RC Nitro Car: Glow-in-the-Dark Mods!
by offtherails2010 in Circuits > Remote Control
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RC Nitro Car: Glow-in-the-Dark Mods!
Background & Mission-Statement, lol !, :
NB: This project would also be useful to EVERYONE who owns an RC toy of any kind (Land, Air & Water Vehicles !)
Intro & Mission-Statement ! :
The Main reason for me doing this is for both me & my pal to clearly-see our nitro powered rc cars at night and in the dark where either no-light or very limited-light exists, ! .
We bought two RC Nitro-Powered Cars with engine and Radio-Gear included (i must point out that me & a friend bought one each as they were going for just £80 each) and we found a great skateboard park to run our cars on the ramps! All was well till it got dark around 16:15 ! Ouch! Too Early for us to go home (for my standards anyway, lol) but we regrettably had to pack our cars away because we couldn't see where we were driving !
I Had a grumble that night - LONG ago when i started this upgrade-marathon, mainly because when i looked online for nitro-engine model-car lights, the prices were sky-high just for a bunch of LED's, a simple switch and a battery pack. I was MOST-Infuriated! The cost on just 2 pairs of blue headlights (2 LED's per headlight) was about £50 ($78 approx.) including delivery. I felt like i'd been stolen-from, robbed even, yet i was not going to pay that kind of money on something i could 'hack' together!
The Easy Hack was strapping on the 'headlights', but the time-consuming work was on the paint-job (15-minute waiting-times between coats ), Gluing (1-hour before rough-handling of the parts) & strobe-light hack!
Stuff We Used:
- 30 SMT/SMD COOL BLUE LED's for Buggy's Chassis ! (comes in a pack of 300 LED's !)
- 3mm Thick acrylic/plexiglass (I will refer to this as ACRYLIC from here-on...)
- 22 AWG Black wire
- 22 AWG Red wire
- LIQUID-RUBBER
- Double Sided Tape (UK Based websites by the way)
- Heatshrink (4mm & 6mm used)
- Strong Epoxy Resin (2 Part VERY VERY STRONG GLUE) or just use a hot glue gun, whatever!
- Battery-Powered Strobe Light
- Cable Braid (9mm UV Blue) You can use whatever color suits you ! {Note - 9mm is a bit too loose, 6-8mm would be better, talking from hind-sight!}
- A Technical Tinkering Mind !
- Moderate to Plenty of Time on your hands!
Costs (Remember the Headlights that i 'Google-Searched-For' would had cost me £50...):
{NB: YOU ONLY NEED TO BUY THIS ONCE & MANY PROJECTS CAN BE CUT FROM ALL THE ACRYLIC PURCHASED & APOLOGIES BUT THE WEB-SEARCH LINKS ARE FOR UK PRICES BUT PLEASE CHECK EBAY IN YOUR AREA FOR ALTERNATIVE PRICES FOR YOUR COUNTRY!}
Acrylic Sheet - £3.55 (For an A4 Sheet, 3mm Thick and Blue Transparent) {Incl.Delivery}
Acrylic Tubing - £4.98 (For a SAMPLE PACK of approx. 100mm each of SIX different sizes, 5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8 & 10mm dia.)
Glow-in-the-Dark Paint - £7.64 + £3.97 Delivery (Plastikote PKT4370 Glow in The Dark 400 ml Yellow / Green 4370)
Liquid-Rubber - £19.99 + FREE Delivery aka Plasti-Dip {i opted for the 750ml CLEAR plasti-dip liquid rubber Incl.FREE delivery...
Two (2) AA Battery-Powered Torches - £6.85 each, £13.70 together (postage was paid with-the-plastikote paint...)
Strobe Light - £4.98
Total = £58.81.
-BUT REMEMBER-
MOSTLY ALL ITEMS BOUGHT FROM THE LIST ABOVE WILL LAST TO-MAKE-A-VERY-MANY OTHER PROJECTS AND THE HIGH PRICED ITEMS CAN BE USED IN YOUR VERY MANY OTHER PROJECTS IN THE INTERESTS OF FUTURE TINKERING !
Tools i used:
- Dremel {Or similar Rotary tool}
- Helping Hands with Magnifier (i use TWO of these as they are almost cheap, £5 each ish)
- Various small hand tools, eg, files, needle-files, sanding block fitted with GLASS-PAPER, hacksaw, coping saw, engineers scriber, drill press attachment for dremel (makes a dremel into a mini bench-drill)
- Hobby Bandsaw (Bought this because i CANNOT - for-the-love-of-life CUT IN A STRAIGHT-LINE !!! {lol} )
- Drill bits
- Heavy-Duty Scissors
- Wire Strippers
- Needle-Nose Pliers
- Tweezers
- Solder
- Soldering Iron (My iron is a gas operated one, but a simple cheap alternative can also be used)
- AWESOME-MAN, LIKE, TOTALLY !!!} - Sorry folks, am a TMNT Fan (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) lol
- Rubber/Non-Latex Gloves - Whatever...
FASMASK
-WARNING-
ANYONE PAINTING: WITH AEROSOL SPRAY-PAINT MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSE OR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES PRINTED ON ANY SPRAY-PAINT-CANS.
ANYONE USING POWER~TOOLS: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH THEIR POWER-TOOLS.
ANYONE USING ANY GLUE OF ANY~KIND: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH ANY GLUE IN ANYONE'S POSSESSION.
Basically USE a Good-Supply of Common-Sense but if you're Running-Low, have a Friend or Three come and help you out & make sure one of them is an ADULT !!!
---- ALWAYS REMEMBER --- WHATEVER YOU DO --- SAFETY FIRST ---
NB: This project would also be useful to EVERYONE who owns an RC toy of any kind (Land, Air & Water Vehicles !)
Intro & Mission-Statement ! :
The Main reason for me doing this is for both me & my pal to clearly-see our nitro powered rc cars at night and in the dark where either no-light or very limited-light exists, ! .
We bought two RC Nitro-Powered Cars with engine and Radio-Gear included (i must point out that me & a friend bought one each as they were going for just £80 each) and we found a great skateboard park to run our cars on the ramps! All was well till it got dark around 16:15 ! Ouch! Too Early for us to go home (for my standards anyway, lol) but we regrettably had to pack our cars away because we couldn't see where we were driving !
I Had a grumble that night - LONG ago when i started this upgrade-marathon, mainly because when i looked online for nitro-engine model-car lights, the prices were sky-high just for a bunch of LED's, a simple switch and a battery pack. I was MOST-Infuriated! The cost on just 2 pairs of blue headlights (2 LED's per headlight) was about £50 ($78 approx.) including delivery. I felt like i'd been stolen-from, robbed even, yet i was not going to pay that kind of money on something i could 'hack' together!
The Easy Hack was strapping on the 'headlights', but the time-consuming work was on the paint-job (15-minute waiting-times between coats ), Gluing (1-hour before rough-handling of the parts) & strobe-light hack!
Stuff We Used:
- 30 SMT/SMD COOL BLUE LED's for Buggy's Chassis ! (comes in a pack of 300 LED's !)
- 3mm Thick acrylic/plexiglass (I will refer to this as ACRYLIC from here-on...)
- 22 AWG Black wire
- 22 AWG Red wire
- LIQUID-RUBBER
- Double Sided Tape (UK Based websites by the way)
- Heatshrink (4mm & 6mm used)
- Strong Epoxy Resin (2 Part VERY VERY STRONG GLUE) or just use a hot glue gun, whatever!
- Battery-Powered Strobe Light
- Cable Braid (9mm UV Blue) You can use whatever color suits you ! {Note - 9mm is a bit too loose, 6-8mm would be better, talking from hind-sight!}
- A Technical Tinkering Mind !
- Moderate to Plenty of Time on your hands!
Costs (Remember the Headlights that i 'Google-Searched-For' would had cost me £50...):
{NB: YOU ONLY NEED TO BUY THIS ONCE & MANY PROJECTS CAN BE CUT FROM ALL THE ACRYLIC PURCHASED & APOLOGIES BUT THE WEB-SEARCH LINKS ARE FOR UK PRICES BUT PLEASE CHECK EBAY IN YOUR AREA FOR ALTERNATIVE PRICES FOR YOUR COUNTRY!}
Acrylic Sheet - £3.55 (For an A4 Sheet, 3mm Thick and Blue Transparent) {Incl.Delivery}
Acrylic Tubing - £4.98 (For a SAMPLE PACK of approx. 100mm each of SIX different sizes, 5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8 & 10mm dia.)
Glow-in-the-Dark Paint - £7.64 + £3.97 Delivery (Plastikote PKT4370 Glow in The Dark 400 ml Yellow / Green 4370)
Liquid-Rubber - £19.99 + FREE Delivery aka Plasti-Dip {i opted for the 750ml CLEAR plasti-dip liquid rubber Incl.FREE delivery...
Two (2) AA Battery-Powered Torches - £6.85 each, £13.70 together (postage was paid with-the-plastikote paint...)
Strobe Light - £4.98
Total = £58.81.
-BUT REMEMBER-
MOSTLY ALL ITEMS BOUGHT FROM THE LIST ABOVE WILL LAST TO-MAKE-A-VERY-MANY OTHER PROJECTS AND THE HIGH PRICED ITEMS CAN BE USED IN YOUR VERY MANY OTHER PROJECTS IN THE INTERESTS OF FUTURE TINKERING !
Tools i used:
- Dremel {Or similar Rotary tool}
- Helping Hands with Magnifier (i use TWO of these as they are almost cheap, £5 each ish)
- Various small hand tools, eg, files, needle-files, sanding block fitted with GLASS-PAPER, hacksaw, coping saw, engineers scriber, drill press attachment for dremel (makes a dremel into a mini bench-drill)
- Hobby Bandsaw (Bought this because i CANNOT - for-the-love-of-life CUT IN A STRAIGHT-LINE !!! {lol} )
- Drill bits
- Heavy-Duty Scissors
- Wire Strippers
- Needle-Nose Pliers
- Tweezers
- Solder
- Soldering Iron (My iron is a gas operated one, but a simple cheap alternative can also be used)
- AWESOME-MAN, LIKE, TOTALLY !!!} - Sorry folks, am a TMNT Fan (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) lol
- Rubber/Non-Latex Gloves - Whatever...
FASMASK
-WARNING-
ANYONE PAINTING: WITH AEROSOL SPRAY-PAINT MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSE OR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES PRINTED ON ANY SPRAY-PAINT-CANS.
ANYONE USING POWER~TOOLS: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH THEIR POWER-TOOLS.
ANYONE USING ANY GLUE OF ANY~KIND: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH ANY GLUE IN ANYONE'S POSSESSION.
Basically USE a Good-Supply of Common-Sense but if you're Running-Low, have a Friend or Three come and help you out & make sure one of them is an ADULT !!!
---- ALWAYS REMEMBER --- WHATEVER YOU DO --- SAFETY FIRST ---
I have now out-fitted the car with headlights starring TWO 1-WATT LED Torches, a custom Glow-In-The-Dark paint-job on the shell & wheel hubs, Increased shell ride height (to make room for the extra electrics, waterproofed), Custom made Air-Cooler Induction Duct Leading straight to a waterproof air-filter & included a modified strobe light in blue!
Here's the Nitro Powered Car fresh out of the box and the last picture is the car finished with all modifications!
Here's the Nitro Powered Car fresh out of the box and the last picture is the car finished with all modifications!
Shell Prep-Work:
Prep: Marking the shell for the Headlight Mounting Holes and wireless camera mounting holes!
Shell Paint - Stripping :
Next i took a dremel with the wire-brush-type attachment and gently etched away the orange paint from the underside of the shell and tried to make it look like flames, the best i could! 1st time doing this! Took over two hours!
FASMASK - Masking Latex ! Mmmmm Good Stuff !
Masking of holes and FASMASK pre=paintwork masking of parts i want clear to remain clear!
Used Safety Eye-Goggles, non latex gloves (3 gloves on each hand! - - trust me, this works very well in case you get paint all over your hands and you need to touch the painted parts to move them for example, simply take 1 glove off and your still protected from mess!!)
Used Safety Eye-Goggles, non latex gloves (3 gloves on each hand! - - trust me, this works very well in case you get paint all over your hands and you need to touch the painted parts to move them for example, simply take 1 glove off and your still protected from mess!!)
Numerous Coats of Glow-in-the-Dark Paint !
Many many this layers of spray paint were laid-down, about 5-15mins approx. between coats, as long as the paint was 'Touch-Dry' as per the instructions mentioned, all was good !
Finally i think 12 coats later and i was in for visible-night-driving !
Finally i think 12 coats later and i was in for visible-night-driving !
Wheel Hubs to Be Licked With Glow-in-the-Dark Paint !
Tyres were Next to have a lick of the lush Glow-in-the-Dark paint !!!
Firstly i used more FASMASK over the wheels as i still wanted 'White Walls' as well as the Glow-in-th-Dark Paint, again, 3 very heavy coats of this stuff!
Didn't matter that i got it over the rubber tyres as this stuff peels off nicely when dry !
Firstly i used more FASMASK over the wheels as i still wanted 'White Walls' as well as the Glow-in-th-Dark Paint, again, 3 very heavy coats of this stuff!
Didn't matter that i got it over the rubber tyres as this stuff peels off nicely when dry !
Body Clip Mounts: Custom Raised-Shell-Ride-Height...
Had to make some breathing room 'under my hood' !
There was also a larger waterproof air filter installed that was also SCREAMING for space, so the ride-height had to be raised - being just over an inch at the front and an inch and a half at the back...
There was also a larger waterproof air filter installed that was also SCREAMING for space, so the ride-height had to be raised - being just over an inch at the front and an inch and a half at the back...
There Were 5/6 MAJOR Design Flaws Here So Had to Reorientate the Fuel Tank and Re-map the Fuel Tube Transit-journey From the Fuel-tank to the Engine! MAJOR DESIGN FLAW I TELL YOU !
Where do i start ?????
The fuel tubing kept getting shredded by the clutch bell cogs as thats the direction the fuel tube journeyed, a hair's breadth away from these cogs that make quick work or chewing up my fuel-line! AND i kept thinking i was doing something wrong! Nope. Major Slap in the chops are needed to the designers on this buggy... Cant complain much tho, i have learned a lot fixing this buggy to the standard it should have arrived in ! Honestly! lol
I had to move the Fuel Tank around as it was causing a lot of problems with the fuel tubing getting caught so this page is only for the custom work done on the Fuel System!
The New fuel pipe wa made out of 6mm rod, i had drilled the rod extremely slowly to make it into a tube, the cut the pieces of rod at specific angles in order to take the newly orientated fuel line around the fuel tank and to have a much better travel-path leading effortlessly to the fuel-filter, in-turn, leading straight into the engine without any mad-bends or silly Unnecessary loop-the-loops!
I should mention that this rc nitro car was bought extremely cheaply, for £80 including all the radio gear AND an engine, so its not even upto a BASIC STANDARD, infact it was far worse, hence the sheer number of upgrades done to it!
I really hate having to modify my brand new stuff before ive even used it, but i guess that what i get for buying the cheaper than cheap stuff out there on the market ! lol
As you can see - the 1st pic is how the fuel tank sat as standard...
The make and model name of this car is soooooo obscure that anyone in the rc circles have never heard of it~!!! Anyways, here's the fuel line next !
The fuel tubing kept getting shredded by the clutch bell cogs as thats the direction the fuel tube journeyed, a hair's breadth away from these cogs that make quick work or chewing up my fuel-line! AND i kept thinking i was doing something wrong! Nope. Major Slap in the chops are needed to the designers on this buggy... Cant complain much tho, i have learned a lot fixing this buggy to the standard it should have arrived in ! Honestly! lol
I had to move the Fuel Tank around as it was causing a lot of problems with the fuel tubing getting caught so this page is only for the custom work done on the Fuel System!
The New fuel pipe wa made out of 6mm rod, i had drilled the rod extremely slowly to make it into a tube, the cut the pieces of rod at specific angles in order to take the newly orientated fuel line around the fuel tank and to have a much better travel-path leading effortlessly to the fuel-filter, in-turn, leading straight into the engine without any mad-bends or silly Unnecessary loop-the-loops!
I should mention that this rc nitro car was bought extremely cheaply, for £80 including all the radio gear AND an engine, so its not even upto a BASIC STANDARD, infact it was far worse, hence the sheer number of upgrades done to it!
I really hate having to modify my brand new stuff before ive even used it, but i guess that what i get for buying the cheaper than cheap stuff out there on the market ! lol
As you can see - the 1st pic is how the fuel tank sat as standard...
The make and model name of this car is soooooo obscure that anyone in the rc circles have never heard of it~!!! Anyways, here's the fuel line next !
Strobe-Light Downsizing !
finally back to the illuminative part of this challenge!
The Rules of the cannibal continue here-on-in !
Picked up 4 of these pitiful low power LED strobe lights from ebay! 4 for £10 so nice and cheap for future projects as i always try to cannibalize the battery holding compartments from things like this and any other circuitry a can de-solder and use to my own Evil Ends, Muhahahhahahahaa !!! (Pinkie & Eyebrow - Raised in True-Dr.Evil Style!)
Anyhoo, here's the standard strobe light in its form...
NOTE: Most electronics 'Guts' may have components like capacitors and other dangerous items that will like to give you a good jolt here and there so observe CAUTION here and try to identify what components are inside BEFORE following any cannibal-rules...
SAFETY ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE...
The Rules of the cannibal continue here-on-in !
Picked up 4 of these pitiful low power LED strobe lights from ebay! 4 for £10 so nice and cheap for future projects as i always try to cannibalize the battery holding compartments from things like this and any other circuitry a can de-solder and use to my own Evil Ends, Muhahahhahahahaa !!! (Pinkie & Eyebrow - Raised in True-Dr.Evil Style!)
Anyhoo, here's the standard strobe light in its form...
NOTE: Most electronics 'Guts' may have components like capacitors and other dangerous items that will like to give you a good jolt here and there so observe CAUTION here and try to identify what components are inside BEFORE following any cannibal-rules...
SAFETY ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE...
How...
Get yer screwdrivers in there!
The Under-car Lighting Also in Neon Blue !
Sorry - I had broken the mini tube lights, ordered more but not in time for the competition - Sorry
Cannibalized from an old PC kit i hadn't found use for just yet, so i hacked these two 4" cold-cathode tubes, re-inforced them with yet more acrylic tubing, for the medium to large jumps i plan on doing with this thang !
Ok at this point in the build i had snapped both the 4" PC tube -lights so the next time i get hold of them i shall be upgrading my car with them!
Watch - This - Space !
Sorry - I had broken the mini tube lights, ordered more but not in time for the competition - Sorry
Cannibalized from an old PC kit i hadn't found use for just yet, so i hacked these two 4" cold-cathode tubes, re-inforced them with yet more acrylic tubing, for the medium to large jumps i plan on doing with this thang !
Ok at this point in the build i had snapped both the 4" PC tube -lights so the next time i get hold of them i shall be upgrading my car with them!
Watch - This - Space !
Sorry - I had broken the mini tube lights, ordered more but not in time for the competition - Sorry
Simple Air-Duct ! ! !
I had-to make this because my newly installed air-filter was sucking in warm-ish air from underneath the shell (heat from the engine etc) and so, the time-honoured principal used in real motor cars to move the air collection duct to a better location was used here!
Looks!
