Powering led lights in my stampede with a VXL-3s

[Mikeryder]

Hi all, another question. I just installed led lights on the under of body. They look great with a nine volt battery. Its a tight fit getting it in, so I tried the leds wired directly into the esc. They did not work, plugged in correctly. Does the esc have enough power to drive a 12v led. they should go down to only a few volts to light. Currently my Fluke is locked in my x,s house(Ill have it back in a week or two) so I can't measure the esc voltage right now. I am using the MH battery that came with it for now.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[WRM]

Hi all, another question. I just installed led lights on the under of body. They look great with a nine volt battery. Its a tight fit getting it in, so I tried the leds wired directly into the esc. They did not work, plugged in correctly. Does the esc have enough power to drive a 12v led. they should go down to only a few volts to light. Currently my Fluke is locked in my x,s house(Ill have it back in a week or two) so I can't measure the esc voltage right now. I am using the MH battery that came with it for now.
Thanks,
Mike

Seems like you need battery voltage vs Rx voltage. I was going to suggest a Futaba J "Y-cord" to tap between ESC and Rx, but that's not enough V. You'll need to tap off of the 3S Battery, maybe a custom double-ended (M-F) cable with a tap between the Battery & ESC?...

 

[WRM]

I also wonder if you could tap off the balance cable, but I remove mine when I run?...

 

[Chubaka]

The auxiliary port on the esc should be for a fan. I've heard people hooking leds up into tge receiver, and with a cheaply bought circuit they can be turned on and off via remote if enough channels are avaliable. At a certain point you would need a bec.

 

[Mikeryder]

Why would I need a bec?

 

[Ramp addict]

With A BEC you can adjust your voltage output to your receiver. Your servo and receiver have a max 6v input. You'll burn out both if you run your BEC higher.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Looks like the new kit comes off the RX. The older one would plug into the ESC auxiliary port.

Traxxas Light Lit

Not that I trust Amazons information but they list the LED kit at 12v.

 

[Jamr]

From what I have gathered, the ESC on your stampede only puts out 6 volts to the servos so it will not power any 12 volt LED's.
Traxxas sells a light kit (50$) for your car but it probably wont work if your LED's are 12 volt because I am pretty sure they step down their voltage to 3 or 6 volts in their light kits.
https://traxxas.com/9095-stampede-4x4-led-light-kit

This is never easy unless you get LED's that work off the same voltage as your ESC. Then it is just plug and play.
You could also get 2 and 3 volt LED's and use resisters to step down the ESC's 6 volts to 2 and 3 volts the LED's like.
If you want to keep your 12 volt LED's the easiest thing is to add a separate 12volt battery in the car to power the LED's

To make this easy and future proof I always tap off of the battery and run an inexpensive bucky voltage regulator and tune it to 3 volts that way I can use any battery I want like a 2s to a 4s, it doesn't matter because the voltage reg will always give me 3 volts. Then a switch that works with my controller on any channel I choose. You can go this route also and just tune it to 12 volts but now you have to figure out where to put the electronics. Kinda the same thing as buying a Traxxas light kit only way cheaper.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256..._main.205.40ba1802lP7sXU&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802660437273.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.18.19a7538e108jdn&algo_pvid=9e97b7ee-6edb-4240-92cd-3e8b66a70225&algo_exp_id=9e97b7ee-6edb-4240-92cd-3e8b66a70225-17&pdp_ext_f={"order":"1284","eval":"1","fromPage":"search"}&pdp_npi=6@dis!USD!6.11!3.30!!!6.11!3.30!@210337c117834766662158097e4dd5!12000022446539209!sea!US!3427048799!X!1!0!n_tag:-29919;d:9b75c975;m03_new_user:-29895&curPageLogUid=GX0JfeR6DeHj&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:|x_object_id:1005002846752025|_p_origin_prod:

 

[PonkyKong]

12v light systems can run on 3S.

 

[Mikeryder]

Ill just stick with a 9 v battery for now. And try to figure out why my esc wont power them. I'm sure they will go down to 3-4V. It is tight for the battery. I used velcro and attached to the steering servo, only place it would fit.

 

[Mikeryder]

Ill post a few pics when the battery clip arrives

 

[xjtorc]

And try to figure out why my esc wont power them.

That's been answered a few times already. They're not going to operate on the 6 volts coming out of your ESC's internal BEC. 12 volt lights wont run on 6 volts but they'll run dim on 9v.