LED Light Bar or other Lights Advice

Hardware, Parts and Tools
1

I float often at dusk and don’t rely on the stock lights on my board to see where I’m going. I use a flashlight and a headlamp to see where I’m going. However, I’ve heard from several of my neighbors (who thus far haven’t run me over) how they notice my Onewheel’s taillight and headlight as they drive past at dusk. As I upgrade my XR to Little FOCer 3.1 with an 18s2p battery, I would like to at least have a red taillight, but would ideally like the same reversing red/white head/taillights on my stock Onewheel for better visibility by others.

I’m a newbie, so I apologize if I missed it, but I searched this forum for a VESC Onewheel lighting topic and couldn’t find one, so I decided to create my own to answer the following questions and collect any other board lighting advice:

  • General VESCXR lighting advice
  • Can stock Onewheel front and rear LED bars be used interchangeably?
  • Aftermarket stuff like Oak City Shred Solutions LED bars for VESC
  • Other recommendations for board lighting
2

Anyone know anything about something called a “Rescue LED module”?

3

rescue.company.site
very little information on the rESCue. It doesnt sound like it works with 84V and will be out of stock possibly long term.

There currently is no simple solution for LEDs with the FOCer.

  1. Find a switching solution that works with your voltage, something that can be swiched when the controller is active.
  2. Find a buck converter to lower your voltage to 5v or lower.
  3. Find a set of LEDs that works with your boxes and voltage that wont over heat
  4. Run power back to the rear headlight.

There are a lot of varables .

4

Thanks. I should have my 75.6 volt 18s2p Samsung 50S 21700 battery later this week. Hopefully I can figure out a solution soon.

5

I believe the VXwheel system uses an 84v system, and I THINK he uses rESCue, I’ll confirm and get back to you

6

Did you find out about VXwheel rESCue?

7

He’s making his own PCB board for the lights actually. He also makes his own lights, and they’re brighter than GT, but will only be headlights

8

Update on the Quest for Lighting

My VESC is working and I have the LED wires run from the controller box to my battery box, where I was able to fit the stock LED bar, but there’s no slot in the controller box for front lighting.

In order to supply power to the rear LED bar, I just spent the past hour searching for a buck converter that has ~75.6V input and 5V output. I’m not finding much. This one is pretty big at 2.39’’1.54’’0.5’’ (60.63912.7mm):
Q80SV05030PRFS
https://mou.sr/3Yg2Jqd

I have a bunch of 18V Makita batteries, so maybe I’ll DIY an independent board-mounted lighting system.
Some inspiration:
https://www.reddit.com/r/onewheel/comments/s8wq11/light_bar_project/
Makita 18V battery mount: Amazon.com

Or get cool Makita 12V bit driver and use its battery?
6.5" wide 12V LED light bar (mounted to front Overland Lifters)

Makita 12V battery mount:

Any and all ideas are welcome.

9

Replying to my own (old) post. Here’s what I’ve learned…

You need a few things, in addition to the LEDs themselves, to add LEDs to a FOCer 3 or other controller that lacks sufficient power output:

  1. LED controller. Lots out there, but this seems like the best and is used by Atlowshop, one the bigger VESC builders: WLED CONTROLLER - STANDALONE — UGLAND CAMERA
    Note that this is a 5V controller. If you want 12V LEDs, perhaps an AvaSpark controller is better (that said, I am not a fan of AvaSpark because their stuff is poorly-made, overpriced, and poorly documented).
  2. High voltage switch. It’s triggered on by the FOCer’s measly 5V output and passes through the entire voltage of the battery. Here are a couple commonly-used options: 5v Power Unit — UGLAND CAMERA VXwheel Solid State Switch for VESC Onewheel lights HSS | eBay
  3. Buck converter.* This drops the battery voltage coming through the switch (e.g. 75.6V for 18s, 84V for 20s) down to something to power LEDs like 5V or 12V. Here’s a 5V one that works with the Ugland LED controller (you can also get these on amazon): https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256801506536801.html (*not needed if you choose the Ugland 5v Power Unit, which includes both the HV switch and Buck Converter)
  4. LEDs. Choose LEDs recommended for your LED controller. The Ugland controller works with SK6812 LED strips. These ones were used by Mario at The Board Garage: Amazon.com

If you want rigid LED bars instead of flexible strips, they can be found on AvaSpark.com and other places. Just make sure the voltage and type (e.g. 5V SK6812) match up with the LED controller.

1 Like
10

Nice little writeup. Proud of you.