LED Bulbs . . . Again

[grey beard]

Told y’all that I ordered a pair of new LED bulbs for my pickem’up truck from superbrighled.com, and that they were advertised to be NON-polarity sensitive. Now, some of you doubting Thomas-types replied that LED’s are light-emitting diodes and as such, are indeed polarity sensitive, since they gotta be diodes, and we all know that they are indeed polarity sensitive electric one-way valves. Someone even doubted they were LED's and suggested mebby they were (gulp) halogen. So much for irrefutable logic.

My bulbs came today in fine shape, and looked just like the picture on the web site. Imaigne that! Then, I began thinking, what if these little devils really ARE polarity sensitive, and I plug ‘em in and they blow.

Soooooo, I called the guys up and asked once again, “Are these bulbs polarity sensitive?”

Josh assured me they had “drivers built into their bases to make them flop either way, and that they were indeed NOT sensitive to which side was hot or which side was grounded, and told me to go ahead and try them out.

Which I promptly did. Hooked ‘em up to my six volt battery charger and up they lit! Then I reversed the polarity and up they lit again. MAN, they are BRIGHT! I like this!

Could it be that technology has once again passed us old guys by? Naaaaahhhhh, it just keeps changin’ too fast for me. Go figure.

FYI – If any of you are interested in getting these, here’s the vendor poop:

SuperBright LEDs, INC.

100 Washington St.

Florissant, MO 63031

314-972-6200

<superbrightleds.com>

PS They have 6-volt LED bulbs with indexed or non-indexed bulb tabs. My six volt tail lamp bulbs are indexed, just like all twelve volt bulbs. My part number was 1157 x19-6volt. Cost was $21.90 for two plus $5.00 shipping.

I like! :)

[Merle Coggins]

Ah Ha... a little extra circutry does the trick.

So how do they look assembled in the lamp housings?

[grey beard]

Merle,

Still waitin' for my new chrome trim rings, then I'll show them to y'all. Just hope those LED's are bright enough to peep through the script DODGE glass leses. If their not, I'll have to use 'em for the parking lights. That'll learn 'em!

[bach4660]

very interesting but what do you mean by indexed or non-indexed bulb tabs. My six volt tail lamp bulbs are indexed,

[grey beard]

Indexed bulbs have the two pins staggered, so the bulb will fit into the socket in only one way. In this fashion, the brighter filament is always connected to the brake/signal electric signal and the dimmer of the two is the tail lamp.

Back in 6-volt days, bulbs came indexed or unindexed - with the pins directly across from one another. This meant the bulb could be inserted in one of two ways. By the time 12-volt systems came around, all bulbs were pretty much indexed.

This means if you buy 6-volt sockets - or bulbs, you need to be aware that both come in these two vaieties. I made the mistake if buying new double contact sockets for my parking lamps to add turn signals to them, and got the non-indexed sockets. Now - you gessed it - I must hunt to find bulbs that match. Of course, this also means that my tail lamp bulbs - inexed - and my new park lamp bulbs - unindexed - require two separate bulbs.

Hope this helps.

[greg g]

You might need to add some resistance to the line in order for the flasher sense enough load to flash. I tried some led bulbs in my MC. The dashindicator gave me a bulb out indicator for the brake light. I put singles in the rear flashers and they would not work as the flasher reacted as the bulb was out du to the lack of load inherent with the led. So they are all ratteling around in a bulb box in the garage cabinet.