Custom headlight and taillight (VESC)
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@lia what is the controller you are using for the lights? I have everything I need except a controller, and that’s the confusing part for me.
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@krysis Hiya :)
I was using a Seeeduino Xiao for testing the LEDs however other programmable boards like ESP32 or Arduinos can be programmed to control them.Some have been using rESCue to control LEDs like this although I do not own one myself so have only been able to replicate some of it's functionality with my ESP32 which it also uses.
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@lia Thank you so much!
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I've been feeling much better recently so I've gotten back into this.
I was made aware that the rear light needs special attention because the BMS would normally sit there and obstruct most connectors placed in there.
To make matters worse it turns out the rear light is 10mm wider on one side so that it can reach around the BMS. I hadn't noticed and instead assumed the printed battery enclosure I had was just modelled weird. NOPE.... that's how it is.
I don't fancy making 2 separate PCBs for 1 product. Frankly it's dumb so I've devised a super big brain solution.
I have extended the PCB by 10mm and added a duplicate connector BUT with a V-cut along the usual width of the front LED with 0 ohm resistors bridging the 2 isolated sections.
You might be thinking "why not just run traces and cut it short?"
When breaking the PCB I want the edge to be clean with no conductive material present on the edge. If you have traces there will be tiny bits of material that poses a shorting hazard if placed up against a metal enclosure like the ELM box.To prevent shorting out on the walls I have made it so that there is a complete conductive dead zone near the V-cut to eliminate the possibility of that happening. The 0 ohm resistors are there to interface with pads away from the cut and make the bridge while also maintaining some structural integrity.
Clever right? I hope so at least. I considered solder bridges but those are unclean and I'd have to do those myself whereas I can get the PCB fab to pick and place these 0805 resistors instead.
All that is left is to spin those up and prepare to make the next batch. Question is do I pre-populate these with headers, hand solder them myself or leave them unpopulated entirely. Everything adds cost and being one person scale doesn't really work well in my favour lol.
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Nearly done with the final touches. Apparently there's a desire to have a 5v pullup on the data to allow easier compatibility with native VESC use so I've added a pullup enable and 1k resistor to facilitate that with some advice from Pickles over in Discord.
Here's some renders and a possible look at maybe a limited white version I might do.
And the white version, It looks kinda clean ngl.
Edit: Box design mocked up ^-^
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@lia Looks amazing! Didn’t know if you’re still making these? Couldn’t find a website to get them. Hopefully you see this, I’m currently building my VESC! :)
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@kemah123 Thanks :) They're still being made, Waiting on some bits to put the order in then can start boxing them up and figure out how to sell these.
I'll definitely announce it here once I'm gearing up to release, there are going to be something like 90 sets of lights this time so I don't imagine they'll all vanish quickly lol.
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Discord server has been made public :) https://ln2.cool
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@lia whats a discorrd?
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LEDs have landed ^-^
Also we got a cool domain https://ln2.cool with a placeholder linky to the Discord for now.
How that wasn't already taken is beyond me but... well... yoink. -
Beeeeeeen so busy 🙃
54 down, 36 to go!
If I do another set I'm finding a way to get the packaging pre made so I can just assemble it 😓 I have spent so many hours scoring, sanding, cutting, gluing, spray painting and assembling. I still have yet to do the final sanity check and repeat test them all before taking orders.
Woe is meeeeee. My desire for pretty packaging has been my undoing!
