# Home-Made LED whip



## Ole Nasty

So far all I got into it is $14 and a safety flag/whip that I already had. I bought a 16ft reel of RGB LED from fleabay and coiled it around the flag pole. It has 3m adhesive tape and is waterproof, but not the connections. I want to put some in each fender and I still gotta get a switch and wire it all together.





















































If I were to do it again I think I would buy a solid green one instead of a multicolor, seems like it would be even brighter. But still not bad for what I got into it.


----------



## Polaris425

Cool!


----------



## kirkland

UnityH8r on YouTube made his own and has a great video on how to do it.. And his are super bright! There pretty sweet


----------



## Cal3bCart3r

Tht is awesome!


----------



## Ole Nasty

kirkland said:


> UnityH8r on YouTube made his own and has a great video on how to do it.. And his are super bright! There pretty sweet


****! His is much mo' better. Looks like he posted that up shortly after I ordered mine. He got the brighter led strip as the leds are closer together. I wasn't real sure so I just got the cheapest one I could find. Oh well lessons learned. 

I'll post his vid up for anyone who stumbles upon this thread.


----------



## Josh82

I got the wrong ones myself so I just wrapped them around my roll bar for now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am1hm3DXnEg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

If anyone wants to make a whip or whatever make sure you buy the 5050 led strip not the 3528. With the 5050 you can mix the colors because each led has all three colors and with the 3528 like what i got each led is a single color and not as bright


----------



## lilbigtonka

Let me ask ya say you wrap it and tie it in on the bike now with the rest of the roll you don't use how do you wire it to something else since it doesn't have wires I would think if you get what I am saying


----------



## Josh82

lilbigtonka said:


> Let me ask ya say you wrap it and tie it in on the bike now with the rest of the roll you don't use how do you wire it to something else since it doesn't have wires I would think if you get what I am saying


You can get connectors that clamp on to the end, if you look on youtube there are tons of how to videos about these led strips


----------



## Ole Nasty

That's what I gotta work on. Every where you cut on the strip is some where you can solder or connect wires to. I'm not real sure how to tie them all together then to a switch then to the battery. Also gotta make it so I can remove the whip also, as I don't like having it on there unless I have to. Trial and error, here I come.

---------- Post added at 01:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:18 AM ----------



Josh82 said:


> I got the wrong ones myself so I just wrapped them around my roll bar for now
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am1hm3DXnEg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
> 
> If anyone wants to make a whip or whatever make sure you buy the 5050 led strip not the 3528. With the 5050 you can mix the colors because each led has all three colors and with the 3528 like what i got each led is a single color and not as bright


Danm, now I'm kicking myself for not doing more research. Nothing is hardwired yet, maybe I'll go back and buy 5050 strip and redo it.


----------



## Cal3bCart3r

U can use those connectors tht unplug but just wrap elec tape around em to keep a good connection ...i do tht for my tractor lights wen i gotta take em off and leave the switch i just unplug em


----------



## Ole Nasty

Alright, I just went and bought the 5050 strip so this shall be continued in a few weeks.


----------



## Josh82

Lol yeah I'm still waitin on my 5050 to come in


----------



## lilbigtonka

The 5050 y'all ordered are they coming from china


----------



## Josh82

Yeah


----------



## Ole Nasty

Yep, right from China. It took about 2 weeks for the first stuff I ordered to get here. Josh 82, did order all your connections from ebay? I'm not exactly sure which ones to get. Do they sell them at Radio Shack or anything? Trial and error sucks ordering from around the planet, everything takes two weeks.

How did you connect it to your battery?


----------



## kirkland

I haven't tried it, but at the end of the how to video he took a battery tender connector and wired it up to just plug in to that, seems like a pretty good way to do it to take it off easily


----------



## Ole Nasty

Yeah I was wondering how he got power to the control box, I'm sure battery tender connector goes from the control box to the whip. I'm sure I'll get it, just gotta work on it some. I broke my ankle a while back and I'm in a cast so working on my bike is pretty much not happening.


----------



## Josh82

Ole Nasty said:


> Yep, right from China. It took about 2 weeks for the first stuff I ordered to get here. Josh 82, did order all your connections from ebay? I'm not exactly sure which ones to get. Do they sell them at Radio Shack or anything? Trial and error sucks ordering from around the planet, everything takes two weeks.
> 
> How did you connect it to your battery?


I haven't got any connectors yet but I doubt radio shack has any, there are some US websites that have them


----------



## Josh82

Just hit the link in the video description


----------



## Ole Nasty

Yeah I saw those. But I think I'm just gonna get some wire and solder everything together, that's probably better anyways since my bike is always in the water. I'll just solder everything then heat-shrink then silicone, hopefully that will be waterproof. I'm planning to do the fenders and rad kit too.

This has been a helpful vid


----------



## guessohw

When ordering these off amazon they appeared to come with a AC power supply but with the atv DC will be needed. How are yall fixing that?


----------



## Ole Nasty

I haven't got that far yet. I'm in a cast because my ankle is broke so I really haven't been able to mess around to much with this stuff. Everything in this thread so far has pretty much been done from my couch, lol.


----------



## battledonkey

Awesome. Definitely gonna do this.


----------



## Crawfishie!!

Yeah me too....I just got off of amazon and eBay looking up prices and parts. Look like I can build 2-3' whips for the price that jack wagon was going to charge me. SCREW him, I'll do it myself!!!!


----------



## crazybear

How do I connect this to my atv for power if its dc?


----------



## T.J.

These are made for 12 volt dc. positive and negative wires are all you need to the controller and that's it. you can cut the strips and sauder wires to the cut end to use what's left. very easy stuff to do, and cheap. We have made tons of these with all types of led strips. I'll post a video once we get the newest ones made this week.


----------



## Ole Nasty

Where are you getting your shrink wrap?


----------



## brucebanner77

The strips are great for making whips. Ima pull the part list from that Untiy8 video and make one within the next month. If u want under glow, I know of a place to get a BRIGHT ***** setup, 5x brighter than the strips. PM me for info, not sure if I can post their Web page 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## whoolieshop

The only thing about the 15' roll of lights from china used for underbody is well you're going to end up using the whole 15' roll replacing them every 2-3 rides. I get a lot of customers that tell me they bought the cheap strips from oznium or wal-mart or china and they're sick of replacing them. 

When you're ready for LEDs that blow away the cheap stuff look us up! 100% waterproof, submersible and guaranteed to keep working for life!

One thing we haven't done yet is out own whips. Mostly because our LEDs wrapped in this fashion would be really annoying to ride behind and look at. Were currently looking into an option using fiber optic but until that's ready we've got no solution. 


The Whoolie Shop - ATV / UTV lighting & accessories - www.whoolie.com


----------



## T.J.

you can get the heat shrink in any size on ebay for cheap


----------



## brucebanner77

T.J. said:


> you can get the heat shrink in any size on ebay for cheap


I've searched and can't find clear 1in. Heat shrink long enough, can u post a link? 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Tweek

How long are you looking for? I've ordered a good bit of heat shrink from these guys for past projects. Semi-Rigid Kynar Heat Shrink Tubing they also have this clear one by the foot 2:1 Heat Shrink Tubing


----------



## Josh82

Just get some polycarbonate tubeing its cheap, and that's what the one's you buy aee made of. Check out usplastics


----------



## Zrock

hmmm good idea.. just put a wip on my little ones atv. Now that its getting dark earlier i need to make her more visible..


----------



## PolarisEmtFirefighter

Any body done this yet ? I'm interested to see how the transmitter box is hook up to 12v . 


Dodge the father Ram the daughter


----------



## 90-RED-SI

hooking the transmitter box isn't hard at all ... to a 12v adapter is needed which you can find at any local electronic store.. its a 2.5mm male 12v power supply .. ive found them local to me if in Houston.. I can buy a few and ship them to anyone if needed to help them out.. I think I paid 2.50 for one.... ill post pics of the whips I made ... im new to this but i think they came out great.. learned alot reading this thread


----------

