up to 5000 hours.

i wonder how long do LEDs last???

should of put this in help...

im new 2 xmods, so can sum1 help me out by giving me a link to the radio shack lights plz? :( i cant find them. fanx 8)

Check out link below third quote

Diagnosis meaning, checking to see where there's voltage. Why would you need to check if there's voltage present in a circuit you made yourself? Either it's very complicated, or the creator did a crapulous job. :P Logic probes are usually used for digital circuit testing.

If you are capable of shopping online, give SuperBrightLEDS.com a try. Flatrate $5 shipping, and plenty of high quality LED's available.

For those of you with a TI-83 series/TI-84 series calculator, I made a program that will calculate it for you. You just input the supply voltage, and the LED's specs and you can find a resistor (and what wattage it should be). Voltage drops for 5mm LED's are usually 2.1-2.3V, and current consumption 30mA-50mA.

Only two light up because on the real Skyline, only two light up. -_-;

is this how you would do the tailights for a skyline? cause they have 4 tailights and the light kit only lights up 2.
-brian

well, the 9V blew your LED out and the AAA didnt have enough voltage.
read this page first:
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/led.htm
and figure out what kind of resistor you would need so you dont put too much current into it and fry it. you need 2V per LED (4 for Blue and White) and the proper resistor. if you put your numbers into the equation:

R = (VS - VL) / I

VS = supply voltage
VL = LED voltage (usually 2V, but 4V for blue and white LEDs)
I = LED current (e.g. 20mA), this must be less than the maximum permitted

you will get a value which is the Ohm resistor you would need.

Honestly, all the extra weight really would not be worth it in my opinion, but if you go through with it, thats what you would need. let me know if i can help any more

I need help with some LED questions.
I went and bought some various sizes and colors to see what works best. I want to test each one and I am not sure how to test.
I tried a AAA batery but it did nothing. I tried a 9V and it came on but pretty faint them slowly went so dim I can hardly see it. What power source can I use to test each LED?

I also need to know how to hook them to the car. I have a light kit but I do not want to use it. I would like to run my own lights without using the kit. I also want to hook up their own power source so I do not have to use the batteries from the car. What type of setup can I use to do this?? I saw a picture once that was using a watch battery type thing. How would I get the power out of that to light anything??

I can solder pretty well but do not understand very much of this electrical stuff. The people at Radio Shack were completely unhelpful!! Cn someone here help me?

nvm got it :D

you attach it by soldering the ends of the led to the wire, and yes you could just attach the lights like you said.

how do you attach a led to a wire

oh and also lets say i get 2 light kits but i want to make one red and one white if i cut off the wire(s) for the 2 red leds and cut off the 2 wire(s) for the white leds could i just attach them on using solder

so... if i were to look for LEDs at a local electronic or hobby store, whats the specs of the LEDs i should get to add... like what mcd, mA, V?????? im new.....

I learned this trick from auto tech when doing a diagnosis from what makes this buick not start, at any rate we made a light board. Instead of cutting into the original wire, we took a sewing needle and soldiered a wire to the eye of it, then we stuck the needle into the wire. I think it would be easier to do that than having to cut anything open, you could trim the end of the needle then wrap it....

most likely its a bad wireing, check your diagram agian, or post me a pic of what you got :lol:

once agian...

DON'T BUY LEDS FROM RADIO SHACK, THEY ARE EXPENSIVE, NOT EVEN HARDLY BRIGHT ENOUGH, AND STINK! HTTP://SICKMODS.NET !!! 21 CENTS FOR A LED, WITH 100 OHM RESISITOR![/b]

dude i tried it but when i connect one new LED all the rest go out what did i do wrong?

AGGGGG! dont buy leds from radioshack! they suck! as a perfesional at installing leds to pretty much everything, i buy from sickmods.net they are bright as heck! cheap! and each come with a 100 ohm resisitor perfect for 5v source!

sounds kool and cheaper then buyin under glow ill have to check it out

peace 8)

it is hard to do but in the end it is well worth the work. this was one of the coolest things i have on to my car

When I messed up my old light kit, I had to buy a new one, and I thought about taking the white LEDs of the old kit and attaching them to the new one for WRX foglights, but I didn't know if it would work. After reading this tut. I went ahead and tried, and it worked perfectly, thanks!

where can I get 3mm LED's that are not online? I went to radio shack and they only have 5mm which are too big

simply hooking up led's to the 6v power supply isn't the way to do it. you _need_ a current limiting resistor for each led or led string. there is a way to calculate it (it can be done by everyone), but only for singular led's. for led strings (parallel or series), you have to have basic electrical theory practice in order for it to make sense/work.

to be put simply, led's can only handle a certain amount of current before failing (read: melting, blowing up). the resistor's job is to limit that current, dissipating it before it reaches the led, preventing overload. normally, superbright led's sink 30ma of current, and have a voltage drop of 2.1-2.2. an easy equation to use is:

(vs-vf)/if=r

vs is the source voltage ('v' means 'voltage' usually, 's' stands for 'source'. can also be vcc or vdd, but that's another story.), vf is the voltage drop of the led ('f' means 'forward'.), if is forward current ('i' means 'current', i don't know why. it just does, so believe me.) in amps, and r obviously means resistance, in ohms. the source voltage for xmods is 6v for alkaline, and 4.7v for nimh. obivously, if you have some odd battery or two in there, or the lithium ion cells, adjust the voltage accordingly.

vf is important too. this is the voltage drop that occurs when you place an led in a circuit. if you place led's in series (one after the other), the voltage drop is multiplied by however many led's there are in the string. just like resistance. normal superbright led's have a drop of 2.1 or 2.2v. if you're not sure, use 2.2.

if is forward current. superbright led's have a normal forward current draw of 30ma. 10000+mcd ones sometimes have draws of 50ma, but you have to check the spec sheets for information on that. if you're not sure of the current draw, put 20-30ma. putting too much current draw into the equation yields you with at circuit that fries your led's. big notice, though. for the equation, you need to put it in as amps. 1000ma=1 amp, so do it from there.

the output, r, is the resistor value in ohms. this is the only variable you're supposed to have in this equation.

another thing you have to take into consideration is the value of the resistor. power dissipation isn't an issue if you're only using a resistor for one led, but if you're handling a huge string of them, you have to use a bigger resistor if necessary. the equation for this one is:

p=if*(vs-vf)

p is power in watts. this is the unknown in this equation. everything else is the same from the resistor equation. 'normal' sized resistors are quarter watts, which would be .25 or less in the equation.

so, for example... i have the nimh batteries in my xmod, which brings the operating voltage to 4.7. i input 4.7 as vs. i'm using two strings of two series blue led's for the underglow. that means i have to find a resistor that can handle 60ma (30+30, i have two strings), with a voltage drop of 4.4 (i have two in each string). so, if is .06 (60/1000, we have to input it in amps), and vf is 4.4. so, we have this:

(4.7-4.4)/.06=r, r=5. you need a 5 ohm resistor in order for your led's to be provided with a safe amount of current.

however, you have to take into effect the voltage drop whenever the motors are on. if you're too cheap to buy the command logic lights, i have a cheaper alternative. make a parallel two-led circuit for the headlights, and a series circuit for the taillights (two sepereate resistors for the two strings). that way, the voltage drop to ~4.5v causes the rear lights to dim when the car's in motion, simulating the release of the brake. cool, huh? that's how mine is anyway.

edit: if you want a cheap source of good, reliable, high-quality led's, then head over to superbrightleds.com. flat out shipping of $5 anywhere, and good prices, and guaranteed specs. i've bought all of my led's from here.

Sweet...fog lights coming soon!

well man that is cool i really like that it is really help full good job on the pictures job well done!!!!

the Command Logic underbody neons are wired directly to the yellow and orange wires (which are side-by-side on my light set).

so, i tried wiring my extra LEDs to those two wires. it worked great! the extra LEDs stay on no matter which direction the car goes. check out the results:

it even has hood lights! (but the green LEDs underneath are individual bulbs because i didn't want to spend another $15 on RS light sets)

if you try this though, be warned that my orange wire was the one with 6v and i fried a 3v LED trying to wire it by itself. wire them in pairs.

Here it is, the voltage values for the four pins of the command logic port on your xmod!!

PIN ..... REMOTE OFF .. REMOTE ON ... FORWARD ... REVERSE ... BRAKING
1 .bro..... 185mV .......... 1.3V .............. 3.9V ............. 3.9V ........... 3.7V
2 .ora..... 185mV .......... 1.3V .............. 1.3V ............. 1.3V ........... 3.7V
3 .red..... 6V ................. 6V ................. 6V ................ 6V .............. 6V
4 .yel..... gnd ............... gnd ................ gnd .............. gnd ............. gnd

I imagine, if you make a neon system that can handle 6 volts, pin 3 (6+) and pin 4 (ground) will let them be on constantly...

Hope that helps.

Yes I realized why it looked cut off to me.. as I was typing the mesage that I was considering making it a sticky, I scrolled down to the preview area and it was cut off there, when I scrolled my BROWSER over, the area that the previews are in is in another scroll bar, so I couldn't see the whole image. It was my mistake, and anyways, its a sticky now! :)

diecastomsdotcom, I checked the image of the tutorial post and I don;t quite understand what you ment by the image cutting off on the right edge. all the instructions seem clear on my screen..I had to scroll my screen to the right to get the whole image but it's there. for an alternative view go to page three on my gallery and the same tutorial image is there.

LOL and Yes "light_destruction" is a little joke

some thing doesn't seem right here, the name he gave the pic is "light_destruction". but who knows, it could just be a little joke. if some thing happens to your car's lights and you did this mod then please post it saying that it did happen.

Thx.
-madx

Just to let everyone know this tutorial has been considered for a sticky. Some corrections have to be made to the original post by the author and then it will be made a sticky.

DC

The wires coming from the esc and going into the Comand Logic board that controls the lights do not always have the same power going to them. The wires carry different signals when the car is stopped, when the car is moving forward, when the car is braking, and when the car is moving in reverse. I just looked, I know there is a post somehwere that gives the detail of each signal, but I cant find it.

Also LED means Light Emiting Diode. The main function of a diode is let light the correct polarity of electricity pass through, but stop the incorrect polarity. LEDs are originally intended to do the same thing, but emit light to show when they are, or are not letting electricity pass through them. Then someone realized that LEDs provide low cost light that basically never burns out unless they are overloaded.

Because LEDs and Diodes aree DESIGNED to regulate polarities, connecting them incorrectly will not harm them (providing your are connecting them to a power source within their range.. if you connect a 5v led correctly or incorrectly to 50 volts, its dead!) twist the wires gently together and connect the lights to the car. If they do not light when they should, swap the wires and try again.

Another major use for LEDs is the fact that some light green with positive polarity and red with negative. This is basically two LEDs in one 'bulb' back-to-back. Im not sure exactly how they work, but some even display 3 colours.

the one with the white strip is the negative one

im with chain couldnt you just solder the extra LEDs to the outgoing lines that connect the head/tail lights

as for that IS300 body im pretty sure koyosho makes one for ther mini-z i have a 360 Modena from them search for MINI-Z BODIES and see if you can find a website that carries an IS300 for the MINI-Z and if that fails you could always check out the IWAVERS

hey spyko, you could get and gauge, you can use any led as long as its like 5mm(i think), yeah it just has to fit, that it!

:o outlaw34 rocks

Which LED's do i buy from radio shack? Like what voltage and mcd and all that jazz? What gauge wire do i need also to hook up some fog lights to my command logic lights?

Cool tip, seems really simple!

From what i know white strip is postive and solid black is negative but that doesnt really matter. Just try to connect it with same color and if it doesnt work just reverse it. Thats how i did it and it works fine.

you can get those from radioshack all of them, and cheaper

well i drilled more holes. and then use good ol elmers glue! i dint use superglue cuz when u use qwik dry glue; it tends to fog up the clear lights

How did you get the LED in there? Isn't that where that little stud that holds the tail lightsin? Tell me how you managed to get it in there.

hey outlaw, nice diagram look at my skyline

The longer one is negative, if it's a standard, non flashing LED, but if it's flashing or color change, it could be either and you'd have to check. and about ripping out the lights from the plug, there are four plastic arms coming out ont the side of the plug, and if you lift that up, you can remove the metal pieces, and soder them outside, then insert them back into the plug.

The negative wire has a white stripe on it, the positive just a solid color

Thats very nice.

insteading adding another light kit can u add the neon light that come from the controller

Ok well what I did was really stupid and completely forgot to read this sticky before I went about just cutting up my light kit.

Straight to the point I actually cut the 2 back LED's off (dumb move..I know)

Well I do have ample wire, 2 new red LED's, and some sauter. So outlaw could you possibly help me in fixing my mistake...??

I really am havin trouble figuring this out...

GOOD LED DEALS AT........http://www.420central.net/page9.html

You;re probably not going to like this answer but i purchased two light kits and cut the front and rear LED's off one to add to the other.

Excellent write up. Now, just need one more bit of info. You wouldn't happen to know the part number for the front LED's and the read LED's do ya???

thanks a lot