DIY Almost Free Super Bright LEDs

[Glamisduner]

I got some 5054 LED's off amazon. 5054's are about twice as bright as 5050 LEDs. I used less than 2 " on this 5 meter roll. I wanted red because it does not mess with your night vision while driving, I wanted to get the brightest 3 LEDs as I could. The human eye is not very light sensitive to red. If I was going with green (human eye is very sensitive to green light) I may have gone with less powerful emitters.

The strip I ended up with was a little disappointing. Many of the LEDs were soldered to the strip crooked, but when tested the whole thing light up, so good enough for our purposes.

To pry off the optic, I used a small screwdriver down into the small groove where it is clipped in place. Then scoup outward towards the outer nub.

I decided not to break off the stock board. Instead I unsoldered the LED and the resistor. (Sorry no picture). Be careful not to bump the edge of the casing with the iron (I did oops, no big deal though). This gave me a nice platform to stick the cut LED strip to while soldering it in place. Use flux it helps! (Yep the strips LED is crooked):

Back together:

The result in this picture is a bit brighter than my human eyes perceive. But you get the idea. Picture was taken with the interior lights on.

If anyone wants red, no need to buy a whole role, just send me a PM. Something like $1 per 3 LEDs and $1 for shipping and my time and I'll cut and ship them to ya. Or I might even be able to solder a set in exchange for yours, I just hate liability and don't want to be responsible for peoples mods but the mod is very easy!

 

[EVnut]

I decided not to break off the stock board. Instead I unsoldered the LED and the resistor. (Sorry no picture). Be careful not to bump the edge of the casing with the iron (I did oops, no big deal though). This gave me a nice platform to stick the cut LED strip to while soldering it in place. Use flux it helps! (Yep the strips LED is crooked):

That's a pretty good idea to scrape off the existing emitter and resistor instead of breaking the board off. I think I'll start doing it that way from now on. And yes... there's really no such thing as a proper solder job without flux.

I may have to fling you some dollars for some red units so I don't end up with a huge roll like I have of white!

 

[Darscot]

I got some 5054 LED's off amazon. 5054's are about twice as bright as 5050 LEDs. I used less than 2 " on this 5 meter roll. I wanted red because it does not mess with your night vision while driving, I wanted to get the brightest 3 LEDs as I could. The human eye is not very light sensitive to red. If I was going with green (human eye is very sensitive to green light) I may have gone with less powerful emitters.

The strip I ended up with was a little disappointing. Many of the LEDs were soldered to the strip crooked, but when tested the whole thing light up, so good enough for our purposes.

To pry off the optic, I used a small screwdriver down into the small groove where it is clipped in place. Then scoup outward towards the outer nub.
View attachment 376223

I decided not to break off the stock board. Instead I unsoldered the LED and the resistor. (Sorry no picture). Be careful not to bump the edge of the casing with the iron (I did oops, no big deal though). This gave me a nice platform to stick the cut LED strip to while soldering it in place. Use flux it helps! (Yep the strips LED is crooked):

View attachment 376225

Back together:
View attachment 376226

The result in this picture is a bit brighter than my human eyes perceive. But you get the idea. Picture was taken with the interior lights on.
View attachment 376227

If anyone wants red, no need to buy a whole role, just send me a PM. Something like $1 per 3 LEDs and $1 for shipping and my time and I'll cut and ship them to ya. Or I might even be able to solder a set in exchange for yours, I just hate liability and don't want to be responsible for peoples mods but the mod is very easy!

Red looks killer!

 

[jkoya]

The result in this picture is a bit brighter than my human eyes perceive. But you get the idea. Picture was taken with the interior lights on.

Thanks for the write up and nice work. Looks awesome !!

 

[Glamisduner]

That's a pretty good idea to scrape off the existing emitter and resistor instead of breaking the board off. I think I'll start doing it that way from now on. And yes... there's really no such thing as a proper solder job without flux.

I may have to fling you some dollars for some red units so I don't end up with a huge roll like I have of white!

Which white do you have? Want to trade some? I was thinking I want to keep the glove box

I might be interested in some white ones for the glove box, if you have a 600 LED strip (where 3 emitters fit in). They don't need to be 5054's (Actually id prefer something less bright for the glove box) just something a little brighter than stock would be nice there. Maybe I can trade ya I could make it red, but that might be kinda weird.

I never even noticed the stock foot well lights dim when your driving (they were not bright enough to notice). The red 5054's appear to be the perfect amount of light for me. They are a tad on the bright side in park, but dim down nicely when you put the car in drive. This reduces my concerns with using 5054's in other colors, but of course people will have to play. Green is typically the brightest, with red and then royal blue being the least bright, so green may still be too bright.

 

[TM3blu]

What about the Dome Lights. They are way too dim. Trunk and Frunk are easy, any ideas how to get brighter Dome Lights?

 

[Glamisduner]

What about the Dome Lights. They are way too dim. Trunk and Frunk are easy, any ideas how to get brighter Dome Lights?

Probably not nearly as easy, I actually like my dome lights how they are, so that they don't bother me while driving.

 

[Roci]

What about the Dome Lights. They are way too dim. Trunk and Frunk are easy, any ideas how to get brighter Dome Lights?

I would love to upgrade the dome lights too, but look at what you have to do to pop out the module. Broken tabs, ouch! But once it's out it looks like the backside comes off by unscrewing.

 

[EVnut]

Which white do you have? Want to trade some? I was thinking I want to keep the glove box

I might be interested in some white ones for the glove box, if you have a 600 LED strip (where 3 emitters fit in). They don't need to be 5054's (Actually id prefer something less bright for the glove box) just something a little brighter than stock would be nice there. Maybe I can trade ya I could make it red, but that might be kinda weird.

I never even noticed the stock foot well lights dim when your driving (they were not bright enough to notice). The red 5054's appear to be the perfect amount of light for me. They are a tad on the bright side in park, but dim down nicely when you put the car in drive. This reduces my concerns with using 5054's in other colors, but of course people will have to play. Green is typically the brightest, with red and then royal blue being the least bright, so green may still be too bright.

Oops. After we're done with our trade conversation THEN I see this.

What I am using and sending: 2835, cool white.

With three in the fixture, I find that they're about the perfect amount of white light. I love them in each position where I've used them. I MAY want to make my puddle lights a bit brighter, but everything inside the car is ideal.

 

[Glamisduner]

@EVnut thanks for the LED swap. I was feeling a little better today and did the glove box LEDs. I think I might add some LEDs to the frunk next. Need to decide if I want warm white to match the switch or Cool white to match the trunk. I'm a much bigger fan of warm white, but it was harder to find really bright trunk lights in warm white.

Forgot to take a picture after I soldered the leads to the pad.

Thinking about using these for the frunk.
2x 12V 5730 3LED Number License Plate Light Screw Bolt Lamp Car Motorcycle White 826965894863 | eBay

 

[EVnut]

Glad to hear that you're feeling better!

I agree that I like the warmer color temps as well. And wow, what a stark contrast when using higher Kelvin LEDs next to that factory Frunk light. Yikes.

 

[Glamisduner]

Used a mirror and a screwdriver bit to pop it out.

Center console Light Modded with white:

All too easy

 

[EVnut]

Ha! Yeah, that's a tough one to reach, isn't it?

 

[selfbp]

Bump in cheers of just completing this mod! Awesome trick!

 

[takedownca]

Anybody have info on upgrading Model S dome lights? Google doesn't seem to be any help. I found some tidbits regarding Model 3 dome lights, but that doesn't do my MS much good.

 

[takedownca]

Just to be more specific, since people seem to use interior/dome/map light interchangeably, I'd like to make these 4 button lights brighter. The only pics I could find of them was from someone's eBay listings, so I'm linking those listings as a courtesy.
Front Map Light
Rear Map Light

 

[dandan]

Thanks for all the tips. I got my trunk ones working but proceeded to work on the glovebox and center armrest and they don’t turn on now... any ideas?

 

[Kurtbe]

Thanks for all the tips. I got my trunk ones working but proceeded to work on the glovebox and center armrest and they don’t turn on now... any ideas?

You probably solved it by now. But just in general: soldering needs to be done neatly. And any electrician connection needs to make good contact. To fix the problem you need a multimeter to measure if you get 12 volts at the connecting wire. If not maybe the fuse is gone. If you do get 12v, then measure at the top of the board. If not, the soldering might be bad. If you do get 12V, then any component on the led strip might have become unsoldered or the strip might be broken. If so, put in a new piece of strip.

 

[Kurtbe]

I recently installed a set of Abstract Ocean puddle lights, I highly recommend them. This left me with two unused LEDs and I thought I might as well mess with them. I popped one open and they are just a single LED on a board. Wiggle the board up and down by the end opposite the metal connectors. The board pops right out and leaves the two pins behind. I had a roll of LEDs left over so I snipped out a three LED section and soldered them to the post. If the pins are on your left the pin closet to you is negative. My strip was a little long but it’s fexible so it’s easy to wedge in there. It’s ugly but once you pop the cap back on it looks perfect. Each LED is much brighter than the single LED in the original and now you have three. They even work in the foot wells. I think a roll of 12v LEDs is like $15-20 and that is enough to do at least 20 cars so your a few cents per light. I only did two so far took me about 10 minutes. The strip I have is warm but I prefer cool so I need to grab another strip.

View attachment 328644

This is the board popped out.
View attachment 328651

Thanks for starting this up!

 

[MikeHolliday]

Red looks killer!

Ok, I am jealous, you live where you can work on your Tesla in the winter. I know you are in a warm climate when I see the hot water tank, utility sink and washing machine in a garage. We just went through negative Fahrenheit weather in Ohio and I would have had no hot shower. Currently it is 15 degrees here...