Re: [DML] Neon Ground Lights

["Chris Boden" <cboden@xxxx>]

Hi Kenneth :)

Finally a question that I have some serious experiance in, lol I have installed thousands of lights on the entire series of Geekmobiles over the years from Neon, to Strobe, Lightbars, and LED.

1. Neons are illegal in most states, especially frowned on being blue. Watch yourself. That's why we don't run them on the Geekmobiles anymore.

2. Neon lights are prone to crack (even with the protective tubes, they crack too, especially on a car that sits low (like Geek-3 or a DeLorean).

3. They are prone to have problems with water and other environmental hazards...under a car isn't a great place to be :)

To solve this problem and still have legal, undercar lights, we took it to the next level. The laws in Michigan prohibit Neon, but they allow Running Lights, and there is no limit to how many, or how small they can be. We developed a series of computer controlled LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) that run the length of the car on each side, down as close to the ground as we could get them under the doors. There are 105 lights (each light is .2"dia) down each side from one wheel to the other. There are 70 lights on the front (2 rows of 35), and another 2 rows in the rear.

Each light actually contains 2 Diodes, one Yellow, one Green. The top row in the rear contains Yellow/Red (Red for braking). Each light is wired seperately and is individually addressable in software by the cars onboard computer controls. This allows us to do anything you can possibly imagine with the lights. They are all controllable in realtime and can be synced to anything, like the Tach, Speedometer, the volume of the stereo (so the lights look like a bouncing bar-graph for the stereo, a very cool effect), anything. They also have several preprogrammed and infinately variable patterns, like sweeping, chasing, etc. The only limit is your imagination.

To mount the lights (zipties aren't reliable for any extended period of time and you don't want to drop a 4' glass tube on the ground under your car). You will HAVE to drill a hole or 2. We didn't want to drill hundreds of holes in the car (mainly for strucural reasons). We drilled 5 holes on each side and mounted all the lights in a long, thin channel ("C" shaped crosssection) of stainless. We use the 5 small bolts to mount the channel to the car. Then we epoxy the holes to prevent rust, etc. The effect is stunning :)

For the front and back sets of lights, we simply drill a small hole for each light into the plastic of the bumper or the plastic grille and put s drop of superglue to hold the light in place. We've never had a problem :)

And, unlike Neons or Incandesant lights, LEDs will last you decades before they burn out :)

To accomplish all of this, we had to invent and design all of the computer controlls, the software, the protocols, schematics, everything. I would be happy to supply you with everything you need as far as schematics and specifications for all of our research. The only provision is you cannot use it for commercial purposes, etc.


Have fun and good luck!

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Digital Devices" <delorean@xxxx>
Reply-To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 19:03:38 -0500

>Well .. I just finished installing my ground lights .. and 
> 
>BOY they look COOL (my opinion)

[long quote + busy DML day = snipped by moderator]