Instructions on how to make a dynamic running turn signal for the car with their own hands (scheme)

Master class on making dynamic “running” turn signals

Many motorists, in order to improve the appearance of their car, tuning their “Swallow” with LED lights. One of the options for tuning is a running turn signal that draws the attention of other road users. This article contains instructions for installing and configuring turn signals with running lights.

Assembly Instructions

LED lights are semiconductor elements that glow under the influence of electric current. The main element in them is silicon. Depending on what impurities are used, the color of the bulbs changes.

Photo Gallery “Possible variants of dynamic turn signal indicators”

Tools and materials

To make a running turn signal with your own hands, you will need the following tools:

soldering iron;
side cutters or pliers;
soldering iron and soldering material;
tester.

Among the consumables you need to prepare fiberglass. It is needed to make a printed circuit board on which the semiconductor element will be placed. The necessary LEDs are selected. Depending on the characteristics of the LEDs and the values of current and voltage of the on-board network, the characteristics of the protective resistors are calculated. Using the calculations, the rest of the network components are selected (video author – Evgeny Zadvornov).

Sequence of operation

Before making turn signals, you need to choose a suitable scheme.

Scheme of making running turn signals

Then, based on the scheme, make a printed circuit board and draw a marking on it for the placement of future elements.

Assembly consists of a sequence of actions:

First you should de-energize the car by disconnecting the negative terminal from the battery.
Next, it is necessary to remove the old turn signals and carefully disassemble them.
The old bulbs should be unscrewed.
The joints should be cleaned of glue, degreased, washed and allowed to dry.
In place of each old element is installed a new running light.
Next, the assembly and installation of the lights is done in reverse order.
After installation, the wires are connected.

In the next step, an additional stabilized power supply is included in the network. Its input receives power from the intermediate relay, and the output is connected to a diode. It is better to place it in the dashboard.

When connecting the LEDs, make sure that the anode is connected to the plus of the power supply, and the cathode to the minus. If the connection is not made correctly, the semiconductor elements will not shine and may even burn out.

Flexible LED light emitting diode strips

Features installation and configuration of running turn signals

It is possible to install dynamic turn signals instead of conventional LEDs. To do this, remove the repeaters from the mirrors, remove the board with LEDs and current-limiting resistors. On the repeater you need to tear off the glass from the housing. Then the reflector should be carefully cut out and removed.

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In place of the removed reflector, a SMD 5730 board with yellow LEDs is installed. Since the repeater has a curved shape, the board will have to be delaminated and bent slightly. From the old board you need to cut off the part with the connector and solder it to connect the controller. Then all the components are put back in place.

To adjust the time of the running LED lights a switch is soldered to the microcontroller. When a suitable speed is found, jumpers are soldered instead of the switch. When connecting the two pins to ground the minimum time between LED flashes will be 20 ms. When the pins are shorted, this time will be 30 ms.

LED dynamic turn

The price of a question

You can make a turn signal running light of the daytime running lights. Their cost is 600 rubles. As a source of light in this case, you can take a “pixel” RGB LEDs in the amount of 7 pieces for each running turn signal. The cost of one element is 19 rubles. To control the LEDs it is necessary to buy an Arduino UNO at a cost of 250 rubles. Thus, the total cost will be 1060 rubles.

Video “Making running turn signals with LEDs”.

This video shows how to make a running turn signal from the low-emitting headlights with your own hands (the author of the video – AutoFeel).

Dynamic turn signals with their own hands

Many motorists, in order to improve the appearance of their car, tuning their “Swallow” with LED lights. One of the options for tuning is a running turn signal that draws the attention of other road users. This article contains instructions for installing and configuring turn signals with running lights.

Assembly Instructions

LED lights are semiconductor elements that glow under the influence of electric current. The main element in them is silicon. Depending on what impurities are used, the color of the bulbs changes.

Photo Gallery “Possible variants of dynamic turn signal indicators”

Tools and materials

To make a running turn signal with your own hands, you will need the following tools:

soldering iron;
side cutters or pliers;
soldering iron and soldering material;
tester.

READ

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Sequence of operation

Before making turn signals, you need to choose a suitable scheme.

Scheme of making running turn signals

Then, based on the scheme, make a printed circuit board and draw a marking on it for the placement of future elements.

Assembly consists of a sequence of actions:

First you should de-energize the car by disconnecting the negative terminal from the battery.
Next, it is necessary to remove the old turn signals and carefully disassemble them.
The old bulbs should be unscrewed.
The joints should be cleaned of glue, degreased, washed and allowed to dry.
In place of each old element is installed a new running light.
Next, the assembly and installation of the lights is done in reverse order.
After installation, the wires are connected.

When connecting the LEDs, make sure that the anode is connected to the plus of the power supply, and the cathode to the minus. If the connection is not made correctly, the semiconductor elements will not shine and may even burn out.

Features installation and configuration of running turn signals

LED dynamic turn

The price of a question

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We insert a turn signal into the mirror with my own hands

Video “Making running turn signals with LEDs”.

This video shows how to make a running turn signal from the low-emitting headlights with your own hands (the author of the video – AutoFeel).

The updated version of dynamic turn signal system. You can connect up to 9 LEDs to this controller, or up to 9 strings of LEDs. You can have less. This controller does not stabilize current or voltage. The transistors on the controller are N-channel, which means that the minus outputs from the transistors to the LEDs. The plus to the LEDs is common.

The controller has 12 time settings between channels. In order to make the settings, it is necessary to supply power temporarily, not from the blinker, because the blinker is constantly blinking, it will not allow us to make the settings. Before applying power to the controller, press and hold the setting button on the board. Releasing the button after the subsequent blinks of the LED on the first channel of the controller selects the desired time between the channels. Each blink corresponds to a different time: 1 – 20ms 2 – 25ms 3 – 30ms 4 – 35ms 5 – 40ms 6 – 45ms 7 – 50ms 8 – 55ms 9 – 60ms 10 – 65ms 11 – 70ms 12 – 75ms

After the 12th blink the LED starts blinking rapidly indicating that the settings are not selected and that it is necessary to repeat the setting procedure again.

Many people ask questions about the connection of the LEDs so here are a few schemes of connecting the LEDs to the controller. Red lines are positive wires Black lines are negative wires

The controller is designed for a maximum of 9 one watt LEDs and 3.2A. For each channel you can connect up to 350mA. You will need 1W LEDs themselves and drivers (current regulators) for 300-350mA.

1. Connecting 9 and one watt LEDs:

You can also connect LEDs less than 1 watt to the controller.

For this you need LEDs for example 100mA, resistors for current limitation and a voltage regulator. Since in this case the current is limited by resistors, and resistors as we know are selected based on a certain supply voltage, we need a voltage regulator. The voltage regulator will maintain the set supply voltage. If you e.g. choose a resistor to limit current to 100mA based on 12V supply voltage then with 14V supply voltage the current will be around 120mA and this will have a negative effect on the LEDs since you are choosing a resistor for 100mA.

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The resistor can be selected using an online calculator – www.casemods.ru/services/raschet_rezistora.html

You can also read about connecting the LEDs HERE and HERE

2. 2. Connecting one yellow (orange) LED per channel. Usually yellow LEDs have a voltage drop of 2.2-2.4V. For example let’s connect one 2.2V LED and 100mA. We will put 90mA in the calculator instead of 100mA so you can see how much more comfortable the LEDs will be, but the brightness will not be less. Supply voltage is 4V. The resistor turns out to be 22 Ohm.

We will adjust the supply voltage with a stabilizer and set it to 4V so that less heat is dissipated to the resistor. That is if the power supply will be 4V and the LED will eat up 2.2V, then power will dissipate on the resistor based on the residual voltage of 1.8V. And if the supply voltage is 12V then the resistor will dissipate power from the residual voltage of 12-2,2=9,8V.

The circuit will look like this.

3. Connecting 5 yellow LEDs per channel.

5 светодиодов по тому, что мы имеем в “распоряжении” 12В => 2,2+2,2+2,2+2,2+2,2=11В. The 6th LED will not fit.

We take for example the same 2.2V and 100mA LEDs. In one chain we will have 5 LEDs in series of 100mA. The current in a series circuit is equal on all sections, so it will be the same 100mA.

As I said before up to 350mA per channel can be connected, so it turns out that up to 3 chains of 5 LEDs per channel can be connected in parallel. Let me remind you that in parallel the currents are added and therefore the current will be 300mA.

The figure shows two chains of LEDs per channel, but it does not change the essence, at least one chain, at least two, at least three, but no more.

So, I described it as best I could. Hopefully now there will be fewer questions.

Please send all “dirty” questions to my personal account.

The kit consists of a 20x55mm printed circuit board and a set of radio components. On the board marked the location of all components and their ratings, so that difficulties with mounting there are not special.

The whole process of making and working circuit can be seen in the video:

A list of tools and materials – a set of running lights on a chip CD4017 or K561IE8 (link to the kit); – screwdriver; – scissors; – soldering iron; – cell phone battery; – power supply at 12V; – connecting wires; – vinyl textolite for the circuit board; -circuits K561TM2; – resistors; -transistors KT815 (or similar); -lighting diodes.

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Step one. The circuit board of the kit from AliExpress.

All you need to do is to solder the components on the board. I used my third hand with a magnifying glass because of the diminutive size of the SMD parts. First I soldered the resistors, capacitors and other parts except the ICs. At the end we solder the microcircuits and the LEDs.

This circuit operates from 3 to 15V. The pulse generator is assembled on the NE555 chip, then the pulses are fed to the decimal counter with a decoder – the CD4017 chip (K561IE8), ten outputs of which are connected to the LEDs through current-limiting resistors. The switching speed of the running lights is controlled by a trimmer resistor.

Step two . Modernization of the circuit of the running lights. Later during the experiments the CD4017 chip failed. I had to quickly replace it with a domestic analog K561IE8 on the wires. I wanted to get more interesting light effects of the running lights. As a result I built another circuit board with K561TM2 triggers and KT815 power switches. The pulse from each output K561IE8 is fed to the trigger input on a “latch” principle that is the signal at the trigger output remains constant until the reset pulse comes from pin 11 of the CD4017 chip (K561IE8). In a cycle 9 channels are switched on. The power switches on transistors KT815 are designed to connect the load up to 1-1,5A. If you need to connect a more powerful load you must replace CT815 with a correspondingly more powerful transistor. I used four K561ТМ2 chips and now I have eight channels. In this circuit, you can get 9 channels of LED control, but then you have to add to the circuit one more chip K561TM2, connecting a trigger (chip K561TM2 consists of two triggers), as well as add a transistor switch.

Scheme after remodeling.

To check the operation of each of the eight channels connected pieces of LED strip with three LEDs.

I replaced the 50kOhm resistor with a 470kOhm resistor to extend the pulse frequency adjustment range. I found an old reflector lamp in the garage and covered the LED strip with it. The lighting effect turned out to be pretty good.

So, this is what I got for my weekend kit. It was interesting to try new circuit, so it was done quickly. In the future it will be possible to make a new general circuit board. To make these LED running lights by yourself is within the power of a beginner without much time or money. And where to use them is up to you to decide.

The entire work took a couple of weekend evenings and 63 rubles (a set of 63 rubles from Aliexpress). The rest of the components I had available.