RGB front light bar

[wautard1]

I want the front light bar to be able to change colors.
That is all.

Sponsored

 

[invertedspear]

If you build it…

I Wouldn’t think it would be too hard.

 

[GoodSam]

There may be some rules about colors allowed on a vehicle going down the road. I would like the light bar to glow red at night in a campground to not disturb viewing of the stars. But red in front running down the road may look like rear brake lights to oncoming traffic? Putting tinted film over the light bar is not the easiest of jobs with all the angles. Tom of State of Charge blacked (somewhat translucent?) his out with a film. Front light bar is unfortunate, along with the fake grill, as it seems there is a lot of poor aerodynamics going on there by not having a smoother surface overall. @Ford Motor Company .

 

[Hank42]

Yes, this is easily done - I want so want to do it just for the fun of it, but I will NEVER USE IT practically, for reasons others have mentioned - vehicle color restrictions and laws, so my motivation level is low.

But if(when?) I were to do it, I'd go with addressable LEDS to make things more fun (WS2811 Strips and a controller).

I suppose there is _some_ practical application - you could turn the light bar into a phased turn signal by setting the addressable leds to amber.... Hmm... Wonder what other practical applicatios can be had.. Absolutely do the Cylon Raider /KITT sequence for fun when locking or unlocking the vehicle while it is not in motion...

Anyone else have inspirational ides?

 

[Revenge]

Yes, this is easily done - I want so want to do it just for the fun of it, but I will NEVER USE IT practically, for reasons others have mentioned - vehicle color restrictions and laws, so my motivation level is low.

But if(when?) I were to do it, I'd go with addressable LEDS to make things more fun (WS2811 Strips and a controller).

I suppose there is _some_ practical application - you could turn the light bar into a phased turn signal by setting the addressable leds to amber.... Hmm... Wonder what other practical applicatios can be had.. Absolutely do the Cylon Raider /KITT sequence for fun when locking or unlocking the vehicle while it is not in motion...

Anyone else have inspirational ides?

I would be all over KITT mod!

 

[Blochead21]

If someone is close to Diode Dynamics this may be something they look into and could R&D. Although it would be a small market for them.

 

[invertedspear]

IMO to do this project right you would need 3 controllers. One for the bar and 1 for each of the "7"s around the headlights.

It has to be able to determine the "transmission" state so that when in drive it MUST NOT be red or blue per applicable emergency vehicle laws. I'm sure OBD should be able to determine this.

The basic package would be simple RGB color selection.

The premium package would detect additional events such as turn signals, power output, locks, horn (Not sure what all events you can pick up from the OBD)and have have programmed routines it can run off of those events. Presets included for the patterns already mentioned. Maybe one that starts in the middle (0%) and expands to the full width including the "7"s for 100% power when accelerating. Some holiday festive patterns. I'm sure I could think of more.

This sounds like a lot of fun, but I'm not really well versed in this type of tinkering. I give full permission to steal my idea and build it, but if you go commercial, I at least want a freebie of the product.

 

[butterfb]

I would be all over KITT mod!

Heck yea, have a chaser set on the front in that bar going back and forth from headlight to headlight

 

[Hank42]

If the idea is to run colored LED strip inside with a deperate controller, separating the white plastic from the backing looks to be tricky without breaking it.
Also, I wonder why so many connections for a simple white lite.

 

[2wheeltraveler]

I have the basic knowledge and HW to do what I would need to do for at least a basic startup sequence... what I don't know is how to get into the lights to do the MOD. The middle bar could be purchased from eBay for under $400, retrofit it and then sell old light bar... BUT if I can't get it to work it would be wasted $$.

The example lights here with controller is about $20 in HW so it would be a cheap mod (ESP8266 with logic level shifter and 60 addressable LED's controlled by WLED with a pre-defined start-up sequence).

I just slid them under the light and the effect was far brighter (and cooler) than I expected which amped me up wanting to do it.

 

[2wheeltraveler]

I have the basic knowledge and HW to do what I would need to do for at least a basic startup sequence... what I don't know is how to get into the lights to do the MOD. The middle bar could be purchased from eBay for under $400, retrofit it and then sell old light bar... BUT if I can't get it to work it would be wasted $$.

The example lights here with controller is about $20 in HW so it would be a cheap mod (ESP8266 with logic level shifter and 60 addressable LED's controlled by WLED with a pre-defined start-up sequence).

I just slid them under the light and the effect was far brighter (and cooler) than I expected which amped me up wanting to do it.

I'd be willing to buy a non-functional donor bar for a reasonable price to experiment and if anyone is in the Austin area we can collaborate on it!