Sequenced taillight LED's?

[rokr1292]

Got stuck behind a new mustang in traffic the other day and was admiring the novelty of the sequenced taillights it had (turn signals blinked in a pattern, in the direction that the driver was signaling) I was wondering if anyone had attempted or thought about doing the same to the LED taillight assemblies found in the later 4th gen 4runners. I wasnt able to find images or a video of someone disassembling one of the taillight assemblies, so I dont know how suited they'd be for this kind of project.

since our taillights have 3 rows of LEDs, i was even thinking that the cheaper, mass-produced kits for mustangs might be adaptable, albeit our taillights would blink up or down instead of left or right.

Has anyone tried or considered this here? I'm starting to be very tempted to buy a used set of lights to tinker with

 

[DZNUTS]

Your best bet would be to wire up a bread board and solder on rows of LEDs with each ‘home run’ going to a sequence controller.
I’m sure our factory LED tail lights were not wired up in such a manor.

On a separate note, what would be the point of having the LEDs cycle from top to bottom when activating the turn signal? If anything, perhaps having the middle third of the LEDs cycle from inside to outside would be more effective when signalling. You would still retain 2/3 of the LEDs for brake lights as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Anonymous4Runner]

Not too sure if it's worth the mod. Wouldn't they have to be DoT approved for use on public roadways? I could be wrong here though since I was surprised to learn out the feature came with the ford vehicle because I could have swore sequence based lights were reserved for emergency / construction workers.

 

[V8Man]

67-68 cougars were the first to do the sequenced turn signal. I saw a semi trailer with the 3" round light that had sequenced rows inside it. Getting one of those may be the key to doing what you want.

 

[CookieRoe]

Our tail lights are too "verticle" for a sequential mod. There are only 4 LEDs across. The sequential effect, I feel, would be difficult to see. It would be cool to see however.

 

[Coveman]

67-68 cougars were the first to do the sequenced turn signal. I saw a semi trailer with the 3" round light that had sequenced rows inside it. Getting one of those may be the key to doing what you want.

67-69 t-birds had them as well

early models used a rotating cam to fire them, then went to a solid state controller.

 

[Montego Murph]

Always thought those were neat.

This is from an Imperial but the same principle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_4yYp5tqEg

 

[NinjaOne]

On the Mustang it is useful because it differentiates the signal from braking (red signal, red brake light) When equipped with red signals, it can sometimes be difficult to see if they are signalling or tapping their brakes in some lighting conditions, sequential lights help solve that for them.

You could get a sequential bar for the tailgate, but like other's have said ours isn't large to be really useful or even noticeable