We had a staff meeting at work. The topic of discussion was Relay for Life. Our department usually participates in some way. This year, there was the challenge of making a car out of boxes which would be carried around the track at midnight in a race. 
requirements were simple. It had to make it out of a box (duh), and it must have headlights. Seeing mass geek potential, I volunteered to build the car. I am not one to go to if you just want dirt simple.
I started to plan a rugged, heavy duty, off road kind of thing. Soon after we got a fairly massive UPS. The box was perfect. It was this crazy heavy duty cardboard. There was also this wonderfully shaped packing foam in the box, so that got grabbed as well.
One of the women who would be carrying the car is a cancer survivor. So, this was a custom build, just for her. She said that her car was going to be pink. Pink? Really? um… ok then. She said that we could also have purple trim if we liked. I decided on duct tape, and gaffers tape for the construction and vehicle color. Inspired by the shape of the foam, I set out to build her a hummer. A BIG PINK AND PURPLE HUMMER!
For the headlights, I wanted to go over the top. I decided that this thing needed a operational lighting system. Sure, we could throw in some flash lights, but I wanted bigger, and far brighter.
I have been experimenting with white LEDs for a camera flash system I have been working on. I decided to make panels of LEDs for the head lights. But really, how safe would a car be if there no brake lights, and blinkers? So, I made some LED panels for the rear too with real working blinkers and brake lights. This was all connected to an Arduino (Boarduino) through some FETs. I used 2n2222 for the left, and right blinkers as there was not as much amperage to worry about (Only 16 LEDs). There are 40 LEDs on the each brake light and and 40 each on the headlights.
I got hit in the eye a few times with one of the head lights, and it was a wee bit painful. The brakes are each on PWM pins on the Arduino so that they could be slightly lit (because they are on when you turn on your headlights, right?), but then have the ability to go full bright during left and right blinking, as well as braking, all of which was controlled from a little button box. On the back wall of the car I made a LED ribbon out of pink LEDs. My initial intention was to do a 4 channel chase with the ribbon, but there was just not enough time.
The Relay night came. They took the car out to the track. They kicked on the lights and the 80 10,000 mcd white LEDs in front really lit the place up. They had a good time racing the pink beast around the track. Our car won for design.
