LC70 Lighting system

[mash914]

I have a Killerbody LC70 that I'm working on that I'd like to put some lights into. I have a spektrum SRX300 receiver, a HW1080 ESC, and I use a 3S Lipo. I have the ESC set to put out 7.4 V to supply a higher voltage servo.

I'd like to put a couple of lights into the truck. I don't need anything fancy, just head and taillights, two foglights, and maybe some side markers. As far as I can tell the head, tails, and fogs are 5mm, the others are smaller. I don't need turn signals or backup lights - the only "feature" that might be nice would be the ability to turn them on and off with the 3rd channel on the transmitter.

One final thing, I'd like to avoid bright blue / white headlights. Ideally they'd be a bit warmer - more halogen, less Xenon.

Is there anything I can get off the shelf that I could just plug into the receiver and go? If not, would I need a separate power supply?


Thanks,
Matt

 

[HumboldtEF]

Are you willing to solder and make it yourself?

I avoid premade kits because most are the typical Blueish white LEDs or they're soldered poorly (im looking at you RC4WD). Just my experience, I'm sure there are some good ones.

Now I try to make all my lighting kits from scratch. I source warm white LEDs that run at the voltage I want to run them that way no controller is needed to set the voltage, I prefer 12v so I can run straight off 3S.

Here's my build thead and the post where I put my lighting kit in http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/ssd-...ldtefs-lc70-ssd-trail-king-9.html#post6029729

 

[mash914]

Are you willing to solder and make it yourself?

I avoid premade kits because most are the typical Blueish white LEDs or they're soldered poorly (im looking at you RC4WD). Just my experience, I'm sure there are some good ones.

Now I try to make all my lighting kits from scratch. I source warm white LEDs that run at the voltage I want to run them that way no controller is needed to set the voltage, I prefer 12v so I can run straight off 3S.

Here's my build thead and the post where I put my lighting kit in http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/ssd-...ldtefs-lc70-ssd-trail-king-9.html#post6029729

While I recently bought a soldering gun to standardize my battery connectors, I have to say, I'm terrible at it - big globby wads of metal everywhere :ror: I'm willing to learn, but my engineering background is mechanical - the only thing I know about electrical is that it's magic. Plus something about keeping the smoke inside of things.

Do you have any sort of diagram or anything to help describe how you made that? I'm always up for learning. Where are you getting the LEDs?

p.s. Your LC70 build has been an inspiration for mine - minor detail, but that brake booster is great "thumbsup"

 

[HumboldtEF]

Number one tip I have for soldering is getting a nice solder station like this as opposed to the basic wand and trigger operated type. These make the work so much easier since they are able to hold the temperature much better.

Though with the smaller wires you'll be working with it wont be as crucial like when soldering larger battery wires.
Make sure you have some heat shrink to insulate the solder joints.

LED's can only be wired one way in terms of polarity, (see here) if you hook them up backwards they just wont light up and they'll be fine. Just swap the wires if they dont light up

You can connect the wires in 2 different ways, series where they are daisy chained together and parallel where they all connect to the source power see pics here: https://www.google.com/search?q=ser...X1CjQIHSvKCqIQ_AUoAXoECBgQAw&biw=2560&bih=938
Main thing to remember with this is parallel will give full voltage to all of the LED's. Wiring them in series will share the total voltage with all the LED's meaning they get less than full voltage (depending on the number of LED's) and run dimmer which is good for brake lights and turn signals which shouldn't be too bright IMO.


I found the LED's on Amazon (all 12V) cool white 5mm, Red 5mm, Orange 3mm and 5mm orange which I didn't end up using.

I should just add I made my own brake light housing so I dont know if 5mm is what you need there.

Oh and I'm glad my build inspired you "thumbsup"

 

[heyok]

Have a look here for some step by step info on making up your own LED strings.
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/electronics/422460-how-wire-leds.html