Lighting the Axe

[Timmahh]

RedCats light unit seems to be oos (out of stock) almost everywhere, and is nearly 40.00.
After looking around I picked up 2 kits from the Amazon Special bin. lol (isn't most everything on Amazon from the "Special Bin"? lool)
one said it was a flashing kit etc. not the greatest description, but it had 12 lights (all wired individually). Then I picked up another unit that sounded more like a light control system, and not just a programmer. I got this one a month ago but didn't get to it till 2 days ago. The 1st one I mentioned I got a 2 weeks ago, and it came in last Thursday.

So after wiring them up on the table and seeing what did what, the original kit I bought did the scale setups. head lamps on dim all the time, then when you're moving over 25%ish Speed the 2nd set of head lamps come on and get bright.
Breakes work, Reverse Lights work. Blinkers work. It also has 2 other slots, that can be ran alone as always on lights, or each can be paired with another chnl, 7 pairing with chnl 2 the bright headline, and 8 paring with the break lights. I ran 7 as an stand alone always on, and put 2 5mm white lights in the inside of the front bumper holes, and 2 3mm blue lights for the rear bumper holes. These bumper lights will always be on.

So with the suitable control only having 12 lights, and the other unit having 8 individual wired lights, I commenced to modding both the light kits together to run all 20 lights from the suited controller.

So what I have is
4 headlights. 2 constant on, 2 on bright when moving forward, all 5mm.

6 total Left and Right Turn Signals. all 3mm. 1 rear blinker light and 2 front. one for the outermost front bumper hole, and 1 for the front side marker signal (going to 3d print up a few light buckets and get some orange and red lenses for the side marker buckets front and rear) and then I'll add a 2nd rear blinker light into the mix for the rear side markers. for a total of 8 blinker lights)

2 rear running lights in the lowest tail light pod. these lights, like the front dims, are always on.

2 reverse lights (white) in the center clear tail light pods

2 Break lights in the upper pod. The uppermost pod in both tail light housings have 2 lights in them. 1 3mm Red Break Light, and one 3mm orange blinker light.

2 front bumper 5mm white lights
2 rear bumper 3mm blue lights


20 lights total, and will be 22 when I add the 2 rear side marker lights to the mix.

I also picked up and installed a 4 Light Bar on the front bumper.

As the Light controller is powered and used both channel 1 (blinkers) and cnl 2 ( forward, stop, reverse lights) it didn't need to connect to the rx for power as it draws from both chn 1 and 2 for juice. This unit will do 3s, but you will need a BEC on it if you run more than 3s packs.

So the 4 light bar I mounted on the front bumper, just behind the upper cross beam as far forward as it would go. There is enough room yet to put a winch on under it. it May need a few small spacers to lift it a smidge for a bigger winch, but I think the standard type winches will fit and work just fine.

I'm about to head outside and get a little night vid. The squids should be settled for the night so I'll be able to go out and play without having a blood draw every 10 seconds. lol
FYI Squids are Mosquitos. lol

Will post back after the vid is uploaded.

[Timmahh]

Oh, the flasing light kit with 8 lights. was just that. It made the lights flash in various sequences.
It has one setting that would be suitable for 4 way flashers, but that's it. Lol Unless you like your crawler to look like an outdoor rave and everyone is tripping balls. lmao

Rolling some breakfast for me head, and hitting the rocks for a few.
Will Youtube live it.
Uncle Salty Crackers RC and Life channel if you want to watch when it starts (20 mins or so.)

[Timmahh]

Grr. cant do a mobile upload to Youboob due to not having 1000 subscribers on my channel. That sounds like Discrimination to me. Maybe I should draw up a Law Suit for lost earnings due to their Blatant Discrimination.


And the phone video kept restarting. I only have a little room. need to get a new SD card for it.
I'll get vid later and get it posted with some pics. Kind of sucks though.

[ferp420]

use the flasher for rock lights and set.it up so you can change the pattern from the radio
and for that many lights you might want to get a bec if nothing else it takes the load off the esc

[Timmahh]

I am considering that. Put it on the Class 2 SSD Rig I am thinking. I'm not a fan of the flashing lights like the tuners/drifters use.

Just doesn't seem to fit the crawling theme for me. heh. But 4 way flashers (emergency lights) on the Axe or the Class 1 SSD rig would be suitable (only the 4ways, non of that chasing stuff. lol

I was 1/2 considering running them direct, or maybe on a separate small 2s, but that added weight would be beneficial as it would have to be up high.
I have a 6v bec here, just need to fix the wire on it, as it is old, and the wire is a bit rough. the BEC on the ESC is set at 7.4v and neither seem to have any issues I have found yet.

But ya, I am thinking of doing that and adding an on/off switch to them. The controller I am using gets its power via the chnl 1 and 2 y cables. The 4 light bar is powered from a channel itself. I may have to make a custom harness so the signal wire is the only thing plugging into chnl 1 and 2, and the 2 power wires can be tied into the BEC, or wired with the on/off switch and the light bar on a channel.

24 lights on it is a bit many. lol Especially considering 14 of them are in the body, and 6 in the f and r bumpers. lol

I almost picked up a 6 light bar for it (I did but its going on the class 2 rig) to put on the top. heh. But figured that would be too much. Especially if I add 4 wheel well/rock lights. lol