cook2890 said: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. :duh: 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!
Lets see pictures of custom lights/lightbars [CLOSED]
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Bfat567
Member
Thats awesome man and pretty darn bright. I dont know if i care for the random flash pattern though.
Station 3
Member
That looks good and also brighter than my lightbar and its made out of LIN4s and TIR4s pretty sweet bar man good job.
Bfat567 said:
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 :duh: 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
Member
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
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
tom said:
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
Member
cameo89
Member
Kemper said: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
cybercop
Member
Lots of good looking pics/vids of everyone's creations. Wish I have just 10% of the knowledge it takes to wire and come up with something totally custom. I can't even wire up TIR3's, hence the reason I dont have any.
Great job to everyone that has posted!
Great job to everyone that has posted!
tom said:
They are not waterproof. You would have to put these inside a water proof housing to mount them to the exterior of a vehicle.
cameo89 said:
I am really sorry for the confusion. I ended up using 1 watt LED's and it is quite bright. To power them I just tapped into the 12 volts from the vehicle via a cheap car adapter and ran that to a custom power supply of sorts to regulate and distribute the current evenly. Then just ran wires to my microprocessor which was running my custom flash patterns. I am sure there is an easy way to make it work with an external flasher with a little bit of tinkering. I still have my light bar around but while I was trying to correct the flash patterns I
accidentally shorted half of the bar out. I'll try to take some pictures of my crappy wiring job and power supply a little later this evening and post them since there seems to be a considerable amount of interest.
I'm a little late to the party, but here's my custom FlatLighter. I gutted some 500 series linear heads, and siliconed the circuit boards to the FlatLighter housing. On the front side, I epoxied the diffusers to the housing. I've been very happy with it, and have used it since 2007 with no issues. I still don't see why Whelen didn't do this from the factory. It would have eliminated some work on my part.
And a video (poor quality)
And a video (poor quality)
TritonBoulder47
Member
I would imagin the flashback is just as bad as with the strobe version... They do make a flash back shield for those though, but the are ugly and big... LOL
calebsheltonmed23
Member
ncfireman1918 said:I'm a little late to the party, but here's my custom FlatLighter. I gutted some 500 series linear heads, and siliconed the circuit boards to the FlatLighter housing. On the front side, I epoxied the diffusers to the housing. I've been very happy with it, and have used it since 2007 with no issues. I still don't see why Whelen didn't do this from the factory. It would have eliminated some work on my part.
And a video (poor quality)
That looks awesome! I agree, they should make them factory like that.
TritonBoulder47 said:
Really??? I did'nt know that! It would have to be pretty damn big to cover it! lol
I originally got it in 2004, and ran it until 2007 in the original strobe version with red and white lenses. Then I changed it over to LED and have run it like that since 2007. I'm pretty much used to the flashback (which has never bothered me in the least). I see a LOT of posts on this site complaining about flashback from visor lights, but it has never been an issue for me. There was a really bulky flashback shield available for the flatlighters, but I think it pretty much defeats the point of having a visor light. I think my next project is going to be a custom housing for a pair of 400 series LED heads, or a pair of M4s, but I don't have the details worked out yet. I'm planning to incorporate a flashback shield into that one.
Station 3 said:
Actually I got this in a trade .. took the white bulbs out and put some blue in..
Station 3
Member
K9Vic
Member
NC lawdog
Member
PJD642
New Member
NC lawdog said:
+1! Guy made a LOT of very good points, that public safety as well as storm chasers need to remember. Billions of blinkies all going at once might not be the best idea....
gfpd26
Member
PJD642 said:
I actually used to chase with Chris. He was a videographer, not you normal run of the mill whacker. He drove and I did all the navigation... The only lights he had on his vehicle was an arrowstick. He was chasing long before the "Twister" movie came out. He knows his stuff.
fireball3
Member
Finally got the Night vids on HD cam shot and posted for my Freedom Demo bar, I was kinda Impressed that the brightness managed to make the camera lose focus a couple times
Secondary Pattern
It's almost impossible to see but there is a Piercer II in the middle of the front side.
It's almost impossible to see but there is a Piercer II in the middle of the front side.
TritonBoulder47
Member
calebsheltonmed23 said:
Sure did... Second page of the following PDF...
http://www.gaam.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/82001/Flatlighter_Strobe_SuperLED_Series.pdf
Medicman695 said:
I hate to dissapoint you, but that's just because the lights were flashing, and they were the only thing the camera could see - the camera needs something that is both visible and not flashing to get a proper focus. (At least I think that's how it works.) Brightness isn't much of an issue.
nerdly_dood said:
I've never had an issue with filming my other lighbar at night before, but there are several other variables that could be making it do the focus thing, I've never heard of that being an issue before but I could see it as plausable.
TritonBoulder47
Member
TritonBoulder47
Member
Nice job. I now thinking of trying something like that. However I would be the guy mounting that lightbar permently on the grill. Always liked that idea,
TritonBoulder47
Member
vonirkinshtine
Member
This is my latest custom creation. It is a custom mini Raydian. UPS destroyed a fullsize Raydian that was shipped to Sweetwater TN, so after the UPS insurance (scam) not paying, I made this.
The bar has all the internal guts from a Raydian, I had the two frame parts pro cut in our machine shop, had the lens cut in out lens cutter and put everything back together. It does not have all the flash patterns of a full size bar, but it still look cool. It has four bolt studs for direct mounting or for magnets...all blue LEDs
Andrew
The bar has all the internal guts from a Raydian, I had the two frame parts pro cut in our machine shop, had the lens cut in out lens cutter and put everything back together. It does not have all the flash patterns of a full size bar, but it still look cool. It has four bolt studs for direct mounting or for magnets...all blue LEDs
Andrew
Mrlunchbox
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