Knight Rider Lights…..

[ph2t]

Been stuffing around with this idea for a little while.

I’m gonna use this circuit to achieve it:

And here’s a little video of the prototype I’ve put together.

Video here, (DivX 5)

Cool!

ph2t.

Edited by – ph2t on 07 July 2003 12:53:22

[micro_Amps]

hehehe, looks excellent ph2t.
A silly idea comes to mind…….
How about combining rows of undercar lights with the knight rider circuit and getting the whole underneith of the car lit up and oscillating from side to side.:shock:
Thanks for showing the circuit too BTW.

:)uA

Edited by – micro_Amps on 07 July 2003 13:25:08

[GT-ahh]

mad a very similar circuit a few years back at school… one problem might be the size…

[ph2t]

True that G, but I’m gonna use SMD parts for the 555 timer and 4017 cmos counter, that will keep it small. Also the diodes (IN4148) aren’t needed, the proto works well without them so I’ve turfed those components…..

[micro_Amps]

Quote:

the proto works well without them so I’ve turfed those components…..

hehehe, ph2t, you are ….(choose one)
1. bloody amazing.
2. very economical with components.
3. just plain resourceful
4. a hack techo who doesnt follow the rules :smiley2:.

I know which I choose.
Just kidding mate:smiley2::D

:)uA

[ph2t]

Lock in 4 eddie……:p

[DaveF]

ph2t. If you can you alter that curcuit slightly, so that the light run stops at the end, until a button is pressed, then you have yourself a set of racing Xmas tree starter lights. I see you have a 500k resister to control speed, yeah?

I started making one, and the curcuit diagram looks amost the same as yours above, but I fried something, and never went back to it. if you manage to make one, post the diagram here. I’m sure a few people would like to scale starters lights for their race tracks.

[DaveF]

6volt? Are those little watch batteries 6v? wow. never looked at them that close.

[ph2t]

Quote:

ph2t. If you can you alter that curcuit slightly, so that the light run stops at the end, until a button is pressed, then you have yourself a set of racing Xmas tree starter lights. I see you have a 500k resister to control speed, yeah?

I started making one, and the curcuit diagram looks amost the same as yours above, but I fried something, and never went back to it. if you manage to make one, post the diagram here. I’m sure a few people would like to scale starters lights for their race tracks.

That’s a great idea Dave. When I get some time and if the interest is there I’ll make one. I would do a bank of LED’s that change, red, yellow, green, etc…. With a little piezo speaker for the start horn….

ph2t.

[ph2t]

Quote:

6volt? Are those little watch batteries 6v? wow. never looked at them that close.

No, they are actually 3V. The circuit design I’ve ripped from a site, http://www.talkingelectronics.com . My design will run off 5V using a DCDC convertor that will take the 1.2V from the car’s battery and boost it to 5V. Cool! I’m using CMOS components that run very efficiently of low voltages…

ph2t.

Edited by – ph2t on 08 July 2003 15:27:33

[DaveF]

I had planned the same thing (a buzzer for the GO as well as the light).

I had 7 pins fron the 4017 chip.

• The 1st thre in the sequence all went to the same 1st red LED. This gave the person who pressed the button to initiate the start sequence a few seconds to get back to their controller ready to race.
• Two orange lights
• The last two pins in the sequence went to the green LED. The 2nd last one also going to the speaker. This gave the impression of the light staying green until the racers had gone past.

  I nearly had it too. it all worked, but the sequence ran through too fast. In removeing and replacing one of the resistors to slow it down I fried the 555 timer I think.

  Something else I did was have an RJ45 on the curcuit, and another at the lights. A peice of Cat5 (4 pairs) meant I could have the box away from the lights (7 lights, and 1 -ve line makes 8). It all worked well, just too fast. Damn my clutterred work environment and oversized soldering iron.

[ph2t]

Sounds great dude, start another thread on this and post the circuit and we’ll get some development happening…..:D

I hear you about the cluttered workspace, same here….

[DaveF]

I only have a sketch of the circuit diagram (nutted it out from scratch myself), and no where to host the image so that I could link it back in to this forum as you have done above.

[ph2t]

Dave, check your pm’s.

ph2t.

[jazza_1984]

Hey guys, i actually have one of these already, a guy in the UK makes them…

[ph2t]

Alrighty then, after countless stuff ups and lots of useless pcb’s now lying around the place, I have finally got the PCB design done for this mod. Also the pcb will fit on top of the RX pcb.

Here’s a pic:

The pcb at the bottom right is the finished product. The two misfits at the top were my “better quality” stuff ups….
The black outline on the bottome left is what I used as the overlay to put the track desing onto the PCB.

Good (read: sad) stuff!
:p

ph2t.

[micro_Amps]

Good stuff Ph2t, got any with all the components on? How about combining the headlights and KR lights on the one board?
:)uA

[ph2t]

Yeah, have some pics but I’m yet to post ’em. I’ve found a problem though. The SMD version of the 4017 won’t allow the leds to run without the diodes, yet the usual DIP version of the 4017 does!!!!! Go figure…. So I’ve got to redesign the pcb to accomodate 8 bloody diodes…. Gawd that gives me the sh1ts…..

:angry:

ph2t.

[micro_Amps]

Damn, what a pain. Thats a bit odd though, they *should* be the same chip, unless its a different manufacturer, then I suppose the internals will probably be different.
:)uA

[micro_Amps]

Quote:

Lock in 4 eddie……:p

Its locked in Ph2t, it sure is locked in. :smiley2::)

:)uA

[ph2t]

Quote:

Damn, what a pain. Thats a bit odd though, they *should* be the same chip, unless its a different manufacturer, then I suppose the internals will probably be different.
:)uA

See that’s the bugger, they are both from Texas Instruments…..Go figure…..:dead:

ph2t.

[ph2t]

Hey Micro, I know why it doesn’t work. The diodes isolate the input that is not turned on from sinking the current from the output that is on. I’ve noticed that only the LEDs at the ends work, this makes sense since they’re not connected to another Q output. The fact that the proto worked was a misnomer at best.

I started modifying my pcb design to include the 8 diodes but I found that I was running out of room bigtime. I had an idea though. I could use a logic OR gate to link the paired outputs AND keep them isolated from each other. Since an OR gate’s output goes high for either input this should work. Also, adding a 14 pin SMD package chip (quad OR gate package) would be less space than 8 bloody diodes… I gotta mod the design tonight to see if it will fit though…. The fat lady hasn’t finished singing yet, lol!

ph2t.

[DaveF]

nice job man.

Did the images I sent you help at all. I’m sorry I can’t find the original that I know was perfect except for the resister that controlled speed.

[ph2t]

Thanks dude. I checked the ftp and didn’t see any images….?

[ph2t]

OK, I said stuff it to the design side and started working on the front LED’s. I reckon I’m making *some* progress. If anything it’s lookin pretty.

You can get some video of the mod so far from HERE.

ph2t.

Edited by – ph2t on 23 July 2003 09:23:13

[barto_85]

that is great, looks awesome.

[micro_Amps]

So what power supply are you using to run it?
Is the DC-DC converter able to power it?
:)uA

[ph2t]

Yup, I’m using a 5V convertor and it drains approx 5mA of current.

[ph2t]

Here’s some pics of the 1st prototype:

ph2t.

[ph2t]

Here’s the finished PCB:

Here’s some video of the PCB in action: HERE

Here’s the KITT2000 from Knight Industries:

Here’s some video of the car in action with a very graphic and violent ending….. :dead:

VIDEO

I will be making a limited amount of these for those who are interested. The only problem is they are not cheap ($30 USD inc shipping) and there will be a min 2 week turnaround. Sorry but it ain’t the easiest to make, as you’ve seen in this thread. I wasn’t going to do this but I thought that some fellas would appreciate….. Enjoy. Email me at ph2t@prahranpianos.com for info.

ph2t.

Edited by – ph2t on 28 July 2003 11:09:34

[DaveF]

Looks good man. I’ll try and do that FTP again. If my logs are correct we had network trouble that day, so perhaps the upload failed instead of finishing. I was distracted at the time.

[jamiekulhanek]

That is nuts man.

[ph2t]

Thanks dude, you’d appreciate it, I used circuitmaker2000 to create the pcb.

[DaveF]

Yeah, the PCB looked very very neat.

Did you get those schematics I emailed to you?

[Admin]

Just want the world to know..
Ph2t design works great!
as simple as apple pie.

http://noxorc.lixlink.com/knightriderscan.wmv

-nox

[barto_85]

did you join ausmicro just to tell us that? Thanks nox.

[ph2t]

nah, I’m sure he’ll part/spew more wisdom as time goes on…….:approve:

[DaveF]

ph2t… did you get the schematics? Are they of any use? I know they’re close.

[ph2t]

Sorry Dave, forgot to reply. Yes I did mate and I will post them shortly in a seperate thread so we may continue developemnt on such a great idea.

ph2t.

[DaveF]

Cool. Can you spot where I went wrong? I know I was close with one of them, because it worked, it was just too fast. I’d love to get this working for home. It’s make racing a little more realistic. I’ve got the design for the light bridge for over the track in my head already. =o)

[trash]

I’m not sure where ph2t is. But for those of you in Sydney, you can probably save a bit on costs by getting the parts local. The circuit is actually very common. It’s an existing dick smith kit (see DSE funway 2 green book. eletronic dice).
The difference is that the DSE circuit is BIG, it would never fit into a micro car.
You can buy the parts for less than $10 aus and
then carefully solder them in a “dead bug fashion”, though things made that way tend to be fragile. The surface mount chips you can get
from Farnell, or RS components. The PCB is ph2t’s design, you’ll have to talk to him about having them produced and how much they cost to do it.

Check Jaycar too, they have another design kit, it has more LED’s but is physically bigger again.
You may also care to replace the 4017 counter with
an up down counter. I can’t remember its part number. something like a 4528.

[DaveF]

The one I sent to ph2t was based on the Dick Smith dice kit, as well as several other dice kits from electronic magazines my dad has when I was a kid. It’s a common design (infact, one of the mags had a KITT car light kit, but for a 1:1 car). The PCB is ph2ts design, and is very nice, especially for the size.

[Author]

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