Christmas Car Project

Arrow · 11-26-2007, 04:46 PM

Ok, I was gonna keep it secret until it was done, but here's what I'm doing...

I decorate my car with christmas lights every year. I have a loudspeaker on the roof playing christmas music. Here are a couple pics from last year:

Here's what I want to do. It won't be this complex, as I only have so many sections of lights on the car, probably only 4 or 5 separate triggers. I want to sync the lights with the music, so I'm thinking of having the music, and the timer start at the same time. I'll program which relays need to close at which times so that the lights work to the music.

And yes it's illegal to have lights all over the car, but I've been doing this for about 6 years and I've only been pulled over once, and all the cop wanted was to shake my hand for a job well done. Usually I just get a siren blip, and they give me a thumbs up when I look. The blinking to the music will be pushing it, so I'll only use that when I'm parked.

turbocad6 · 11-26-2007, 05:18 PM

ok, so now I gotta move my post here too

soo, as I was saying, sick mf right there^^^

I like it

greenman100 · 11-26-2007, 06:20 PM

better would be to connect 3 to 6 bandpass filters up to the music, and let those filters drive analog inputs. Then, write a skin that takes the analog input and drives digital outputs with it.

the timer thing: you can do it as long as the carPC is on. use the animation feature of the skin.

BiGGy · 11-28-2007, 06:25 AM

Good work, I think Americans take the Christmas theme a bit to far really. I hope you have a fire extinguisher in there.

Arrow · 12-06-2007, 04:37 AM

Gonna change my oil today, then give the ol' focus a bath, then on with the lights!!

Arrow · 12-12-2007, 04:06 AM

Made some major progress over the past few days. With a little help from 2k1Toaster, I was able to interface the fusion brain with my own software that will fire the relays to the music. The software is about done. I also built a relay box to house the relays for the lights. I've attached some pictures below.

The first is a screenshot of my program. The numbered boxes represent the zones of lights controlled by the board. They blink when the relays are fired.

The second and third are shots of my relay housing while I was building it.

The fourth is when I hooked everything up and plugged in a set of lights to make sure they fired properly.

The last is the completed housing.

ACleanSC4 · 12-12-2007, 04:33 PM

That is awesome! I never see anything cool like that over here in Cali...can't wait to see it!

Arrow · 12-16-2007, 08:19 AM

Car's done. Took some pictures. Was gonna get some video last night for you guys, but the sky decided to drop a foot of snow and bury my car. Anyways, as soon as I get some of the snow cleaned off, I'll take some video. Until then, enjoy...

Arrow · 12-18-2007, 08:02 AM

Video uploaded to youtube. Check it out here!

Lazyflip · 12-18-2007, 01:04 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Arrow

Video uploaded to youtube. Check it out here!

Pure awesomeness!

sporty_drew · 12-18-2007, 01:10 PM

Looking good

rocksolidsr · 12-18-2007, 04:54 PM

That is pretty impressive, I'm curious how did you power your lights and what kind of relays did you use. And if you are willing to share how did you program the lights like that

h3rk · 12-18-2007, 05:20 PM

I'm really impressed. I'd like to see a little of what it takes to synchronize the on/off times for the lights with the music, like a 'how to' on that part of your project. Much props.

Quote: Originally Posted by rocksolidsr

That is pretty impressive, I'm curious how did you power your lights and what kind of relays did you use. And if you are willing to share how did you program the lights like that

Have you heard of the Fusion Brain? Store.

It allows you to control relays with this small board, through USB, by your computer. That and it allows you to utilize sensors in your car to display whatever you want. Actually it has a LOT more functionality in it in the software, now. However I think Arrow wrote his own software for this if you look back through this short thread. But check out the forum, there's a lot to go through, but it's well worth doing, imho.

I'm sending a link to that video to everyone. It's a testament to the abilities of the brain, that's for sure.

Arrow · 12-18-2007, 05:33 PM

I used a 400W power inverter, then used the fusion brain with the relays they sell with the brain. I did write my own program that interfaced with the board. It took a lot of time to get the lights to look good because I had to program each relay to fire at the right time. I accomplished this by writing a program that recorded my mouse clicks. My program then read this data and fired a relay whenever the mouse click was recorded. I also used keypresses too so I could do up to 3 lights at a time. I had to do this for each relay. The trick was remembering when to press which keys at which times.

turbocad6 · 12-18-2007, 05:46 PM

crazy man, great job... that's def. awesome

how the heck do you clean 1' of snow off a car covered in christmas lights? very carefully I guess