Custom design DRL - Any vehicle

Seen those Audi style light strips that ebay sells for Rs 1500+? I can show you how to make something pretty close for a couple 100



LED strip winker coming out in a future post


This is my guide on how to create custom shaped LED Day time running lights on any vehicle.
For the purpose of demonstration, the photos are from my Impulse.
The photos will not be as good because when I made this, I was not in the habit of documenting everything for the purpose of blogging. However, PM me, and I will try to recreate some of the steps for photographs if the explanation provided is not very clear.

Level – Decide for yourself. Difficult, irritating and time consuming, but not impossible

Requirements:
LED’s – Lots of them in the colour of your choosing. Mine were white
Electrical wire
Voltage regulator (recommended). DIY or readymade circuits are available on ebay
Epoxy glue (recommended)
Clear silicone tube (aquarium tube) 5 or 6 mm dia
Moderate soldering skills
Steady hand
A willingness to mess with your vehicle’s electronics
Tons of patience

Tools:
Soldering Iron, flux and Solder
Drill or rotary tool with 1mm drill if possible
Hot glue gun
Cutting pliers (I prefer nail cutters)
Insulation tape
Scissors

Step 1: Design, Marking and LED estimation
This step is entirely left to you as it has to do with what lines you want your DRL to follow. Instructions for taking the part off the vehicle also vary depending on the vehicle, and where on the vehicle you wish to run your lights.
However, wherever you choose to place LEDs, make sure you can drill through, and that there’s 3-4 mm space behind for all the connections that you want to make.
Once you have your line decided, you can begin to estimate the number of LED’s required. Best if you already have a few samples lying around. Hold the LED where your line starts, and make a mark. Then move the LED down the line and position it so that there’s 1-2 mm gap between the LEDs (more if you want). Make a second mark, and continue so on down the line. Count the total number of LEDs required and round it up or down to the closest multiple of 3 or 4 (I’ll explain later why)


Marked


Step 2: Drilling
Each LED has 2 legs, the longer is positive, the shorter negative. Each leg is around 0.8mm dia, so to pass the legs through your part, I would recommend using a 1mm drill as they are marginally better to handle than 0.8mm drills. For the drilling, I used my Dremel with the flexible extension. This is the option that I would recommend. If you have access only to a drill, then I would say that it is a 2 man (or woman) job. 1 person operating the drill, the other holding the part and the lowest possible part on the drill to keep it steady.
Drill 2 holes about 2-3mm apart. If you want to be highly precise, the exact spacing is 2.5mm, but the legs are very flexible, so anywhere in the neighbourhood of 2 mm, and you’re good


Drilled

Step 3: Bending
The LED’s I used were 5mm LEDs, which means that if I put them in ‘standing up’, they would stick out from the surface too much, so I decided to mount them ‘lying down’. This meant that I had to bend the legs to pass them through the holes and out the other side. I hope the picture gives you an idea of what I am talking about.
What is important is that all the LEDs mounted on one side (of a symmetric pattern) must be bent the same way. This will make all the polarities line up properly when it comes time to wire up the LEDs later.




Step 4: Inserting
Insert the legs of the LEDs into the holes, apply a dab of glue between the back of the LED and the part, and press the LED down. I used a bit of electrical tape to hold the LEDs in place while the glue cured.


Placed with a dab of epoxy below


all taped up, just waiting for them to dry


Step 5: Wiring
Now comes a critical decision whether your voltage regulator will be of 9 or 12 volts. An LED can normally run off 3 volts without need of a current limiting resistor. So if your source is 12V, it means 4 LEDs in series (12V ÷ 4 LED = 3V per LED), or using similar calculation, 9V supply means 3 LEDs in series.
I did not take a photo of the back of the visor because it was a mess, but here is how to wire them up.



One time and material saving tip is to bend the leg of the LED so that it makes contact with the required point, then solder. Use a cutting pliers or nail cutter (my personal favourite) to snip off the extra length of wire after the solder joints

Step 6: Voltage Regulator
I bought a voltage regulator kit off ebay (LM7812 12 Volts Voltage Regulator Circuit KIT | eBay) that comes with all components required. Once soldered, I covered it with hot glue for water proofing, and used some more hot glue to stick it to the inside of my visor, beside the headlight.




Step 7: Wiring it up
There are 4 main connections to be made
1) +ve output of regulator to the positive ends of the LED sets
2) –ve output of regulator to the un-insulated ground rail for the LEDs
3) Ground input for the regulator
4) Supply for regulator
The grounding can be a wire that is stripped at one end, and can be wrapped around any bolt mounted on the vehicle frame, since the vehicle frame is always grounded.
The supply can me from the battery via a switch, or as in my case, you can cut the wire that originally went to the stock position lamps (brown wire in most cases), and connect it to that. In this case, you can take the ground connection from here also (green wire).

Step 8: Waterproofing
This step really deserves a photo, but having to work as fast as I have to, it was difficult to take any. Still, in a further update to this post, I will try to recreate the process for the sake of photographs.
Step 8.1: Measure the length of the silicon tube required by laying it along the line of LEDs. Always better to cut off about 30-40mm excess, and trim it later.
Step 8.2: Using a pair of scissors, cut along one side of the tube, as if to open it out into a flat sheet. Do this along the entire length of the cut tube
Step 8.3: Open one end of the tube using your fingers, and place it over the 1^st LED. The tube will try to return to its original round shape, and in doing so will ‘hug’ the LED. Using one hand to hold the tube in place over the 1^st LED, use the other hand to make the tube cover the next few LEDs.
Step 8.4: Using a few strips of tape to hold the tube in place, Fold back the tube over the next uncovered LED. Insert a generous amount of hot glue into the tube, and fold it down to ‘hug’ the LED. While the glue is hot, use your fingers to smooth out the tube so that there are no bumps or dips. (Goes without saying that hot glue is HOT, so use caution)
Step 8.5: Continue filling the tube with hot glue and covering the LEDs with it along the full length. Once done, go back to the starting end, remove the tape, and finish it off with glue like the rest of the tube.
Step 8.6: If you think that the edges of the tube look a little unfinished, go over them with some more hot glue. Keep your speed steady to ensure that the bead is as even as possible.

Step 9: Assemble on the bike and done
Heading is quite self-explanatory, don’t you think?

So enjoy your modding, and PM me if you need any help. I’ve got quite a slew of mods to go along this one.
USB Charger
Rewiring switch cluster so that DRL are always on and you free up 1 spot on the switch for additional lighting/accessory control
Helmet holder off the back of the bike
LED winkers
Reflective graphics
… just to name a few.

Attached Images