Hi gents! It's been a while, but I have gotten some more done on this project. I got the bright idea of putting lights in this while at a doll house supply shop, where I go to get brass hinges and such. They had these LEDs that are the right shade of white, and bright enough too. It snowballed from there...
PB052034 by
Southgate_08, on Flickr
The park lights and clearance lights come on with the main power switch. The headlights can then be turned on, and/or the emergency flashers. These pictures can't show ya that action, but it involves a 555 timer IC, a small coil relay, and resistors and pots to get the right intensity of the hi and lo brightness. Also, these pictures exagerate how bright the lights are. theyre realistically bright, but not as blazing as they appear in the photos.
Here's with the headlights on. note the silver colored switches in the grill area. the grill hides them when it's in place.
PB042015 by
Southgate_08, on Flickr
This shows how the batteries are held, 4 AAs in each of those brass tubes to give 12 v for the light system, which is independant from the RC motion control, and is totally built in to the styrene carrier deck. You can also see here the bottom of the circuit board that controls the flashers and brightness of the lights. The grill is in place here.
PB052029 by
Southgate_08, on Flickr
Out back, you can see (better in the reflection) the 2 amber tail light in between the reds on the fenders. Again, the photo looks brighter than it really is.
PB021997 by
Southgate_08, on Flickr
The side frames were not rigid enough, and always looked warped. So brass ones were made by milling K&S brass bar to the right width, scoring it up with a rasp, and replacing the styrene sides. That's the quick version!
PB172133 by
Southgate_08, on Flickr
There are a couple other small improvements, but this gets you mainly up to speed. I need to take some new overall pictures of it. Thanks for looking. Dan