[2.5 guy]

Hey guys,

I'm planning a little conversion project on a New Bright RC car to a hobby-grade performance vehicle...don't worry, done it a few times already.

My question is, since it will be an electric car, is there any way at all, whether it be a certain ESC or some controller that watches motor power or something, to be able to accurately activate brake and reverse lights?

Thanks!

[rccardude04]

You should be able to get an Arduino to do what you want, and you'll learn how the circuit works in the meantime, as well as be able to do all kinds of other things with it.

Aside from that, there's been a few things out in the past but they've never worked how I wanted them to. I have an old Tamiya brake light controller that turns on the brake lights when off-power. But it runs on a capacitor that charges while it's getting power, then releases the energy stored when off-power. So they don't stay on forever, and they come on when you're not on the brakes. With an arduino controller, you could tell it to send the brakes on when it sees the right pulse range from the receiver. It'd probably be an extremely simple circuit and program, really.

-Eric

[2.5 guy]

Eric, I'm guessing you might know about how to program, or expansion cards available?

Is there a way to detect it on a brushless motor, since they're essentially small 3 phase AC motors....or would I have to use an RPM/rotation direction sensor or something?

[rccardude04]

I'm sure it could be done... Maybe you could pick up on the rpm from the wires, and whenever it's decreasing you could set off the lights. I don't know how though.

Still seems like the easiest way would be just to have something see when you're actually sending a brakes/reverse signal from the transmitter.

There may even be something on the market. I just haven't looked.

-Eric

[Lille Buller]

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXMGB0&P=ML

?

[2.5 guy]

Originally Posted by rccardude04

I'm sure it could be done... Maybe you could pick up on the rpm from the wires, and whenever it's decreasing you could set off the lights. I don't know how though.

Still seems like the easiest way would be just to have something see when you're actually sending a brakes/reverse signal from the transmitter.

There may even be something on the market. I just haven't looked.

-Eric

Yeah, but then my reverse lights would come on a lot when I'm just trying to stop.

[rccardude04]

Originally Posted by 2.5 guy

Yeah, but then my reverse lights would come on a lot when I'm just trying to stop.

LOL I missed the reverse lights part!

Maybe you could make it require double-pump for the reverse lights like most ESCs like to see.

That Tamiya unit is a good idea... Might read through the instruction manual on that. It'll tell you exactly how everything works.

-Eric