LED Side marker lights

[Ted Fisher]

Didn't someone several years ago figure out a way to have the side turn 
signal lights stay on all the time? While the LEDs certainly are clever 
and do the trick, I like to pay attention to the aesthetics.

Brett Dikeman wrote:

>>  > If anyone is interested, I threw together a few
>>
>>>  pictures of my new LED side marker light install.
>>>  Please keep your chuckling to yourselves as I've payed
>>>  no attention to aesthetics.
>>>
>>>  These things are wired to the city lights of my
>>>  euro-lights and do not blink.
>>>
>>>  Just looking for some extra visibility on the road.
>>>
>>  > http://www.geocities.com/pickandpray/ledmarker
>>
>>>
>>>
>>  > Chi
>
>
>> Cute.
>> Now people will relive "Close Encounters of the third Kind" when they 
>> spot
>> you in their rear view mirror at night.
>
>
> Not quite- look again at the photos for where it's placed.  It's 
> actually not visible head-on at all.  We're also not talking unusual 
> colors here- they're orange.
>
> Every water cooled 911 and Boxster has a similar light; right in the 
> front edge of the wheel well, about trim level.  It's in exactly the 
> same spot, and sends out light in nearly the same way; back and to the 
> side.
>
> The whole idea is to 'remind' people of where the front corner of the 
> car is on a dark highway, before they change lanes into you; if 
> they're in the right position, they don't see the taillight and they 
> don't see the headlight, and their headlights are far enough forward 
> that they don't hit the reflector.  If you've got a black car, and 
> euro lights(which have only reflectors, not glowing markers), well, 
> the front end of the car sorta disappears.  It should not be too 
> bright- which Chi might need to fix, although it's tough to tell from 
> a photo.
>
> I never got past my rough prototype(which used a single LED with a 
> home-brew attempt at fiber optics), but it had a nice glow to it that 
> was subtle, and it was very small and hid nicely under the plastic 
> chrome trim, even better than Chi's setup.  In the daytime, all you 
> could see if you looked very closely was a piece of plexiglass...and 
> you had to look pretty closely.
>
> Brett