help with LED lights
09-09-2011, 03:15 PM
#1
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help with LED lights
Hello out there
I'm a guy with over 25 years of exp with electric rc cars and soldering, but need some small help mounting LED headlights and red LED brake lights into/ onto a new body.
I would like to know where the best way is to route the LED wires, and how long the wires should be to plug into the LED controller. Also, I'd like to know if it's worth it to mount the LED controller in the chassis or inside the roof.
Keep in mind, this will be a Tamiya Lancer Evo X body on a TA02 chassis, and used as a rally car basher for fun, day and night!
I want to use this for the LEDs -
www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p
Any important tips would be greatly appreciated
PS - I have Shoe Goo and a lot of other junk such as vinyl electirc tape, servo tape, and other stuff like heat-shrink tubing and so on that I'd think would be relevant to this.
Thanks again in advance!
I'm a guy with over 25 years of exp with electric rc cars and soldering, but need some small help mounting LED headlights and red LED brake lights into/ onto a new body.
I would like to know where the best way is to route the LED wires, and how long the wires should be to plug into the LED controller. Also, I'd like to know if it's worth it to mount the LED controller in the chassis or inside the roof.
Keep in mind, this will be a Tamiya Lancer Evo X body on a TA02 chassis, and used as a rally car basher for fun, day and night!
I want to use this for the LEDs -
www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p
Any important tips would be greatly appreciated
PS - I have Shoe Goo and a lot of other junk such as vinyl electirc tape, servo tape, and other stuff like heat-shrink tubing and so on that I'd think would be relevant to this.
Thanks again in advance!
09-09-2011, 04:07 PM
#2
Senior Member
RE: help with LED lights
Hey man,hopefully I can be of some help,haha.
Do you plan to use that complete Axial controller with LED's? If so, there's no need to worry about wire lengths,just loop the extra if there is any and fix it to the body as well. Does that connect to the receiver for power alone or is it to control brake lights or anything? I like to put the entire light system in the body for easy removal from the chassis,added bonus: you have a removable light source you can point at the chassis for repairs or adjustments during night bashing sessions like you mentioned.
The last one I put lights in,I used sticky backed zip tie mounts but I don't have access to those anymore so I would probably use double sided foam tape,lay the wires across,and then a single sided adhesive tape over that.Sticky side to sticky side,trapping the wires.
As for mounting the actual LED's,I think the Tamiya Evo X body's light buckets have holes for them to slide into,but I'm not 100% on that. I have the HPI Evo X body and the light buckets are formed just like the body so you'd have to drill them out or use some clear adhesive and glue them to the flat "lens" in the light bucket.I still have not finished the rest of the stuff on the body but an LED system is planned to finish it off.
Hopefully some of that helps,I look forward to hearing what everyone else does to mount the lights as well as how yours turns out.
I think you have plenty of electronics experience to make it look good!
Do you plan to use that complete Axial controller with LED's? If so, there's no need to worry about wire lengths,just loop the extra if there is any and fix it to the body as well. Does that connect to the receiver for power alone or is it to control brake lights or anything? I like to put the entire light system in the body for easy removal from the chassis,added bonus: you have a removable light source you can point at the chassis for repairs or adjustments during night bashing sessions like you mentioned.
The last one I put lights in,I used sticky backed zip tie mounts but I don't have access to those anymore so I would probably use double sided foam tape,lay the wires across,and then a single sided adhesive tape over that.Sticky side to sticky side,trapping the wires.
As for mounting the actual LED's,I think the Tamiya Evo X body's light buckets have holes for them to slide into,but I'm not 100% on that. I have the HPI Evo X body and the light buckets are formed just like the body so you'd have to drill them out or use some clear adhesive and glue them to the flat "lens" in the light bucket.I still have not finished the rest of the stuff on the body but an LED system is planned to finish it off.
Hopefully some of that helps,I look forward to hearing what everyone else does to mount the lights as well as how yours turns out.
I think you have plenty of electronics experience to make it look good!
09-09-2011, 04:42 PM
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RE: help with LED lights
ORIGINAL: GALAXY
Hey man,hopefully I can be of some help,haha.
Do you plan to use that complete Axial controller with LED's? If so, there's no need to worry about wire lengths,just loop the extra if there is any and fix it to the body as well. Does that connect to the receiver for power alone or is it to control brake lights or anything? I like to put the entire light system in the body for easy removal from the chassis,added bonus: you have a removable light source you can point at the chassis for repairs or adjustments during night bashing sessions like you mentioned.
The last one I put lights in,I used sticky backed zip tie mounts but I don't have access to those anymore so I would probably use double sided foam tape,lay the wires across,and then a single sided adhesive tape over that.Sticky side to sticky side,trapping the wires.
As for mounting the actual LED's,I think the Tamiya Evo X body's light buckets have holes for them to slide into,but I'm not 100% on that. I have the HPI Evo X body and the light buckets are formed just like the body so you'd have to drill them out or use some clear adhesive and glue them to the flat "lens" in the light bucket.I still have not finished the rest of the stuff on the body but an LED system is planned to finish it off.
Hopefully some of that helps,I look forward to hearing what everyone else does to mount the lights as well as how yours turns out.
I think you have plenty of electronics experience to make it look good!
Hey man,hopefully I can be of some help,haha.
Do you plan to use that complete Axial controller with LED's? If so, there's no need to worry about wire lengths,just loop the extra if there is any and fix it to the body as well. Does that connect to the receiver for power alone or is it to control brake lights or anything? I like to put the entire light system in the body for easy removal from the chassis,added bonus: you have a removable light source you can point at the chassis for repairs or adjustments during night bashing sessions like you mentioned.
The last one I put lights in,I used sticky backed zip tie mounts but I don't have access to those anymore so I would probably use double sided foam tape,lay the wires across,and then a single sided adhesive tape over that.Sticky side to sticky side,trapping the wires.
As for mounting the actual LED's,I think the Tamiya Evo X body's light buckets have holes for them to slide into,but I'm not 100% on that. I have the HPI Evo X body and the light buckets are formed just like the body so you'd have to drill them out or use some clear adhesive and glue them to the flat "lens" in the light bucket.I still have not finished the rest of the stuff on the body but an LED system is planned to finish it off.
Hopefully some of that helps,I look forward to hearing what everyone else does to mount the lights as well as how yours turns out.
I think you have plenty of electronics experience to make it look good!
I'll keep the thing in mind what you mentioned about keeping the power source seperate and up inside the body for nightime running and doubling it as a night light - wicked awesome idea!!!
I never thought about that. My major concern is burning more unneccary and un-usable batteries, and looking wonky if it sticks out in view during the day-time. I could probably mount the whole thing in the back end, since there's a lot more room there in the TA02 chassis, and still keep it all inside the body.I suppose I could take either an old skool 4-pack AA battery rx tray and include it in the system, or better yet, shoe goo a lipo rx receiver pack in the same spot there instead.
If I go with the lipo option, it'll be shoe gooed up inside the roof with a polystyrene custom-made battery tray and an elastic strap to secure it all in place.
What do you think about that? Could I be on the right track for this?
