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Background & Mission-Statement, lol !, :
NB: This project would also be useful to EVERYONE who owns an RC toy of any kind (Land, Air & Water Vehicles !)
Intro & Mission-Statement ! :
The Main reason for me doing this is for both me & my pal to clearly-see our nitro powered rc cars at night and in the dark where either no-light or very limited-light exists, ! .
We bought two RC Nitro-Powered Cars with engine and Radio-Gear included (i must point out that me & a friend bought one each as they were going for just £80 each) and we found a great skateboard park to run our cars on the ramps! All was well till it got dark around 16:15 ! Ouch! Too Early for us to go home (for my standards anyway, lol) but we regrettably had to pack our cars away because we couldn't see where we were driving !
I Had a grumble that night - LONG ago when i started this upgrade-marathon, mainly because when i looked online for nitro-engine model-car lights, the prices were sky-high just for a bunch of LED's, a simple switch and a battery pack. I was MOST-Infuriated! The cost on just 2 pairs of blue headlights (2 LED's per headlight) was about £50 ($78 approx.) including delivery. I felt like i'd been stolen-from, robbed even, yet i was not going to pay that kind of money on something i could 'hack' together!
The Easy Hack was strapping on the 'headlights', but the time-consuming work was on the paint-job (15-minute waiting-times between coats ), Gluing (1-hour before rough-handling of the parts) & strobe-light hack!
Stuff We Used:
- 30 SMT/SMD COOL BLUE LED's for Buggy's Chassis ! (comes in a pack of 300 LED's !)
- 3mm Thick acrylic/plexiglass (I will refer to this as ACRYLIC from here-on...)
- 22 AWG Black wire
- 22 AWG Red wire
- LIQUID-RUBBER
- Double Sided Tape (UK Based websites by the way)
- Heatshrink (4mm & 6mm used)
- Strong Epoxy Resin (2 Part VERY VERY STRONG GLUE) or just use a hot glue gun, whatever!
- Battery-Powered Strobe Light
- Cable Braid (9mm UV Blue) You can use whatever color suits you ! {Note - 9mm is a bit too loose, 6-8mm would be better, talking from hind-sight!}
- A Technical Tinkering Mind !
- Moderate to Plenty of Time on your hands!
Costs (Remember the Headlights that i 'Google-Searched-For' would had cost me £50...):
{NB: YOU ONLY NEED TO BUY THIS ONCE & MANY PROJECTS CAN BE CUT FROM ALL THE ACRYLIC PURCHASED & APOLOGIES BUT THE WEB-SEARCH LINKS ARE FOR UK PRICES BUT PLEASE CHECK EBAY IN YOUR AREA FOR ALTERNATIVE PRICES FOR YOUR COUNTRY!}
Acrylic Sheet - £3.55 (For an A4 Sheet, 3mm Thick and Blue Transparent) {Incl.Delivery}
Acrylic Tubing - £4.98 (For a SAMPLE PACK of approx. 100mm each of SIX different sizes, 5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8 & 10mm dia.)
Glow-in-the-Dark Paint - £7.64 + £3.97 Delivery (Plastikote PKT4370 Glow in The Dark 400 ml Yellow / Green 4370)
Liquid-Rubber - £19.99 + FREE Delivery aka Plasti-Dip {i opted for the 750ml CLEAR plasti-dip liquid rubber Incl.FREE delivery...
Two (2) AA Battery-Powered Torches - £6.85 each, £13.70 together (postage was paid with-the-plastikote paint...)
Strobe Light - £4.98
Total = £58.81.
-BUT REMEMBER-
MOSTLY ALL ITEMS BOUGHT FROM THE LIST ABOVE WILL LAST TO-MAKE-A-VERY-MANY OTHER PROJECTS AND THE HIGH PRICED ITEMS CAN BE USED IN YOUR VERY MANY OTHER PROJECTS IN THE INTERESTS OF FUTURE TINKERING !
Tools i used:
- Dremel {Or similar Rotary tool}
- Helping Hands with Magnifier (i use TWO of these as they are almost cheap, £5 each ish)
- Various small hand tools, eg, files, needle-files, sanding block fitted with GLASS-PAPER, hacksaw, coping saw, engineers scriber, drill press attachment for dremel (makes a dremel into a mini bench-drill)
- Hobby Bandsaw (Bought this because i CANNOT - for-the-love-of-life CUT IN A STRAIGHT-LINE !!! {lol} )
- Drill bits
- Heavy-Duty Scissors
- Wire Strippers
- Needle-Nose Pliers
- Tweezers
- Solder
- Soldering Iron (My iron is a gas operated one, but a simple cheap alternative can also be used)
- AWESOME-MAN, LIKE, TOTALLY !!!} - Sorry folks, am a TMNT Fan (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) lol
- Rubber/Non-Latex Gloves - Whatever...
FASMASK
-WARNING-
ANYONE PAINTING: WITH AEROSOL SPRAY-PAINT MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSE OR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES PRINTED ON ANY SPRAY-PAINT-CANS.
ANYONE USING POWER~TOOLS: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH THEIR POWER-TOOLS.
ANYONE USING ANY GLUE OF ANY~KIND: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH ANY GLUE IN ANYONE'S POSSESSION.
Basically USE a Good-Supply of Common-Sense but if you're Running-Low, have a Friend or Three come and help you out & make sure one of them is an ADULT !!!
---- ALWAYS REMEMBER --- WHATEVER YOU DO --- SAFETY FIRST ---
NB: This project would also be useful to EVERYONE who owns an RC toy of any kind (Land, Air & Water Vehicles !)
Intro & Mission-Statement ! :
The Main reason for me doing this is for both me & my pal to clearly-see our nitro powered rc cars at night and in the dark where either no-light or very limited-light exists, ! .
We bought two RC Nitro-Powered Cars with engine and Radio-Gear included (i must point out that me & a friend bought one each as they were going for just £80 each) and we found a great skateboard park to run our cars on the ramps! All was well till it got dark around 16:15 ! Ouch! Too Early for us to go home (for my standards anyway, lol) but we regrettably had to pack our cars away because we couldn't see where we were driving !
I Had a grumble that night - LONG ago when i started this upgrade-marathon, mainly because when i looked online for nitro-engine model-car lights, the prices were sky-high just for a bunch of LED's, a simple switch and a battery pack. I was MOST-Infuriated! The cost on just 2 pairs of blue headlights (2 LED's per headlight) was about £50 ($78 approx.) including delivery. I felt like i'd been stolen-from, robbed even, yet i was not going to pay that kind of money on something i could 'hack' together!
The Easy Hack was strapping on the 'headlights', but the time-consuming work was on the paint-job (15-minute waiting-times between coats ), Gluing (1-hour before rough-handling of the parts) & strobe-light hack!
Stuff We Used:
- 30 SMT/SMD COOL BLUE LED's for Buggy's Chassis ! (comes in a pack of 300 LED's !)
- 3mm Thick acrylic/plexiglass (I will refer to this as ACRYLIC from here-on...)
- 22 AWG Black wire
- 22 AWG Red wire
- LIQUID-RUBBER
- Double Sided Tape (UK Based websites by the way)
- Heatshrink (4mm & 6mm used)
- Strong Epoxy Resin (2 Part VERY VERY STRONG GLUE) or just use a hot glue gun, whatever!
- Battery-Powered Strobe Light
- Cable Braid (9mm UV Blue) You can use whatever color suits you ! {Note - 9mm is a bit too loose, 6-8mm would be better, talking from hind-sight!}
- A Technical Tinkering Mind !
- Moderate to Plenty of Time on your hands!
Costs (Remember the Headlights that i 'Google-Searched-For' would had cost me £50...):
{NB: YOU ONLY NEED TO BUY THIS ONCE & MANY PROJECTS CAN BE CUT FROM ALL THE ACRYLIC PURCHASED & APOLOGIES BUT THE WEB-SEARCH LINKS ARE FOR UK PRICES BUT PLEASE CHECK EBAY IN YOUR AREA FOR ALTERNATIVE PRICES FOR YOUR COUNTRY!}
Acrylic Sheet - £3.55 (For an A4 Sheet, 3mm Thick and Blue Transparent) {Incl.Delivery}
Acrylic Tubing - £4.98 (For a SAMPLE PACK of approx. 100mm each of SIX different sizes, 5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8 & 10mm dia.)
Glow-in-the-Dark Paint - £7.64 + £3.97 Delivery (Plastikote PKT4370 Glow in The Dark 400 ml Yellow / Green 4370)
Liquid-Rubber - £19.99 + FREE Delivery aka Plasti-Dip {i opted for the 750ml CLEAR plasti-dip liquid rubber Incl.FREE delivery...
Two (2) AA Battery-Powered Torches - £6.85 each, £13.70 together (postage was paid with-the-plastikote paint...)
Strobe Light - £4.98
Total = £58.81.
-BUT REMEMBER-
MOSTLY ALL ITEMS BOUGHT FROM THE LIST ABOVE WILL LAST TO-MAKE-A-VERY-MANY OTHER PROJECTS AND THE HIGH PRICED ITEMS CAN BE USED IN YOUR VERY MANY OTHER PROJECTS IN THE INTERESTS OF FUTURE TINKERING !
Tools i used:
- Dremel {Or similar Rotary tool}
- Helping Hands with Magnifier (i use TWO of these as they are almost cheap, £5 each ish)
- Various small hand tools, eg, files, needle-files, sanding block fitted with GLASS-PAPER, hacksaw, coping saw, engineers scriber, drill press attachment for dremel (makes a dremel into a mini bench-drill)
- Hobby Bandsaw (Bought this because i CANNOT - for-the-love-of-life CUT IN A STRAIGHT-LINE !!! {lol} )
- Drill bits
- Heavy-Duty Scissors
- Wire Strippers
- Needle-Nose Pliers
- Tweezers
- Solder
- Soldering Iron (My iron is a gas operated one, but a simple cheap alternative can also be used)
- AWESOME-MAN, LIKE, TOTALLY !!!} - Sorry folks, am a TMNT Fan (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) lol
- Rubber/Non-Latex Gloves - Whatever...
FASMASK
-WARNING-
ANYONE PAINTING: WITH AEROSOL SPRAY-PAINT MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSE OR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES PRINTED ON ANY SPRAY-PAINT-CANS.
ANYONE USING POWER~TOOLS: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH THEIR POWER-TOOLS.
ANYONE USING ANY GLUE OF ANY~KIND: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH ANY GLUE IN ANYONE'S POSSESSION.
Basically USE a Good-Supply of Common-Sense but if you're Running-Low, have a Friend or Three come and help you out & make sure one of them is an ADULT !!!
---- ALWAYS REMEMBER --- WHATEVER YOU DO --- SAFETY FIRST ---
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I have now out-fitted the car with headlights starring TWO 1-WATT LED Torches, a custom Glow-In-The-Dark paint-job on the shell & wheel hubs, Increased shell ride height (to make room for the extra electrics, waterproofed), Custom made Air-Cooler Induction Duct Leading straight to a waterproof air-filter & included a modified strobe light in blue!
Here's the Nitro Powered Car fresh out of the box and the last picture is the car finished with all modifications!
Here's the Nitro Powered Car fresh out of the box and the last picture is the car finished with all modifications!
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