Budget light for RC model. A variety of lighting equipment for a radio-controlled car Order headlights for a radio-controlled car

After some time, every fan of radio-controlled cars begins to refine and improve their models. Different body options are purchased for the same chassis, tuning is done, additional painting is done, and lights are installed.

It is the installation of the latter that will be discussed in this article.

The control unit is purchased ready-made, usually the following is included in the kit:
4x3mm Orange LEDs.
2x3mm White LEDs.
4x5mm White LEDs.
2x5mm Red LEDs.
8x60mm nylon ties.
2 JR Y-cables (splitter).
8 Wire fixing blocks.
12 LED mounts.
Double-sided adhesive tape.
Instructions with pictures

The diodes are supplied soldered in several pieces and after connecting all the LEDs there are still 2 free connectors.

List of connectors for the light control unit of a radio-controlled car:
Connector 1: Front low beam lights. (Without movement - they light up dimly, when you press the gas - they light up brightly)
Connector 2: Front high beam lights. (Without movement - they do not light up, when you press the gas - they light up brightly)
Connector 3: Left turn signal. (Blinks when turning the steering wheel)
Connector 4: Right turn signal.
Connector 5: front low beam lights.
Connector 6: reverse lights. (Only lights up when the brake is pressed again)
Connector 7: Flashing lights. (Like strobe lights)
Connector 8: brake lights. (They light up dimly all the time, when you press the brake they light up brightly)

Alexander comments:

So I’m wondering where to get such headlights on the sprue or some similar ones, I’ve searched a lot of places and all to no avail, and drilling holes just for diodes in the RC model is somehow not nice. Can you tell me????

Hello. I want to talk about how I made a semblance of neon lighting and headlights with dimensions for a 1:10 scale radio-controlled drift model.

Background

In November 2015, I became interested in drifting on RC models, money suddenly appeared, and then it started... Drifting got me involved, and I decided to move on to the stage, which in electronics usually begins with the manufacture of cases for one’s devices, and in modeling - with the addition of “krasunek” "on the model. I already had the body - a beat-up Porsche 911 GT2 RS, and I decided to add a little light. Let's see what came of it.

Part 1, theoretical and philosophical

To begin with, I made a list of “wants” for myself:

1. Illumination of the bottom of the model, so-called. "neon";
2. Headlights (high beam);
3. Dimensions.

For illumination, I dug out a pseudo-RGB LED strip from the bins of the closet. LEDs R, G and B are not in the same housing, but simply stand next to each other (I missed this fact when ordering, so the strip moved to the cabinet). The length of one segment of the tape is 147 mm and two LEDs of each color fit on it. But no matter what the RGB strip is, it still needs a control controller - I planned to implement it on ATTiny13, fortunately they were recognized by me as “unsuitable” for the projects and were quietly lying in the same closet.

The inclusion of headlights and sidelights was also planned using the same ATTini, but... it didn’t work out, in general. Although everything is drawn and described both on the seal and in the code, maybe someday I’ll add it; Now the lights and dimensions are switched on by a DIP switch into 2 sections.

In the original version of the “light block” the power supply was planned to be combined with the power supply of the power unit; Either interference or a voltage drop due to the gluttony of my speed controller reset the controller, so I had to add (in version No. 2) 2 18650 batteries connected in series. A voltage of 6-8.4V was enough to power the LED strips. Then, due to the lack of a large number of compartments for 18650, I had to replace the double compartment with a single one and add a Chinese DC-DC Step-Up module on a small chip with unreadable markings. I set the output voltage to 10V, now both the strips and the headlights shine brighter, although I have to charge the battery more often; but it’s still more than enough for 2-3 rides of 2.5 hours each. And carrying 2 18650 batteries with you is not such a big problem. The MK is powered by the LM1117-5.0 converter,

Part 2, practical

In practice, the implementation of the light controller is not a miracle, I didn’t bother too much and decided to make 5 operating modes - everything is off, R, G, B, RGB. Due to the relatively low ground clearance of the model, all three LEDs are clearly visible in RGB mode. The tape itself has a common anode; the cathodes are switched using small N-channel field-effect transistors in a SOT-23 package. For some reason, the biggest problem for me was precisely the wiring of the power part - I get a little stupid when I draw circuits with transistors. And after eliminating the problem, I found a connection diagram in the Arduino Basic Connections collection.

LEDs are mounted on the body of the model (for headlights - on stars, the dimensions are simply glued with hot-melt adhesive) and a board on which a DIP switch and current-limiting resistors are installed. The battery with a step-up converter is located on the chassis, power is supplied through a 3-pin connector, of which 1 is not connected (to protect against polarity reversal).

The firmware for the microcontroller (all at the end of the article in the archive) was written in BASCOM-AVR, which, IMHO, was undeservedly described in one or two articles on Habré, because the environment deserves attention due to the ease of writing the program and decent output code.

In conclusion, some photos of the result:

There are no photographs of the board without heat shrink.

The second stage - power supply of brake lights

We gut the second servo drive, take out the circuit from there and unsolder the motor. We will connect the servo in parallel to the 2-ohm channel of the receiver. After connecting, you need to turn the servo wheel to catch the moment when power is not supplied to the wires from the motor. I just soldered in a tuning resistor and adjusted it with its help. I cannot illustrate this process, because... Everything is already soldered and packed on site.

The initial connection diagram was as follows:

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Those. Power to the head light is supplied from the battery from the iPhone (stage 1), while the rear light is lit at full intensity. When you press the brake, 4V voltage is supplied to the taillight and lights up brighter.

By the way, the flashlight is made from the wheel of my first one and eight LEDs connected in parallel.

The very first night ride revealed a very serious drawback of this connection scheme. In the dark, a dimly lit rear light makes it difficult to sense the dimensions of the buggy, which means that it is very difficult to catch a model trying to skid or being in a skid.

I decided to install real parking lights on the spoiler. Thus, the dimensions of the model are now felt from any side, and the connection diagram has been simplified. There is no longer a need to use diodes, because The light now only serves as a brake light.

The headlight LEDs were embedded in the front bumper. To obtain reflectors, the remains of something like this were sawn. Use pieces of Lexan as glass.

In the photo, the headlights have already been worn out quite a bit, as you can see, they are still in place.

This LED requires cooling. I found in the bins a heatsink for the memory of the video cards that came with some kind of cooler in the kit and used them.

This design is very successful at removing heat from powerful LEDs.

It's all put together in a waterproof box - the only thing I bought in an offline hardware store.

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Hello. I want to talk about how I made a semblance of neon lighting and headlights with dimensions for a 1:10 scale radio-controlled drift model.

Background

Part 1, theoretical and philosophical

To begin with, I made a list of “wants” for myself:

1. Illumination of the bottom of the model, so-called. "neon";
2. Headlights (high beam);
3. Dimensions.

Part 2, practical

In conclusion, some photos of the result:

There are no photographs of the board without heat shrink.

Today I will tell you a very interesting idea: “How to make a backlight for a radio-controlled car”

Materials:
10 cm LED strip (12 volts).
Crown terminal.
Small switch
Paper clips.
And of course the wires.
Tools:
Pliers.
Soldering iron (with solder, etc.)
Lighter.
Crown.
Double-sided tape.

1. First of all, we take the LED strip and cut it in half (5 cm).

2. Clean the silicone from the ends of the LED strip and tin all the contacts

3. After this, solder the wires (red to +, black to -).

4. After this, we place the pieces of the LED strip along the edges of the cover from the power supply of the radio-controlled car and measure the length of the wires to connect these pieces.

This is roughly how it worked out for me:

6. Solder the terminal wires from the crown to the power supply location.

7. Switch in the housing. Now the most dangerous part: (take precautions!!). Personally, I laid out an iron sheet, wore gloves and goggles. We have to straighten the paperclip and bend it with the letter “p”. We take pliers and clamp the paperclip.

We take out the lighter and hold the end (the letter “p”) over the flame until the paper clip begins to turn pink. After the paper clip has turned red-pink, you need to quickly remove the lighter and melt the body to install the switch. You need to carefully melt the plastic so that the switch can “sit” exactly to the size of the hole in the case. This work is long and tedious, but when done it will be very neat.

8. Well, that’s almost all, all that remains is to solder the wires to the switch and glue the LED strip to the power supply cover of the machine.

9. Check whether the LED strip is lit (if not, check the neatness of the soldering and wires)

We attach the crown with double-sided tape to the inside of the machine.

I connected the crown (9 volts) because I couldn’t find a 12 volt battery anywhere (apparently there are no such ones in our city).

Well, that's all, this backlight looks very cool and doesn't waste much money or time.

Now I’ll show you what a backlit car looks like at night: