How do you wire lights on your cars?

[OnwardGuinevere]

Hey all!
This could be a silly question, but how do you wire all your lights on your builds?

As I'm waiting for electronics to arrive for my rally car, I'm trying to think of a clean way to power headlights, taillights, reverse lights, etc. I'll be running the ESS dual speaker too, that will plug into my ESC.

I kind of cheated with my Rovair, as I used the Traxxas distribution block that I already had in place and tapped that system for my lighting. Now, trying to figure out the best way to do this on the rally car since it's obviously not running Traxxas electronics. I've started looking at switches and such from Injora? I dunno, I'm kind of all over the place seeing what I can do.

I'm interested in thoughts on a clean way to do this or see what everyone typically does with their kit builds.

Thanks in advance!

 

[xjtorc]

I use one of these per channel I want the lights on.

use splitters to connect however many lights you want on the other end of the switch.

 

[Chubaka]

Here is how I do mine now. 2s lipo to my 4 channel rc4wd controller. No dimming 9 volts or taking up the cars battery. The remote i double sided taped to my radio.

RC4WD light controller

• Chubaka
• Mar 6, 2025

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

Here is how I do mine now. 2s lipo to my 4 channel rc4wd controller. No dimming 9 volts or taking up the cars battery. The remote i double sided taped to my radio.

RC4WD light controller

• Chubaka
• Mar 6, 2025

I was looking at that rc4wd controller, clean setup. So you'll just run a battery for lights and one for the car. I imagine you could use a 2s shorty battery for this too?

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

I use one of these per channel I want the lights on.

use splitters to connect however many lights you want on the other end of the switch.

I like that! I was trying to find just a simple switch relay.

 

[Chubaka]

I was looking at that rc4wd controller, clean setup. So you'll just run a battery for lights and one for the car. I imagine you could use a 2s shorty battery for this too?

You should be able to use a shorty. My scx10ii has done 12 miles at once before. That's why I grabbed a 5200 for it.

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

You should be able to use a shorty. My scx10ii has done 12 miles at once before. That's why I grabbed a 5200 for it.

Nice! I'm definitely going to consider this setup. If I don't use it for the rally car, I'll like power a winch and roof lights for my TRX4.

 

[Chubaka]

Nice! I'm definitely going to consider this setup. If I don't use it for the rally car, I'll like power a winch and roof lights for my TRX4.

This should take care of your power trip! I'm getting ready to really test it. Decking my f450 out in lights and soon it'll have a trailer that's just as lit as me.

 

[jojobeans]

Depending on your radio setup, the fkysky ANT protocol radio’s have receivers with built in light control modules that are programmable from the radio. I’m sure other radio manufacturers have receivers with similar features too, I just haven’t really looked personally.

Might be worth swapping over to a fs-g7p or the new g11p if you want to limit clutter. Not the cheapest solution, but just throwing it out there as another option.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1355314632...cdM0GH4c4HZB5BVp7qUfIGsHQg-eKGwMRY1H9Cg&gQT=1

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

Depending on your radio setup, the fkysky ANT protocol radio’s have receivers with built in light control modules that are programmable from the radio. I’m sure other radio manufacturers have receivers with similar features too, I just haven’t really looked personally.

Might be worth swapping over to a fs-g7p or the new g11p if you want to limit clutter. Not the cheapest solution, but just throwing it out there as another option.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1355314632...cdM0GH4c4HZB5BVp7qUfIGsHQg-eKGwMRY1H9Cg&gQT=1

I'm going to be using the GT5 as my transmitter on this one. I'll keep that transmitter in mind too.

I kind of wish the old frequency swap was still a thing with these receivers. I'm sure there's models that still do that, just nice to be able to swap a frequency when you need to, would make it easier IMO to have multiple cars to one transmitter.

 

[nino]

GT5 compativle receivers are so cheap I still have 2 or 3 laying around and I sold both my GT5s

There's enough channels on the GT5, and for light control there are light kits with controllers that have brake light and turn signal functions and more.

 

[TeknoJ]

I have always used these little scx24 kits. They work great. I have never been able to figure out how to turn lights on or off from any channel on my tx though. Its possible you need a light controller that has that feature? The leds are good and there are other scx24 kits with different leds. Extension cables and adapters are available. The controller is available by itself, as are leds.
Cheap and effective.

 

[OnwardGuinevere]

I have always used these little scx24 kits. They work great. I have never been able to figure out how to turn lights on or off from any channel on my tx though. Its possible you need a light controller that has that feature? The leds are good and there are other scx24 kits with different leds. Extension cables and adapters are available. The controller is available by itself, as are leds.
Cheap and effective.
View attachment 232252

Forgot about MyTrickRC. I'll check them out again for 1/10 scale light kits. I'll have to look into linking it to a channel on the TX, that'll be new to me too.

 

[TeknoJ]

Forgot about MyTrickRC. I'll check them out again for 1/10 scale light kits. I'll have to look into linking it to a channel on the TX, that'll be new to me too.

The light controller just plugs into the receiver so I had assumed you could turn it on or off by turning the channel on or off. It plugs into ch3 or 4 etc., you can set that channel on your radio to turn on or off with a corresponding button.

 

[Breitmaierz]

I'm not much help here. I wait till the last minute to do this stuff and I usually end up not doing it because I've moved on to the next project. But when I do come back around to it I usually do magnets. You can buy all kinds of different set ups on Etsy.

 

[MagicianElectrician]

I use one of these per channel I want the lights on.

use splitters to connect however many lights you want on the other end of the switch.

I have seen those online but haven't tried one yet. Any issues with those or they work good?

 

[Breitmaierz]

I've had zero issues. But.... the only ones that really would put it to the test are the ones my kids use and those do not have magnets. The light kits that came on them stock have failed tho, so it is on the to do.