PC board light installation

[urbanwarrior]

Ok, so I decided to expand the lighting of my cars to include PC board. I bought a 4x6 piece of 1 sided, copper, from ebay for about $3. I wanted to try to make my own little light board like the one that comes in the Carrera digital cars, without the digital price tag.
In my other thread I showed one way I am installing lights in my cars, without the use of a piece of PC board, and it requires separate wires running from each light and they have to be soldered together. Here I will attempt to use the PC board to mount the lights and then run only one set of common wires.
First I eyeballed the size of the piece of board I would need and set about trying to cut it. This stuff is extremely tough. I finally used a hobby razor saw and was able to cut through it pretty well. I have the ones from Xacto that fit in your hobby knife. After I sawed it apart I sanded the edges smooth and checked the fit.
Next I used a pin vise and a guesstimate size bit and drilled two holes in each end of the piece of board for the LED's. I then used an extremely small carving bit in my Dremel to separate positive from negative by basically making a little trench between them. I just cut through the copper sheet to separate it so I wouldn't short out the lights. After that I drilled two more holes in the center on opposite sides of my "trench."
I soldered the LED's in place making sure I had the positive and negative poles of the LED's matched up on both ends. I then soldered corresponding wires for each side. Its not pretty but it is my first try and my goal is simply to get it to work!! Here are a few pics to help illustrate what I'm trying to explain.




Now I mock wired it to the motor with the 160 ohm resistor in place to test it out.....


And HOLY COW IT WORKED!!!!! Eureka!!!!


So now it was time to tidy everything up and solder the wires in place. Don't forget the little piece of shrink tube on the lights to prevent excess light leaking into the car.


Finally time to put it back together and move the lights around to get them into the proper position and enjoy my little success.


So there you have it. Next it will be time to do the rear lights which should be a little easier because there is more room to work in the back.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
John

[TuscoTodd]

Very nice! I like the use of the PC board for securing them verses just the hot glue and doing individuals.
Thanks for sharing!

[RazorJon]

Some nice tips, like the tip on heat shrinking the bulb

[MoparGreg]

Thanks for sharing. It was only yesterday I was thinking of adding lights into all my future builds.

[urbanwarrior]

Ok I am finally getting around to posting the rear lights for the Carrera Aston Martin. I did them a few days ago but have been too busy with work and I was also out of town.
Here is the PCB board I fabricated to accommodate the lights.


Here is the board with the lights and wiring attached in the same manner. Again I used a small cutting bit in a Dremel to separate positive from negative


Now the board installed in the chassis and then the wiring soldered to the motor.




Here again is the finished product. I really like the PCB board method of lighting cars. Its much more neat and eliminates the need to wire each light individually, thus creating less clutter on the chassis of the car. However, it may not always work based on the car manufacturer. Some cars have enough room for the PCB and some do not. The ones that do not will require the individual light wiring method.


Once again, thanks for reading.
John