Custom Third Brake Light/Chase light

[Cblaxx19]

@Cblaxx19
Why don’t you pull the running, brake, and cargo triggers from the BCM in the passenger footwell? It’ll be closer, and no difference in output voltage. That’s where I grabbed mine from for the running light on the 3rd brake light I made. There’s also a large power cable that you could use to power relays if you were concerned with the voltage/amp ratings.
I’m traveling today, but I can get you the wire colors/pin outs by tomorrow evening if you don’t have them.

i could do that. Let me know what info you have when you get a chance.

 

[Cblaxx19]

Well here she is! This is definitely still a prototype unit. I need to either remake the housing and do a better job welding it or just commit to an aluminum housing. As I was tightening down the second screw, I heard one of the joints popping. So I had to let off it a little. Because of that, I couldn’t get the gasket to seal completely all the way around.

But it’s awesome to see the design in action and see at least some of my effort pay off. But I’m not done yet.

But it’s exciting none the less!

 

[CrankCase]

@Cblaxx19

Here are the BCM pin outs:

Dumb question, in your video when you hit the brake why are your trucks brakes lights not activating? Was the new high mount not tied into those?

 

[Cblaxx19]

@Cblaxx19

Here are the BCM pin outs:
View attachment 28183View attachment 28184View attachment 28185View attachment 28186View attachment 28187View attachment 28188View attachment 28189View attachment 28190
Dumb question, in your video when you hit the brake why are your trucks brakes lights not activating? Was the new high mount not tied into those?

Thank you for the info.
all the functions are currently wired to a switch on my garmin. I hadn’t tapped into the BCM yet to trigger them. So I was just hitting switches to run through the functions.

 

[CrankCase]

Thank you for the info.
all the functions are currently wired to a switch on my garmin. I hadn’t tapped into the BCM yet to trigger them. So I was just hitting switches to run through the functions.

Gotcha, I kinda figured as much but just wanted to check.
I will say that when I did mine (and do my upfits) I will usually grab the correct wire at the harness just at the base of the BCM where the harness transitions to the sill plate. There is a ton more room there to splice into wiring vs right at the BCM connectors.

Let me know if you need anything else!

That light looks fantastic.
On a side note, I’m 99% sure the f150 3rd brake light is the same for the new Ranger. So that opens up a market for you as well.
My brother is picking up his Ranger Raptor tomorrow so I will be able to verify if the brake lights are the same.
He lives in Florida s well so he can be your test bed if needed.

 

[Cblaxx19]

alrighty, after a little break from messing with the brake light for some family vacations and wrapping up the outstanding grille light orders, im back to refining this brake light design.

biggest news is that i caved and finally bought myself a 3D scanner. i've wanted one for a while to alleviate some of the trial and error ive been doing to get designs to fit and this brake light was a major player in it. the cab curvature was just a PITA to nail down.

so with the scanner, im able to get a mesh surface into my modeling software to use for getting curves, hole placements, etc much more spot on than the eyeball method i have generally been doing to date.

so here's what a 3d scanned file looks like after meshing all the data points from the scanner.

its not the prettiest scan, and im certainly going through a learning curve on how to use it and also on how to make it useful in my modeling program.

the good news, i was surprisingly close with my trial and error method!

The area i missed was that the cab also curves laterally across the truck. so my light fit the middle but the 2 ends had larger gaps.

i also found that my mount holes were a decent amount off angle from what they should be. The bottom hole was my original bolt hole. i just didnt have a good way of determining the right angle for it. the top hole is the revised hole to be perpendicular to the actual cab surface.

this is a pretty big improvement for 2 reasons:
1: the screw will now engage appropriately
2: with the original hole location, so far below the center of the part, when tightening, it would tend to cause the top to rotate away from the cab. this is bad for sealing. so the new, higher location will apply more even clamping which should make the seal on the gasket to the cab better, especially at the top of the light.

i'm still working on getting the lateral curvature of the cab worked out, but hopefully i can figure that out this weekend.

 

[Rabidtastic]

nice, which scanner did you end up with

 

[Cblaxx19]

nice, which scanner did you end up with

This is with a creality otter. I actually have the creality raptor on order but snagged the otter to test the software with my computer.

 

[njaehner]

I went ahead and printed a setup with a scallop on the inside to see how it looked.
It’s not majorly angled forward…

I can’t decide if I’m OK with this or not. Haha

View attachment 27489
View attachment 27490View attachment 27491

I actually think it appears worse than it is cause the roof starts to dip and kind of makes it look like it’s angled more.

This print also let me test out the simplified camera mount. Which is actually even simpler than I planned. I was going to make a replacement cover piece to go over it and clamp it down but 2 screws overlapping the edge is even easier.
View attachment 27492

Any chance you would consider doing a version of this with two NMO mounts, so someone could mount two antennas?

I've been looking at the BulletProof Diesel Third Brake Light dual antenna mount, but it's pricey! https://offroadalliance.com/product...ird-brake-light-dual-antenna-mount-2015-f150/

And as a 3d printing enthusiast myself, I love seeing how this has all come together and the work you've put in. Awesome job.

 

[Cblaxx19]

Any chance you would consider doing a version of this with two NMO mounts, so someone could mount two antennas?

I've been looking at the BulletProof Diesel Third Brake Light dual antenna mount, but it's pricey! https://offroadalliance.com/product...ird-brake-light-dual-antenna-mount-2015-f150/

And as a 3d printing enthusiast myself, I love seeing how this has all come together and the work you've put in. Awesome job.

Just to be up front, my version isnt going to be cheap. Im trying to minimize variants to keep the price down as much as possible to keep in the same range as other options out there. There also isn’t a ton of room available with the 4 pods. I’m not sure I could do another mount without things getting too cramped.

 

[Cblaxx19]

I've been a bit slow on this project lately with trips and work and spending time on my other projects. But here's a bit of an update. I managed to figure out how to convert the mating surface of my light to a properly sized flat pattern in order to laser cut the gasket to fit correctly. this was good but the gasket is really thin(width wise, not thickness wise) along the top edge and ive found that while installing, that portion of the gasket kind of gets pushed and folds a bit rather than getting compressed. I believe this is the cause of some minor leaking that i get since its not compressing the gasket and putting load on it.

so still some work on gasket design to do but its moving.

along with this, ive been looking into how to actually use all 4 oem mount holes instead of just the 2 outside ones. i cant use the 2 inside oem holes directly without relocating the cameras and squeezing the 2 inner lights together. and then i don't like the large bare space created opposite the camera, as seen here:

so i went back to the original design and looked at how to get 2 additional mount points and I've come up with a bracket the mounts on the inside of the cab using the inside oem mount points and then provides 2 new mount points in spots that aren't blocked by the lights. so this allows me to get 4 mount points, with the 2 inside points being higher up which will help with compressing the gasket along the top of the light. I'm not ready to share my bracket design publicly though so its not shown here. i have some testing to do to vet this whole idea and will update once i finish that.

this pic shows the 2 additional mounting holes and is also dressed up a bit with black powdercoat and my logo engraved on it for fun.

slow progress is better than no progress...

 

[ErlichBachman]

i always enjoy seeing these updates. keep it going!

 

[Cblaxx19]

i always enjoy seeing these updates. keep it going!

i like making them when i get around to it. haha

 

[SpaceWhiteF150]

Looking forward to it!!!!

 

[Cranbery]

I've been a bit slow on this project lately with trips and work and spending time on my other projects. But here's a bit of an update. I managed to figure out how to convert the mating surface of my light to a properly sized flat pattern in order to laser cut the gasket to fit correctly. this was good but the gasket is really thin(width wise, not thickness wise) along the top edge and ive found that while installing, that portion of the gasket kind of gets pushed and folds a bit rather than getting compressed. I believe this is the cause of some minor leaking that i get since its not compressing the gasket and putting load on it.

so still some work on gasket design to do but its moving.

along with this, ive been looking into how to actually use all 4 oem mount holes instead of just the 2 outside ones. i cant use the 2 inside oem holes directly without relocating the cameras and squeezing the 2 inner lights together. and then i don't like the large bare space created opposite the camera, as seen here:
View attachment 31307

so i went back to the original design and looked at how to get 2 additional mount points and I've come up with a bracket the mounts on the inside of the cab using the inside oem mount points and then provides 2 new mount points in spots that aren't blocked by the lights. so this allows me to get 4 mount points, with the 2 inside points being higher up which will help with compressing the gasket along the top of the light. I'm not ready to share my bracket design publicly though so its not shown here. i have some testing to do to vet this whole idea and will update once i finish that.

this pic shows the 2 additional mounting holes and is also dressed up a bit with black powdercoat and my logo engraved on it for fun.
View attachment 31306

slow progress is better than no progress...

I NEED IT

 

[Tremgineer]

how can these lights be turned on? are they part of the OEM reverse light circuit?

 

[Cblaxx19]

how can these lights be turned on? are they part of the OEM reverse light circuit?

all 4 lights are wired to the brake circuit(high power red light) and the DRL circuit(low power red light).

The 2 inner lights are switched and the 2 outer lights are also switched. I do want to tie the 2 inner lights to the reverse/bed light circuits. Just haven’t done that yet.

 

[Cblaxx19]

I printed my new bracket design and the midsection of the housing with the new holes and test fit it this weekend.

The bracket and additional holes really pulls the light down to the cab. I’m getting great compression on the gasket now. Even able to use a thinner gasket so that it’s a cleaner look.

I ordered a new full size print of the housing to do full blown testing on. Hopefully this passes the stress testing and I can move to an aluminum housing and have a small test group try them out.

 

[SpaceWhiteF150]

Oh man, can’t wait!!

 

[BamasBudDog]

I do like the pods sticking out a bit, definitely gives it character and sets it apart from others.
this is the one I had on my 2018 F150 from Evil Manufacturing
View attachment 26388
The lights mount from the face and there is room for an antenna mount on top. You can see how far this one sticks past the body, and there are 4 mounting holes you have to drill into the cab. Makes it hard to remove it if/when the truck gets sold LOL.

I like your idea of the 4 small lights, having red back lighting for running lights and full red for brake, plus options for white, amber, or whatever color.

You have a nice design going on here, I hope you can make a handful of them at some point. I’d buy one for sure. I would even chip in money for prototype and R&D if necessary.

I like this one but no t the idea of drilling those holes .......