Thanks for that. It makes perfect sense as far as the calcs go for resistance but I'm curious why you don't need to factor in the new lights resistance? The total resistance will be partly affected by those lights in parallel with your resistors wont it?

 

That's very true, but I believe LED's have a high resistance until you light them (opposite to bulbs) so during the initial startup check they wouldn't affect the readings.

During use, yes technically this method is now using more watts total than before (resistors plus LED's themselves) but the amount consumed by the LED's is very little.

 

I would estimate around an extra 3-5w total for tail and less than 9w for all the brake lights with my diode modifications, less if you didn't do it. 

If you wanted to be really accurate you could fit them without the resistors, measure the total current draw then work it out exactly (it would probably work out less than my over estimates above).

Also you could play around with higher ohm resistors (use less watts) to see what the highest you can technically get away with before a bulb failure is triggered but who can be bothered 

 

It would be sooooo much easier if you could just easily code them to work correctly but you can't have everything I suppose.  It does 'bug' me a little though that resistors are just sat there getting hot and wasting energy just to satisfy a body control module which can be coded to accept the LED's, its just a bit risky - lots to loose and little to gain!

Edited 20 September, 201312 yr by xpower

Yes it would bother me too, seems to be a real waste of energy!

 

The draw when lit of a 3W LED would be 0.25A, so the resistance would be 12/0.25=48 ohms.  In parallel with a 14.46ohm resistor, I make it that the resistance will be reduced to 11.11ohms, so it seems there is a fair bit of tolerance in the system.

 

It had confused me a bit that the calculations were so simple when reading other posts on the subject but it makes a lot more sense now.  Thanks for your help.

 

Adam

There must be plenty of tolerance in the blown-bulb warning system.

 

I fitted 2x 50W 6 Ohm on each cluster on the Superb (one of the tail light feed, the other on the brake light feed).

 

The Superb is almost identical to the Octavia set-up (4x 5W tail lights, 1x 21W brake light), the only difference is the fog light is in a separate cluster.

 

The back of the cluster was marked up 12V 0.6V / 4.5W, so I assumed the 0.6W was for the tails, 4.5W for the brakes.

 

When shopping around for LED resistors there only seemend to be a few choices, 25W and 50W and 6 Ohm and 8 Ohm.

 

No calculations for me, I just went for the most popular

Edited 20 September, 201312 yr by silver1011

Just for anybody who can't or isn't bothered fitting resistors themselve's

Here are links to a Polish company who sell the LED tail light's for hatch model's

These are both for the OEM Chinese version's and cheaper versions too

 

Cheaper one's, there are loads of variation's of these if you search their website

 

http://sklep.motohid.pl/pl/p/Litec-Skoda-Octavia-2-1Z-lampy-LED-liftback-04-redclear/714

 

OEM, quite expensive compared to buying from China

 

http://sklep.motohid.pl/pl/p/OEM-Skoda-Octavia-2-lampy-LED-liftback-FL-v2.0-/279

 

There's loads more stuff on there too for the Octavia/Superb etc if you look around the site

 

Here's my vRS with my OEM LED's fitted, poor quality phone pic but really look great at night

 

If only dectane released the ones for the hatch :-)

The resistors that are built in to the back of the dectane ones should really be mounted to a heat sink. Of course if they aren't it just reduces the life of the resistor. But if it lasts long enough anyway

They seem to be lasting very well considering

http://sklep.motohid.pl/pl/p/Litec-Skoda-Octavia-2-1Z-lampy-LED-liftback-04-redclear/714

 

 

Those Litec LED clusters look identical to the Dectanes... and they fit the hatchback!

I've just joined up to these forums so I can reply to this thread.

I've got a vrs and wanted to upgrade to some LED back-lights. The OEM ones in the link above (company in Poland) was interesting so I dropped them a line and they can ship to the UK and they inform me they come "ready modified" so they are literally plug and play.

So just a quick question - how difficult is it to remove the rear clusters from the car? Do I need any specific tools to do this?

 

Thanks.

Looking at the bottom right hand photo that shows the back of the light on this link http://sklep.motohid.pl/pl/p/OEM-Skoda-Octavia-2-lampy-LED-liftback-FL-v2.0-/279 it appears that the resistor is attached to the circuit board.

I am assuming that this is probably not a good idea as their resistors would surely suffer the same issue of getting hot when in use ??

Does the o/s fog light work as it should when these are fitted to a RHD vehicle?

Phil

Does the o/s fog light work as it should when these are fitted to a RHD vehicle?Phil

Yes, mine works As normal

Looking at the bottom right hand photo that shows the back of the light on this link http://sklep.motohid.pl/pl/p/OEM-Skoda-Octavia-2-lampy-LED-liftback-FL-v2.0-/279 it appears that the resistor is attached to the circuit board.

I am assuming that this is probably not a good idea as their resistors would surely suffer the same issue of getting hot when in use ??

Your right, ideally hot resistors sould be placed away from the LED's as heat can cause premature failure of the LED's themselves.

Plus the ones they modify have scotch locks everywhere :-(

The rear lights in the video here look orange to me?

 

http://sklep.motohid.pl/pl/p/OEM-Skoda-Octavia-2-lampy-LED-liftback-FL-v2.0-/279

Thank you Xpower for sharing, I purchased the same LED tail light for my octaviaII and I've received them today, I've noticed that the turn signal and the reverse lights are normal not LED also I've noticed a lot of small resistors color coded already installed from factory, do I still need to install the resistors can you please post a photo for the back of the tail light showing the wiring connection as I am not sure where to terminate the wires.

Those Litec LED clusters look identical to the Dectanes... and they fit the hatchback!

 

I think that Litec and Dectane are possibly one and the same, hence the similarity  

Thank you Xpower for sharing, I purchased the same LED tail light for my octaviaII and I've received them today, I've noticed that the turn signal and the reverse lights are normal not LED also I've noticed a lot of small resistors color coded already installed from factory, do I still need to install the resistors can you please post a photo for the back of the tail light showing the wiring connection as I am not sure where to terminate the wires.

I will post a diagram in the next day or so with the information you need

I've just joined up to these forums so I can reply to this thread.

I've got a vrs and wanted to upgrade to some LED back-lights. The OEM ones in the link above (company in Poland) was interesting so I dropped them a line and they can ship to the UK and they inform me they come "ready modified" so they are literally plug and play.

So just a quick question - how difficult is it to remove the rear clusters from the car? Do I need any specific tools to do this?

 

Thanks.

 

Welcome to Briskoda!

 

No special tools needed, you gain access to the four nuts through the flaps in the boot, I think they are either 8mm or 10mm.

 

A little fiddly but not difficult. Just don't drop the nuts into the body of the car!

Thank you Xpower for sharing, I purchased the same LED tail light for my octaviaII and I've received them today, I've noticed that the turn signal and the reverse lights are normal not LED also I've noticed a lot of small resistors color coded already installed from factory, do I still need to install the resistors can you please post a photo for the back of the tail light showing the wiring connection as I am not sure where to terminate the wires.

 

The diagram as requested:

 

You will need to attach the wire marked 'X' to either the empty slot via a repair wire, or just connect it to the wire on the LED tail light which lines up with the missing empty slot on the cars harness. This is to get the side LED's working.

 

This is for the L/H light, there is 1 different colour on the R/H light but the positioning is the same.

 

Good luck

 

 

Welcome to Briskoda!

 

No special tools needed, you gain access to the four nuts through the flaps in the boot, I think they are either 8mm or 10mm.

 

A little fiddly but not difficult. Just don't drop the nuts into the body of the car!

Ah why did you have to say "just don't drop the nuts into the body of the car" - now I'm convinced that is exactly what I'm going to do!

Thanks for your response - very helpful.

So for those that have or are considering LED rear lights, do people think the OEM ones or the Dectane ones look best?

There doesn't seem to be a massive difference between them, the Dectane's I think have reflectors built in whereas the OEM's don't.

Either way just down to personal choice?

Ah why did you have to say "just don't drop the nuts into the body of the car" - now I'm convinced that is exactly what I'm going to do!

 

 

I came very close to dropping my nuts

 

You have to caress them very gently with the tips of your fingers to avoid it

 

The diagram as requested:

 

You will need to attach the wire marked 'X' to either the empty slot via a repair wire, or just connect it to the wire on the LED tail light which lines up with the missing empty slot on the cars harness. This is to get the side LED's working.

 

This is for the L/H light, there is 1 different colour on the R/H light but the positioning is the same.

 

Good luck

 

 

 

Many thanks this will be handy

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/296438-litec-led-taillights-skoda-octavia-1z-lim-04-08-redsmoke-help/

So, having been followed by a friend he said he could barely see the difference between the tail light brightness and the brake light brightness. I have always thought this but didn't realise it was that bad, so I have since made a little modification to my LED lights.

I have now disabled the top row of the LED's in 'side light' mode but still allowed them to operate in 'brake light' mode. This means there is now a separate light for the brake lights and they are now clearly visible (he has followed me since and said they are absolutely fine now)

Here is the picture and vids of them in operation with the mod - both day and night.


 

 

Vid at night

http://s1041.photobucket.com/user/Philip_Mitchell/media/lightsinnight_zps691e28bf.mp4.html

 

Vid in day

http://s1041.photobucket.com/user/Philip_Mitchell/media/lightsinday_zps7f54869e.mp4.html

Edited 22 December, 201312 yr by xpower

I could see how the issue may arise, they really don't get much brighter with the brake light function do they?

I could see how the issue may arise, they really don't get much brighter with the brake light function do they?

Not really, although the issue isn't the brake light brightness being bright enough, it's the tail lights being to bright.

The issue is caused by either:

1. As my CCM isn't coded for LED rears it isn't PWM'ing the voltage enough to dim the side light brightness

2. The LED's on the board don't have quite the right resistors to reduce the voltage.

either way this nice little mod is easy to do and sorts the "issue" out :-)

Instead of just the top row would it be possible to wire all the LED's to increase in brightness to perform the brake light function?

 

This is how the LED clusters work on my Superb. This way the 'C' shape is maintained for both the tail and brake function.