1955 Chevy Tail Light Night Light Bel Air

thingiverse

Saw this old 55 Chevy taillight on the ebay, thought it would make a cool conversion project. Wrote/modified a fade-to-black code for 16 segment neopixel ring (fades 250x250, dark red to white, max brightness about 150) using arduino IDE and loaded to an Adafruit Trinket. Second led is white for reverse light with resistor to dim it a bit. A momentary push-button for 'on' triggers power via a 555 looping timer circuit. Timing circuit uses a 2200 uF cap for about 40 min of on-time. This 555 analogue 'countdown' circuit does not use any power in the 'off' position and basically feeds itself through a 5v reed relay for as long as the 2200uF cap has power. When off, no drain on battery pack. A second parallel 5v reed relay triggers the trinket. When the cap empties, the reeds open turning off the trinket and the white LED. 3D printed the battery/circuit box. Also has inner removable radio-shack 6v battery box with it's own on/off switch. Cleaned up the chevy taillight and mounted to wood base. Cool little project....maybe a kid's nightlight. Easy to add sound if so desired with a looping adafruit FX sound board https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahtzwasDeF8