# LED size for vehicles



## Nick R. (Sep 19, 2015)

I hope this is the correct forum, but what is a good size LED to use for headlights/taillights for 1:43 & 1:48 vehicles? I'd like to order some on amazon and experiment, but if there is a specific size you guys have used before with success, it would be very helpful.

Thanks!

Nick


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, smaller is better as a rule for vehicles. I have used surface mount LED chips in several of them. I've also done taillights and markers with fiber optic cable with a central LED to illuminate a few of them.

I order most of my SMT LED stuff from Digikey or Mouser.


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Just remember those surface mount LEDs are very tiny, it's quite fiddly work. The daylight type will simulate later halogen bulbs and warm yellow earlier conventional ones. DCC Concepts do sets with resistors.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

The SMT stuff is small. To solder the #30 solid wire to them, I stick them face-down on some tape and solder the wires. Obviously, a temperature controlled iron is pretty important when soldering to small SMT parts.


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## dchartier (Jan 29, 2015)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Well, smaller is better as a rule for vehicles. I have used surface mount LED chips in several of them. I've also done taillights and markers with fiber optic cable with a central LED to illuminate a few of them.
> 
> I order most of my SMT LED stuff from Digikey or Mouser.


What sort of fiber optic cable do you use, and what are some suggested ways of mounting it?


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Head lights 5mm or 3mm , Tail lights 3mm or 1.8 mm. Depending how you want it to look. Whenever I mount lights in shell I use a common clear auto gasket like permatex. The dtuff will stick to hold and peel off if you want to remove it.


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## dchartier (Jan 29, 2015)

T-Man said:


> Head lights 5mm or 3mm , Tail lights 3mm or 1.8 mm. Depending how you want it to look. Whenever I mount lights in shell I use a common clear auto gasket like permatex. The dtuff will stick to hold and peel off if you want to remove it.


Thanks! Do you use something along the lines of this? http://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Optic-S..._sim_60_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0ZEAGRTFBC4YRN9ZDT4A

Also, how do you arrange the cables to illuminate multiple lights from a single LED? Do you splice the cable?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

dchartier said:


> What sort of fiber optic cable do you use, and what are some suggested ways of mounting it?


I bought my fiber on eBay, I just picked several diameters and ordered it. I take an LED and grind the face flat, then I bundle the fiber in front of the face and secure it with heat-shrink tubing. The defused surface of the led face seems to spread the light fairly well. As far as mounting it, you just have to route it where you won't have too sharp a bend in the fiber, that usually dictates where you mount the LED that's doing the illumination.


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