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That's pretty kick *** that you can design and order pretty much what you were having to make by hand before! Although I gotta admit, the handmade setup you were working on is impressive in itself. Great work man. Probably goes without saying, but let me know if you need a test mule or anything. Being able to get a finished set of these would be awesome, I really dig the idea and look.
3 month bump... I am back here resuming this project thanks in part to the kind words in a private message sent by user @Slo.c5 .
Had to prioritize other things since my last post, but also was getting discouraged by the extreme amount of soldering time required for the halo LEDs. It looks like I never photographed those halo LED strips previously (while unlit), so here they are:
I picked back up this project the other day and decided to start taking a different approach... I've dabbled in PCB design via EasyEDA.com a bit on 2 other projects I've posted here.
However, several months ago I didn't immediately notice a way to get the elliptical PCB shape I would need for these halo LEDs (on EasyEDA software).
BUT THEN TODAY!!! I learned EasyEDA can import a DXF for the PCB's outline, which is a 2D CAD design file format.
So from my Solidworks (3D) CAD model I exported a DXF of what I'd want the halo PCB shape to be, then imported that into EasyEDA.
Long story short, I designed a halo LED PCB. Even managed to squeeze 37 LEDs onto it vs the 32 from my hand-soldered version.
And I ordered 25 boards, enough for 3 cars worth of taillights (2 per taillight). Also these boards will have the LEDs and capacitors already soldered on! This is WAAAYYYY easier than my previous approach, and probably a comparable (or even cheaper) cost. It also could mean other people getting their hands on these taillights much more readily... $124 total for all of them means $41/car cost on the halo LEDs.
Anyways, this is a rendering of the PCB with LEDS/capacitors and the bottom side:
I love to see it man! Glad I sent that message lol. These are gonna turn out great I already know! Like @heggsc5 said if you need a guinea pig me know Id be happy to help, a complete version of these would be awesome been wanting these for a while. Please keep us updated. Good luck Trav! 💯🤝🏽
Certainly there are a number of people here who have expressed interest. I'm not a CorvetteForum vendor so I can't actually be listing stuff like this for sale. At this stage just sharing progress
Pretty soon here I'll need to start working on Arduino code which is the part I'm kinda dreading... and this is sort of where I could use some help. Mostly with regards to sequencing style of the LEDs that will yield a "good" sequential arrangement. More on this later, though, since I want to take a stab at implementing my initial ideas.
Another part of the Arduino stuff I'm not sure about is what additional wires might be needed to run to the taillights; at the taillights I think we just have wires/signals for markers/brakes/signals. Because of Arduino boot-up time, I don't think it will work great to run the LEDs I'm using while only powered by taillight power/signals.
That said, this is a pretty relevant video on the topic:
It would be nice to not have to run a separate 12V circuit to the taillights (would have to figure out where to grab it from), but doing so means Arduino circuitry would already be powered up prior to receiving any taillight signals. Then the taillight signals would just be triggers for whichever segment of lights will come on. And the duration that lights stay on for wouldn't be limited to the time that those signals are on for. i.e. turn signals could run a more elaborate sequence.
Last edited by MetalMan2; Jan 12, 2024 at 02:41 PM.
Man, JLCPCB sure got it right... About 5.5 days between order placed and Halo LED PCBs in my hands!
Seems like their quality (and my quality of design) is good, too Note that in this picture below it was a scrolling pattern so the LEDs aren't at the same brightness.
Not quite sure how/why I started looking into this the other day, but I REALLY like the concept of Infinity Mirror Taillights.
There have been some neat variants for the C6 produced in the last few years, and I'm jealous! There haven't been any mass-produced options for the C5 that I've found.
That said, these are the C5 Infinity Mirror Taillight examples I've come across:
Apparently you can actually buy this one! I was quoted $1800 which is way too much for me. Unsure of the lead time.
They said the animation is totally customizable via an app which is pretty neat.
I'm not a big fan of the squared sides but that's just personal preference.
Am I missing any other C5 Infinity Mirror Taillight examples?
Delving further down the rabbit hole I learned how simple the Infinity Mirror effect is. Just 2 two-way mirrors with a light source between them.
Got me thinking... I have a spare halo (non-laser) taillight with damaged lens and I wonder if it could be retrofitted to have an infinity mirror effect...
I heard there’s a guy making them supposedly coming out this spring I’ll update the forum for anything
Very cool idea and glad to see you've come back to your project. I was wondering what had happened to it. Really hope it works out for you as I'd love to see this design come about and come to market. I'd throw my Vette in the mix too but unfortunately I'm done with lights for quite a while.
There certainly seems to be a trend, all 3 of these seem similar in general execution. The 2 I posted have made claims to working toward RGB and sequential/sequenced LEDs but haven't shown anything yet to support those claims.
And I have to admit, my project is a little less "cool" having separated top/bottom LED boards compared to the above full-oval options. But if I could make mine work as-is, there's no reason why I couldn't move toward a similar outcome as those.
Note that in this picture below it was a scrolling pattern so the LEDs aren't at the same brightness.
