Lighting a TJet chassis???

[TX Street Racer]

Good morning fellow slotters, last night I began working on a fun project......I'm adding lights to a Tjet chassis. The body I'm using is the Camaro ....the black with flames model in particular. I drilled out the headlights......then I took two pieces of wire, soldered them to the bottom side of the chassis and connected my minature bulbs (bought from Radio Shack bulb #7219 I believe) The problem I have is the bulbs light up bright and beautifully.......BUT, I can't get the motor to run. I've swapped top plates to see if it was my motor....and the other top plate didn't work either. I'm considering soldering the metal contacts on the bottom to the brush contact points.....just in case because of the excess heat there's a gap........it's about the only thing I can come up with.

The bulbs are 12 volt bulbs.....60MAH.

I'm far from an electrical genious......so if anyone can step in here and toss some ideas, opinions or suggestions my way then please feel free to do so. Hell, if I've just proved that I'm the Forrest Gump of slot cars then let me know that too....

I just thought it would be really awesome to see my TJet go flying around the track with headlights blazing......and guys, these bulbs are killer bright!!!

[TX Street Racer]

Well, after a bit more tinkering with my trusty soldering iron I have figured out what the problem was....and the car now runs...and has headlights

Now the downsides to this project......

#1 Choose a body that has some decent "material" around the headlight shroud......these bulbs are gonna heat up.....so you'll want extra plstic there so the headlight area doesn't start melting. My left headlight bezel should have been drilled just a hair lower.....then I'd be happy...because right now it's kinda melted a bit....nothing major.

#2 Because of the brightness of these bulbs they do draw a bit of power........so expect to see a small decrease in power of your slot.....but because these are non-mag TJet cars anyways you can only take them so fast thru a corner before they spin out of control....so for me the trade off of speed for working headlights is worth it.....

#3 Tedious work with a Dremel tool....and a soldering iron. I figure I spent a good two hours looking the chassis over to find out the best way to get the best results......then working very carefully with a Dremel drill out the headlight area.....and then with a small rasp bit on the Dremel remove some of the excess material behind the headlight from inside of the body. The rest is basic soldering work....and I left excess wire to be able to comfortable remove the body from the chassis without risking damage to the lighting. I secured the headlight bulbs inside of the body with a drop os super glue gel.

I'll post pics of this project when I return from vacation in a couple weeks.....

The total cost for this project was under $3......

Brian

[ParkRNDL]

If you don't mind soldering, check this out...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3193471850

I bought 2 of these kits in May, but I never got around to doing anything with them. Eventually, when I learn to solder... It's essentially 2 LEDs and a few resistors (2 or 3, I forget, gotta dig the kits up, they're somewhere on the workbench)

Also, BRP makes a similar set.

http://blake.prohosting.com/horacer/brp/hl.html

I just read on the site homepage that they're currently out of stock and are expected to be in in late August...

In both cases, it's easier if you can get a hold of an original lighted Tjet chassis (still available from SCJ, JAG, etc....) and use the wires they already have. They're on little connectors riveted to the bottom of the chassis using the pickup hanger rivets... I have one or two, I can take a pic later if you've never seen one...

What's cool about these LED ones is that they draw VERY little current. You can't just wire an LED right to track power, though. It'll burn up within a couple laps if not sooner. You need resistors like the above kits have.

There was even a post on the Slot Car Illustrated board a year or so ago about a guy in Germany who wired capacitors into the system so the lights stayed on for a minute or two after you stopped the car. he had to use a VW Bus body to hold all the wiring/components. Systems like this are readily available for 1/32 cars, but HO stuff is too small to do this with for the most part...

Like you, I'm dying to get a couple of lighted Tjets to blaze around my track.

--rick

[roadrner]

Originally Posted by TX Street Racer

Well, after a bit more tinkering with my trusty soldering iron I have figured out what the problem was....and the car now runs...and has headlights

Brian

What did you end up finding as your problem? rr

[TX Street Racer]

Originally Posted by roadrner

What did you end up finding as your problem? rr

When I first soldered my right wire to the right contact on the base it slightly heated up and caused a small gasp betweek the contact that the shoe connects to...and the motor brush contact point. I simply went back and soldered the brush contact the the pickup shoe contact.....and it worked perfectly.


Rick, as far as using micro electronics on these cars it can easily be done.......I spent a bit of time in the micro RC hobby (ZipZaps, BitChar-G,etc.) and some of the feats those guys accomplish are simply amazing. I've seen micro RC cars not much bigger than 1/64th scale with working headlights and brake lights....... I had a wiring diagram around here somewhere on how to connect everything together....

I'll try experimenting with the micro LEDs in the future.........