My Rice Lighting Project
 

Hello All,

I realize that this thread is mostly about electronics but I have put in here in cosmetics to get some opinions and feedback on where to take this project I've started.
As an upfront disclaimer, I am totally aware both proposals would void warranties as I am mixing various products not explicitly designed together.

On to the show
I plan to install RGB lighting
circuit 1
-angel eyes using Diode Dynamics kit and RF controller
and
-prism DRLs installed in fog light housing
switched together

then
circuit 2
extend circuit 1 usinging Hitlights RGB signal amplifier
and install underglow using standard weatherproof Flexible LED Light Strip- SMD 5050 (Multicolored)
- I have considered adding to this circuit a strip behind the grill in the front
- I have also considered adding to this circuit strips riming the inside of the door speaker grills.
-the power supply for the amplifier would be wired to a seperate switch
allowing this entire circuit to be disabled but still run the angel eyes and fog lights.

Wiring options:

Option A: Wire switches to ACC power
Pros:
Circuit cannot be enabled unless vehicle has key in it
Simple straightforward setup
Cons
Circuit cannot be enabled unless vehicle has key in it

Option B: Wire switches to contant power. Wire inline mosfet to root of controller common anode (GRN).
Explanation:
Following this path the lighting would be always active, however the common anode (or ground) for the LEDs would be controlled by a mosfet wired inline, and having its gate controlled by another circuit, namely the dome light. In short the lights would always have electrical potential, but no ground path unless the mosfet was activated.
Pros:
-Lighting accessories could be setup to turn on when I unlock the car,
-I am much more likely to see this mod on a regular basis this way.
Cons:
-RF controller would be always on. According to Diode Dynamics, theirs using 8mA on standby, this means that it could be left this way for a pretty long time without issue, that's less than some dash cams.
-requires serious modification to RF control circuit, again voiding warranty
-some people have reservations on if wiring any control extending accessory to the dome circuit is advisable.

Thoughts, flames, generic comments about people wishing other people wouldn't do things like this?

Edit:
common anode, means common pos, not neg. Doesn't really matter in this case, just noting the mistake.

lolhttps://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...Ue_OixcJkKZjrj

Actually made me LOL, grats.

I say if you are going to go all out with lighting everywhere, go all out in the wiring as well and go with option B. While I don't understand how exactly option B would work, I do know that if I was in your position and I handcuffed myself with how I wired the car I wouldn't be happy and would probably end up doing it again the right way.

why not do 2 switches? one for acc power and one for constant power?

i did that in my last car-- i had a switch that fed constant power into the acc circuit so that i could do things to my carpc without the key, but also had a separate acc switch to control a few different things so that i could leave the switch on, and everything would turn off with the rest of the car..

starting to talk about a lot of switches, besides, if I went route 2, the dome light switch would do the same thing anyways, right?

Ordered the last of the components that I think I will need for this project today. Yay, payday!
Right now I am debating whether to attempt to modify the RF controller box, or if I want to get an indoor 4 wire extension, and modify that.
then if it doesn't work I can just remove the extension.
About my controller box from Diode Dynamics, I'm not certain, but I think it may be a modified IR controller? its definitely got hot glue going on here, see photo.

I decided to go with waterproof regular density led strips over weatherproof double density strips. the intensity will of course be less, but I can cover 2x the distance on the same power.

Later this week I'm thinking of putting together my mosfet kit

So IP69 LEDs look like regular density LEDs inside a flexible rubberized container.
interestingly enough apparently they do not have 3m tape on the back like the others, I can only guess because they are usable underwater in theory.
In any case, now I need a lot of 3m tape.

I was thinking earlier today as well. I don't think on initial install I'm going to attempt this. however I might be able to do options A and B if I were to build a logical OR circuit. this can be done with 2 diodes easily, although leads to major voltage drop on the other side. so it would have to feed a relay with a low..er (4~5v?) threshold. Then I could have them light both when the dome light activates or when the buttons pressed. I need to Figure out how to make a circuit without breadboard, somehow I don't think it would holdup in a car very long.

small update no photos today:
installed about half way last sat then immediately got sent on a business trip cutting my weekend short. Anyways, angel eyes and fog lights installed, they look good. need to work on some cable management. the fog lights cables are maybe about 2ft to short to cross the vehicle if you corner mount the controller.
haven't begun on the 2nd half of the circuit, or even the switch install (got wires in the passenger floor board).

mounting the angel eyes turned into more of a hassle than I expected. I ended up placing them right behind the reflector shroud, and using about 30 pieces of electrical tape on each to brace it to the shroud, it now sits between the shroud and the projector.

mounted an led strip to the back of the bumper right above the grill, thinking about moving it down to be under the grill instead of above.

Edit:
also shout out to @Diode Dynamics, for one seriously nice and well thought out wiring harness that comes with the angel eyes kit, it even has 2 DC terminals which for my particular project is perfect.

25%
 

about 1/4 done or so.
here's some initial photos

Edit:
it's not against forum rules to be the only person that responds to a thread is it?

Edit no2.
I was reminded today that you can make any logic gate with a NOR gate, and that you can get a chip (4001 Quad NOR) with 4 NOR gates which is good for making anything.
see: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOR_gate"]NOR gate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

go HAM go option B and don't look back!!!!

Videos of fade mode? Is there a strobe haha?

Small update, played some with the lights today, found one of the fog lights has a row that doesn't light green, this one has always looked different, now I know why.

When using yellow it leads to a nifty bloody eye effect. Haha

projects starting to wear me out.
photo here of how I mounted the LEDS for the front grill.

my back is doing me murder..
the rear another day... still need to figure out running the wires back there.

don't give me that.. it's the wrong month for it.. this was my car last saturday, heard back from the insurance it's officially totaled 3 days ago.
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2919/...3074e6bc_c.jpg

now i need to go and pull every single itty bit of gear that i put in it, and then reinstall it all over again in the replacement...

D#MN.
did someone hit you?
Are you okay?

I can honestly say I haven't followed your build before, how much gear did you have in it?

i had just finished installing all my audio gear about a month ago..

some chick decided to not pay attention to the stop sign that she was supposed to stop for(i didn't have a stop sign at all).. i didn't have a chance, by the time i saw her and realized she wasn't stopping, i was 10' away from impact..

suffice to say, i now think that anyone that insists on changing the airbag emblem to something else is absolutely out of their mind.. sh!t hits the fan so fast, i sure wouldn't want "at least his airbag emblem looked cool" for a funeral motto...

If I had known when I started what a pain this project would become, I likely wouldn't have started.

The wheels are now controlled by the same controller as the front, but independently powered and switched.

I need a better camera, my phone camera distorts the lights massively.

@soundman98 nooooo, I remember you from HIDP and from our old convo when you still just had a bike and was very excited to get a 86 and now it's totalled???! :((

yep.. since then, i broke my wallet and bought another one in identical specs.. maybe i'll regret it later, but for now, i wouldn't have any other car.

Update
 

First non-busy weekend is months, got to work on this/finish it I think.


So it is now wired to be a slave to the dome light circuit. It turns on and off when I lock and unlock the doors, which IMO is the best.
If I really want to show them off while driving, like in a parking lot, all I have to do it turn the dome light on.
And thanks to the winjet switch, they are can be disabled.






If Anybody is interested in doing something like this, I can post more details on how I did it. Special thanks to Diode Dynamics, awesome products, only required very minor modifications to make this work.
Final circuit:

Circuit failed on the way to the gym.. I am really bad at this it seems. Need to investigate.
Edit: I think I need a solid state relay.

I think I need this:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-H41773001-Solid-State-Ceramic/dp/B000VU5FPE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413680675&sr=8-1&keywords=H41773001"]Amazon.com: HELLA H41773001 Solid State Ceramic 32 Amp SPST Mini Relay: Automotive[/ame]


Now I guess the question is this, will the control box handle the rapid on off duty cycles from the relay. hmmmm...


the answer is no.. I was curious and swapped the control box for an extra one I had, seems the control box doesn't like the rapid on off cycles.... mines dead.
I think a capacitor could solve the issue... then I could still use a standard relay.

I know a lot of people hate on lights, but I love the idea. I'm all for visibility (most of my driving is at night), and since I don't speed, I don't worry much from the police noticing me as well.

With that said, I can't say I'm feeling the wheel well lighting with it shining directly on the top of the tire like that. It may just be the camera (likely is), but it looks like it's causing a hot huge hot spot that detracts from the accents for the lighting.
I feel having it shine in to the fender well would look better (though you have to keep your fender wells extremely clean, lol).

Keep up the good work. =)

Quick post, just learned a new thing. The common anode is not where the arrow is... Like that makes sense... It's opposite.

So,
I tried to use the solid state relay on the common anode, but it let to much current leak, and the LEDs still partially lit even when the circuit was 'open'
So I tried this as an alternative.
It seems to be working so far. 2nd control box hasn't burnt out. Ill keep it this way for a little while.
I ordered another SSR from a different vender, hopefully with tighter tolerances. If it works the circuit will work much smoother by controlling the common anode and look nicer.
I ordered a Bluetooth RGB controller from DD. its neat, has cool functions, and even is pre wired to somewhat do what I'm doing.


Anyways, current circuit appears to be working, on and off is a little rough, but its working.

Edit: the diode shown near 86 85 isn't there.. Oops

Thanks. I don't really plan to ever have these function during driving, only when parked. The lights still work even with the wheel wells dirty because they are recessed. I might later on change to a more traditional underglow, but I thought that wheel wells would be easier to manage. I'm not sure if I understand what you mean by into the fender? Like inside the splash guards? Or actually behind the wheels instead of above them?

Another small update talking to myself. :-) ordered a crydom dc60s5. It works.. And I am so happy right now. More to come. When it's all done and clean I'll post a video.

Gave everything a test run tonight in the car. Works perfectly until I add the signal amplifier for the wheels. When it's in everything goes whacky as soon as the circuits supposed to be 'off', power and ground running where they shouldn't. I assume I need to control the common anode from the signal amp in the same fashion. Which I think means I need another relay.. and the things are not exactly cheap or small either. Each relay is only rated 5A. Safest course of action will be to add a 2nd I think. Which means more time until I can call this project done.


Still.. I'm getting closer. The whole thing worked on the front of the car tonight. :thumbup:

Got the 2nd SSR in place over the weekend. I gotta say, whats with parts manufactures and allows current to flow in reverse of the direction indicated on the product. Turns out if you use a RGB signal amplifier from hitlights and suppress the forward voltage on the common anode it will instead allow some current to flow backwards from its input. I haven't tried the DD one, I'd be interested if the same effect is present there. I can probably suppress this with a diode but that requires cutting up more cables and adding more components. the backwards current was small, in fact the only lights that even lit were the DD RGB bulbs. The angel eyes did not light up at all. still this is now the 2nd component that's allowed this to happen. first was the winjet switch allowing current to flow in reverse thru its ground.

Anyways, currently running with 2 controllers. Not what I wanted to do but it does allow me to run 2 colors at the same time with is kinda neat. I guess Q to @Diodedynamics, can the app for the Bluetooth RGB module control more than 1 unit at a time? based on the flow of the app I'm guessing not, but it never hurts to ask.

Did you ever finish this project? Pictures/thoughts?

Wow. You guys thought my light bar was ricey.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103394

yikes.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=10145

I didnt even see you comment on this, I stumbled on it looking for something else.

ANYWAYS, this projects gone thru some many iterations..

right now, I have the wheels, grill, and angel eyes all tied together on a solid state relay thats grounded to the dome light. it lights up white when i lock and unlock the car. I have briefly looked into setting up a micro controller to rotate the colors actively while minimally consuming power, but honestly havent messed with it. as far as LED longevity, I run these things every day on my dail and the only issue I have is one of the wheels 3 of the LEDs light up yellow instead of white now. stripe needs to be replaced.. havent done it.. BUT I am getting a garage FINALLY this month, so Ill have an easier time doing projects as I will have space.

I know my lights are ricer, I don't care.

TBH though i did have a guy once ask me in a parking lot if it was an OEM feature. I was very flattered.

Hey don't get me wrong, everyone should do whatever makes them happy. Imagine how boring the world would be if we were all into the exact same stuff.

Gonna be interested to see what your next thing is going to be.

Current project is more pedestrian in nature. Smoked taillights, adding a flasher to the 3rd light and have plans to install 4th in the reverse light location.