Lance

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

Thanks Craig.
That is excellent and useful info and the part is still available.
cool.
Scott

Re: Under Hood Lighting
 

Lance,

I know squat about lighting and photography and with your explanation I think I understand why and how importing lighting is when taking photographs. I notice when the car is in the sunlight as you said it looks red and when I take pictures in darkness or the garage, my car always looks orange from the flash. At least I think that is why now after your education about kelvins and mood/color. Thanks for highlighting this related to lighting. :cheers:

Craig