Igor Ilyin
The first way to make running lights yourself
(described below.)
Why do we make dho with our own hands? Because:
- Buying native daytime running lights for a foreign car for 5,000 rubles to fit the mounts - the toad is choking, it’s easier to do it yourself
- Standard LED lamps and cartridges are used, which can be bought inexpensively at any store
- Easy budget assembly and the ability to install daytime running lights in any fog niche
Making your own dho is very easy. First you need to get such an empty spray can, as in the photo.
Carefully cut the can into two identical halves.
We cut out four seals from any packaging plastic: two for fixing the cartridge and two foglight plugs from moisture. It is enough to press and twist the jar itself - and there will be a perfectly even shape.
Then we insert the glass into the jar, as in the photo, and put it on the sealant. We insert the cartridge into the seal, the lamp into the cartridge, then put the plug. We bend the petals so that it does not fall out. You can put the plug on the sealant, but I did not do this.
It turns out such a design.
Cut the edges of the jar into petals. I got eight petals. You do as much as you feel comfortable with. It turned out like this:
Let's compare regular fog lights with what happened. As you can see, it turned out no worse, judging by the brightness. But I repeat once again: we have the installation of daytime running lights, not fog lights. The difference between them is huge. Running lights just shine, and anywhere, and fog lights are specially tuned and shine where necessary.
Now the question arises: how to stick our DRLs into standard mounts? We do this: first cut out the template. I carved from the bottom of a jar.
We cut a hole with a chisel, be sure to leave three to four petals, we will need them for fastening and installing the dxl. You will have to choose the shape of the mounting base for your car yourself. This form is for installation on a Nissan Note in a standard fog lamp mount.
It turned out something like this. Fastened with an ordinary screed for twenty rubles apiece.
I drilled holes for ventilation and water to pass through. Now this design can be painted in any color, my advice is to paint it with matte paint, it looks prettier.
This is how our daytime running lights look on the car.
Well, that's all, the issue price is about three hundred - four hundred rubles and plus a hundred rubles paint. It wasn't difficult at all to make a dho yourself. For three years of operation on the car, I have never changed the lamps. The car has already been sold, and home-made DRLs, made with their own hands and installed instead of their relatives, still work flawlessly. Now I bought a similar raccoon made in 2013, and I had to come up with a different design on it, but more on that later.
The second way to make and install do-it-yourself DRL
First question: Why? After all, you can buy in a store, and it will cost from 500 rubles to 2000 rubles per pair.
The answer is this: For 500 rubles, not daytime running lights are sold, but miserable fakes that will last no more than a year or two, and then either all or part will go out, or they will start blinking. Doing it yourself is much more reliable. Even the price of 1000 rubles is not a guarantee that the running lights will work for a long time. As a rule, some of the LEDs simply go out. And to buy more expensive - the toad suffocates. It is easier to build a dho with your own hands.
I went shopping, I looked, I figured. The lens from the headlight costs 60 rubles, 6 LEDs of 1 W each cost 10 rubles apiece, a set of connectors - 25 rubles for 10 moms and 25 rubles for 10 dads. Total comes out 300 rubles. Power, it turns out, 6 watts. This is more than enough for daytime running lights.
The case was found easily: for this, a can of Moment glue came up. A piece of ordinary plexiglass with a diameter of a lens and a radiator from some kind of electronics, cut in diameter, came in handy. Then everything is simple: we drill recesses in plastic to drown the LEDs. This is how the picture turns out.
How to power diodes? There are 2 options:
1. Expensive - this is to buy 2 current stabilizers for 700 mA and power them through them (and this will be correct and will require another 250 to 300 rubles of capital investment).
2. Cheaper is to put a resistance of at least 2 W at 16-18 ohms. In this case, the resistor will heat up, but the hand must endure. This will be wrong, but cheap.
Spent 300 rubles and 2 days of work with a file and a soldering iron.
After assembly, the running lights are sealed with a conventional sealant.
Fasten as you see fit. I glued it on double-sided tape and pressed it from the inside with a bracket to the top of the bumper.
General photo. Interior lights are homemade daytime running lights.
This design also has a drawback. If the LED fails, then you have to disassemble everything.
Other decision
You can make a slightly different dho with your own hands, another solution is not at all more expensive, but more technologically advanced in terms of replacing lamps. Daytime running lights will turn out to be somewhat weaker in power - only 5 watts. While I was installing the DRL, I came across such a lamp, once bought for a flashlight a long time ago, and came up with this option.
A pair of such lamps costs 260 rubles, holders - 60 rubles a pair, and 120 rubles a pair of the same lenses. Everything else is the same.
Everything is made of plastic. Such running lights are heated weakly and do not require any current stabilizers and radiators. They connect directly to 12V.
There is a disadvantage. We have to come up with fasteners for plastic, but this is solved with ordinary metal ties.
That's all. Everyone can make daytime running lights on a car. There is nothing complicated in the manufacture and installation of DRL with your own hands.
