[fortythirtyfive]

Embarked on my bravest mod yet, cutting open my retrofitted icons to fit addressable RGBW lens behind the DRL's, plus create a functioning eyebrow (LCI deletes this from factory).



I have brand new OEM grade lenses so seperating them will be easy.. cut the majority of the lens middle out, then create a notch in the left over lens and slowly pry it out using heat to make the housing edges flexible. Permaseal does NOT ease underheat only the housing does, I used the heatgun with a focus attachment to make it possible for me to fit a rivet popper tool under and break the seal, all you have to do then is pull at the sharp edge of the lens and it lifts out.

















Fast forward a few days after reverse engineering the design, dremeling a lot of holes and gaps in trims, I came to wiring up my LED controller. I have 2 relay switches to power this. One is triggered by the headlight/ecu.. I posi tapped this from one of the original DRL boards



The second relay uses a delay function so that even though the DRL might have down powered the LED controller still has 5 seconds of life left to perform the shutdown led animation.

Demo animation 01: https://streamable.com/5iognm
Demo animation 02: https://streamable.com/mhetkg
Demo animation 03: https://streamable.com/qpzue1
Demo animation 03: https://streamable.com/1x13t0

Because the LEDs are addressable all you have to do is wire a pos, neg and data wire to each strip.. you configure where the group splits need to be via the bluetooth app, so for example DRL #1 might only use 26 chips, DRL #2 might use 38 and the eyebrow might use 65. You input all the correct information and then set offset delays and priorities as to which order they run, or group them together.


--- I will update this thread as the build continues.

[fortythirtyfive]

--

[greyf36]

This is more than brave man haha good job

Look amazing

[LA1Z24]

I was ready to talk shit but that is 100% fire. Looks awesome. Put some socks on.

[Ace Rimmer]

Far easier to put them in an oven to get the covers off, melts the glue then they just pull off, then on with the new covers.

[fortythirtyfive]

Originally Posted by LA1Z24

I was ready to talk shit but that is 100% fire. Looks awesome. Put some socks on.

Haha, that's the comfort problem of working from home thanks to covid/office restrictions.. your dress sense goes out of the window

Originally Posted by Ace Rimmer

Far easier to put them in an oven to get the covers off, melts the glue then they just pull off, then on with the new covers.

Personally I found the permaseal turned brittle/hard under heat, with that said I have only worked on LCI M2 headlights and now the LCI F32 headlights. The only thing heat did do for me was flex the channel that holds the sealant, it helped me get a spreader tool in to start splitting the sealant from the plastic housing.

I can also report back that I've driven with the passenger headlight in for just over a week, in both dry and wet conditions with zero condensation! I used a small amount of butyl rubber at first but felt I had skimped too much, so I heated the lens up, popped it out and back filled the channel with butyl. I then used a small amount of silicon gasket sealant on the separation line between headlight and lens to be super safe.

What is incredibly annoying is I forgot to reinsert the big silica gel packs during the second lens fitting, luckily it looks like I might not need them.

The original indicator LED is currently showing that's why it jumps a bit in the top right corner.. I just need to make some plastic to cover the LED board.

As I'm sure you can all guess they're nowhere near as bright as OEM, if anything though those were dazzlingly bright due to how the plastic reflectors are placed on the DRL acrylics

[WillLowe]

Are these just a one off? I'd love a set but it's way beyond the effort level I have ha.

[fortythirtyfive]

Originally Posted by WillLowe

Are these just a one off? I'd love a set but it's way beyond the effort level I have ha.

unfortunately yeah - I hit a lot of speed bumps when building the first one, the actual LED process is the hardest of them all as it involves soldering onto boards with 1mm pads, so they're super delicate and also incredibly temperamental..

I'm hoping to get some boards built with the leds already on them, that way I don't have to do crazy offsets with the individual leds to make the corners seamless (you can't bend led tape) plus it'll save with all the crazy wires coming out of each led strip. Currently all the wiring is in thew way of the adaptive cone/reflector and as a fail safe the car has shut down all adaptiveness, that doesn't overly bother me though as split beam function never worked amazingly for me.

I still need to do the second headlight asap, as life goes at the moment though I've had a ton of other things pop up that's causing me delays lol, I keep starting projects and never find the time to finish the damn things. I'm moving at the end of November though so everything has to be tied up and finished by then.

[Squibby1996]

These are insane😳 not sure on the multicolour in the video but the start up animations look amazing. Fair play to you I can imagine alot of hard work went into that

[lqchko]

Originally Posted by fortythirtyfive

Embarked on my bravest mod yet, cutting open my retrofitted icons to fit addressable RGBW lens behind the DRL's, plus create a functioning eyebrow (LCI deletes this from factory).



I have brand new OEM grade lenses so seperating them will be easy.. cut the majority of the lens middle out, then create a notch in the left over lens and slowly pry it out using heat to make the housing edges flexible. Permaseal does NOT ease underheat only the housing does, I used the heatgun with a focus attachment to make it possible for me to fit a rivet popper tool under and break the seal, all you have to do then is pull at the sharp edge of the lens and it lifts out.

















Fast forward a few days after reverse engineering the design, dremeling a lot of holes and gaps in trims, I came to wiring up my LED controller. I have 2 relay switches to power this. One is triggered by the headlight/ecu.. I posi tapped this from one of the original DRL boards



The second relay uses a delay function so that even though the DRL might have down powered the LED controller still has 5 seconds of life left to perform the shutdown led animation.

Demo animation 01: https://streamable.com/5iognm
Demo animation 02: https://streamable.com/mhetkg
Demo animation 03: https://streamable.com/qpzue1
Demo animation 03: https://streamable.com/1x13t0

Because the LEDs are addressable all you have to do is wire a pos, neg and data wire to each strip.. you configure where the group splits need to be via the bluetooth app, so for example DRL #1 might only use 26 chips, DRL #2 might use 38 and the eyebrow might use 65. You input all the correct information and then set offset delays and priorities as to which order they run, or group them together.


--- I will update this thread as the build continues.

Brilliant!

[Troopa340i]

The lighting effects are amazing! Awesome work!

[jnj2455]

You ever look at something that a person is able to accomplish and just think, "wow they're just a more advanced human than me". This is one of those moments.

I've always shied away from electronics/soldering/circuitry, mostly because I'm too dumb to understand it. That, and I tried to pry open headlights years ago without the proper tools and vowed to never do it again. Great job here.