My version of Interior LED lights.

[Leesburgcapsfan]

Cargo light is easy, just need know how to operate soldering iron (or know someone who has this skill :dance.
1. Get pair of "9w Cree LED 31mm Canbus No Error Festoon License Plate Interior Map White Lights" by SiriusLED for 18 bucks for two on Amazon (I am not affiliated and if you find this thing cheaper let us 4Runners know) and two NSI50350AST3G (60 cents each on Digikey for example) and a piece of insulated wire (high temp insulation preferred).
2. Heat both contacts with soldering iron, remove the contacts and plastic tubes holding the metal in place (this piece needs to be replaced as it becomes very soft when LED is hot and can cause a short).
3. Desolder both CANBUS resistors (on the opposite side of the LED) and current limiting resistor (next to LEDs).
4. Cut one track on the opposite side of LED (you can see which one on my pictures).
5. Solder NSI50350AST3G in place of removed CANBUS resistors
6. Solder connecting piece of wire between both sides of the board (as shown on my pictures)
7. Solder back both contacts (removed in step 2) and fill both caps with few drops of epoxy or high temperature silicon (gasket maker for example).

All takes less than 30 minutes and less than 10 dollars per bulb. I wish the original factory in China designed this bulb in the first place so everybody could enjoy it.

Mirror bulbs are much more work as they are built from parts and I can tell you soldering these tiny LEDs is PITA. You need to solder not only SMT contacts but also thermal pads to guide heat out of the chip (temperature kills LED)



Reverse light is 921 type: 12V 18W, which is already quite "hot" in very small volume. Original bulb gives about 250 lumens (new) so it is not easy to find a good (brighter) LED replacement in such small case. I mean most of "wedge" type bulbs can't compete as with their 100-150 lumens output they fall right into the stock bulb light output. Yes, LEDs they seem to be brighter, but it is just a light color, not the amount of light output (most LED bulbs are around 6000K while stock 921 bulb falls into 2800K-3000K range).

Be warned that Ebay and Amazon sellers are overstating the power and light output of their products. It some kind of sick rats race - who would lie more. And of course they put a picture to show how bright the light is. The fact is, that camera does not show exactly what human eye will see - LED light bulbs are always "blinding" on the picture, but it is because of they high intensity (candela) not luminosity is fooling the camera. You can spend tens of dollars and still you will not get what you pay for.

For example JMD ASTAR on Amazon sells "JDM ASTAR Extremely Bright Max 50W High Power 912 921 T10/T15 LED Backup Reverse LightS,Parking lights, Xenon White" - yey - 50 fricken Wats !!! Let's pay 30 bucks for a pair. :clap2:

Then read the description: "...10 pieces 5W high power CREE LEDs per bulb..." - here it is: the bulb contains LEDs that are rated for 50W total, doesn't mean it will use it. :lie:

Then read more: "Operate at 10W" - ouch, it's only one-fifth of what you read in the title. Hmmm.. still not bad: 10W at 120+ lumens per W will give you 1200 lumens - wow like a halogen headlight. Nnnnnnn....no. Not even close. :lie:
Someone actually bit the bullet, paid 30 bucks and measured these bulbs. Each bulb takes less than 0.3A (3.5W) which is less than my 450 lumens bulb uses. So for 15 dollars per bulb advertised as 50W you will get actually 3.5W of light that would be equivalent of something like 35W halogen bulb.
So for the cost of 15 dollars a piece you will get maybe 2 times more light from JMD ASTAR than from your stock bulb. Is it worth it? :whoo:

Sorry "T4R hardcore" guys, I may not know much about off-roading but I spent good portion of my spare time researching and experimenting with LED bulbs :ranger:

HAHA Ahhh no to juz wszystko wiedomo teraz.

RYSIU

Powinienem sie domyslic ze tylko Polak by tak wykombinowal ;-)
Szkoda ze ja nie mam taki mozliwosci. Bo te puddle lights naprawde mi sie podobaja.

Pozdrawiam,
Marcin

 

[-dustin]

Cargo light is easy, just need know how to operate soldering iron (or know someone who has this skill :dance.
1. Get pair of "9w Cree LED 31mm Canbus No Error Festoon License Plate Interior Map White Lights" by SiriusLED for 18 bucks for two on Amazon (I am not affiliated and if you find this thing cheaper let us 4Runners know) and two NSI50350AST3G (60 cents each on Digikey for example) and a piece of insulated wire (high temp insulation preferred).
2. Heat both contacts with soldering iron, remove the contacts and plastic tubes holding the metal in place (this piece needs to be replaced as it becomes very soft when LED is hot and can cause a short).
3. Desolder both CANBUS resistors (on the opposite side of the LED) and current limiting resistor (next to LEDs).
4. Cut one track on the opposite side of LED (you can see which one on my pictures).
5. Solder NSI50350AST3G in place of removed CANBUS resistors
6. Solder connecting piece of wire between both sides of the board (as shown on my pictures)
7. Solder back both contacts (removed in step 2) and fill both caps with few drops of epoxy or high temperature silicon (gasket maker for example).

All takes less than 30 minutes and less than 10 dollars per bulb.

you should sell these. $40. Or, at least, I'd pay you $20 to do it.

 

[RysiuM]

Last week I had some durability test of my modified "9w Cree LED 31mm Canbus No Error Festoon License Plate Interior Map White Lights by SiriusLED" which are installed in lift gate. If you remember I modified these bulbs from 0.5W to true 4.2W (3W in LEDs, 1.2W in loss).

While having my tires installed the technician left the gate open for good 30 minutes. These lamps don't have timeout so my bulbs were running constantly for 30 minutes. And I am happy to report they survived, so it means there is no problem with overheating.

This was awesome mod to bring total over 900 lumens into the trunk - this is equivalent of having typical 60W household lamp inside. No need for any additional source of light (I saw some guys installed LED light bars inside the trunk to bring some light into trunk).

 

[TrailRunnerNB]

Awesome write up!!! I don't know a lot about lighting in the detail of taking one apart or building one, but you've done a great job!!! I was wondering if you would be interested in putting together another full set of LEDs and and selling them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RysiuM]

I'm sad to inform that my super-duper blinding bright home made LED bulb which I installed in my mirrors went dark. The good news only one went bad. On the left side the puddle light is still bright as new. I guess the quality of bulb I made for the right mirror was not as good as I claimed

Because removing the puddle bulb is PITA I'm going to make a new bulb instead of repairing the broken one. Oh well, it was not "Toyota":embarassed:

The trunk bulbs (modified Festoon bulbs) which are putting the same power as my home made bulbs are still like new. So I am still convinced that the problem was in "production quality", not "faulty design".

In the meantime I decided to add more LED to my 4R. I bought 28 inch LED bar of ebay. There were few selling points for me (besides the price):
- It is exactly 725mm long (28.5inch) so it will fit behind upper grill without any cuts.
- It mounts from the bottom (not from sides) so all the space used is for light, not mounting
- The bottom mounts are very low, so I hope to mount it to original metal plate behind the grill.
- It uses lenses instead of reflectors so the focus is really good.

No false claims about the light output from this seller (US located) and the real measured power (145W at 12V) is quite close to advertised 180W. I don't expect magic, but from calculations I think it will give between 10k and 14k lumens.

Now I'm waiting for a "bumper light switch" to arrive (the switch supplied with the kit is not what I would install).

I will post pictures later, now just images from ebay.

 

[RysiuM]

On the last camping trip I was able to test my cargo lights. This was the real deal: we arrived after sunset to dark campground in the canyon (Pine Flat Campground). There was no need for a flashlight to dig out stuff from 4Runner cargo. All was lighted like it was a daylight. Perfect. Zero complains.

 

[Doc_Fry]

I would offer you some tyoe of exchange barter or monitsry for a pair of modified rear bulbs that you did for the tailgate. Great job.

 

[RysiuM]

Frankly I think it's a shame that SiriusLED did not do this bulb correctly in the first place. Why in hell they put a heat generating and energy wasting "CAN-Bus" resistor instead of just running the all current through LEDs. LED's can handle it, radiator is good enough to get rid of heat, so WTF SiriusLED? Now, the original bulb not only looks like "Made in Chine" but also "Design by China".

I wish also, someone who has access to professional equipment start making bulbs for puddle mirror lights. Obviously the quality of one on my "home grown production" bulb was not good and the bulb failed after a year. However I'm sure the concept and design is not to be blamed for it as the other bulb still works till today. The problem with "home made" production is ability to repeat the same high quality every time. Because it is not "mass production" each piece will be slightly different and obviously I can't guarantee the quality or lifespan. And by my standards I am not able to "cheat" on people. Maybe I am perfectionist, and not well adapted to modern "capitalism" but it's just who I am, old school guy.

 

[Doc_Fry]

I would be willing to take the risk and do understand that when done by hand the level of precision is not as well as by a programmed machine doing it within .000001% of each other each seperate time.

 

[DrFescue]

I'm sad to inform that my super-duper blinding bright home made LED bulb which I installed in my mirrors went dark. The good news only one went bad. On the left side the puddle light is still bright as new. I guess the quality of bulb I made for the right mirror was not as good as I claimed

Because removing the puddle bulb is PITA I'm going to make a new bulb instead of repairing the broken one. Oh well, it was not "Toyota":embarassed:

The trunk bulbs (modified Festoon bulbs) which are putting the same power as my home made bulbs are still like new. So I am still convinced that the problem was in "production quality", not "faulty design".

In the meantime I decided to add more LED to my 4R. I bought 28 inch LED bar of ebay. There were few selling points for me (besides the price):
- It is exactly 725mm long (28.5inch) so it will fit behind upper grill without any cuts.
- It mounts from the bottom (not from sides) so all the space used is for light, not mounting
- The bottom mounts are very low, so I hope to mount it to original metal plate behind the grill.
- It uses lenses instead of reflectors so the focus is really good.

No false claims about the light output from this seller (US located) and the real measured power (145W at 12V) is quite close to advertised 180W. I don't expect magic, but from calculations I think it will give between 10k and 14k lumens.

Now I'm waiting for a "bumper light switch" to arrive (the switch supplied with the kit is not what I would install).

I will post pictures later, now just images from ebay.

Do you have a link for that switch? I am going to be putting one in my bumper as well and will need a switch like that.

Thanks!

 

[RysiuM]

Do you have a link for that switch?

Links to ebay do not last long. Right now the ebay item number is 111953655323, but you can find it using ebay search: "12V Push Switch Button ON-OFF Cable Red LED Light For Toyota Highlander Sequoia"

You will see different colors too.

 

[RysiuM]

Warning for anyone trying to buy 31mm festoon bulbs with Cree XB-D chips (the same I bought on Amazon). Amazon does not sell it anymore. Same thing with SiriusLED - they don't sell it in their on-line store anymore.

I tried to buy them on Ebay, but even they are advertized and pictured as Cree XB-D chips, they are not. I ordered pair and this is what I got. Not Cree chips at all, but some cheap stuff. This almost 10 dollars bulb gives less light than any 50 cents led festoon you can buy. Just be aware.

 

[kman79]

2012 4Runner SR5

Thanks for this post, looking to do the same for the Cargo Area.

Off subject, but where did you get this netting for the cargo? I need this.

 

[RysiuM]

Off subject, but where did you get this netting for the cargo? I need this.

Isuzu Rodeo RIP. I believe it was factory accessory in it. Rodeo died when Dodge Caravan run into it at 70mph. I saved the net from going into salvage.

 

[RysiuM]

I'm sad to inform that my super-duper blinding bright home made LED bulb which I installed in my mirrors went dark. The good news only one went bad. On the left side the puddle light is still bright as new. I guess the quality of bulb I made for the right mirror was not as good as I claimed

I'm happy to inform that my bad super-duper blinding bright home made LED bulb which I installed in my mirror is "blinding bright" again. Finally I had time to open the mirror and dig out the bad bulb. After some tests I localized the problem - cold solder on one of SMD led chips. They are so tiny and everything is so cramped together that I did not a good soldering job in the first place. Instead of solid solder, the connection was "glued" and over the time it gave up.

I re-soldered the connection and after some tests I put the bulb back into the mirror. Now both mirrors are lighting the ground. I will see for how long.

On the side note, this is the reason why I don't want to "take orders" for modified or home-made bulbs. I just don't have equipment to guarantee good soldering job on SMD led chips. One thing is doing it for myself, when I can fix my problem, other is offering unknown quality product to others and take a risk that someone will not be happy with me (I want everybody to like me :kiss

If some day someone from China who is working for "stealing trade secrets company" can read this forum, and then maybe some day they will copy this bulb and make it available on the market for cheap. We just need to wait :grouphug:

 

[XswampX]

Thanks to the OP for a great post, sharing information and innovation. I'm putting together my bulb set and this was most helpful. I have no association whatsoever with Diode Dynamics but suggest those looking for unique, bright bulbs and other cool 4Runner lighting options check them out.

 

[RysiuM]

suggest those looking for unique, bright bulbs and other cool 4Runner lighting options check them out.

I did not see anything special about bulbs offered by them, besides the way overpriced common bulbs you can buy of ebay for fraction.

In my understanding LED bulbs have five main advantages over incandescent lights:
1. Brighter (more light) of the same physical size and watt power
OR
2. Taking less current with the same same light output
OR
3. Combination of two above.
AND
4. Option of choosing light color (within limits of course)
AND
5. Long live (durability) - depends on production quality of course.

In some places option 1 is not needed like for example dome and map lights on interior and marker, blinker or stop lights on exterior.

Making dome or map light insane brigh will cause damage to driver's night vision (these lamps are used when driving at night). Brighter blinkers, position and stop lights will blind other drivers which is also not good.

The output of equivalent incandescent bulb is good enough for safety, and increasing the light output in these bulbs will actually create the opposite effect. So the main reason for using LED in these lamps is lowering the current (easy on wires, connectors and switches), and everlasting life.

Most of expensive (brand) and cheap (noname) Led bulbs would meet this criteria. Quality is the other issue - it is hit and miss. Even brand name bulbs may fail sooner than expected, or some cheep "ebay directly from China" may last forever.

But there are places in a car where you would like to have highest light output possible, more than incandescent bulb can deliver. For 4Runner these are headlights, fog lights and reverse/backup lights (obviously), but also mirror/puddle lights and cargo area lights. They are used by users (drivers) to see stuff better at night. For these lights you would want to maximize benefit 1, meaning get as much light output as possible while drawing no more than original incandescent bulb that is replaced.

This is actually way more difficult to achieve and all manufacturers are struggling with this. The main problem is that LED must run relatively cool, much cooler than incandescent light. So with high watt consumption there is a problem with removing all the heat created. It is easier to do it in places like headlight and fog light where there is enough room to provide additional heat sink (some with fans), but small bulbs used in closed fixture like tail lamps, puddle and cargo don't have enough room to get rid of heat. This is why all wedge or festoon bulbs use less watt power than equivalent incandescent bulbs. They fall into benefit 3 - some gain on light output and use less power.

While these bulbs look "OK" it is not "perfect". I believe that my design of puddle bulb and my modification of cargo bulb would fit into "perfect" criteria (getting the benefit 1). It still can be improved a little by using better (more efficient) LED driver but I don't have production abilities to do that. I really wish that some "China copy" companies would look into that and using their production abilities will make such bulbs for consumers. Right now, while there is some consumers market for it, the supply does not exists. But we have whole bunch of marketing lies and BS instead.

 

[krelnydelnky]

sick setup

 

[RysiuM]

I'm happy to inform that my bad ass super-duper blinding bright home modified LED bulbs which I installed in my gate are still running strong. However when comparing to the camper shell lights I put into my 1995 Tacoma they do not looks as bad ass.

In Tacoma I have total 11.5 ft long dual row 5050 LED strip (51W 3100lm - real values, no marketing BS). Now I think I need something like that in my 4Runner.