Brake,tail and signal light conversion to LED

gmctoyman wrote:
Looking at all of the OTR drivers going to LEDs, many Bargman, I'd say YOU have a problem with YOUR system. JMOO

I do a LOT of highway driving on my commute to work and a lot of that on a major Interstate with lots of truck traffic. It is EASIER to count the trucks with ALL GOOD working LED lights.

I can tell you that easily 75% or more big rigs I see daily will have at least one LED module partially or fully dead.

Not to mention the amount of LED traffic lights which are failing at rather fast rates.. Recently I have noticed the a lot of LED traffic lights being relamped with INCADESCENT lights!

The problem is the manufacturers of these assemblies are PUSHING the current and heat limits of the LEDs they chose to use in order to maximize the brightness. These LEDs are "potted" in an epoxy to water proof them and the same time the epoxy is not allowing the heat generated to be dissipated away from the LED junctions.

It is a popular "belief" that LEDS do not generate heat.. That belief is FALSE. LED junctions DO INDEED create heat, they are no different from transistors in that respect.

Run current through a semiconductive junction and heat happens. Run too much current through the junction and too much heat happens. When too much heat happens (or not enough heat is removed from the junction) the junction will eventually FAIL.

The way to fix this problem is to REDUCE the current draw EVER SO SLIGHTLY, reducing the current draw will extend the life by reducing the heat across the junction.

Good chance the modules current draw can be reduced by 10% or even 20% with very little loss in light output. That is where I am now going and will be the ultimate fix.

I am looking at using several regular diodes in series with the bargman modules to drop the voltage down about 1.4V and check the current draw and brightness.

I WILL find a way to fix this garbage and make them reliable..