Roof Rack DIY Scene Light Pods

[Pyrotech]

little housing I designed to mount some cheap RGBW rock lights to the side of my roof rack from upTOP Overland.

I want the option for white light, or amber for bug control, and possibly red or green depending on the situation, and the system they have does not yet meet that need of mine.

So, I have a 3d printer, some cad software, and some basic design skills.... yea, lets just design my own custom housing mount.



running a test print out of PLA so I can do a test fit and full size mockup on the roof rack.

 

[RoarinRow]

That's gonna be slick!

 

[Pyrotech]

The low resolution Test part finished up, threw a quick coat of grey primer on it so it stands out better. And roughly held it in place by hand. Main goal was to verify the light pod fit, which it does with a nice snug fit. And to get an idea of how it would look on the rack itself.

 

[Phillysteak]

Nice work! I'm assuming you plan to make them out of ABS once the design is dialed in so they don't warp from the sunlight/summer heat? If so you might want to check out vapor polishing with acetone for that if you want a really nice smooth finish for painting, although I'm always a fan of the layers showing as a conversation piece.

The glass filled nylon filaments work pretty well too, even made a few CNC fixture components with it in the past that held up well. The only down side is they can be pretty abrasive on your 3D printers nozzle in the long term.

 

[Pyrotech]

Nice work! I'm assuming you plan to make them out of ABS once the design is dialed in so they don't warp from the sunlight/summer heat? If so you might want to check out vapor polishing with acetone for that if you want a really nice smooth finish for painting, although I'm always a fan of the layers showing as a conversation piece.

The glass filled nylon filaments work pretty well too, even made a few CNC fixture components with it in the past that held up well. The only down side is they can be pretty abrasive on your 3D printers nozzle in the long term.

plan is carbon fiber nylon for the final print. I bought the harden nozzles to go with it. the stuff is extremely tuff, I printed a dimple die from it;

 

[Kerner]

That's slick! What lights are you using? Curious if you'd share the STL for these.

 

[GermanXJ]

Great idea!

 

[Pyrotech]

Custom app to control a 4 channel Bluetooth relay board. the idea is to be able to control future Scene lights



front only
drivers side only
passenger side only
rear only
all lights on

software runs on the tablet dedicated for the truck




Here are the results of digging through the bluetooth traffic for Mictuning RGBW C2 rock lights with a packet sniffer. I am looking at some custom hardware and software to allow me to control some roof rack lights.

UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff2 is the location of the RGB Value in HEX for the color of the light
UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff1 is the location of what I believe to be a state change value when thesse values are entered teh light changes to color of the RGB value in UUID ~fff2

there is no dimming values or strobe values, later on I will play around with the dimming function so that the brightness of the lights can be dimmed through the software I am working on.

Amber

Bluetooth Attribute Protocol
[Service UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff0]
[UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff2]
Value: ff7f00000000000000000000000000000000
[UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff1]
Value: 03000100bc02ff000100

Red

Bluetooth Attribute Protocol
[Service UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff0]
[UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff2]
Value: ff0000000000000000000000000000000000
[UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff1]
Value: 03010100bc02ff000100

White

Bluetooth Attribute Protocol
[Service UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff0]
[UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff2]
Value: ffffff000000000000000000000000000000
[UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff1]
Value: 03020100bc02ff000100

Green

Bluetooth Attribute Protocol
[Service UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff0]
[UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff2]
Value: 00ff00000000000000000000000000000000
[UUID: 0003cbbb00001000800000805f9bfff1]
Value: 03030100bc02ff000100

 

[Cajunmile]

Curious if you are making these as a finished product and whether you would be willing to let me buy a set for my rack? If not, would you make the cad/print file available?

Thanks

 

[Pyrotech]

Been pretty busy and the housings are a work in progress. But it is likely that a set can be made available.

 

[Pyrotech]

Designing the enclosure for the Bluetooth Relay board,

First time working with parametric design, thought this would be the perfect design for it, this way I can change up the size of future enclosures pretty quickly.





Final case will get some mounting feet on the outside to secure it to the 80/20 rail and possibly an o-ring seal, but I am leaning towards potting the whole board in a silicone to not only help with weatherproofing, but to help with vibration.

 

[Pyrotech]

decided to give out the file for the rack light so the RGBW lights are going to be saved for a future project

these are for the mictuning C2 RGBW rock lights

there are a couple different versions of the part in the file, I was playing around with the design a bit trying out a few ideas. the design is not perfect but maybe it will be useful to someone.

 

[Pyrotech]

Added mounting ears to the case so I can mount it to the 1020 extrusion o. The roof rack. I am pretty pleased with how it fits.

The nodes is to put the relay module in and to act as a junction point fpr the 4 scene lights. This should let me run just two wires to the roof to control all 4 lights.

Now to build a test harness and see how well the module works in this location.

 

[Road]

Very cool mount!

Have you thought about adding the possibility of being able to aim them?

I found with the RIGD leds on my rack that being able to aim them kept them from being blindlingly bright when working near them, like at the tailgate or counter area. Shining straight out became problematic. Being able to swivel them downward when needed to be more of a task light solved it.

If they're meant to be rock lights, mounted flat under a trailer or vehicle, not a problem. Though on a rack at eye level or above, man, they can be wicked bright.

 

[Pyrotech]

Printed up the case in Carbon Fiber Nylon and wired up the control module and the lights