WIRELESS
TRAILER LIGHT CONTROL
PROJECT
MEMBERS:
�
�TOM COLEMAN����
BRYCE HILL��� MIKE MILLER
����� Tcoleman915@hotmail.com� brycehill@montana.edu� mwmiller@montana.edu
�������� ��������
PROJECT
� �ANDY
OLSON
The overall goal of this
design project is to create a wireless interface between a vehicle and a trailer
using Radio Frequency (RF) technology.��
The idea behind this project is to eliminate wires running from the tail
lights of the trailer to the hitch of the vehicle.� Simply put there are two main components to
this project.� The first is an in-cab display
consisting of a micro-controller, an RF transceiver, and a Liquid Crystal
Display.� The second is a tail light unit
that consists of another transceiver, micro-controller, Light Emitting Diodes
(LED�s) and a battery pack to supply power to the components.� The LCD in the cab will inform the user when
the batteries on the taillights are getting low and need to be recharged.� The display will also be equipped with a user
menu and a system reset.�
To see a block diagram of
the project click here
������� Figure 1: Light Diffuser
In a normal trailer setup the lights of the trailer are connected
to the power supply of the car via wires.�
In this application all the power that is needed to illuminate the lights
has to be taken from an independent power source, ie,
batteries.� A standard incandescent tail
light bulb will use 24 watts of power when the brake or turn signal is on and
about 6 watts of power for the taillight alone.�
In order to supply that much power a large battery would be needed or
there would be a very short window for proper operation.� To side step this issue, the group decided to
use light emitting diodes (LED�s) which consume tremendously less amount of
power.� The current setup the taillight
with LED�s consumes 1 Watt of power when the brake or turn signal is
applied.� With the taillight alone, only
100 mW of power is going to be consumed.� The power consumption of LED�s is
exceptionally less than incandescent bulbs.�
Using two AA batteries it is anticipated that the taillight unit will be
able to operate for at least 15 hours at maximum power consumption.� If only the taillight is on, one could expect
about 45 hours of use.
���
�Still interested?� Click here to see a bread boarded model of
the LCD circuitry and a PCB board!
A special thanks to PCBexpress
for sponsoring this project.� PCBexpress made it very easy for us to get our boards made
quickly.� We sent them our Gerber file
and they had our boards to us 3 business days later.� Our boards were fabricated perfectly.� We would recommend PCBexpress
to anyone!�� To see what PCBexpress can offer you, click on the picture to the left
to visit their website.