How To Make Working Brake Lights?

[Singapore_959]

Last season I put that special old tamiya brake lamp option part on my Can Am lola. But it did not like working with the modern esc, the lamp basically stayed on the whole time.

I would like to make up a set for the Can Am, Datsun, and Golf this season.

How can I do this? I an not an electrian but somewhow I imagine there should be a way to wire an led to the motor leads so that when I am not accelerating the led lights up.

Can anyone explain is easy language how I can make up a system like this?

I know Novak sells a very expensive esc that has all this plumbed in but that is way out of budget and not sold locally anyway.

Many thanks to those who can share how!

[94eg!]

Tamiya's TLU-02 can do it, but you also need a TLU-01 to drive the lights. The 02 plugs in between the servos/esc and the receiver, and the 01 plugs into the 02. Then you simply program all your lights to react to different inputs from the transmitter (up to 16 pairs of lights with 2 TLU-01 units). The main problem is these components are expensive, and big. If it's for a racing car, you will definitely want something simpler...

Maybe wiring some sort of diode setup & led to the motor will activate the light only in reverse voltage situations. Of course I would like to know if braking is actually reverse voltage. Especially considering the + motor terminals are hard-wired to + battery terminal. This might be more complicated than I though...

[Blacque Jacque]

Braking is normally done by applying a load resistance to the motor, or shorting it completely.

More braking can be achieved by applying reverse voltage.

[WillyChang]

... that special old tamiya brake lamp option part on my Can Am lola.

WHAT special old tamiya brake lamp option ??! i don't know of it, pics please?

Novak has stopped putting Brake Light Circuitry into their new ESCs,

haha was cute when even their topnotch racing Cyclone/Atom had it.

Have tried it, works well... dim for standard, bright when brakes are On.

Also have the TLU01/02... works well but they take up a lot of space.

What exactly are you wanting, does it have to sense the ESC?

If not, you could just hookup rear LEDs with a chain of resistors

and a mercury switch mounted at an angle that will short out a few resistors

when the braking g-forces close the switch.

[bgruen]

Novak Tempest MAX had leads to drive a pair of LEDs. They go out when you pull the trigger and come on in neutral and brake. Not the best setup...

Bob

Last season I put that special old tamiya brake lamp option part on my Can Am lola. But it did not like working with the modern esc, the lamp basically stayed on the whole time.

I would like to make up a set for the Can Am, Datsun, and Golf this season.

How can I do this? I an not an electrian but somewhow I imagine there should be a way to wire an led to the motor leads so that when I am not accelerating the led lights up.

Can anyone explain is easy language how I can make up a system like this?

I know Novak sells a very expensive esc that has all this plumbed in but that is way out of budget and not sold locally anyway.

Many thanks to those who can share how!

[Shodog]

Ram makes a brake light set up that works great. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...SM&I=LXTB97 I used an older unit on my mountaineer. It runs off of a 9volt battery and it has two leads that connect to the motor. When the motor goes into coast mode, the brake lights go brighter. check out this video of it in action http://www.rcpics.net/view_single.php?medid=17066

[Tamiya Learner]

I have tried successfully to make my own with separate brake lights.

It consists of an additional cicuit ffed from the normal light one, the positive wire is then cut.

The two cut ends are put into a rubber or other non-conducting plug which is inserted into say a short small bore plastic tube; a small suitable sized ball bearing inserted, and the other end sealed.

The tube is then hard mounted to the chassis with a slight drop to the rear.

This then only lights them up when braking as the ball is forced to the front contact wires due to the inertia of braking; takes alittle bit of adjusting to get the right angle on the tube for the type of braking force your car has.

Hope you can understand my explanation, good luck

[Lemming]

When I can be bothered to get going on it, I have a schematic for building a full lights set...

Side lights on all the time (4 or more - power from main pack via interrupt)

Headlights on under acceleration (motor interrupt - forward only - powered from main pack)

Brake lights on under braking (motor interrupt - motor idle - powered from main pack)

Reverse lights on when reversing (motor interrupt - reverse only - powered from main pack)

Also, the circuit to have indicators (but these are run by mico-switches).

Question is will I ever get it built???

Steve

[Mud-Plugger]

I succeeded myself by taking and rectifying both the positive and negative pulses from the esc and then putting them through a diode pump, and with a few logic gates made it operate correctly, with the brake lights NOT coming on until you actually braked. Then I took the pulses from the esc for reverse and logically added them to stick position status switches which lit the reversing lamps.

I was then showed the TLU-01 and 02 by Chain-Driven, and through laziness, scrapped the project and bought the Tamiya units.

Unfortunately, these are programmed so that the brake lamps default to ON whenever you're off the throttle (so it doesn't simulate the "coast" mode correctly) and the brake lamps just increase the tail lamp brightness when braking, instead of having a separate brake lamp output. Consequently, I will need to take the tail lamp outputs, and use them for the brake lamps but condition them through a comparator first, so that they only light when full brightness is selected.

When fully functional will post a video up.

Mud.

[bakaguyjean]

Last season I put that special old tamiya brake lamp option part on my Can Am lola. But it did not like working with the modern esc, the lamp basically stayed on the whole time.

I would like to make up a set for the Can Am, Datsun, and Golf this season.

How can I do this? I an not an electrian but somewhow I imagine there should be a way to wire an led to the motor leads so that when I am not accelerating the led lights up.

Can anyone explain is easy language how I can make up a system like this?

I know Novak sells a very expensive esc that has all this plumbed in but that is way out of budget and not sold locally anyway.

Many thanks to those who can share how!

Tamiya made brake lite kit for the F102 and it was a single light,special mount with a little circut board that worked with the speed control,is this the light you are talking about? I had one and Ebayed it a while ago. Nice little option from back in the day

[pearce_jj]

Tamiya made brake lite kit for the F102 and it was a single light,special mount with a little circut board that worked with the speed control,is this the light you are talking about? I had one and Ebayed it a while ago. Nice little option from back in the day

If you wire an LED between battery +ve and motor +ve, through a resistor of course, it should get steadily brighter the less forward acceleration it's under. This could then be gated using a transistor if on/off required. But would depend how the ESC is treating earth.

[Singapore_959]

Tamiya made brake lite kit for the F102 and it was a single light,special mount with a little circut board that worked with the speed control,is this the light you are talking about? I had one and Ebayed it a while ago. Nice little option from back in the day

Thanks all! Except for the very fun ball bearing in a tube idea the rest are a little beyond my red wire, black wire metal plug knowledge of electonics! But I can find local friends who could follow it all.

Willy - Ivan - yes the set Ivan sold is what I am talking about. I bought and tried it and while neat it just didn't like modern esc's and stayed turned on constantly. Otherwise a great little kit.

Here are two picts of it, from my first test set up on the Can Am. Looks so craply set up when I see it compared to now!

You can see the little circuit board and the two sets of wires coming out. One set hard wire direct to the motor leads, one set goes to the single rear led. Mounted on the end of the wing support here.

you can just see the led at the end here.

And just because it is such a coooooooooooooooooooooool car, some more perrving pictures from its last race in March:

The MONSTER power Can Am Lola race car!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

..........now back to brake light(s) HELP! simple solution anyone?

[Singapore_959]

If you wire an LED between battery +ve and motor +ve, through a resistor of course, it should get steadily brighter the less forward acceleration it's under. This could then be gated using a transistor if on/off required. But would depend how the ESC is treating earth.

OOO! Peace_jj I like the sound of this solution!

I shall raise it with the electrical guys who race and at the shop. Cool. Thanks

[Singapore_959]

Ram makes a brake light set up that works great. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...SM&I=LXTB97 I used an older unit on my mountaineer. It runs off of a 9volt battery and it has two leads that connect to the motor. When the motor goes into coast mode, the brake lights go brighter. check out this video of it in action http://www.rcpics.net/view_single.php?medid=17066

Thanks Shodog, I like the look of this for my offroad scale project. Cheers!

[Backlash]

If you wire an LED between battery +ve and motor +ve, through a resistor of course, it should get steadily brighter the less forward acceleration it's under. This could then be gated using a transistor if on/off required. But would depend how the ESC is treating earth.

The battery positive, and the motor positive, are basically the same wire ( re 3 wire ESC's). Its the negative wire that is switched by the mosfets. Doing as suggested would be the same as connecting the LED directly accross the motor, and unfortunately, this would mean the LED will be off when stopped, and on when running...

You will have to use an inverter gate to reverse the way the LED works (so it is on when stopped, and off when running.).

Cheers

[WillyChang]

gots an odd question, quite outside but vaguely related...

When do the tabs on the brake FET/s start conducting? like they're not ground or +ve are they?

(on the old style FETs with metal exposed tabs for cooling)

[mansellpants]

Check on ebay for a shop called Modeltown RC Electrics. They sell various led kits for reasonable prices such as an 8 led headlight & brakelight kit for 14.49. I think they can even custom make kits to your spec!!.

Cheers

Colin.

[pearce_jj]

The battery positive, and the motor positive, are basically the same wire ( re 3 wire ESC's). Its the negative wire that is switched by the mosfets. Doing as suggested would be the same as connecting the LED directly accross the motor, and unfortunately, this would mean the LED will be off when stopped, and on when running...

You will have to use an inverter gate to reverse the way the LED works (so it is on when stopped, and off when running.).

Cheers

Just tested using TEU101 ESC. Stated method works well enough

[Backlash]

gots an odd question, quite outside but vaguely related...

When do the tabs on the brake FET/s start conducting? like they're not ground or +ve are they?

(on the old style FETs with metal exposed tabs for cooling)

This question had me thinking. I was sure it was connected to either the collector or Emitter, but wasnt sure which one. I had to do some testing.

The metal tab on the TO220 size fets is connected to the Emitter (output). This means for a Forward only ESC, the emitter (or metal tab) of the drive FETS is connected the negative wire going to the motor, and the Emitter of the Brake FET is connected to the (motor) Positive. Reversing ESC's will probably be different, as there are 4 sets of fets.

Cheers

[driftking_v8]

This question had me thinking. I was sure it was connected to either the collector or Emitter, but wasnt sure which one. I had to do some testing.

The metal tab on the TO220 size fets is connected to the Emitter (output). This means for a Forward only ESC, the emitter (or metal tab) of the drive FETS is connected the negative wire going to the motor, and the Emitter of the Brake FET is connected to the (motor) Positive. Reversing ESC's will probably be different, as there are 4 sets of fets.

Cheers

u've got the same problem my solution: buy the newer version and from the old version u only use the leds

[Singapore_959]

The battery positive, and the motor positive, are basically the same wire ( re 3 wire ESC's). Its the negative wire that is switched by the mosfets. Doing as suggested would be the same as connecting the LED directly accross the motor, and unfortunately, this would mean the LED will be off when stopped, and on when running...

You will have to use an inverter gate to reverse the way the LED works (so it is on when stopped, and off when running.).

Cheers

Thanks Backlash, this seems the easiest solution with my limited electronics knowledge set.

I will try this is two weeks time.

Thanks everyone for all the info and suggestions.

[yamita]

I have one new in package. Bought it for my f40 group c, but the car is gone now. Anybody interested?

WHAT special old tamiya brake lamp option ??! i don't know of it, pics please?

.

[Victorious Secret]

Also have the TLU01/02... works well but they take up a lot of space.

What exactly are you wanting, does it have to sense the ESC?

Hi Willy,

I also wish to purchase the TLU02. Do you need a 3 channel controler to use all the functions? BTW, there are really no space in the TT01... where is the best place to sit it?

VS