[Acolar]

Phase 1 of this project involved adding four ECCO Hide-A-LED (9031 Clear) to the four upper amber flasher housings on my 3520 tractor cab. The job required removing the cab roof, and four amber hazard flasher housings. A hole saw was used to drill a 1” diameter hole in the housing assembly. A bead of RTV Silicone sealant was applied to the rubber sleeve of the Hide-A-LED and it was inserted into the hole.

The wires from the LEDs were run inside the roof and secured via tie straps. I added extra foam tape where the wires route out between the roof and the roof seal. It’s the best seal I could achieve without drilling holes in the tractor roof area.

The voltage which feeds the LEDs comes from Rotary Beacon circuit 163 (Orange) which I tapped into inside the roof. The JD Rotary Beacon switch (MIA10244) was purchased and installed into the right side console. The connector and wiring for the switch was already present in the tractor wire loom.

The LEDs are setup to alternate flashing right/left and front/back by following the synchronizing & wiring instructions which come with the ECCO LEDs.

A flip of the rotary beacon switch now provides the power to the four synchronized LEDs. They each draw approximately 500 mA @ 12.8V.

Video of Factory Flashers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SGpEDfrSSo

Video of Hide-A-LED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3EIEPkZGhU

Video of Switch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc6UtoEZQTY

Stay tuned for Phase 2 which involves adding more illumination – ECCO 3710 Clear LED , Whelen Vertex Amber LEDs, and a Grote Light Bar.

 

[RandyM]

Neat Project!

Looking good. Can we get a couple of pics with the lights installed, posted?:thumbup1gif: That would be great. Sorry, they maybe in your videos but I can't get to them from here.

 

[Kennyd]

Very cool project Acolar :good2:

Thanks for posting...

Can you provide some links to exactly what you used and explain how they get "synchronized" please?

 

[Acolar]

I selected the pattern I wanted from the list by using the blue wire and intermittently appling power to it in order to select the desired flash pattern.
Then by wiring the four heads as shown in the diagram the sync was implemented. The right front now flashes at the same time with the left rear and the left front flashes with the right rear.

 

[eepete]

That's pretty sweet. The videos answer the "why" part of the project. The LED flashers will get your attention better and sooner than the standard light bulbs.

Pete

 

[Acolar]

3520 Strobe Lighting Project - Phase 2

With no snow in forecast for at least a week I decided to move into Phase 2 of the strobe project which entailed adding additional strobes (LED based light heads).

I did not drill any openings in the cab to allow for control wires exiting the cab. Instead I used the existing Rotary Beacon wiring (Pwr & Gnd) located behind the left front hazard flasher housing. The wiring exits the cab roof through a grommet and has the positive lead sealed off using a sealed end cap. Delphi is the supplier of the connector and terminal. The connector system is referred to as a “weather Pack” 1-way. I unmated the shroud (12126451) and realized I could re-use by removing the closed seal and adding a male terminal (12089040) and Green wire seal (15324982).

Terminals and seals are available from Power & Signal Group www.powerandsignal.com/molex Phone 440-836-6600

I assembled the male terminal/seal to my wire and secured it into the shroud thus creating my own pigtail.

I kept the ground lug on the tractor harness and just attached to it – not wanting to cut or alter the harness/connectors on the tractor side. I ran two 16 AWG wires down the windshield on the left side using 1”x1” adhesive mounting bases (Gardner Bender 45-1MBUVL) adhered to the glass which allowed the woven braid which protects the two wires to be tie strapped to the mounting bases. I used a 2-way sealed connector at the end of the harness near the loader mounts. With this scheme I could leave the harness on year round by adding a protective end cap to the connector when I am not using the snow plow strobes. (The strobes installed during Phase 1 in the hazard flasher housings are permanent.)

I then ran the power and ground circuits around the tractor protected in slit convolute and fed the various light heads with the power and ground. Additionally, the Whelen Vertex lights had a SYNC wire which had to go to each head so it too was included in the main wire loom.

I placed a Vertex LED head on the sides under each of the doors and one on each side of the plow (tie strapped to the plow edge markers) The four Vertex heads are SYNC’d together so the right front plows marker flashes with the left side door head and the left front plow marker flashes with the right side door head.

I used two ECCO 3710C heads that I attached to some metal angle I fab’d and painted JD green. The two 3710 units are SYNC’d to one another and are clear in color.

Then at the risk of over doing it - :’) I mounted a Grote LED Light Bar on the top of my ballast box cover. It too is connectorized so I can unmate the connector and drop the ballast box. The Grote light bar is not SYNC’d to any of the other strobes.

All the heads are turned on by one switch - the JD rotary beacon switch I added in Phase 1 of the project. That switch can handle 20 AMPs with all heads on I draw approx 6.4 amps.

This was a fun little project making use of various light heads I had laying around. The Vertex heads were my favorite. I thought they generated excellent Omni-directional light using little current and no RFI/EMI noise emitted (AM radio band suffers no degradation – However I spend most of my time in the cab listening to SIRIUS).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGx5Txlkb9s

Looking forward to our first serious snow so the JD can show off its new lighting additions.

 

[Brian]

Sweet! Thanks for the tips on the connectors!

I cannot wait to see that in action.

 

[Acolar]

My sons had some fun creating a video of the JD Strobe project and posted it to You Tube, looks cool. Here is the link -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhvwIPmpzr4

Just waiting for some significant snow so we can use the plow & strobes!

 

[Kennyd]

That was VERY cool:good2:

 

[Brian]

That video rocks! Excellent job. The strobes are amazing.

In fact, after watching it, I think I am going to add them to my 4520. Can I ask how much it would cost to just do the front and rear upper amber lights on the cab?

 

[lost in wisconsin]

That video is too cool. I just showed the video to our twin 12 year old boys and the both asked at the same time how soon we could do that to our tractor.

Again very nice job on the strobe installation and video posting. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Acolar]

That video rocks! Excellent job. The strobes are amazing.

In fact, after watching it, I think I am going to add them to my 4520. Can I ask how much it would cost to just do the front and rear upper amber lights on the cab?

Thanks to all for the positive responses on the video - I'll pass it along to my kids.

Brian, the lights used in the upper hazard housings are ECCO Hide-A-LED 9031C and are actually clear in color. I had all of these for sometime now under my work bench so I don't recall how much they are selling for currently. But I would guess somewhere north of $100 each

 

[Brian]

Whew.... A quick look shows they are 180 EACH..... :flag_of_truce:Thats a lot of coin!

 

[Nuru]

Great job and good improvement in augmented visibility safety! :hi:

 

[dieselshadow]

Great video! The strobes are outstanding. Everybody's going to believe your DOT:laugh:

 

[scrappy]

I like the Video!
You have me interested in doing something similar!
but I have some ?'s
How are the units oriented in the cab flashers? horizontal or vertical?
is the strobe intensity greatest from the side of the unit or from the top?

the reason I ask is I am thinking of mounting one unit horizontally completely inside each of my lights (I have an open station 2320) and am hopeing it will be able to illuminate to the front AND rear with only 1 unit. I am hoping to have it stock looking until I turn them on.

thanks for the input!

 

[Acolar]

Scrappy,

The LEDs I installed in the hazard cab flashers are ECCO Hide-A-LED 9031. The spec sheet PDF file is near the top of this thread maybe the third or forth post. The LED heads require a 1" diameter hole and will require a depth of 0.86" into whatever lamp housing your working with. Also the manufacturer specifies a distance of 1" from factory bulbs. HELLA is the manufacturer of the hazards on the 3520 cab and they placed their bulb in the optimal location to take advantage of their reflector design. When we install our LED head they won't be in the perfect spot but in my case it seems to work acceptably. Not sure what the arrangement is on your machine so I won't be of much help there. In my opinion the Vertex LED heads provide a more omni directional light output than the ECCO heads but the VERTEX amber LEDs draw almost twice the current (about 1 amp vs 0.5 amp for the ECCO clears).

 

[DennisFolsom]

Wow! That's an over-the-top flasher setup!

The video was impressive, too. Great job!

I'm thinking of doing something a lot milder to mine, but your setup opened my eyes to the possibilities if I should decide that my basic work lights and LED flasher are not enough.

 

[Acolar]

Update - Received only our second anemic snowfall of the 2011-2012 season on Friday evening. Went out before sun rise Saturday morning to clear the entrances to the sub and was given a

 

[Kennyd]

Update - Received only our second anemic snowfall of the 2011-2012 season on Friday evening. Went out before sun rise Saturday morning to clear the entrances to the sub and was given a

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