signal mirrors

[velvetman]

About a year ago someone gave a complete description of how to mount LED lights in the housing of rear view mirrors to make them "signal Mirrors". I also saw this bike at the CCR reunion in Jackson and they looked great.

I would like to do this to my new 2005 but cannot find the article on this site, nor can I locate the owner of the bike. Can someone help connect me to this article or its author.

thanks Steve
velvetman @shaw.ca
Sherwood Park, Alberta CA

[beemerlt]

Check out RonKMiller's idea in the HoW (http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/faq.php?faq=how_index_1#faq_how_faq_acclights) (g.7).

[RonKMiller]

The one thing I learned after doing my mirrors that is extremely important is to make sure you "aim" each individual LED in the direction you want (horizontal and out about 10 to 15 degrees) when you are drilling the mounting holes. It doesn't have to be exact - ballpark works just fine.

If you mount them flush on the outside of the housing without taking this into account they will be signaling the space shuttle instead of the drivers next to and behind you.

This is due to the nature of the highly directional beams of the LED's that I used - they are EXTREMELY bright and make the Muth LED's pale in comparison.

I have since learned that there are LED's that have more of a "floodlight" effect vs. the "spotlight" ones that I used, although I don't know what the lumen output is compared to the "spots". I would do some additional research on this before tackling what will amount to a very time consuming - but worthwhile - project.

The new license plate frame by Kisan that Raffy carries incorporates this type of LED.

One additional benefit of this mod is that they act as additional "turn signal on" reminders.

I guess you've got a bit of time to complete this project before next riding season - eh? ;)

[LJSMITH1]

Another way to diffuse the light output on a standard LED is to gently grind the top radius 'lens' off the top of the LED. This will make the top of the LED flat. The end result will be a more diffuse light that will not be so directional. I am considering doing this with my mirrors. It is very 'custom' looking and cool!

-Larry :bmw:

[Dezrae]

One thing wrong with using the standard little off the shelf leds is they are pretty wimpy in power output or should i say brightness levels.

one idea i have had for ages and i have not got round to doing it yet is to mount a few, say 3 or 4 , 3 watt luxeon amber leds behinds the mirror assembly and run plastic fibre optic cable from the leds and route the fibre optic to the sides of the mirrors. the plastic fibre optic is magic stuff we use it at work all the time to connect poker machines together (yes i fix these stupid machines as well) this woulf work great guns i recon and much brighter output of light due to the brightness being measures in lumens not mcd,s o many,many times brighter.
feel free to pinch this idea yourself and have a go building it.