This page is part of my Custom Lighting Mod series of articles.

DISCLAIMER: If you choose to attempt any of these modifications, you assume all risks thereof. I just wanted to share my experiences here. Neither Agora Models, nor myself, are responsible for any damages that may occur.

The Headlights

Once I figured out how the Stock PCB worked, I turned the headlights on. Almost immediately, I decided I wanted to make the ‘inner’ pair of headlights wig-wag in an opposite pattern to the cab front Emergency Lights. First, I carefully popped out both of the Front Light Clusters:

Then I cut the plug off one end of a couple of LMB 30cm Connecting Cables and carefully soldered the wires to the + and – pins of the inside headlight LED of both Front Light Cluster boards:

I then pulled the pins that would normally power these LEDs from the stock plugs. I used electrical tape to isolate the exposed pins:

Unfortunately, after testing I found that the LMB components trigger their effects by switching the ground (-) circuit and these Clusters share a common ground when connected. Therefore, I needed to isolate the inside Headlight LEDs from the rest of the circuit board.

To do this, I first removed the wire I previously soldered to the common ground pin. Next, I used my hobby knife to scrape through the circuit trace toward the ground pin (circled below). Then, I gently scrapped off the ‘solder mask’ layer at the corner of the PCB to expose the copper layer underneath (arrow below):

Finally, I re-soldered the ground wire of my LMB cable to this exposed copper pad:

This isolated the inside Headlight LED perfectly, so I repeated the process on the other Front Light Cluster:

This second attempt worked perfectly! Now the inner headlight LEDs can be connected to the LMB Effects Board that fades the front Emergency Lights using an LMB Expansion Board.

Wiring

The local connections for these LEDs are as follows. These Headlights were connected to the existing Micro 4-port Expansion Boards for the Cab Front Emergency Lights. I connected the left Headlight to the right Cab Front Emergency Light board, and the right Headlight to the left Cab Front Emergency Light board. This will make them create a ‘cross’ pattern with each pulse of the Multi-Effects Board.

Next Custom Lighting Page

ROOF LIGHTBARS – Connecting the Roof Lightbars to our LMB components