Lights power supply

[Stewdog]

I have the Traxxas light kit (8030) and it uses this power supply:

https://www.amainhobbies.com/traxxas-trx4-led-power-supply-tra8028/p705898

It connects to this ESC:

https://www.amainhobbies.com/traxxas-xl5hv-3s-waterproof-electronic-speed-control-tra3025/p668445

The stock ESC failed on my TRX4 and I replaced it with a Hobbywing 1080 ESC. The Hobbywing doesn't have the JST plug to power the light power supply.
I was wondering if I could just wire the power supply to the ESC somehow?
Or should I just find another way to power the lights?

The way it hooked up stock was the power supply has a red wire that goes to the ESC. It also has the JST plug that has a black and a black/gray wire that goes to the ESC. The ESC has a red and black wire in the female side of the JST plug. Seems like a weird way to get power to the lights power supply.

 

[cmbscx10]

I have the Traxxas light kit (8030) and it uses this power supply:

https://www.amainhobbies.com/traxxas-trx4-led-power-supply-tra8028/p705898

It connects to this ESC:

https://www.amainhobbies.com/traxxas-xl5hv-3s-waterproof-electronic-speed-control-tra3025/p668445

The stock ESC failed on my TRX4 and I replaced it with a Hobbywing 1080 ESC. The Hobbywing doesn't have the JST plug to power the light power supply.
I was wondering if I could just wire the power supply to the ESC somehow?
Or should I just find another way to power the lights?

The way it hooked up stock was the power supply has a red wire that goes to the ESC. It also has the JST plug that has a black and a black/gray wire that goes to the ESC. The ESC has a red and black wire in the female side of the JST plug. Seems like a weird way to get power to the lights power supply.

As you stated the power is coming form the ESC so you can do the same thing on the 1080. The lights won't draw enough power to mess with the BEC i suspect. I would run a Holmes by pass and CC external BEC for your Traxxas servo and your upgraded servo when the stocker smokes.

From the light picture, the servo connector that has the red wire is in the signal spot (Middle) so that maybe a channel to turn the lights on an off?? Just a guess as i don't have the TRX manual for any of this stuff.

Or you could de-solder your battery connector and put a female JST pigtail for your LED power.

May or may not help but i tried.

 

[Stewdog]

Thanks Mike!

So, in the BEC scenario you listed, do I tap off the BEC for the power to the lights?

When you say de-solder battery connector and put JST plug on, do you mean to piggy back the JST connector on the battery leads?

 

[cmbscx10]

Thanks Mike!

So, in the BEC scenario you listed, do I tap off the BEC for the power to the lights?

When you say de-solder battery connector and put JST plug on, do you mean to piggy back the JST connector on the battery leads?

You could if you don't mind whatever voltage you set your BEC to via the Holmes Bypass with Aux option. Problem with that is the bypass is usually stuffed in the RX box so disconnecting the lights would be a PITA.

I would just get this from here, Holmes Hobbies direct or about any main RC suppliers for Crawler Offroad #250100008, ,(250100008) by Holmes Hobbies Rx BEC Bypass Adaptor

Correct. You can des older the battery connector and then Solder up the battery connector and JST pigtail or you can score the wire sheath, wrap the JST pigtail and solder that way. Not as clean so I would just des older everything and start from scratch so to speak.

 

[Stewdog]

Hey Mike,
Thanks for the help on this! I was making it more difficult in my head than it needed to be. I just cut the old JST plug off the burnt up stock ESC and soldered it to the battery wires from the ESC. I used some liquid electrical tape to seal it all up and it's all good now. Nice to have my lights back!

 

[Hydrocarbon92]

"Traxxas TRX-4 LED Power Supply is a regulated, 3V, 0.5-amp power source"

I hate to tell you, but if you connect those lights to your new ESC they will glow hot for a while and die - maybe for a second or less. The Traxxas unit is 3V, your 1080 is 6v minimum.


In 30 seconds I found the following on ebay for under $1 ($3 if you buy w/in USA). The chip it uses drops 4-18 volts down to 3.3v, and that chip should do over 0.5A. It's the same model regulator you'll find in MANY RC components like TX/RX.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2pcs-AMS11...254744?hash=item33ddc8c618:g:hHQAAOSwDEtaOL-0
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-DC-DC-...395565&hash=item282a320d5f:g:CZMAAOSw4DJYjRAr

 

[Stewdog]

Could there be a step down on that power supply? I ran the lights last night for 15-20 minutes without issues. The lights weren't any brighter either.

 

[Hydrocarbon92]

No, LED's set for 3.3v will run at 6v and not seem 2x as bright because of how our eyes work. At 3.3v they'll likely average 10k hours but at 6v they might avg a few dozen hours. Did the LED set cost more than $3? Even at $6 it's not worth it burning them out once IMO. For another $1-2 you can get a male-female servo extension, cut it in half, and solder to that step-down reg & connect between ESC (receiver header) and the LED's.

 

[Stewdog]

I will check the output of the power supply with my multimeter and make sure it's 3.3V, but in the description of the power supply it does say that it's regulated at 3V. To me that would mean that the power supply has a step down device built into it. I believe the stock ESC just taps off the battery leads too, so having a step down built in would make sense.
I shouldn't be so lazy in the first place and just test the output voltage from the get go.
Thanks for the heads up! I'll post my findings later.

 

[Hydrocarbon92]

Yes, the ESC has a step-down regulator but we refer to them as "BEC" or "UBEC". I think we just didn't understand each other. A typical ESC will output 5v or 6v to the receiver wires and a WP1080 can be set to 7.4v, but nothing below 5v.

That 3.3v regulator is a linear 1A reg that does all the regulation w/in it's body & pre-set when created, the extra resistors and caps are just to help stabilize in & out voltage. If it's 3.3v, it will have "AMS1117, 3.3, xxxx" and for a 5v chip it will be 5.0 instead of 3.3 on the chip. I wouldn't run a big light bar off of it, but a pair of headlights and dozen markers would be fine.

Also, it can connect direct to the battery but it will be much hotter than connecting to the ESC's BEC output wires. Total draw shouldn't be more than 500mw unless you want it really hot.

 

[Stewdog]

So, I tested the output of the LED power supply and it is at 2.84V. That means tapping off the ESC the way I did is all good and there is a step down in the actual power supply. I can run my lights without worry again and I don't have to use the stock ESC. I really like the Hobbywing 1080 compared to the stocker.
Thanks for all the help!

 

[joeR6]

Sorry for re-hashing an old thread, but i just installed the Traxxas Light Kit (its awesome!) and had a question regarding the LED Lighting Module:

Is the LED Lighting Module waterproof? It has a few sets of extra prongs exposed as the lighting kit only plugs into one pair of those prongs, leaving the others exposed. I'd imagine if water collected in there it would start to corrode - am i wrong?

I'm not always submerging my rig but there are times when i will cross a stream and water will make its way up to the windshield sometimes.

I thought about maybe putting a glob of dielectric grease in there but figured that would easily collect debris and other gunk.

Should i be concerned?

If i should what would be a good way to waterproof it?

 

[Asuckaphish]

Sorry for re-hashing an old thread, but i just installed the Traxxas Light Kit (its awesome!) and had a question regarding the LED Lighting Module:

Is the LED Lighting Module waterproof? It has a few sets of extra prongs exposed as the lighting kit only plugs into one pair of those prongs, leaving the others exposed. I'd imagine if water collected in there it would start to corrode - am i wrong?

I'm not always submerging my rig but there are times when i will cross a stream and water will make its way up to the windshield sometimes.

I thought about maybe putting a glob of dielectric grease in there but figured that would easily collect debris and other gunk.

Should i be concerned?

If i should what would be a good way to waterproof it?

According to Traxxas it is waterproof.

 

[Nightwalker]

From the light picture, the servo connector that has the red wire is in the signal spot (Middle) so that maybe a channel to turn the lights on an off?? Just a guess as i don't have the TRX manual for any of this stuff.

I know I don't undertand s**t in technical electrics and electronics but...

If the power supply for the light kit is powered by the red JST plug that goes into the ESC... what's the purpose of that receiver plug with the red wiring that plugs into the receiver ?!?

Can this thing work being plugged in a single place ?!

I'm asking because I run that lighting kit too on the stock electronics (which is, indeed, awesome :mrgreen but I also plan to eventually switch the electronics for a better combo.

Please don't flame that poor ignorant

 

[Teng]

I know I don't undertand s**t in technical electrics and electronics but...

If the power supply for the light kit is powered by the red JST plug that goes into the ESC... what's the purpose of that receiver plug with the red wiring that plugs into the receiver ?!?

Can this thing work being plugged in a single place ?!

I'm asking because I run that lighting kit too on the stock electronics (which is, indeed, awesome :mrgreen but I also plan to eventually switch the electronics for a better combo.

Please don't flame that poor ignorant

I also am ignorant on electronic, so I just used a Simple Pin connectors supplied by onetoomanyrcs to plug into the balance port off my 3s lipo.

Also I think their light bars are the brightest among all and I loved mine so much. "thumbsup"


https://onetoomanyrcs.com/products/version3-blackbeauty

 

[Nightwalker]

I admit it's a nice alternative! Thanks for the info! "thumbsup"

But, as I paid lightly over a hundred bucks for the complete Traxxas lighting kit (not to mention that it's already installed and all), would be a pain to just uninstall the whole thing and get another lighting kit for that rig...

That's why I try to figure out that power supply thing for when I'll upgrade my electronics to, say a MambaX or a BLE...

Wanna be able to run the same lighting setup I already have. :mrgreen:

 

[Inspector86]

Lots of misinformation in this thread. To start with, the JST plug on the stock Traxxas TRX4 ESC is tapped into the battery leads and is in fact battery voltage not the ESC's BEC voltage of 6v. The Traxxas 8028 light power supply steps the battery voltage down to 3v to power all the Traxxas LEDs. If you use the Traxxas 8030 LED light kit without the 8028 power supply, you must power the LEDs at no more than 3.3v. If you swap ESCs, you simply need to solder in a JST tap in the battery leads to power the Traxxas 8028 power supply. It's not complicated!

 

[Nightwalker]

Lots of misinformation in this thread. To start with, the JST plug on the stock Traxxas TRX4 ESC is tapped into the battery leads and is in fact battery voltage not the ESC's BEC voltage of 6v. The Traxxas 8028 light power supply steps the battery voltage down to 3v to power all the Traxxas LEDs. If you use the Traxxas 8030 LED light kit without the 8028 power supply, you must power the LEDs at no more than 3.3v. If you swap ESCs, you simply need to provide a JST tap into the battery lead to power the Traxxas 8028 power supply. It's not complicated!

Thanks a lot !!! :shock::mrgreen:

 

[Stewdog]

Lots of misinformation in this thread. To start with, the JST plug on the stock Traxxas TRX4 ESC is tapped into the battery leads and is in fact battery voltage not the ESC's BEC voltage of 6v. The Traxxas 8028 light power supply steps the battery voltage down to 3v to power all the Traxxas LEDs. If you use the Traxxas 8030 LED light kit without the 8028 power supply, you must power the LEDs at no more than 3.3v. If you swap ESCs, you simply need to provide a JST tap into the battery lead to power the Traxxas 8028 power supply. It's not complicated!

I don't know that there's a lot of misinformation in the thread. I just worked my way to figuring out what you stated with my multimeter. I also said in post #'s 7,9 and 11 that the power supply had the step down and not the ESC. I also said I pulled off the battery leads from the ESC. All the same as your post.

Just want people to know that the thread does have some good info.

 

[Voodoobrew]

I don't know that there's a lot of misinformation in the thread. I just worked my way to figuring out what you stated with my multimeter. I also said in post #'s 7,9 and 11 that the power supply had the step down and not the ESC. I also said I pulled off the battery leads from the ESC. All the same as your post.

Just want people to know that the thread does have some good info.

I don't think he was talking to you.

I am curious about that other plug that goes to the reciever, what's that control? Can you turn the lights on and off from the reciever?