3Racing led controller help

[massRCdude]

Hey all, I have a 3Racing led controller with a castle bec installed in my scx-10 based LR3. I'm wanting to rewire it so i can use an old servo board to turn the system on and off. My question is, how do i wire it when the controller gets connected in line with the throttle and steering on the r/x? Thanks in advance.

[envious8420]

It would be just like connecting a servo. Positive and negative to the bec and the signal lead to the rx into the channel being used to control lighting. ch. 3 or 4 depending on your radio system.

hth
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[massRCdude]

Thats kinda what i thought, but where/how would i wire in the servo board for the "on/off". The way it sits now, whenever the rx has power, the lights are on, because they are plugged in line on ch1 and ch2. I want to be able to turn them on and off with ch3 using the old servo board, but I just dont know how to wire that into the mess.

[envious8420]

I would think clip the power leads on both inputs and wire them to the power to the servo motor side of the board. I just ordered a similar gt power led set and will do the testing in the morning if you dont want to clip wires without a 100% positive answer. I'll post back in the am my findings.

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[envious8420]

OK. Looks like I was thinking correctly. Make sure to use only use one lead from the servo board. signal and ground to the Rx and positive to the servo board on a 2 position 3rd ch you will have positive voltage in one direction and negative in the other with zero in the center. Use your sub trim/trim to find center or zero voltage on your meter. A 3 pos. 3rd will have positive voltage on one position and zero @ center and negative in position 3. This was tested with an airtronics 94357 board. A diode on the positive would not be a bad idea to protect from reverse voltage. just as a security choice, not 100% necessary but good insurance.

------Disclaimer, I did the testing but hold no responsibility for anything good or bad. Please verify the results and determine correct polarity on your own equipment with a good multimeter before hooking your lights or anything else up to the board. You will have a positive voltage in 1 direction and reversed voltage in the other. ------


hth

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please see posts below for use without a bec wired in. For drift and any others you want to do this mod to.

[massRCdude]

cool......i'm gonna test some stuff this weekend with your guidance. Thanks
Matt

[envious8420]

Anytime. Thank you for your service.


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[envious8420]

After thinking, how is your bec hooked up? after playing, I realized if these were put into a system without a bec, you would effectively cut the power going to and coming from the receiver to the steering servo and esc.. This could really "turn somebody off " of servo switches, so instead of just hooking the led box power to the servo switch you would also need to bypass the led box to send continuous power to the steering servo and from the esc. You could cut the power output from the led box near the box and just jump the led box and hook to the lead that was going to the led box. I had to think past the servo switch to the whole system. the power passes through the led box to power other segment of the system so just clipping the power wires (2) kills the whole system. give me a little bit, I need to make dinner but, after eating i will either figure out how to create and post a schematic or take pictures of a mocked "no bec setup".

These flashing headlights gotta go though.


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[massRCdude]

Started to think about it............would something like this work ok?

[envious8420]

think not. the servo outputs to the led switch puts out power to the led switch in both polarities which. would send negative voltage to the leds and cook them.

try this.
without bec



with bec

see how the grounds and signal wires from the rx pass through the led box and the box gets its power from the servo switch. then the servo sw goes to the rx for its supply of power ground and signal, receiving when to turn on and off. In order to power the servo and esc they get power from the rx but not going through but around the led box. this way they aren't getting power back feeding off of the other components.


feel free to comment if something isnt right. but this is the way i saw it.
sorry for the crude image.


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