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krisby

LED Kits

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For crawlers, as much as it is nice to have something like the indicators going when you turn, its not necessary as IRL you wouldn't activate the indicators to change direction on a path. So to keep it simple I am just wanting white LEDs for the headlights, then reds for the back, doesn't need to brake, just red.

I see in general the LED kits have a controller connected to the ESC. Is that necessary though? Could one not just connect up a couple of AAs and leave them in the body shell, saves the hassle of having to connect the LEDs on the body to the ESC in the chassis. 

I've not seen anyone else keep it this simple, am I missing some important thing here? Or other people so hung up on detail that if they have LEDS, then the brakes must work too?

Jsut wondering as I've now got 3 crawlers requiring LEDs, so I don't particularly want to go spending $150 on LED kits, when I can go to my electronics store and get some LEDs and a twin or tri AA holder for less than $10.

 

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Even better, hook up LEDs to a JST plug and use a spare channel on the receiver. 6V is more than enough for LEDs. Some aftermarket kits even work on this principle. 

Adding batteries adds significant weight.

The biggest issue with LEDs in my experience is connecting them and disconnecting them when attaching the bodyshell.

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i have a LED set from MytrickRC, it is a bit pricy, but works very nice. if you connect it with the RC electronics, you can have stop lights, reverse lights, turn signals and more. there is a lot of options to select from, and it is easy to use. you can also have it attached seperately from your car electronics with an 9V battery, but then you wont have the functions as reverse lights, stop lights and turn signals.

there is an review on youtube here:

 

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Alexei, that mess is what I am wanting to avoid.

I want simple and cheap, I;'ve read the reviews of other systems but I don't want flashing indicators, I just want headlights and rear lights for effect. So I was merely wondering why simple solutions of running of a few AA batteries isn't employed instead. Weight? Its a crawler, I don't care about the weight a few AAs will add. Secondly, what I am wondering about, or wanting to avoid, as per my first post, is having to connect the chassis to the body, and finally, battery drain, if I go on a long trail with my Hilux, Land Freeder or Land Cruiser I don't want lights reducing the life of the battery.

So I take it no one has run a simple LED set up off AA batteries? 

 

 

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Not in answer to your question so apologies, but I too don't want turn signals etc.  But with my crawlers as I am using radios with so many channels ì do use one so that I can remotely switch lights on and off with one of these:  

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-receiver-controlled-switch-1.html

Also as mentored above I use a JST plug to connect to the body. As for power I think with 4 to six less (spotlights) your not going to notice the power usage on a 7.4 2s 4000ah lipo.

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I prefer to run all of my lighting from the receiver with a servo extension wire poking out of the receiver box to keep it water tight.  I'll plug the body lights in to the extension for night running. During the day, the plug gets tucked in to the body. No signals, just headlights and tail lights. This is likely the easiest and most economical  way to run lights on the body.

For crawlers that have a light bar attached to the bumper, I use a servo extension with an inline switch. 

The additional draw subtracts about 10 minutes of total runtime using a 5000mah NiMH pack and Castle 2850kv brushless system.

I won't run and additional battery pack for the lights.  Additional weight should be down low in the links, driveshafts, and axles.

 

The plug in the bottom of the photo is for the LEDs in the body:

IMG_4622.JPG

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Lights? Ya'll want to talk about lights? well let me tell you about lights "Turn them Off!"

they are so time consuming, yet intriguing to install, should i solder in series or parallel?  wire looms, hide them here, hide them there, test before install, test after loomed, heat shrink tube where needed test again, test after install, then connect them.

yards of electrifying mind boggling madness.

 

Magnetic LED Body MountXtra Speed Stealth Wireless Magnetic LED Body Mount for SCX10 II

i've been meaning to fab one of these, not too much to them and but these do not have enough connection end points for all the connections i do on certain vehicles.

i use JST's, micro & mini JST;s JST XH's, JR's ect...

as far as light controllers, there's plenty to chose from, i have used GTPower,  Boom Racing and a couple of un-knowns and used many of what gizard suggested, when they're in stock, i was purchasing them like PEZ when i could find them.

Oh let's light the way.....................................................................or not:lol:

 

 

 

 

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Just go on ebay and look for rc car spot lights. For what you're describing, you don't need the all singing and dancing stuff. Assuming you have a spare channel on your reciever, they will just plug in to that. Depending on what you buy, you may have to do a bit of splicing and soldering - but it would be minimal.

If you don't have a spare channel, there are battery powered options like a pp3 battery.

I've got working led spots on both of my madbulls (white fronts, red rears), hotshot (same), 4 spots on my nova fox, 2 on my bearhawk etc etc so it is possible - just need to think creatively. Mine are just 'on'. I have toyed with the idea of making them toggleable (is that even a word??) but couldn't be doing with the faff.

The spots cost between 5-8 quid per car 🚗  

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I just buy discreet LEDs and resistors and wire them up to a JST plug, as others have mentioned.  Current draw for LEDs is minimal, runtime difference shouldn't be noticeable with a crawler motor and high-capacity LiPo.  I mount an inline switch so I can turn the lights on and off from under the body.

In the past I have used those Turnigy receiver switches but found them to be horribly unreliable.  They aren't waterproof, the first one died in a dunking.  The second one worked for a while but couldn't decide if "on" was full positive, full negative or neutral, or some random point in between, which would change during running, so sometimes the lights were on and sometimes they were off, pretty much on a whim.  I've now given up and gone back to using plastic switches.  I have been considering putting some metal spring attachment under my body posts to transfer power into the body, but for now I'm using servo plugs.

There is absolutely no reason why you can't use an AA or AAA battery box to power your LEDs.  As said, current draw is tiny.  I used to run a bluetooth-powered trailer light kit in my big rig trailers, which ran indicators, brake lights, tail lights and fog lights, as well as the bluetooth receiver and function module, from a 4xAAA batteries, for about 4-5 months worth of truck meets.  So you should expect to get at least a day's crawling from 4xAAAs.

As per @ACCEL's question about series / parallel - I always solder LEDs in parallel.  It makes further additions to the circuit much easier and you just need one common resistor value for each type of LED you use.  That said, I always add one resistor per LED (soldered to the LED leg), as there are potential problems with having one common series resistor for a multiple parallel LED circuit.

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i like the flat top led's for the red rear and amber blinker/markers, they are a diffused type light instead of projection spot light

looks better not so blinding

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"I've not seen anyone else keep it this simple, am I missing some important thing here? Or other people so hung up on detail that if they have LEDS, then the brakes must work too?"

 

On my Blackfoot, I loved the chrome grill and plastic body shape so much that I didn't want to cut any holes into it to install lights.  Therefor, it seemed pointless to purchase a light kit with little control box like I have on quite a few other models.  ran an extension plug from the extra channel on my receiver and fixed some amplified LEDs to the front of the chassis.  

Disclaimer:  the amplified LEDs were as bright as the sun and a bit too powerful, so now I have a simple stick-on LED strip on either side of the body.

BluefootLights.jpg

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i've used these on my train sets and slot car track set up, and a couple of RC vehicles, these are simply marvelous

and come in various colors

MRC LIGHT GENIE LED Mini Amber 4pk The Led's about the size of the head of a pin

Example 1.

SDC11166 (2).JPG

Example 2.  the green (starboard) and red (port side)

attachment.php?attachmentid=162270&d=1540534606

YZ4y1dW.jpg

and the AMG Iron Panther

 

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Hello, does anyone has a good source for cheap and SIMPLE LED Kits?

 

I want to install some LED Kits into my RC Cars. For a Grasshopper, Hornet, Wild One etc. i just need 2 White and 2 Red lights without any functions. Just a Front- and a Backlight with some round and square Lightbuckets.

 

I know that i ordered 5 Sets of them for about 22 Euros each some years ago. 2 Sets i have installed myself and the other were gifts for friends, sadly one of the Kits was stolen with my old Lunchbox and the otherone broke in my Wild One.

Now i want to get some new ones, but i just find Sets between 9 and 12 Dollars without shipping.

for 10 - 15 Dollars, i get whole Sets with functions (1 habe 2 of them in my Sparebox..) but i don?t need the functions in my more simple Cars....

For 18 Dollars, i would get a Receiver with Gyro AND Lightfunctions from banggood....

 

 

 

So does anyone has a good source for simple cheap Lightsets?

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I agree, lights on crawlers are a must :)

As others stated, the absolute cheapest (and most fun) is to make the LED lights yourself and hook them to one of the receiver 6V channels. You can probably buy 100x LEDS + resistors (cheap 1/8 watt are ok) for the price of a single light kit.

  • Typical white LEDs are 3V. Hook two in parallel, then a 39ohm resistor on each end. This creates about the ideal 20 mA on each LED.
  • Typical red LEDs are 1.8V. Hook two in parallel, then a 56ohm resistor on each end. Similarly, this would create about 20mA on each LED.

You would also need any sort of connector that fits into the receiver (many plug types fit) or could try scavenging anything you have available. Breadboard jumper wires are dirt cheap and have individual connectors on each wire that fit the receiver.

The above is a good compromise  and you won't notice any luminosity difference between LEDs (ideally you don't want to hook LEDs + resistors in parallel, but have resistors individually for each LED).

The ideal method is to solder all the LED, resistors, wires and connectors, but I have tried twisting + superglue and it works ok given the very low currents.

An even cheaper option is to forget about the resistors and connect two 3V white LEDs in series, totalling 6V. You could also do this with two 1.8V red LEDs but will reduce their life a bit since they will have more than 20mA current. With this setup, chances are you will see a luminosity difference between LEDS.

EDIT: Note LEDs have polarity and must be connected in the right direction.

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I get my leds by packs of 20 whites or 20 reds for less than 8 euro each pack (they come prewired with leds, and works perfectly in rc context. I wired the four (2 white and 2 reds) in parallel. and I connect this on a servo JR connector (5 euros the pack of 10 - I'm not even sure to have payed that much). Ultimately, I need to solder, and to make sure polarity is right (sometimes it happens to be wrong in a whole pack) before plugging this on the receiver.

That makes it around 2 euros for each car.

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So i found LED Lights for cheap an Ebay.

Has anyone Tipps for round and Square lightbuckets that aren't Ugly?

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1 hour ago, whahooo said:

So i found LED Lights for cheap an Ebay.

Has anyone Tipps for round and Square lightbuckets that aren't Ugly?

Depends. If it is for internal mount, you may consider optical lenses cases. That's what I do, I paint them with Molotow liquid chrome pen after having done a 5mm hole in the center. I attach them to the body using hot glue, and it works perfectly.

TbavsDB.jpg

For external mount, and if you have access to a 3D printer, I would suggest to browse on Thingiverse, as it is probably the easiest solution (there is many options out there)...

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