CAN Bus LED Question

Some interesting reading on this subject
"CAN Bus bulbs should not be used in non CAN Bus applications"?

 

Good day David,

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/427345-most-powerful-led-bulbs.html

Just be aware that having more lumens may not be better, as LEDs do generate heat and so more lumens usually means more current, which means more heat generated. This may be an issue, as the heat may be too much for the usage area (i.e. inside a closed lens assembly, etc) to dissipate and thus cause deformation of the plastic assembly. Secondly, not all LED assemblies are made the same way in the sense of having protection circuitry from overvoltage, overheating, and varying voltage conditions conditions. HB (high brightness) LED lighting is a fantastic technology and works extremely well providing the manufacturer designs the LED driver circuity correctly.

Cheers,

Sam

 

Sam, I would imagine the concern around heat on an LED lamp is at the LED's junction - not the heat emitted from the device.

I highly suspect that an incandescent lamp produces wayyyy more radiated heat than any high output LED array.

The benefit I see is much less current draw from a well designed LED lamp.

My issue with LED lamps is that 1. They don't look right on a vintage car 2. They're not DOT/SAE approved 3. The quality is usually suspect from these amazing offshore brands. 4. The light emitted is not optimized for a lens optic lamp like the 3x8

Having that resistor on the CANbus compatible lamp may/will add heat into your lamp, so go with the non CAN type. I suspect turn signals will need a load resistor to flash correctly.

 

Good day Myron,

Indeed a LED is a lot more efficient that an incandescent, but some vendors use high power LEDs to generate lots of light and the result is a fair amount of localized heat. A lot of manufacturers (not just Auto light Manufacturers) simply throw LEDs in areas without any regard for their nuances and/or design requirements. I say this, as I design specialty commercial LED lighting fixtures and have reviewed and analyzed a lot of manufacturers LED products and it amazes me how crappy a lot of them are designed... and a number of these vendors are quite mainstream. As a consequence the Industry is seeing premature LED Light failures to which some are quick to blame the technology. This is simply unfair, as the vast majority of the issues surround the LED driving circuitry. In fact a number of the Auto LED lights I have seen simply use a series resistor as the current limiting element for the LED... This works fine for basic/simple applications, but is far from what is needed for multiple high brightness (HB) LEDs...

My point to the originator of the thread was that more lumens is not necessarily better and that there are other issues to consider... You also presented a number of other important items to consider as well.

Cheers,

Sam

 

Go for the full $25 bulb (and skip the CAN bulb). For another application, I bought the one-step-down-from-the-top bulb and it was almost as bright as stock.

I've had good experiences with SuperbrightLEDs, and they're now my go-to.

 

Resistors or an LED-compatible flasher will be required. And the CAN bus bulbs do not solve that issue, according to SuperbrightLEDs.

 

David.

You must go for the non CAN bus led bulb. Our 308 don't need CAN Bus compatible led bulbs, only the modern cars need them.

About led chip, you must go for the new Samsung 5630 or Osram chip. They're spreading 700 lumens, depending on the number of led chip on board.

For the turn indicator lights you need led bulbs with built in resistor. I've found a source on the net. I've posted it here also.
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/431557-definitive-led-bulb-turn-indicator.html

They're have a good power and light spread, and they don't need a special resistor.

And, of course, as far as I know, not all these led bulbs are street legal.

My 308 has plenty of these led bulbs installed -turn indicator lights, tail lights, reverse light, license plate, dash lights, interior dome light- and no issues by now.

My 2 cent