Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

Nothing Fancy, no neon (yet) just some headlights and tail lights. Let me know what you think. Too Slow

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had to add 2 more pics. These LEDs thow out some seriouse light. the lights are on in the room this entire time, and at night they are mint!!! they shine on the ground and everything. too Slow

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

You did a really good job on those lights, they look good.

How did you make the surrounds behind the front lens that the LED's mount into? What is it made out of?

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I'll be making custom light kits and selling them once I get my website finished.

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What do you use to power the lights? you cant just hook them up to a battery, can you? How much does your system weigh?

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I have a special sytem I designed. Without battery they weight pretty much nothing.

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

what voltage does your setup run on?

how soon will your site be up?

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9v battery, the site should be finished by the end of the week hopefully.

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It's a distributed weight of about 2 oz just LEDs and Wire. the battery is the chunker. NO DO NOT TRY TO RUN LEDs OFF YOUR 7.2v car batt. it's a 6v 600mAh reciever battery. I use resistors to make sure the voltages are right (probably should have gone with a transformer. less draw on the circut = less heat, but more weight) and I'm working on a circut to brighten the Red Tail lights when i hit the brakes. also use the chanel 3 on my radio and reciever to turn on and off the high beams. I tried to make the projector high beams look right so i went searching in some of the electronics stores here in Japan for the right looking part. it's a simple chrome housing that you can buy in radio shak, i just swaped out the red LEd for my White one. as for the regular headlights, those are 10mm white LEDs with a curved piece of plastic painted silver as the reflector. the black housing that the yellow marker light is in is another radio shak housing part. really simple stuff but it looks good.

take it easy,
Too Slow

P.S. - PLEASE do not PIRATE my post to try and sell your products. Thank you.

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

I'm a post hijjacker. :)

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I think that's like 14 LED's I see there? About how long does that last battery wise? Usually the white LED's run at a higher voltage than the colored tail lights so you would need to use multiple resistors to wire up a system like that.

Personally I'd run a system like that off a 9V battery using separate resistors for each different LED type all out of one junction box. You can calculate the resistor size yourself or use an online calculator such as the one [link=http://www.luxeonstar.com/resistor-calculator.php]here[/link]. You could alternatively run the LEDs off the main batteries but I'm not sure if this would have a noticeable affect on performance of the car. Just substitute 6V in place of 9V to get the resistors to use based on that type of setup.

My only problem now is finding a way to mount the LED's in the body. I was thinking about drilling and cutting scraps of lexan to fit. Then spray the backside with silver for a mirrored finish and put the LEDs through. Then just glue the whole thing into the back of the body, it would be a bit tricky to get a good fit but I'm sure it could work. If anyone has any other suggestions or what you built yours out of do post them in here. I built a setup for some of my monster trucks but the bodies are quite a bit smaller on these touring cars.

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

Oh cool, I missed your follow up thread before I finished posting mine. I actually got sidetracked and watched Dr. No on TV. :D

I was in Radio Shack the other week and saw the parts I'm guessing you used. I didn't know if i'd be able to work them into my design but I guess it can be done. Also, is there really a need for a transformer for just a bunch of LEDs? A 9V battery has more voltage and people use them all the time for building custom light setups for RC cars, I'd like to know your reasoning behind your claim not to use them. I guess heat could be a factor trying to get 7.2V down to 2 or 3 but if that's the case just run the LED's in series to boost the forward voltage of the load to a closer level to the source.

I'm using a 3 channel radio as well from my monster trucks since it's got multi-model memory so the use of the 3rd channel as high beams is a feasible. I have never played around with the wiring system employed by servos and radio systems so I'm not sure how that works. Any schematics on utilizing the 3rd channel in a circuit of my own would be greatly appreciated, I really don't have the time to research it myself. I would assume it's just got a ground wire and + wire as well as some sort of control signal over the third. If it's a digital signal that requires a logic convertor to properly utilize with a transistor amplifier for the high beams then I'll really have to take some time to look into it. Any info on the wiring pattern for a JR radio (are they all standard?) would be very helpful and time saving to me. I still have a bit of yard work to do since Frances decided to take some of my trees down. heh, storms are a pain.

Anyways, very cool light job. Even more impressive with the high-low selector addition. I'd love to build something like that of my own. I've already started work on a system to increase voltage to the brake lights while on the brakes. However this was on a nitro car with it's own throttle servo so I'm looking for a way to adapt it to an electronic speed control. When I get by brush-less system in I'll be able to fully test it.

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

18 LEDs on the car. 6 red (tailights), 8 yellow, 6 on rear 2 on front, 2 10mm whites (main headlights), 2 5mm whites (projector High Beams). I did not wire all these in series because if/when one does burn they all wont die. like christmas lights, if they are wired in series then one goes, they all go. if they are individual then one can go and the rest are fine.

I did use separate resistors on each light, but not from a junction box. I put the resistor right on the lead to the LED so the whole circut is 6v it just steps down to running voltage of the particular LED just before the power gets to the LED.

The resistors probably weren't a good idea because they create alot of heat. heat = power loss. so i'm burning lots of power and not getting any light from it. with a transformer you're running a closed 6v circut - going through a transformer - then running a closed...3.6v circut. then you can resist that voltage down to run the others 2.7 for the yellows and 1.9 for the reds. oops i just spilled the beans on the peak operating voltagefor different color LEDs.

My mounting sistem is hard into the body. it's not as pretty from the inside but it works. i created some plastic pieces and painted them various colors. ie Silver and flat black. then potted the LEDs in Hot melt right to the body. soldered my resistors and leads on then painted it all flat black.

I'll post inside pics in like 10 min.

Too Slow

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

Why so many lights?

With the type of light I use you only need 2 max. The light I use is so bright it can blind you if you stare into it.

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I use so many lights so i can duplicate the real car. 2 headlights, 2 projector/high beams, 2 markers and an array for the tail lights. also, because I can. that's why. and yes mine are very bright too but no LED can be bright enough to blind you. without some lense refinement and overdriving the LED.

Too Slow

see I told you the Inside doesn't look pretty.

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Could be better but that's not too bad.

Edit: get rid of the tamiya style and get deans!

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I don't use Tamiya, thats a Yokomo Chassis. and those are called MOLEX connectors on the battery FYI.

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They are tamiya style plugs... Get deans

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I would suspect he used so many LED's because it just looks so &(#$-ing cool. ;)

Yeah I guess that's a good enough reason to use a small transformer, though I have no clue where to find one that small. PCB mount transformers might fit the bill I guess? I've seen some neon or electroluminescent based RC car lights so I'd have to imagine someone is already doing this and getting it to fit under a body.

I looked up servo operation a bit and found I was only partially right in that the black wire is negative power while the red is of course positive. The yellow (JR) or white (futaba) is the control wire and carries an analog signal to the servo which is interpreted by it's onboard IC chip and sent to the motor. I'm sure I can use a similar circuit to turn an amplifier on or off to adjust the headlights. I know it can be done digitally without use of a micro-servo actuated switch but if anyone has more info on doing this it would be greatly appreciated. Clearly this is one of your closely guarded trade secrets TooSlow? [sm=greedy.gif] hehe.

Oh, and remember LED's have life-spans of literally thousands of hours. Maybe hundreds of thousands, depending on their peak voltage % normally fed to them. So it's not exactly like a strand of christmas tree lights. But since you're permanently encasing the lights to the body it's wise to be prepared for failure of a LED.

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

Once again beat me to the post! lol.

Now I'm even more puzzled than ever, I can't find any of your circuitry for the high beams on channel three. I see the wire trailing off to the car but I'm not sure if it goes directly to the receiver or if it's just going to the battery. So what's up? Where did you hide everything for the high beams?

At the least you would need a transistor, an extra smaller resistor and an IC chip and circuit for converting the 3rd channel modulated pulse into something useable. yet i don't see any of this, is it hidden under a layer of glue under the body?
[&:]

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I'm working on the brake lights. ( if you look at the 3rd pic of the inside you'll see the coiled up red leads) those lead to a lower Ohm resistor allowing more current to flow thus making the light brighter. still working on the circut for motor input from my esc to run through a FET system to actualte the brace lights.

Same Deal with the high beams. i still use the 6v batt to power them but given the voltage from my chan 3 off the reciever it turns the headlights on or off. i really don't want to say more than that as someone would probably Pirate my circut and sell it on their website fro exorbidant amounts of money.... yes you.

I'm out to go to Digit - Electronics store here in Japan. see if i can find a nice transformer to use in my Pearl White RX8 body I'm making.

l8r,
Too Slow

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

the Fets are in that glob of hot Melt. and I unplugged the rest of the circut from the switch box on the body to the reciever so nobody would see it. sorry bro.

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Alright man, that's okay. I can understand someone wanting to protect their invention so I wont pry.

I will however design a system of my own using the now empty 3rd channel of my radio. I have no intentions of selling anything I make, hell I've never even sold or bought anything off ebay. What I do is for my personal use. Obviously there are less honest people that may read these posts and just copy the design to make a quick buck though.


Thanks for the tips man, peace out!
Good luck at Digit, man if only the US had stores like that...radio shack kinda' sucks.

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I usually get all my parts in the US through www.digi-key.com really good prices and a huge selection of just about anything. ( i don't meant to advertise for them. just offer helpful advise.)

if you need a hand creyc PM me and I'll get back to you when i get back to the states. for now i need to pack up my computer and all my stuff to get ready for the trip back home.

Take it easy everybody,
Too Slow

RE: Showing off - Custom Lighting
 

Again- really like the lights~
I have an idea. Since you are already using resistors to vary the current and adjust brightness, why not rigg two seperate circuits to your taillights, one with high resistance an one without, then use your switch design that you use for the high beams to switch from circuit to the other when you step on the brakes. that way you can use your existing lights for both effects, just like a real car.
also, for an electric car you should try pluging the esc into a y-harness and then into the Rx. then try pluging a micro servo into the other part if the y. the servo should operate with the throttle, and you can use microswitches to operate the brakelights on this servo. the servo could be mounted to the body, so the only thing you have to do is turn on the light and plug in the servo.
cant you run all the led's in a system parralell with only one resistor? led's take practicly zero current, so the number in a chain shouldnt matter, plus that should simplify your wiring.
I dont really believe in "trade secrets". most popular products today are bought not because they are secret, but because it is more convienient to buy the product anyway. For Example, there is no secret to growing corn, but you have still probably bought it at the supermarket. If you can't do it cheap enough and it is then worth while for someone to do it themselves, It wont matter.
Anyone seen a 10mm white or blue light? they would make for great foglights.