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Discussion starter · #61 ·
Been a while since an update; bout a month. Progress is slow because I'm working out of town and only home on the weekends. I don't always have time on the weekend to do anything with the boards. I did manage to get a few more boards drilled this weekend though.

Printing the designs to the PNP Blue.
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Ready to be transferred to the copper clad.
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Toner transferred and ready to be drilled.
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All the boards drilled so far. This is all very time consuming but on the upside I haven't broken 1 of the drill bits yet.
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I spent a LOT of time hunched over the drill press. The Dremel work station is a very nice piece for the price though.
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The thin board I bought is really nice, I can easily cut it with a pair of scissors so getting it to conform to the curves of the tails shouldn't be a problem.
Here's the headlight turn signal board cut out.
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Test fitted into the headlight.
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That's it for now. Not sure when I'll get more work done on them.
 
Discussion starter · #65 ·
I started etching boards this weekend. I used a 2:1 mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide and Muratic Acid, worked great.
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After etching the boards went into a water bath.
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Once I was done etching the boards I neutralized the acid with baking soda. I'll be deposing of this at the local dump's Hazardous Waste Unit next weekend.
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Here's all the boards I etched. I still need to make more and I need to buy more copper clad.
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All the boards are labelled so they are easy to identify.
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They also fit where they are supposed to, some needed a bit of trimming and a couple will need to be redone.
Front Turns.
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TALON Name Plate.
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Brake lights.
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Turns signals (the first board needs to be redone).
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Center section. At fist I was going to put the boards in from the front.
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However with the lens and the complex curves I decided to put them in from the back. Of course I still need to populate them and then enclose them.
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Discussion starter · #66 ·
I then decided to start working on populating one of the LED brake/marker boards.
I started by wrapping the board with chrome vinyl.
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Then I got out the SMD resistors.
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These suckers are small, thank god for sticky paste flux and my mag lamp!
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I then put the first couple LEDs in and soldered them.
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Then laid out more resistors.
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Paste flux and more soldering.
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All the resistors soldered in place.
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All the LEDs in place and ready to be soldered.
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1 board complete! Many to go :( The leads are only temporary.
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I then threw the board into a tail light to see what they looked like. The board is only powered at 5 volts here.
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I then switched the board to 12V (will not be running this high in the end) to simulate brake lights.
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Here's what the board looks like just sitting in the housing.
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Over all I'm very happy with how it all came out. You can't see the individual LEDs which is exactly what I want.
I've got lots of work to do now getting all the brake/marker boards soldered and ready to go. I also need to figure out how to properly get my Vregs working and then design my power supplies.
 
Blurred, all I can say is you have some god damn amazing soldering skills and patience beyond my comprehension. Your work is going to pay off when this is all done. I'm really dyeing to see this project finished. :beer:
 
blurred, all i can say is you have some god damn amazing soldering skills and patience beyond my comprehension. Your work is going to pay off when this is all done. I'm really dyeing to see this project finished. :beer:
this!!!!
 
Discussion starter · #73 ·
That must be nice, I hate my 45watt little soldering iron... Takes like 10min to get hot enough for me to use without it just pissing me the hell off.


P.S. Want installed pics!
Go get yourself a nice Weller Iron, no need to buy something as fancy as my WES51D but a nice 35W one. I've got a WP35 I use out in the driveway and it works great.

This ! :tat:
Thanks!
 
Discussion starter · #78 ·
Now the real question is...when yours works...how do I place an order for my 2g LED light conversion? :D
Or my 1G one.
I've been trying to get one of these made since Dave was working on his first revision years ago. I'll take a 1ga talon setup and a 1gb eclipse one. Should I expect them next week?
LOL, PM of course gents!

I may entertain doing some others once I'm working back in town (2 months left). It is very labor intensive so if you are serious then PM me and we can chat.
 
Discussion starter · #79 ·
Got almost all of the boards for one tail light done. I still need to redesign the final board that goes right in the corner.
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Here they are in the tail light. The boards are not mounted so it looks a little off.
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With the lens on running at 5 volts. On the corner of the light I need something to defuse the LEDs but I'm not sure what. Again the boards aren't mounted so they look a bit off.
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With 12V on them to get an idea of full brightness.
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I got one of the lower center section boards done. I still have another to do and 1 more that I might redo completely. The board in the pictures needs 2 more LEDs but I don't have the right SMD resistor on hand.
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Here's all the center section boards behind the center section to get an idea of what it will look like. These are run at 9V via my Vregs.
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I also did a bit of testing to see how hot things are getting and left the lower center section board on the 9V Vreg for about 15-20 minutes. The temp never rose from what's on the gun.
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I've still have a lot left to do, I haven't even started working on my power supplies or PWMs yet, I need to protype them first on the bread board. I need to drill more boards so I can populate them with LEDs and resistors for the other tail light. I also need to sit down and play with some of the amber LEDs on the bread board to see what mA to run them at for the name plate LEDs, I'm thinking around 50-60mA will be good. I want them bright but not brighter then the brakes or turns, close to the same brightness as the markers is fine though.
I also need to buy more copper clad board and PNP Blue.
 
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