My light mod (pics)
 

Here are a few pics of the light mod that I did. I tried it on a Bit clone first to see if it would work. I am going to replace the headlights with lights from a mini maglight flashlight. They are like 1000 times brighter and you can run 2 of them off a 3 volt battery. The only problem that I have is that I hooked 4 LED's to one 3 volt battery and they seem kinda dim even with the resistors. I could add a second 3 volt battery, but space in my car is at a premium. Do they make a 6 volt lithium battery?

What kind of resistor are you using (what color on them)? Can you tell me what's the advantage of using it? Thanks

I used 100 ohm resistors (gold/red/black/red). You can get them at RS. I couldn't get all the lights to work at the same time without them. I used 2 resistors, 1 for the tail lights and 1 for the headlights.

Thanks, do you know how to make the light active only when you press forward or backward w/out using a switch. Lmk, thanks

No, this was only the second mod that I've attempted. Sorry.

Do the lights come out of the body? Because the last time I saw LED's at RS, they were big, and wouldn't fit inside the body without rubbing against tires...

BTW, it looks awesome!

but how do you turn the lights on and off ? :D

Looking at your pic, it seems like the wiring takes up the most space, why don't you switch to enamel wire then?

and that's a HUGE switch on the roof of your car!!! :eek:

By the way, does it matter which side of the resistor being hook to? Is there a + or - like capacitor? Lmk, thanks

Yes, the lights can be taken in and out. You can get a 20 pack of assorted LEDs at RS for a couple bucks. I used the 3 mm ones.

I used 28 AMG wire, which was too big. I redid the wiring with CAT5 wire and it worked better. I also switched to smaller size batteries, but the same voltage and put 3 together, which gave me 9 volts so I could eliminate the resistors.

Lol! I know...it was the smallest micro switch I could find at RS.

No, I don't think so.

you should place the switch out the back of your car and use it as a wheelie bar!! i like it. :blift:

Re: My light mod (pics)
 

I don't think so. If you have enough room, try stacking two CR2016 batteries under the roof. They add up to 6 volts and might fit, but that depends on the shape of the car. I have a Mitsubishi Lancer MS, and that is what I'll use for my light mod.

Heres my SMD LED setup.

front view

damn wrong pic above! this below is my blue smd bit! sorry all!

Dont bother downloading the above pic, It is BELOW!!!

As the attachment was a big bmp, here is the jpeg! doh!

9 volts?! why don't you wire it in parallel and use 1 battery instead?

nice job keep up the good work

Re: My light mod (pics)
 

I would think the resistors aren't really helping you much. I see that you have the resistors wired in series with the LED's so there is a voltage drop across the resistor and your LED's are not being supplied 3V. This might be why it looks dim. Try removing them.

I think the only real reason to use a resistor is to limit the current through the LED so that you don't burn it out. It does this by increasing the equivalent resistance seen by the circuit which decreases the current. However all LED's have a internal resistance, so with 4 LED's there might be enough equivalent resistance in the circuit to not use resistors.

If it still seems dim when you remove the resistors, it might be because the LED's are rated for a higher voltage.

9 volts..... Wow....

Ok, I took the resistors off and re-wired it as you can see in my second set of pics. I tried 3 volts of brand new alkaline watch batteries and left the lights on for like 15 minutes and they totally died. So, I tried 6 volts and then 9 volts and not much of an improvement. I think that I am finally going to end up using 6 volts of the lithium batteries and I am going to have to try to find room for 2 of them. Because I sodered directly on the battery, I want these lights to last a while without having to change the batteries too often.

I just did a dual-battery mod on the motor. What if I took out the lithium batteries and wired it directly to one of these? I could sacrifice the speed and the longer running time for the light addition. Would my controller charge it enough to power the lights only when it is running? If it did, I could eliminate the switch AND the additional lithium batteries.

Any suggestions? I don't know much about wiring so I don't know if this would work. I was just excited that I actually got it to work the first time. I might try it, but first do a controller mod to get maximum charge in the batts.

if you wire the leds to the car's battery, the leds might go dim when you go forwards or backwards.......

What size LEDs did u use, i cant find them small enough at my RS

They are called SMD (surface mount) chip LEDs.

http://uk1.farnell.com/Search/search...archform.jhtml

they are on there

or alternatively try mobile phone shops, as some sell these leds so u can change the color of ur phones backlighting.

That link doesn't work , try http://www.farnell.co.uk

do a search on the site for smd led

or alternatively use

http://www.froogle.com and type in smd chip led.

http://www.lc-led.com/View.jsp?idProduct=55

are these the led's your refering to? they look cool, im not sure if im patient enought to try to solder them... lol thats tiny.

Yep thems are d ones!

All you need is a 12W soldering iron or one that states suitable for smd work, a fine tip on it.

press theled upside down onto a bit of blue tack, then place the soldering iron on a terminal,touch the solder on this terminal at the same time, thats 1, then do the other terminal.

Then tin a wire (cover it slightly SLIGHtLY with solder), then put this wire against a led terminal, apply heat to the wire, there u go, a nice joint!!!!!!

Be patient and try it, it is worth it, in the future all components will b small, and smaller!

Dont heat the leds for more than 3 seconds id say,so u dont melt the lens! Look how tiny my set up is!

here is an smd chip led next to my tomy s2000!

Another shot!

Wonder if bit science would b interested in this?

Wow that is tiny! I am going to have to try my mod with those lights. Thanks for the link!

Has anyone tried to attach a photocell to their light mod? I saw them at RS and wanted to try it so that when it gets dark, my car's lights go on.

That a real nice idea, i never thought of that!
Just wire it in series to the lights and there u go!
Unless u want to adjust is so u can fine tune the light conditions that are present it comes on, then youll need a potenitometer.

Hey, that was my idea!:D I posted something like this a while back. I don't think you could use just a plain photocell, you might need a dark activated circuit. Mine uses a photocell, two resistors, a pot, 2 LEDs (blue), an NPN transistor, and 2 CR2016 batteries.

Wow, do you have any pics or a diagram to show me how you set this up? I'd really like to try it. I know enough about wiring to get by and I think I could get it to work if I kinda knew where to put everything in the circuit. Thanks.

P.S. sorry, I didn't mean to steal your idea:o

It's ok, I had a feeling that I wasn't the only one with this idea.
I have a diagram, but for some reason the pic won't show up.
Don't have it on my car yet.

Aughhhh! I give up with images. Anyway, here is the circuit.
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/actrelay.htm

I took off the relay and replaced the diode with an LED.

A photocell and a transistor-simple. You could also hook some diodes up to the motor wires and make foward and reverse lights.

Simple, but it works!

Leoslan, did you have to cut holes in your body for the light mod?

b1spd b6way :bdrop: :bled: :bts: :bs: :bsm: zznos bg395 bbsups