Alright, as promised, I took some pictures of my Porsche key that I changed from the ol' fashioned incandescent bulb to a light emitting diode. I bought a brand new key head from the dealership to compare it to. (you'll see a shadow in my key's pictures from the key shaft...the new key is just the head, so no shadow) For the photos, I set my camera 12 inches from the brochure I was lighting, and they were all taken in complete darkness. The first two were taken from six inches, and the second two from twelve, right on top of the camera.

light at 6 inches...



and at 12 inches...



This is an experimental/prototype key that I've made, but we will be making and selling them very soon. Just for fun, I'm making a blacklight key, and I'll post pics of that one too!!

 

Hey you doing this on my time??!!!

 

OooOooHhh! Me WANT!

 

thats pretty freakin impressive!!!

 

Ahh... My little LED friend.

Think you can put a small laser pointer in place of that LED?

 

Looks great! Nice work!

 

i actually tried that once. but gave up when i saw how much LEDs cost. im not paying like 3$ for a thing that i probly cant even get to work. hah. but if you can get it to work ill deffenitly be on top of your buyer list.

 

hmm full boat lighting for the keyhead!!! me wants also!

 

How fast does that drain the battery?

 

I tested my current setup by burning the led constantly - rather than in "pulses" - and I got over 36 hours of constant light. After I let the batteries sit for a day, they powered the same led at nearly full strength again. I'm estimating that under normal usage, the power should last between four and five years, and the led is rated at 80,000 hours constant.

 

Wow, very cool. You can count me in if you do decide to make them...

 

I kind of want to do this on my own.. Can you write a how-to? All I really need is some way to power the thing, what battery(s) did you use?

 

Hey Kaspar, see what happens when you don't keep your employees busy? You'll turn ArticCzar into a 911 guy yet... high performance keys?? Sheesh, whats next? Billet hanger hooks? lol

j/k

Regards, ...Scott

 

how did you get this to work? i was trying for awhile myself but couldn't find an LED that would run from 1.5 V... did you find a low-voltage LED? or a 3V lithium battery that fits in our key?

nice work!

 

I think you can stack two 1.5v watch batteries into that key fob...