Buzo's NEW knight rider's ligtht project

[Buzo]

Not sure where to put this one because it is a project and I don't know how it's going to end up, but since its appearance I guess it will be fine here.

I already made a set of lights knight rider's style using 8 12V bulbs and i really liked how the car looks (After all the testing I did but I haven't posted yet), I mean, besides of the moving lights, it looks really nice if it was just a fixed orange light crossing the front of the car from side to side.

So I'm going to increase the resolution of those lights and will fit 32 1/2" diameter orange LEDs, in a piece of 1/4" plexiglass in the same slot I put the first ones.

Then, just for fun, those lights will be controlled by a microprocessor to do funny things, but the default function will be fixed lights that turn on with the light's switch. Plus a push-button in the cabin to navigate through all the patterns I can program. The last one used will be stored in the memory of the chip, so it will be the first one to show up when the push-button is pressed for the first time, after a start up.

[89T]

That's pretty cool. In the mid to late 80's there was a red light bar that simulated the KITT cars nose light. Good luck on the project.

[Buzo]

Finished today installing the new lights in the slot.
I can make them to be always on and I can vary the intensity of the LEDs.
At the end fitted 26 LEDs so I can do almost anything with them

http://youtu.be/zg7sT7dlmo8

And some pics of the process

[elpuma]

That's bad ass!!!

[A18A]

me

[Demon1024]

Show the front of it on and off preez

[Honda Man]

0_o woah. That's effin badass man. Hella unique for sure. Dam good work my friend. What else can you make??

[Buzo]

This is the video as installed in the car and a few patterns I programmed already. (its being uploaded as we speak!)

http://youtu.be/ghZM1COkixs

I ran a push button switch to the cabin and every time it is pressed and held for 1 second, the lights will flash twice and the pattern will change to the next one in the list below. When it hits the end of the menu, it will come back to the first one.

The scanner turns ON and OFF with the side lights of the car, but there is an option to turn it completely off from the menu.

I assume you should be in the back of a car or in front of your garage's wall when changing the pattern, so you can see what the lights are doing.

// menu=0 All ON but dimmed 1/5
// menu=1 converging in center slow
// menu=2 converging in center fast
// menu=3 right to left slow
// menu=4 right to left fast
// menu=5 all ON high intensity
// menu=6 all off

[RAZR]

DUDE!!!! that looks AWESOME.

[2ndGenGuy]

Hahaha! That is so freakin' rad! I love it! Keep up the good work! It looks so proper on an 80's car!

[Buzo]

I like most the slow motion patterns.

The fast ones make it look like a police car (a cheap one) which is not a good idea, specially in this city.

The color perfectly matches the small side lights, so they look even better in live.

I'm really impressed how well it worked. I still need to put the little PCB in a box and add a conformal sealing, but I'll do that when I get enough patterns.

Thanks for watching the video and post your comments!

[87roach]

That is awesome, nice work again haha.

[hondalude86]

Dude thats so badass!a

[Buzo]

Thanks again for your comments!

I've been watching the old chapters of the knight rider's TV show.
I noticed the way Kitt wakes up. The LEDs start increasing intensity before the left to right pattern starts. So I just added that one as startup default, and last night I added a couple more. One left to right pattern but it has 13 LEDs moving at the same time, instead of only 4 as can be seen in the video. And another right to left until all ON, then right to left until all OFF and all again but in reverse order. (hard to explain with words!)

So my menu now has 10 options:

// Start up. Turn All on increasing intensity.
// menu=0 All ON but dimmed 1/5
// menu=1 converging in center slow
// menu=2 converging in center fast
// menu=3 right to left 4 LEDs slow
// menu=4 right to left 4 LEDs fast
// menu=5 all ON high intensity
// menu=6 all off
// menu=7 right to left until all ON, then right to left until all OFF slow
// menu=8 right to left until all ON, then right to left until all OFF fast
// menu=9 right to left 13 LEDs slow
// menu=10 right to left 13 LEDs fast

What's next?

I don't have a big sound system in the car, but it would be great if i can put some rhythm to the LEDs so they dance in some random patterns synchronized with the music.

Some time ago I built a circuit that listens to the music and follows the bass beat, so I can use that one to get the correct pulses to activate the LEDs in the right time...

[poncho-lx]

looks funny

[obdriver6]

That looks so wicked!

[89HatchbackLxi]

Nice man!

What's funny is that I had the same idea a few months ago! I'm not quite as electrical savvy as you appear to be though, so I just bought my lights instead of making them. Your lights turned out great!

I'm uploading a video to youtube that I took back in October right after I had just put in my interior lights, but the knight rider exterior lights are in the video a little bit too. My KITT accord has a sibling! lol.

When it's finished the link to the video should be: http://youtu.be/7ENam9cb8zc

[Buzo]

Wow!! I wish i had seen your video before, your lights look so ...professional!
Also the interior lights are awesome! I bet the girls get really excited when they are taken for a ride in your car haha.

I'm going to take some of the patterns you have and emulate them in my car if I can.

[89HatchbackLxi]

Wow!! I wish i had seen your video before, your lights look so ...professional!
Also the interior lights are awesome! I bet the girls get really excited when they are taken for a ride in your car haha.

I'm going to take some of the patterns you have and emulate them in my car if I can.

Thanks, haha.

The thing I like about your light setup is how the path of motion is really clear. Most of the LED strips sold online (except some of the really expensive ones) don't have where the path of motion is through every single individual LED but instead the illumination motion flows section by section (i.e every 2 or 4 LEDs) which doesn't look as cool as it does when it is through each light individually.

How much did it cost to put yours together?

[Buzo]

The bill of materials is pretty cheap, less than 40 USD
The only constraint is that one needs to know how to write code for the microprocessor. But once we know the basics, there is no limit!

[canadian357]

Hahahahah, yes! I love this. I thought about just going with an eBay one, and likely it would almost never be on, but this is a MUST for my car.

[DBMaster]

Nice work. Has the car started speaking with you yet?

[Buzo]

Nice work. Has the car started speaking with you yet?

Well, it calls me in my mobile if an emergency... Does it count as speaking?

I will need to make another video pretty soon, I just added the pattern #13! The video shows only the first 6.

[DBMaster]

^^Sure, it counts! Reminds me of an old Eddie Murphy routine in which he talks about cars that talk to you.

[knifemind]

Looks awesome. Please show off the rest of the patterns, too.

And for those who may not know, this style of lighting is typically called a "Larson Scanner."