3 watt led cargo light!!!

[shortstack]

so i decided my 10mm led conversion for the cargo light wasn't bright enough. so i made 3 watt led w/heat sink that would fit in the cargo light area (same as the http://explorerforum.com/forums/show....php?p=2097813) but this time i had gave the regulator its own heatsink, since it puts out most of the heat. here are some of the pics


please excuse the mess

[Sandy]

Wow, a lot of lights... look good.

[jad2411]

Looks very cool! I'll need to learn to do that stuff, so I can redo my interior and puddle lights

[patman]

actually it doesn't take too much knowledge...you can learn almost all you need between some of mustangp51's threads
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...d.php?t=202947
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...d.php?t=217551
about the led boards
and just a few others on how to solder
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blog...s/4213013.html
and a resistor calculator
http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz
other than that...just ask around this site...try it...that's how i learned...sure i messed up a few times...but i made improvements on my mistakes...that's how you learn

[shortstack]

hahaha these are 3 watt leds not little 10mm leds. if you go to my other thread "led puddle light" there's a link on there that talks about how to this type of mod. this led is driven at 700mA (.7 amps) where as the 10mm leds are driven at like 50mA (.05 amps) you have to use heatsink on the high power leds so they dont burn up. this light puts like 20X more light then the 10mm leds.

[Brad1976]

Hey Shortstack,

After running the 3W LED's in your side mirrors or as your cargo lights, have you noticed any long term effects from the heat generated from these things at all, or is the heat from these 3W LED's still less than would be generated from a bulb?

Considering doing this on mine over the summer, but I'm curious about any possible long term effects of that heat...

[FIND]

The heat generated by an LED is considerably less... If those things got anywhere near half as hot as an incandescent bulb, the LED would fail long before that... The reason for heat sinks isn't because they generate a lot of heat, it is just because the die cant take much heat before it reaches its failure point. Once they start getting above 150 degrees for any prolonged period of time, you are reducing their life span, and much higher than that and they will fail.

Really though, they aren't making much heat at all. The 3 watts of electricity running through them are of course going to generate heat, but, incandescent bulbs only make light by heating up the filament... Light is a by-product of heating it, which is why they are so inefficient.

On his setup.... I'd say that regulator is probably getting a good bit hotter than the LED, and I doubt that is seeing temperatures over 120 at the die with it attached to that big ol heatsink. In most cases, if any of those components are getting too warm to handle without becoming uncomfortable, you have a problem...