Upgrading Lights in a Carrera 1/32 car

About Carrera cars:

Many 1/32 Carrera slot cars nowadays, come equipped with running headlights and front lights, unfortunately, the intensity of these lights will vary with throttle as they are not regulated. They also do not include the much sought after “permanent” light effect, i.e. the lights will turn off as soon as power is removed (for example, in case of a deslot).

Upgrading the lights using a SlotTronics light kits:

It turns out that the Simple Light kit from SlotTronics (part number SLK-0002) has the same width as the Carrera board, although it has a smaller overall footprint.

Regular light kits from SlotTronics come standard with all the LEDs pre-wired such that there is no soldering required by the users to insert them in their cars. In the case of this upgrade, the kit with no LED is selected as the LED’s already mounted in your Carrera car will be used for the job. Of course it is always possible to use the standard kit with all LEDs pre-wired and simply replace the Carrera LEDs.

The SlotTronics light kit offers light regulation (i.e. light intensity does not vary with throttle) and “permanent” lighting through the use of a button gold capacitor.

Thus, using the LEDs from the Carrera cars and simply replacing the small electronic board with a SlotTronics light kit will get you a more pleasing car in terms of lighting.

The only drawback to this modification, is that it will force you to remove the direction switch located at the bottom of the car and thus, you will lose the ability to flip that switch to change the direction of travel of the cars.

The tools:

The following modifications require desoldering and soldering skills as well as a basic understanding of wiring DC voltage.

For small electronics work like this, you need a good “fine tip” soldering iron as shown below. The wet sponge is very important and you should use it after every solder joint you make.

I also highly recommend the use of flux, like the one shown below. This will really help you making good solder joints. I like the paste as all you need to do is dip the tip of wires or electronic components in that paste before tinning (applying solder to the wire or pin).

Step by Step Upgrade:

First, take out the chassis screw from your car and open it up as shown below. In this case, you are looking at the chassis of a 206 Peugeot WRC. Notice the small electronics board mounted over the front axle in this car. The location of this board will vary depending on the car (for example it is located about mid-car in the Ferrari 575) but the technique described here would be exactly the same.

Take the front LEDs out of their little socket and remove the small electronics board such that the backside can be accessed. Depending on the cars, loosening the small board might require the use of a tool (e.g. screwdriver) as the board might be secured to the chassis through a small plastic peg.

Using the soldering iron, desolder the 4 wires for the front LEDs. So that you do not lose them, replace the now loose front LEDs in their holder. Desoldering the wires is very simple; just heat the solder on the back of the board while pulling on the wires from the other side.

Now, desolder the rear LEDs and the two power wires that come from the direction switch on the car.

Next, remove the direction switch from the car, as you will not need it any longer when performing this modification. Use wire cutters to cut off the molded plastic that holds it in place.

Note: the switch could actually be left in place and used to turn on or off the lights in the car, providing even more versatility for daytime vs. nighttime racing. In this case you would have to connect the wires from the motor (that should go to the light kit) to the two pins on one side of the switch and then the middle pins of the switch to the light kit.

Next take your SlotTronics light kit. If you have one with the adhesive backing, you might want to remove that backing or keep it to secure the board in place.

Before installing the SlotTronics light kit, cut off the small plastic peg (if present) that used to hold the Carrera light kit in place.

Just slide in place the SlotTronics light kit.

Solder in the front and rear LEDs, making sure to connect the red wires to the square pads and the black or white wires to the circular pads on the SlotTronics board. The rear LEDs connect to the set of four pads located immediately next to the button capacitor. The front LEDs need to be connected to the other set of four pads.

Solder the two wires coming from the braids to the corresponding motor wires (red to red, black to black) right at the small inductors (the green electronics components with color rings on them mounted on the motor).

Verify that when looking from the top, the black wire coming from the right braid (when looking down at the car and towards the front) and that the red wire is coming from the left braid. If the two colors are reversed, then, reverse them also from what is said in the next paragraph.

Finally connect the two wires coming from the motors to the two pads on the electronics board. Make sure to connect the black wire to the square pad and the red wire to the circular pad *you might have to reverse this depending on which braid these wires are coming from). The square pad on the board should connect to the positive voltage, the circular one should be ground.

That’s it; you now have “permanent” lights that will not vary in intensity with throttle. If needed, you should then use your favorite hot glue (or equivalent) to secure the board and the wires to the chassis.

As can be seen from the picture above, some cars tend to have a lot of “light leakage” (see the rear picture of the car). One way to circumvent this is to put 1/8 heat shrink around most of the LED, leaving only the tip of the LED exposed and mount it back in place. This will cut a little bit the amount of light from the LED (and thus decrease the overall brightness of the lighting) but it will provide an overall better look to the car.

Last Update: 8/19/06 Copyright_(c) 2005, Philippe Marchand, All rights reserved Drop me a note