I like the idea of changing color to red with the brakes. The backups, naw I don;t need that. So far what you have described sounds very cool. Simple, and very cool.

 

I'm still not happy with the design, so I'm doing it again. The current one needs high-wattage pots (instead of the low-wattage trimmer pots) since I need to deal with a bit over 1W/pot...the pots alone cost about $6/piece, so I want to get away from them and redesign the circuit to work with the inexpensive trimmer pots. That means more components but an aggragate price that's much lower.

Since the component count is going up, as well as the wiring hassle, I'm considering a mini PCB for the project. I would like to fit this all into a box smaller than 3" x 2" x 1".

I envision a flat telephone-style cord coming out of the windscreen with a telephone plug at the end. The box will have a telephone jack on one end, a set of wires coming out the other, and three holes for color adjustement along the top or side.

I'm hoping the new LEDs will be coming in tomorrow...

 

This sounds like a lot of work!! Good luck. P.S. What do you do for a living- other then write on S2Ki.com like me?

 

I like it, the white LEDs look a lot more classy for me. Keep up the good work!!

 

OK, the new LEDs came in, so I'll play around with them tonight to see if the color will work out. I played around with some different circuits last night that would be very inexpensive to make, but I'm not truly happy with them yet. I want a circuit capable of adjusting current flow from 0-120 mA, but it's painfully obvious how long it has been since I've taken microelectronics Analyzing one circuit takes me 30 minutes (but I'm getting faster ).

I'm a DSP Firmware Engineer by trade, but I've been looking for work since early October. I have a LOT of free time on my hands

Oh, I will be defending my thesis Monday, so I will be out of town for several days to fly back. If anyone has any questions, don't expect an answer (or any work out of me) for 3-4 days.

 

saw the prototype tonight and i'll i can saw is WOW.. just like everything else Macgyver does, he has thought of everything (you can pick and choose any color you want and red when the brakes are hit) the workmanship is outstanding. It's going to look great in my car!!

 

DSP, eh? Definitely have much respect for that. Took my DSP classes and made it out. Never again for me. I'm sticking to my hardware. Keep up the good work.

 

I want this setup put me on the list....Alex

 

Dan, like I told you at the show, I think this is a great idea, and will be in line for whatever setup you go with.

Personaly, I think I would want mine white while driving, and red when brakes applied.

Jeff

 

What do the billboards always say? "Watch this space"?

I leave for Purdue in two days to defend and won't be back until Wednesday...I'll be cleaning up my presentation during those last two days, so don't expect too much work out of me on this project until next week. Don't worry, guys and gals, I'll post here when the prototype is ready for pics.

GT...if you want to stick to hardware, design a simple BJT circuit for me without using an op-amp...transconductance amplifier (voltage to current amp...or hell, current to current, I don't care). I've been dinking with a common-emitter design, changing the base bias with a trimmer pot. Collector current, I_c, should run in the range of 0-120 mA (although if the current will drop to less than 5-10 mA instead of 0 I'll be happy). Vcc will be in the 12-14V range, the LEDs will be in series with R_c, so expect a 3.5-4V drop from them. If I like the circuit better than what I have, I'll order the parts when I get back and start production.