DieHarder

Alright. I'm looking for a light set for my evader. I want something that plugs into my receiver and doesn't run off of a 9v. I don't want any extra batteries. I like the "RC Car LED System II". I found a few on ebay, but they are all from hong kong. On one listing, I found that over 450 people bought it. I'm not so keen on the wiring into the esc and servo wiring, but if that's what I have to do...well that's what I have to do.[&:] I'm mainly focused on the head/tail lights. What does everyone else buy?

DieHarder

I found this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-16-1-10-1-...item5aebae64ae

cumquat

i make my own. well, i tried once and blew most of the LEDs by doing stupid things with them all you need is an old servo/esc wire, a soldering iron, resistors and the LEDs of your choice. you can find what resistors you need by using a resistor calculator, which a google search will give you. it's simple enough, just solder the LEDs in what ever arrangement works best for your layout with resistors in the appropriate places and then solder each LED chain in parallel. some calculators will give you ideas for the best arrangement to use the least number of resistors but they are fairly cheap ($2 or so for 8 or 10 at radio shack as i recall). i get my LEDs at http://www.superbrightleds.com/ . i got the 5mm red, blue and white. i got the highest MCD (or near it) rating. the ones i used are under "component LED". you can get the wire and resistors at radio shack. if you want to get fancy, you can try to use a circuit board, also available at radio shack.

DieHarder

Interesting. I have the original receiver which is a 2-channel. I checked the 3rd slot that was labelled (Batt.) and got no voltage. Am I supposed to wire it into the esc wires?

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

i believe red and black you could splice into to get 5v i'd check with a volt meter before going crazy....

the lug

cumquat

the 'batt.' slot should give off whatever the bec allows. cant remember what the stock bec is... if that fails, you could always buy a servo wire extension and tap into the power wires on that. this makes it so you dont risk your esc wires and you can take the lights off if you want.

vic2367

My Feedback: (-1)

i get all my lights from here

http://www.sunshine-systems.com/RC-V...htm?click=1033

great service and fast shipping !!

egbasher

Whew, those guys are kinda expensive. I went Cumquat's way. For $40 I got enough LED's, resisters, wire, switches, 9V battery clips, and heat shrink tubing to make about 6 cars worth of lights. I have 3 red lights on each side on the rear and a white, blue and amber one on each side on the front. For the back ones I used a flexible LED strip. http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...ght-Strip/998/ It's waterproof, has built in reisstors and you only need to solder two wires for three lights (you can cut the strip into groups of 3 LEDs). These might not work on the BEC circuit. They need at least 9 volts but work great on a 9V battery.

Here is a good place to get other electronic parts like switches: http://www.allelectronics.com/ Good prices, fast shipping.

Just remember two things. 1. Don't mix LED's of different voltage drops in the same circuit. You can't just wire up LED's in series until they add up to the source voltage.
2. LED's have polarity. They are not like an incandesent light. If you hook them up backwards you can blow the LED out in an instant. The 5mm component LED's usually have a max of 5V in the worng direction.

In my set up the blue and white are both 3.4V LED's and the amber are only 2.4V LEDs. So the front has three circuits. Two of them have a white and blue LED w/ resistor and the third has the 2 ambers w/resistor.

If you do it yourself, it's easy and you end up with a custum set-up.

DieHarder

I think I'm gonna buy this http://www.ebay.com/itm/RC-LED-Light...item2ec346b020 and then change the connector from a 9v to a JR. But I didn't know what would happen if if I wired it into the servo wires. I found that there is a steady voltage when the servo is straight, but I didn't know if it changed when I turned the servo. I'll have to check. If it does, then I want to wire it into the ESC wires. But since the ESC powers the receiver, does the voltage there change? I'll have to check that too. Also, if where can I get like a split JR adapter. Like where it plugs into the receiver and then you can plug 2 components into the two open ends of the connector?

DieHarder

Errrr..wait. I think I found one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Litewire-Y...item564f2ded07 This should work, correct?

egbasher

Hard to say if this kit will work on power from the BEC. It's designed for a 9V input. 6V may not be enough to drive it. The voltage in any circuit depends on the load in the circuit. The bigger the load (amps) the less the voltage. But LEDs demand a very small load, about 20 mA per LED.

egbasher

Yeah, it looks like it should work. I know you said you didn't want to deal with another battery but it seems like it would be simpler and cheaper to use one to hook up the light kit you're thinking of getting.

DieHarder

How many LEDs should I put on my Evader? I have the black version of the Evader Brushless body.

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

It may be easier, voltage conversions can be screwy if you're not getting the right stuff before hand, and an 9V could go in the 'tray' across from the RX very nicely with a bit of velcro to hold it down...

Also for an LED count i'd look at what kits have and take your pick based on what you're doing with them DH

the lug

DieHarder

Well, how long would a 9v last at 45min runs? (How many runs?)

EXT2Rob

My Feedback: (1)

A 9v will last you a LONG time.  LONG time.  Something to consider: think about getting a another body to put lights on, that way, when you're not needing the lights, they aren't taking any abuse when they aren't being used.  Secondly, on the tail lights, if you get the LED strips, you don't have to punch holes in the body for the lights to shine thru, you can just scratch off the body paint from the inside in the spots where the LEDs will be. 

DieHarder

Honestly, I think I'll have to set this light idea on the sidelines due to insufficiant funds.[] I owe my sis $15.00,  the lights are $11.96, the Y-Harness is $7.95, and a new body is $22.98. And I'll pull up the calculator here...the total amount of funds needed is...$57.89! (My wallet is full of dust...not dough.[]) So until I come up with $57.89, I can't do lighting. Thinking about it though, I agree with you Rob. I probably should use a different body. Because like when I go out bashing and bringing it back in the garage hardly knowing what it is because it's soooo dirty, I wouldn't want all my lights to be on the bottom of that. Plus, when my body is really dirty, I wash it in the sink, but that wouldn't work if I had lights because water and electricity don't mix.

Am I the first to put lights on an Evader?

Also I have been working on a snow plow. It's made from sheet metal and took me forever to get it to shape. I painted it black, and I'm letting it dry over night. I plan on plowing the inch and a half of snow on the back deck to test it out. It's mounted directly to the frame, so it'll be as strong as the Evader itself. What I'm worried about is traction. I figure if it comes to the ultimates, I could buy a pair of tracks skis, but that's getting a little expensive. Also I plan on putting a VERY low tooth count pinion in it.

cumquat

nope, i did it to both of mine. first time i did it was using mini light bulbs and bases from radio shack, then these mini lights that are similar to leds but have a filament. then with my second, i used the superbrightled.com lights.

DieHarder

How did it work out? I have the Evader DT front bumper, and I was wondering if the lights would be all messed up with the bumper being in the way. It'll have the shape of bumper for a shadow. How did you put the holes in the body? Did you just use a drill? (Drill a pilot hole and use bits bigger and bigger till it's the right size) Where should I mount the lights, and how many? Just a few questions.

cumquat

first time i had one light on top as something of a beacon and 1 light on each of the front suspension arms where the sway bars mount. that worked OK. the second time i intended to do it a bit better but i blew too many leds to do it right, so i scrapped it. i had planned to mount them to the chassis, not the body so i could get the body off quickly.

i would drill out the light buckets on the bumper and mount them in there. seems like as good place and you'd have ample light.

DieHarder

Mounting them on the bumper isn't a bad idea. But like I said, I can't do anything till I get some money.[] So what's everyone doing this weekend?

egbasher

You can use a drill for holes in the body but a body reamer is way quicker and easier. I have the bumper from the brushless evader and it does not get in the way of the lights. I wouldn't worry about shadows. The lights don't light the area in front of the car much. They just make it easier to drive in the dark because they make it easier to see the car's attitude. I'd recomend using the 9V battery as the lug suggested and attaching the lights to the body.

DieHarder

Hey, what-do-ya-know! Both "The Evader Coalition" and "guess the car game" are both on the same page! (Page 43)

DieHarder

Well, the plow idea didn't work out. I got it all hooked up, and I gotta say, it looked pretty dang good. But once I got it out on the deck, I found that it repeatedly hit sticking up nails and that was really annoying. So I moved to the smooth concrete and that fixed that problem, but created another. The 2wd thing isn't working out. I can get a head start, and then after about 7-8ft of snow it just stops and spins. I NEED 4wd! I have my TT-01 monster truck that I tried to plow with, and it worked great. But then it goes back to where I was putting a brushless motor in it, and I needed a 22T pinion, and I only had a 21T. So the mesh wasn't right, and now I stripped the spur. So for now, I am screwing the plow idea. I might take my Evader out in the snow on a few packed down-snow jumps. But we need more snow to make a jump. We only have like an inch an a half, and it's been slowly melting. (I think)

cumquat

i dont think it stripped because you had the wrong tooth, i think it stripped because you had the wrong pitch. tamiya kits use a metric pitch that's very close to regular 48p but different enough to strip with any continuous movement.