JAL

Hi Stephen, I have looked back at your order and I see that I supplied the Wipac relay with your LED lights. Although Wipac have a good name, I have had a few failures of their LED relay in the past year. I have tested many relays and I have found the CF14 to be the best option for Caterhams and this is now the relay I supply with my LED lights. The CF14 has proven to be far more reliable than other relays and works with any combination of LED and standard bulb. All my products come with a 1 year warranty so I will send you a new CF14 relay free of charge tomorrow via 1st class post. Beware if any owners are thinking of buying a cheap CF14 from Ebay or Amazon. I have tried dozens from different suppliers and they are not all the same. The quality of the electronics inside are questionable and you can feel the difference in build quality just by holding one in your hand. Buy cheap, buy twice. I pride myself on my customer service, so If any other owners have questions about relays or LED lights then please feel free to email me as I am always happy to help. support@justaddlightness.co.uk Doug

+1 for Chipex

Hi Anthony, If I can help by supplying anything else then please let me know. If you want to convert the original spade connectors to the new type econoseal type then I can supply a female econoseal connector and terminals for you free of charge. If you need to cut the wires to convert to spade connectors then you will not invalidate your 1 year warranty on the fog lamp. Alternatively, if you're not happy cutting the wires then I can swap the fog lamp for one with spade connectors fitted or if you prefer, no connectors at all thus allowing you to use the wires as you see fit. Let me know if there is anything I can do as I am always happy to help. Doug

No worries Ian, nice to meet you. Always happy to help. Doug

Hi John, Here is a 12v comparison for reference. Both are approximate draws per unit. Standard setup Tail = 0.42A Stop = 1.75A Turn = 1.75A Reverse = 1.75A Fog = 1.75A Just Add Lightness Tail = 0.1A Stop = 0.43A Turn = 0.39A Reverse = 0.43A Fog = 0.55A In reality the current is less as the system should run at around 13.4V with the motor running. Standard Fuses (Sigma) Tail = Left 5A / Right 7.5A Stop = 7.5A Turn = 10A Reverse = 5A Fog = 5A Standard Fuses (Duratec) Tail = 7.5A Stop & Reverse = 10A Turn & Fog = 15A Fuse Colours (for identification) ORANGE 5A BROWN 7.5A RED 10A BLUE 15A YELLOW 20A CLEAR 25A GREEN 30A If you need a fuse layout then let me know. Doug

Hi John, In short, the RDX relay has fixed every issue I have come across when it comes to Caterham lighting. If you remove the top you will see that it is full of electronics and this is what makes it so expensive - it is not a normal relay. Relays work on load, meaning they are designed to 'see' a certain wattage to work correctly. By fitting LED lights this wattage can change dramatically and completely confuse a relay. The RDX has the widest range of load detection of any relay on the market, from virtually nothing right up to 140w. Therefore it can detect any combination of standard/LED lighting and work accordingly. People ask me. Will the Wipac work on my car? In truth I have no idea, No two Caterhams are the same and the load can be affected by the cars age, quality of wiring and modifications made to the car over the years etc. The Wipac relay is good but I have encountered a 40% failure rate with customers cars. I've had two identical cars where the Wipac works in one and not the other. Customers where the Wipac works great for two weeks and then just decides to stop working. Obviously when these customers switch to the RDX then their problems are solved. Having said that 60% of customers use the Wipac with no problems at all. My advice would be if you're thinking of changing your cars lighting in anyway than factor in the cost of the RDX relay so there are no surprises or disappointments in the future. I have a team looking into the possibility of manufacturing a similar relay to the RDX specfically for the Caterham with a built in buzzer. At this time I am still not sure if this is a viable option. LED's are much less prone to failure. The result is an extremely long lifespan, typically our LED's will last between 10,000 - 50,000 hours! However, when experimenting with my prototypes I found that there are many sub standard LED's on the market. LED's are more expensive to manufacture than standard bulbs and if you find a cheap LED solution you can almost guarantee poor design and early failure. This is why I decided on OSRAM LED's as they are the highest quality available. I have seen many LED rear lights designed so that if one LED fails you lose the entire light! If this type of LED light fails then it is more likely to cause a short and blow a fuse, again this is down to poor design and cost cutting. If an LED fails on one of my lights, (it's never happen yet), then they are designed to have the minimum impact. There are 72 LED's on every rear light and if one LED fails then a maximum of 4 LED's will be extinguished. If another LED fails then you lose another 4 and so on - thus leaving the light totally usable at all times . An LED failure is also an easy fix for me to rectify. I hope this answers your questions. Doug

MRP - The LED lights look great in the carbon blocks with the clear lenses. Very nice. Manstein - You have turned into my test pilot! I would love to see the difference between the LED and the standard lights, especially in those tunnels! Doug

Having the DRL built in was the first idea on the list. It would have been easy to have half white/half amber LED's switching alternately when needed. The problem with this is that DRL's should switch off or dim when the headlights are activated. This gave us problems with wiring and relays etc. I do have some ideas on this but for the moment the DRL will be marked as a future project. Tom, alas you're too late. However, it gives you an idea of how easy these will be to fit. Doug

Hi Giles, The main reason is I have lost count of how many times I have been asked to look into developing a front indicator solution. There clearly is a need for another product. Maybe one with an easier installation? I could start supplying the Wipac version but I would rather investigate an alternative that would benefit owners in other ways. My front indicator solution will involve no wiring at all and is very easy to install. I will have to time myself but I would estimate 2-3 minutes. It retains the exact look of the current front indicators. Plus you have the choice of changing between both amber and clear lenses. Hopefully owners will like the idea. Doug

Hi James, We have been working hard on the front indicator design for a number of weeks now. I am pleased to say that the first prototypes are in the production stage and should be with me in the next 2 weeks. I cannot say too much apart from: The indicators will be of the same quality of design as the rear lights. All LED's will be facing in the correct direction i.e. forward (unlike LED bulbs). They are very bright. They will be as easy to fit as a standard light bulb.Watch this space. Doug

Thanks for the kind words. I would love to talk to Caterham cars in the UK but so far there has been no contact. This would make a great aftermarket upgrade for them. I know for a fact that one of their press cars has been upgraded with my LED lights so hopefully there will be a mention in the press soon. Obviously my lights will be removed from the press car before it is returned. I'm looking forward to seeing the article in this months Low Flying. Doug

A few members have asked me about what will happen to their LED lights if they have the famous water ingress into their rear lights. I conducted the following experiment with one of our LED fog lamps which has exactly the same build process as the Stop/Tail/Indicator and Reverse LED panels. As you can see our LED fog lamp is fully submersed in water and still works perfectly! This backs up our decision not to have a metal backed panel as this would not have survived this test. Now I'm not for one minute suggesting that all our customers go and immediately fully submerse their LED lights in water to test them but this does go someway to prove that we have a well designed and reliable product that is perfect for the Caterham 7. Doug

Glad you got them fitted ok. You'll have a new found sense of confidence that drivers behind you can now actually see you! Have fun on your trip to Portofino and make sure you send some pictures. Doug

Flashed you in the white Q7. Sorry if I blinded you. Doug

My LED side lights as viewed on a sunny day from another Caterham. Its worth comparing my LED side lights to the dark cars brake lights next to me. I know the dark cars lights are not face on but its the best video comparison I have at the moment and it gives you an idea of the difference. Many thanks to David for sending me this video. Doug

Yellow with black stripes with full weather gear on. I don't blame you! Doug

After Neal's experience I too decided to do some investigating. The Wipac relay is widely regarded as one of the best LED relays on the market and works perfectly in most situations. However, there have been a small number of cases where the Wipac has not been up to the job and a more robust relay is required. The RDX relay was developed for Land Rover Defenders with trailers. It can cope with a much higher load and handle any number and combination of LED / standard bulbs. The manufacturer states 'it just gets the job done!' I find it odd that both Neal and I have 55 plate cars with LED's on the rear and standard bulbs on the front and yet the Wipac works fine for me and not for him. When Neal fitted the RDX relay his problems where solved instantly. Obviously in my position of supplying LED lights I need every possible scenario covered. With this in mind I have had discussions with the manufacturer of the RDX relay and I'm pleased to say that the RDX is now available to order on my site. The price at £29.99 is steep for a relay but this is not fixed by me and at the end of the day it appears to solve many problems. https://www.justaddlightness.co.uk/accessories/rdx-led-flasher-unit-relay If any customers of Just Add Lightness experience any problems with the Wipac relay then I am happy to exchange the Wipac for the RDX relay and simply charge the difference in price. Doug

Hey Jig, unfortunately I missed out on Silverstone, I would love to be there especially for the parade lap. However, there will be a certain red 7 owned by Mark at Silverstone (and on the parade lap) with a brand new set of our LED rear light clusters. If any of the other members that now have their LED lights are going then perhaps you could show them off a little. If any members would like me to attend their local meet then I am happy to pop along and demonstrate the lights. I am happy to travel (within reason) as long as enough people are interested. Doug

I've heard the 620S SV will give you 140-150 miles on a tank.... if you drive it carefully. Doug

I will always try my best to see what I can do. Lets see what numbers come back before I choke on my tea. As David has rightly pointed out the lights are on an introductory offer at the moment until full production starts and as I have previously stated the margins are minimal but I produced this product for specifically for Caterham owners and I will try my best. Just to reassure members that have ordered already. If a bulk buy deal is agreed before I ship your order then I will apply the members bulk buy price providing you have notified the organiser that you are part of the group. Doug

Hi Tom, Now there is an interesting thought. I would be happy complete the upgrade for you using your current ali blocks and send the working units back to you. However, I can make things easy for you so you may want to consider doing it yourself. I can supply my LED clusters with separate 4 pin connecters (not fitted). This way all you need to do is slide off the rubber block, slide your ali block on and crimp the connectors. I'll be happy to move forward in any way that suits you. Hi Stu, Doesn't the 60th seem a like a long time ago? I am now in a position to work out some bulk buy discounts so let me have a look at the options and I will get back to you today/tomorrow via PM. It's probably best that we discuss via a PM rather than tag everything onto the end of this thread. Doug

Hi all, Short answer: It has taken a costly 6 months of different designs and prototypes to finally get a product worthy of going to market.The LED panel makes up 90% of the price of the entire product so the amount of money saved by removing the cluster would be minimal. Supplying the cluster does not stop you fitting your own carbon/metal blocks and/or clear lenses. Long answer: In the design process it was found we have two options of fitting the panel to the car. 1. Make the panel out of metal or 2. Make a circuit board panel and attach to the car another way. Making the panel from metal was not a good idea. The circuit tracking would need to sit on top of the metal exposing it to the elements with a risk of rust and early failure of the unit. The number and type of LED's is also restricted resulting in a 'spot' of light in the centre of the lens. Because the number of LED's had been drastically reduced the LED's power had to increase to obtain the same brightness, again this came with a risk of early failure. Additional costs would need to be factored in like supplying spare LED's for customers to fit if one did fail. Lastly the metal panel looked cheap and more importantly the metal colour was visible when tested with a clear lens. The only advantage of the metal plate is we wouldn't have to supply the entire light. So we started to concentrate on a double layer circuit board panel. This type of board allowed us to recess all of the tracking into the board protecting it from the elements. With no visible tracking we could fill the entire space available with 72 LED's thus producing the preferred full 'square block' of light. The type of LED's could be changed to the more reliable OSRAM flat profile giving much more longevity to the product. The colour of the LED's could match the original lights perfectly and the panel could be manufactured in white making it invisible through the clear lens. This was obviously the preferred product, the only disadvantage being you cannot fix it directly to the car, a bracket of some sort would be required. The bracket also left us with two options. Have a purpose built bracket designed to fit the original cluster use the original cluster itself. Metal fabrication companies soon pointed out that this was not a desired job. Small quantities would need to be produced by hand which would have a very high cost. Much larger and quantities could be laser cut but this would mean us having several hundred in stock and the final product was still not ideal. The cost of having these panels produced and/or stocked together with supplying new screws was not far off the price of the original cluster. This lead us back to the original light cluster, after all it came with a purpose built fixing bracket. If we remove the bulbs, wires and housing we are left with a new fixing bracket for the panel. The LED panel was then designed to incorporate the original mounting holes and thread for the lens. So the final panel is desgined to sit ontop of the original metal plate supplied in the cluster. We do all the work for you and supply a ready to fit upgraded LED light cluster complete with grommet and waterproof connector makeing it a true straight swap, 5 minute upgrade. If you already have a different type of block or lens then these can be easily be fitted to replace the original rubber block or lens we supply, our product is designed to work with any type of block or lens. If we supply just the LED panel with no fixing plate then customers would be left modifying their own clusters and their metal plates and I'm sure you can appreciate this is not ideal. The margins on this product are minimal and I so far I have invested a considerable sum of time and money. I started this project to upgrade my own 7 and it has quickly developed into much much more. I have had enquires and orders from all over the world and I am treating them on a strictly first come first served basis. The product may not seem cheap but this is reflected on the quality of the components and the longevity of the product. If the panel was half the price many people would be happy. This would not be the case if the panel failed in a year or two. Like many 7 owners I intend to keep my car for many many years to come and I wanted a product for my car that would stand the test of time. If you have any other questions then I am always happy to help. Doug

Hi Julian, Yes I agree the new plasma LED bulbs are a better product than the normal LED bulbs. However, your description is perfect, they give a bright 'hotspot' like a traditional filament bulb. When designing our LED panel we was keen to avoid any 'hotspot' effect and bring the Caterham lights up to modern day standards. Our LED panel has 36 super bright, wide angle OSRAM LED's behind both the indicator and the tail/brake lens. This gives the effect of lighting each lens evenly with the maximum amount of light possible. They have to be seen in action to appreciate the full effect. The general reaction when I show owners my brake lights is.... Wow! Doug

Hi David, You will need to change your flasher relay to a more modern electronic type to allow you to have the correct flasher timing with any LED/Bulb combination. Unfortunately you have to buy the clear lenses separately. The manufacturer of the lamps/lenses can supply the cluster with the clear lens fitted but the price trebles! The cheapest way for me and for you to purchase them is separately. Please PM me your email address. Doug