How to build ALL CLEAR E36 BMW tail lights

[@ernest2641]

Serious safety question here zac... Im trying to build a set of tail lights that use a blueghozt led controller. Im using 4 halos on each side, so a total of 360 ws2812b RGB led's on each side of the car.. Doing some research in terms of wire gauge size recommendations, everything seems to be indicating to me that I should be REALLY upping the size of my wires. Ive got a set built currently with 22awg wire. but doing some calculations it seems like these 8 halos (4 per side) are gonna draw about 5.4amps EACH at full white brightness. thats 21.6 amps for all 4... which is WAY too much for running wire in an entire harness all the way to the battery and such. The way they make it sound, using incorrect wire size pulling that many amps will cause the wires to heat up so much that they might burn and cause a fire.. The reason Im asking you is because Ive seen in a few of your builds that you have used MORE than 360 LEDs total with a blueghozt setup.. My question is, am I way overthinking this? lmao In your experience, has using typical 18 gauge wire or so for most of your projects worked fine? have there been any long term issues for your customers? any complaints come back to you after selling a set? (I assume youre using 18awg cuz thats what it looks like but Im not 100% sure on that) Im on a time crunch rn with my project so if you could give me any input through a comment I would appreciate it, BUT this might actually make for a good video for builders. So maybe thats something to consider in the future. Thanks - Ernest edit: ALSO forgot to ask, what amperage inverters do you use when stepping down from 12v -5v.. I cant quite make out the sticker on the back of it in your videos? thanks

[@zaccook]

hey! So I have for sure see a few builds that need the fatter wire and it seems like this is a project that could use that! so what I would do is use a wire around the 10 to 12 gauge size going into the blueghozt module BUT I would also have power and ground going directly to the addressable outputs so that the power and ground doesn't have to go through the blueghozt module. Then I would use a pair of the 15 amp converters, one on each side so that each side has a solid 15 amps going to it. amzn.to/3yxxLCI Those builds with a ton of leds look amazing but are really annoying to get power and ground to lolol

[@ernest2641]

@@zaccook I really appreciate the response, Im slightly confused though about why I would need to send the 12 gauge wire into the blueghozt if the LED's would also be powered separately? I guess having the larger wire wouldnt hurt the module, but does it pull more current in this format?

[@MrSkull18]

I have the same tails and have been wanting to do this for a while now but where the black trim is on the inside I have a piece of plastic covering the spot where I need to cut any tips for getting into really tight places?

[@zaccook]

no major tips lol just make sure you have a tool that can fit down in there

[@ThatOneChannelinAZ]

I assume at @4:03 you either went and took shots or had a drink? Your content is so under rated it should be shown amongs event larger channels. Editing, Skills and speaking are very good.good stuff for sure

[@zaccook]

Oh man!!! I didn’t even notice that when editing haha idk what happened there lolol

[@ThatOneChannelinAZ]

@zaccook considering all the problems that you had taking out that red piece i figured that you had left and went and had some drinks

[@georgecirlig3553]

Good job! I had a hard time opening up some plastic welded mk4 golf tail lights, because they were plastic welded on the middle line too :( for more rigidity i think

[@zaccook]

oh man that sucks! hopefully you where able to get it done

[@sheadavis97]

Where did you get the new outer gaskets that surround the edge of the lense?

[@sheadavis97]

Or did you not switch them out? I ordered clears from k2 (big mistake) and the gaskets are just terrible

[@karel2213]

Have you ever done tail lights for the e34?

[@zaccook]

I haven't yet!