Felony Polo light kit for Felony

[oops]

New member here having recently bought a Felony. I bought a light kit from Polo for it, and am a little disappointed in what I got as it seems that the design has changed a bit from what I saw in some review videos.

The rear lights aren't particularly bright, and the lights I got have four LEDs in the center of the light, whereas some pictures look like they have 8 LEDs around the outside.

For the headlights, they're illuminated by 3 LEDs, and the light is very uneven - it's got three very obvious bright spots, rather than an even ring.

The floods are described as "high intensity" but they're actually just a single, standard LED running at 30mA on a 7.4V supply.

I'm not here to moan - I'd just be interested to know what's changed and what the older lights were like.
I enjoy tinkering with electronics, so I'm already happily in the process of modding them with some much brighter LEDs - the floods are now 2 LEDs running at 100mA rather than one at 30

I think the most disappointing thing about the kit is that the wiring joints aren't even soldered. They're just twisted together and then loosely heat shrinked. It's a shame, as clearly a lot effort has gone into creating lights that really fit the look of the car.

 

[Senton_Prime]

New member here having recently bought a Felony. I bought a light kit from Polo for it, and am a little disappointed in what I got as it seems that the design has changed a bit from what I saw in some review videos.

The rear lights aren't particularly bright, and the lights I got have four LEDs in the center of the light, whereas some pictures look like they have 8 LEDs around the outside.

For the headlights, they're illuminated by 3 LEDs, and the light is very uneven - it's got three very obvious bright spots, rather than an even ring.

The floods are described as "high intensity" but they're actually just a single, standard LED running at 30mA on a 7.4V supply.

I'm not here to moan - I'd just be interested to know what's changed and what the older lights were like.
I enjoy tinkering with electronics, so I'm already happily in the process of modding them with some much brighter LEDs - the floods are now 2 LEDs running at 100mA rather than one at 30

I think the most disappointing thing about the kit is that the wiring joints aren't even soldered. They're just twisted together and then loosely heat shrinked. It's a shame, as clearly a lot effort has gone into creating lights that really fit the look of the car.

I agree.. I was pissed when i moved the heat shrink just to to see wires twisted together and folded.. Wtf!! I thought about going through them all with butt connectors.. But there are so many!!

 

[oops]

Yeah - that's the same as what I've got.

The videos of older kits appear to show just a single wire coming out of both the headlights and the rear lights, so they're clearly wired a bit differently inside.

I'm working on improving the headlights by putting a diffusing plastic lens in front of the LEDs, although it's a compromise between getting even lighting and losing to much brightness in the diffuser. Will post some photos once I've got something to show.

 

[Senton_Prime]

Ive had them for about 6 months or so
I opted to not use the floods, i got the fogs going where the floods go and then i want to utilize the piping for the intercooler, cant use both the fogs and floods with the intercooler.. But those flood lights fit my heatwave body perfect so will be installing those as headlights!!

 

[Moirae]

The price is high af for what you get. Honestly, I think all their kits should be a good 15-20$ cheaper. Every time I make a purchase, I feel like i'm getting ripped off but I need the lights and I hate lights on the body. Most of their kits have lights that actually don't require me to make holes in my bodies and that's probably the only reason I don't just buy cheap Chinese lights. Sometimes I wish I had a 3d printer lol.

Oh yea and they have the worse processing time I've ever seen. On average it takes about 14 days before usps even gets the item from the time you order it. I may be impatient but thats ridiculous to me when all they're doing is 3d printing stuff and pairing it with cheap Chinese lights

 

[oops]

Finally got these fitted after replacing all the LEDs and wiring. Very happy with the end result.

I've replaced all the LEDs with bright surface mount LEDs that are rated to 160mA, rather than the 30mA or so of standard LEDs. Because the BEC is running at 7.4V, there's enough voltage to run two LEDs in series which avoids wasting more power in the resistors than in the LEDs. The floods each have two LEDs, running at 100mA, so about three times the current of the stock lights, but six times the brightness.

The headlights have six LEDs, running at a total of 100mA per side. Similar to stock, but twice the brightness. Three LEDs per side would have worked fine, but an even number makes it easier to wire pairs in series.

I've also added some translucent plastic between the LEDs and the lens to even out the light. This certainly helps, but it's still not very evenly illuminated. It really needs a bit more distance between the LEDs and the lens.

The rears now have 8 LEDs in a ring around the outside, rather than 4 in the middle. Total current is around 125mA per side, which is about the same as stock, but again, thanks to wiring as 2s4p, there's twice as much power in the LEDs. The LEDs could comfortably handle a lot more, but I don't want to draw too much from the BEC and they're definitely bright enough.

This could be done much more neatly and easily with a custom PCB, but once it's behind the lens you can't see it, and there's now only two wires coming out the back rather than the mess of eight wires. I think this is similar to the arrangement to the "original" Polo lights I've seen in review videos.

I'm using a magnetic pogo-pin connector to automatically connect the lights in the body. This isn't perfect - the lights occasionally flicker when hitting bumps - but I have an idea for a 3D printed mount for the connector which should improve it.

 

[Senton_Prime]

I wanna see these in the dark to see the difference in brightness!!

 

[oops]

It's tricky to get a fair impression as the camera adjusts the exposure automatically. I'll see if I can swap one of the floods back to the stock LED and do a side-by-side shot. I should add that the rear shot above is on less than half power as it only uses full power when braking.

 

[Senton_Prime]

Thats pretty dope bro

 

[Doom!]

Sweeeet! I have a Polo light kit on my 6s Typhon and love it. Looks really nice on the Felony.

 

[Fathershelper]

I got mine installed mostly. Supposed to have come with underglow but its a single strip about 15 inches long and I see no way of making it work. So I ordered some other leds strips and some other parts to try a different plan. Anyone know what the polo kit should have come with? They won't e mail me back..

 

[Senton_Prime]

I got mine installed mostly. Supposed to have come with underglow but its a single strip about 15 inches long and I see no way of making it work. So I ordered some other leds strips and some other parts to try a different plan. Anyone know what the polo kit should have come with? They won't e mail me back..

Thats correct.. Led strip with a control module, should be paperwork with it as well

 

[Fathershelper]

Thats correct.. Led strip with a control module, should be paperwork with it as well

Hmmm well no paperwork couldn't find a vid on installing the strip. Ill try to post pics when i get mine done. I'm going to use the controller and add the lights. Hopefully soon. Got a c8 body as well so I need to plan this out so it will be on the chassis and work with either body...

 

[oops]

I wanna see these in the dark to see the difference in brightness!!

Floods before and after taken with the same camera settings:

The difference is a bit less obvious from a head-on shot of the lights:

The brighter floods/headlights are nice, but my main issue was getting the rear lights brighter as I want them to be clearly visible in daylight for brake lights. The stock setup of having LEDs behind the central black panel robs a lot of light.

 

[Senton_Prime]

Yep thats nice.. I was on polo last night and seen they have the brake light option for the e brake now.. Also seen they had a new under glow kit, comes with 4 light strips but it does not have the multi color leds, just the standard red, blue, ect!!

 

[hdt1980]

I have a 3d printing business, and have created an adapter that is printed in PETG at 100% infill that uses the GRC magnetic/ power kits. My custom adapter allows you to maintain the stock body pins, and the hugs the body tight so your lights don't flicker on and off. They aren't indestructible but pretty durable as they're made from PETG. Once everything is installed, you just snap the body on (the rare earth magnets are very strong) the lights will have power. There's also an option to use the sensor wire so you can use an alternative channel to power on or off the lights via your transmitter.

PM me if you're interested in the mount. I haven't gone full production on these yet, so can provide them at a very low cost + shipping so my fellow RC enthusiasts can provide feedback and give suggestions to improvement. BASH ON!

I also have adapters for Mojave, Infraction, Kraton 6s.

 

[Senton_Prime]

I kind of like this idea.. But i think my future gnss case would be in the way.. It sits right in between the rear body posts!?

 

[hdt1980]

Felony adapter is front between the post mounts.

 

[Senton_Prime]

How much you thinking!?

 

[oops]

That's very cool! I'd not seen the GRC kits before. They look more suitable than the tiny little thing I'm using as aside from the stronger magnets, they've got bigger contact pads which should make any lateral movement of the body less of an issue.

I've actually just designed a case for my custom light controller which sits between the front body mounts, and incorporates a mount for the pogo pin connector that I'm using. If that doesn't work reliably, I may need a re-think!

I'm planning to use the screws for the blower to mount the body-side connector. Have you considered printing an adapter that would do that for the GRC connector rather than gluing? I guess the force on the front screw might be a bit much with strong magnets.