Rear Indicators Arduino Project - sweeping indicator

Rear Indicators Arduino Project - sweeping indicator

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Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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Hi guys - with the multi led rear indicators on the Tuscan they seem perfect for turning into sweeping indicators, Audi style. Insurance have ok'd me doing it.

On that note - any info before I start tinkering on disassembling the rear indicators and what voltage they are sent would be most handy!

TVR Parts lists led bulbs for them at 40p each so I'm not planning to use them unless anyone can reason to me why I should.

Cheers for any advice!

m4tti

5,426 posts

154 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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Strobing high level break light would be cool too.

Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Friday 15th April 2016
quotequote all
lol - I've already modded the Tuscan badge to act as a high level brake light:


m4tti

5,426 posts

154 months

Friday 15th April 2016
quotequote all
But does it strobe lemans style with pedal pressure biggrin

Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Friday 15th April 2016
quotequote all
lol - I suppose I'd need to rig an additional pressure switch for it to know to trigger strobing.

As I always obey the 2second rule, braking in general is rare and I'm not sure heavy braking has ever even happened, so not sure I can justify the faff =)

Basil Brush

5,061 posts

262 months

Saturday 16th April 2016
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Dischordant said:
lol - I've already modded the Tuscan badge to act as a high level brake light:

I've been meaning to look at doing that on mine for a while. I bought some led units but was looking for a lens the right shape. Can I ask what you used?

Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Saturday 16th April 2016
quotequote all
These were the ones I used - but I'm sure there are cheaper ways to do it!

http://www.customdynamics.com/truflex_flexible_led...

The strips are semi flexible - I then cut to shape - connected the segments for my smiley face layout and then used a carbon fibre material surround and filled with transparent resin to seal against the elements.


Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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Finally got them working and sized to fit in the pod =)

https://youtu.be/rZDNZRtWSSU

smighall

105 posts

169 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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I like that! Assume the code is lightweight enough to fit onto a nano rather than an uno/mega? I've not taken a unit apart to see how it is all wired up currently, i presume all led's in serial so you've had to break the tracks and wire each column of LED's as separate outputs?

stuthemong

2,260 posts

216 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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That's an impressive feat of wiring. You clearly know your way around a soldering iron. Have you ever laid a PCB out before?

Looking at that, I'd say that was ripe for a PCB bonded to the rear to mount the LEDs into, a large ribbon interconnect and a driver board. It would then be production ready!

That much wiring over a flat area seems crazy. If you use Kicad to layout I'd be happy to take a look at it for you before you send it off for fabrication.

Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
quotequote all
Sorry guys - I have next to no electronics knowledge regarding making pcbs or even circuit diagrams, hence individually wiring everything myself. It's split into 7 sections each with 10 or 16 leds in parallel. Each led is soldered to it's own resistor. All of them share the same positive. Each set of led's then has it's earth connected to a transistor to ensure the load doesn't go through the arduino itself. I used PWM to allow me to fade in the led's easily so needed 12 pwm pins available - not sure if that many is available on the smaller boards.

Happy for those with better minds to optimise!

tofts

411 posts

155 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
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You don't need to use a PWM to drive any of the LEDs, you actually only need 3 output channels (digital) and use a shift register to augment the lack thereof of PWM channels. Doing it this way is a little more time consuming code wise, but you could control a limitless amount of LEDS using this method. THe only drawback you have is processing speed, at 16 MHZ your limited to about 2000 then you can start to see the flicker. But I think that is more than enough for most people!

Lookup shift registers and you will get the jist, but each led is then has adjustable brightness levels between 0-255. Its in the works, but I'm programming an LED dash lighting system with the above in mind. Also, to drive the leds, use a Darlington driver such as a ULN2803A, which is basically a whole bunch of transistors in one chip, designed for driving relays, but cheap and perfect for this purpose. And you could drive common anode or cathode depending on what you need.

As for PCBs, they are actually very easy to etch. when I get a spare afternoon, I may invest some time in creating such a beast.

Edited by tofts on Tuesday 3rd May 19:35

matt-man

2,665 posts

218 months

Wednesday 4th May 2016
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That's awesome.... Nice work!!

the tuscanier

87 posts

130 months

Wednesday 4th May 2016
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clapclapclap

Been playing around with this (very on and off) for ages. Been about 5 or 6 versions so far all incorporating break lights. Ardrino was my next step for tue indicators, also after following a new Audi into the works carpark. Glad to see someone else having a crack.

e46m3c

874 posts

154 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
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ooh thats lovely smile

Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
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Guys many of you seem way more knowledgable with electronics than I - perhaps you could help me work out how I can stop the indicator fault unit thinking there is a fault.

The indicators basically take 3 wires each - an earth a positive that has voltage when indicator flashes and another wire which I am assuming is used (maybe incorrectly) to let the indicator fault unit know if all ok.

Please give me any and all ideas!

Thank you! =)

the tuscanier

87 posts

130 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
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What are your problem symptoms?
Rapid flash on all lights?

Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
quotequote all
The indicator fault unit thinks there is an indicator fault because it is no longer wired directly in the same way as the previous rear indicator. As a result it assumes the rear indicator has failed and causes the front/dash indicator to flash twice as fast.

the tuscanier

87 posts

130 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
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Cool, easy fix then!

Replace your flasher relay with this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380716628313?_trksid=p20...

It's a timed relay so doesn't rely on load from the bulbs, others are available but many have a different pin out and switch + not - as is required in the Tuscan.

Have one in mine, so tryed and tested. Will work even if you don't use the failure unit and will also help you at your next step when you might find you want to run your new rears bypassing the relay as your scroll effect may go out of time with the on off signal from the relay.


Dischordant

Original Poster:

603 posts

200 months

Thursday 5th May 2016
quotequote all
Awesome - ordered =)