Lets see pictures of custom lights/lightbars

**nerdly_dood** · April 21st, 2011, 01:32 AM

Originally Posted by WS224

Being that your a college student and this is all for a coarse project, I feel [that] it [is] my duty to inform you that it's "whenever", not "when ever".

Being that you're giving people grammar lessons, let me put a few in bold.

**PJD642** · April 21st, 2011, 08:04 AM

Originally Posted by nerdly_dood

Being that you're giving people grammar lessons, let me put a few in bold.

Beat me to it!

**Kemper** · April 22nd, 2011, 12:00 AM

Made some great progress on my project this week. I received all the parts I had ordered and was finally able to do a full setup (with all front modules) test at full operating power and I am very happy with the results. I'll try to take some video of it in the daylight tomorrow. I may try to test it next to the department of public safety's LED Bars to give something to compare it to.

Anyway. On to some pictures. Please excuse the roughness, was just trying to lay everything out to see how it looked before I start soldering the boards and mounting the LED's

IMG_8518.jpg

IMG_8533.jpg

IMG_8516.jpg

IMG_8529.jpg

**Niles** · April 22nd, 2011, 05:12 AM

Nice job. Don't let these guys get you down, they're all whackers at heart.

**cameo89** · April 22nd, 2011, 08:10 PM

I have aleady spent more on this project led lightbar than if I were to have just bought a nice used bar, but here is what I have started.

Parts used: 47'' code 3 excalibur lower trays, 2100 tops
Still need upper domes and a led flasher, MR11 alleys & MR11 take downs
20) Code 3 amber ledx modules, 16 leds per module=320 for the full bar

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Phase 2, wires are straped, zip tied and grounded, just waiting on my led flasher to finish up the wiring

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I just wired up 2 of the heads to see how it's gonna look

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**PC Comms** · April 22nd, 2011, 08:15 PM

Aw man, you had 47' (foot) in your title and then when I clicked on it, it turned out to be a 47" (inch) bar. I feel like I just got taken by a bait and switch tactic. :-( lol

**TritonBoulder47** · April 22nd, 2011, 08:22 PM

Dont we alredy have a custom lightbar thread...? Oh yeah, we do!!!

http://www.elightbars.org/f13/lets-s...ightbars-7646/

**TritonBoulder47** · April 22nd, 2011, 08:23 PM

Yep, the proper place for this...

Is here....
http://www.elightbars.org/f13/lets-s...ightbars-7646/

**Kemper** · April 22nd, 2011, 10:41 PM

Those are all way more legit than my project. The reason I am making a visor mount is because I didn't want to have to deal with weather-proofing everything, and I'm only going to have it installed for a short time.

**ryan** · April 22nd, 2011, 11:20 PM

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

Whelen freedom 9m :: MOV04442.mp4 video by fdny5555 - Photobucket

**Kemper** · April 24th, 2011, 08:09 PM

Little bit of an update. I got the "power supplies" essentially for the LEDs soldered on two my two proto boards, while testing them I managed to toast a few pairs of LEDs so I decided to take a break. Might try to take some pictures later tonight, because thats what people seem to enjoy most. The next step is to get some project boxes and mount them to the U-channel and then mount and wire the LED modules. I still need to get a project box for my micro-controller and switches.

Turns out a friend of my has a light permit so after I shoot my video I might change the red side to blue she's an EMT and I think a VFF (can't quite remember I was pretty intoxicated when this came up)

Since this may turn back into a full blown set up does anyone have some suggestions for how much rear and intersection warning is appropriate?

**Kemper** · April 25th, 2011, 04:01 PM

Lots of views but fairly limited feedback. I'm surprised I didn't get more nibbles. Even it was to call me a whacker.

**Kemper** · April 28th, 2011, 08:39 PM

Updated video!

**ac316scu** · April 28th, 2011, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by Kemper

Updated video!

it looks awesome. im starting to play with the arduino boards and am probably going to try and make a flasher for my lights. If you dont mind me asking how much $ have you put into the lightbar?

**Kemper** · April 29th, 2011, 04:21 AM

Originally Posted by ac316scu

it looks awesome. im starting to play with the arduino boards and am probably going to try and make a flasher for my lights. If you dont mind me asking how much $ have you put into the lightbar?

I have been kind of avoiding doing that just because it was a lot more than I intended to spend. I'm going to say maybe $200-$300 total. That includes the arduino (~$35), lenses for the LEDs ($40), LEDs (~$80), MISC electronics and switches ($40) and materials ($40). I am pressed for time due to other homework and had to improvise considering I'm building this in a dorm room. To do a full setup. You really need more control inputs than what I have on my board (12) (check out the arduino mega, it has a lot more inputs to work with.) Feel free to get in touch with me if you need any more info (like part numbers, where I bought stuff, how I hooked everything up, tips, pictures, pattern programming code etc)

I got a lot of help from some of my electrical engineering and computer science friends too. (Always helps =P)

**Kemper** · April 29th, 2011, 04:38 AM

I'll also add that because I am on such a tight budget (no credit card =/ ) I wasn't able to make it as nice as I would habe liked. I wanted to fully enclose the power supplies in project boxes, and get some RJ 45 ports so I could just use any ethernet cable to hook everything up together. I also wasn't able to get and nice terminals to wire everything nicely. Right now its kind of just zip tied, gaff taped or glued in place. I did tidy it up a lot more last night and I'm just going to leave it as is because its not a permanent install. I should be installing it in my friends vehicle sometime tomorrow so ill try to take some more pictures then.

**ac316scu** · April 29th, 2011, 07:03 AM

Originally Posted by Kemper

I have been kind of avoiding doing that just because it was a lot more than I intended to spend. I'm going to say maybe $200-$300 total. That includes the arduino (~$35), lenses for the LEDs ($40), LEDs (~$80), MISC electronics and switches ($40) and materials ($40). I am pressed for time due to other homework and had to improvise considering I'm building this in a dorm room. To do a full setup. You really need more control inputs than what I have on my board (12) (check out the arduino mega, it has a lot more inputs to work with.) Feel free to get in touch with me if you need any more info (like part numbers, where I bought stuff, how I hooked everything up, tips, pictures, pattern programming code etc)

I got a lot of help from some of my electrical engineering and computer science friends too. (Always helps =P)

pm sent

**cameo89** · April 29th, 2011, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by Kemper

Updated video!

Lookin good! that thing is wicked bright...I can't wait to see the finihed product

**kitesurfer1404** · April 29th, 2011, 08:56 AM

Originally Posted by Kemper

I have been kind of avoiding doing that just because it was a lot more than I intended to spend. I'm going to say maybe $200-$300 total. That includes the arduino (~$35), lenses for the LEDs ($40), LEDs (~$80), MISC electronics and switches ($40) and materials ($40). I am pressed for time due to other homework and had to improvise considering I'm building this in a dorm room. To do a full setup. You really need more control inputs than what I have on my board (12) (check out the arduino mega, it has a lot more inputs to work with.) Feel free to get in touch with me if you need any more info (like part numbers, where I bought stuff, how I hooked everything up, tips, pictures, pattern programming code etc)

I got a lot of help from some of my electrical engineering and computer science friends too. (Always helps =P)

What parts do you use for
- LED power-supply (for limited current)
- LED switching (MOSFETs? Which?)

**Kemper** · April 29th, 2011, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by kitesurfer1404

What parts do you use for
- LED power-supply (for limited current)
- LED switching (MOSFETs? Which?)

MOSFETs IPP110N06LG
Infineon MOSFET Power
N-CH 60V 78A

Link: IPP110N06L G Infineon Technologies MOSFET Power

Resistors

MO2CT631R120J
KOA Speer Metal Oxide Resistors
2W 12 5%

Link:MO2CT631R120J KOA Speer Metal Oxide Resistors

You need 1 MOSFET and 1 resistor for every pair of LEDs (For me I have 40 LEDs) so I used 20 MOSFETs and 20 Resistors. I also used one 100 ohm resistor as a drain for every two pairs (I had 4 LEDs for each module so two pairs = 1 module)

Will try to take some pictures of my circuit boards that I soldered together and put together a wiring diagram.

**Kemper** · June 9th, 2011, 03:17 AM

Sorry for the delay.

Got kinda busy making sure I graduated and all.

Finally got moved back home and decided to see if my project survived being shipped across the country by test fitting it in my moms mini-van. I know it's at night so you can't really judge how bright it is (trust me I am curious too) I may put the light bar back in tomorrow and try to shoot a video during daylight hours.

And I made sure to include my license plate in case any LEO's would like to verify that this is no longer in the vehicle.

**cook2890** · June 9th, 2011, 04:06 AM

[QUOTE=Kemper;137350]Sorry for the delay.

Got kinda busy making sure I graduated and all.

Finally got moved back home and decided to see if my project survived being shipped across the country by test fitting it in my moms mini-van. I know it's at night so you can't really judge how bright it is (trust me I am curious too) I may put the light bar back in tomorrow and try to shoot a video during daylight hours.

And I made sure to include my license plate in case any LEO's would like to verify that this is no longer in the vehicle.

I have to say that I am very impressed! For a college project, I hope you get a good grade on it, you really have spent some time and effort on it!

**Kemper** · June 10th, 2011, 09:16 PM

[QUOTE=cook2890;137355]

Originally Posted by Kemper

Sorry for the delay.

Got kinda busy making sure I graduated and all.

Finally got moved back home and decided to see if my project survived being shipped across the country by test fitting it in my moms mini-van. I know it's at night so you can't really judge how bright it is (trust me I am curious too) I may put the light bar back in tomorrow and try to shoot a video during daylight hours.

And I made sure to include my license plate in case any LEO's would like to verify that this is no longer in the vehicle.

I have to say that I am very impressed! For a college project, I hope you get a good grade on it, you really have spent some time and effort on it!

Thanks! And I did! I got an A in the class and that was without doing a few of the homework assignments.

It was a really fun project and I am thrilled with how good it looks in the car, minus the half module that wasn't working.

If I ever have the need to upfit my vehicles I think I am going to leave the lightbar building to the professionals. Performance wise mine may be able to compare it sure doesn't look as pretty as the professional inner edge bars.

Anyway I was curious to see how it looked installed and activated during daylight hours so I threw it back into our van. I think it looks pretty legit!

**Bfat567** · June 10th, 2011, 11:53 PM

Thats awesome man and pretty darn bright. I dont know if i care for the random flash pattern though.

**Station 3** · June 11th, 2011, 12:28 AM

That looks good and also brighter than my lightbar and its made out of LIN4s and TIR4s pretty sweet bar man good job.

**Kemper** · June 12th, 2011, 02:21 AM

Originally Posted by Bfat567

Thats awesome man and pretty darn bright. I dont know if i care for the random flash pattern though.

To be honest I am kind of sick of it myself. And I realized later that I had the pins inversed on the red half so the patterns weren't correct. And While I was fixing that I think I shorted the blue half out

but it served its purpose, I passed the class and at least I have a few videos of it when it was working.

Once I get a job secured I may continue to tinker and refine it if time and money allows.

Thanks for the input and feedback everyone!

**tom** · June 12th, 2011, 02:06 PM

Kemper:

What kind of LEDs did you use and how much were they? I'm interested, but not for making a lightbar... I want to put some LEDs in the bottom part of my bumper as DRLs and these look to be pretty bright.

Thanks
tom

**Kemper** · June 13th, 2011, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by tom

Kemper:

What kind of LEDs did you use and how much were they? I'm interested, but not for making a lightbar... I want to put some LEDs in the bottom part of my bumper as DRLs and these look to be pretty bright.

Thanks
tom

They were Luxeon Rebel Star LEDs Link ---> Luxeon Rebel Star LEDs

I bought them off ebay

20 High-power 3Watt Red LED Lamp Light80-90Lm free ship | eBay

Hope this helps.

**tom** · June 17th, 2011, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by Kemper

They were Luxeon Rebel Star LEDs Link ---> Luxeon Rebel Star LEDs

I bought them off ebay

20 High-power 3Watt Red LED Lamp Light80-90Lm free ship | eBay

Hope this helps.

These aren't waterproof, are they? Is there anyway I could make them waterproof?

**cameo89** · June 19th, 2011, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by Kemper

So I have been lurking these forums for a while and decided to share my custom light bar build.

First I'll share a little background info, I am a college senior and a former police explorer from Seattle, I am planning on testing in a few years after I graduate in May. For my thesis I am shooting a short cop drama of sorts and wanted to build a custom light bar to use on a personal vehicle for the production. I am also using the light bar as another class project so in effect I am killing two birds with one stone so to speak.

Anyway, for the first version I am using an Arduino as the primary controller with several custom patterns based off of other popular light bars, but because I am limited to inputs and how many different sequences I can run this will probably be replaced with something better down the road.

While my current setup is more impressive then the high school seniors build posted some time ago it is still a work in progress and I am waiting on some parts to power all my LEDs properly. It's going to be a split visor mount since I don't have to worry about weather proofing or attracting attention from local law enforcement in between shooting locations.

The front bar is going to be made up of 40 1 Watt LEDs, these will make up 10 modules of 4 LEDs each, 4 Blue, 2 White and 4 Red the rear bar is going to be made up of 32 1 Watt LEDs making up 8 Modules of 4 LEDs like the front 4 Blue and 4 Red. I'm also planning on having side intersection modules of 2 Blue LED's and 2 Red LED's.

If I have spec'd everything correctly the front bar should be pushing 2000 lumens when all 10 modules are lit, but will probably operate closer to 1000 lumens the way my patterns are set up.

The only videos I have are with it plugged into a 5v source running off my laptop, but if there's enough interest maybe I'll upload them. I should have the parts I need to start running everything off a 12v source next week.

Let the feedback / flaming commence.

Little bit of an update. I picked up some materials to mount the LEDs too and got my MOSFET transistors and lenses yesterday. I'll post some pictures of the mock up tomorrow.

Planning on putting it in this.

So did you end up using 1 watt leds or 3 watt? Im thinking about ordering some to play with, your light seems very bright.

connection: so what do you have to do to power these little guys? just solder pos and ground wires and attach to a external led flasher? Thanks

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