Introduction: Claire's Power Wheels Headlight Wish!

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About: Hello, You can call me Rex. I'm intrigued by electronics and always on the lookout for a cool project to make my Family smile. I just posted my first Instructable and I got the happy response from my daug…

My 3 year old daughter Claire often surprises me with very inquisitive questions. Claire and I set down to write a letter to Santa. I asked Claire what she wanted for Christmas and Claire said that she wanted a present. I asked what kind of present do you want Santa to bring you? Claire said that Isabel (her little sister) and I want a present with stickers on it. My wife and I thought that since they both like to watch "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" that we would get them both a present with the "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" theme, and of course.. "stickers on it."

My wife found a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Power Wheels on sale, so we... I mean Santa put it under our tree. My daughters were so thrilled Christmas morning that they rode that Power Wheels all day until the battery died. The next day Claire asked me if she could ride the Power Wheels again, so I unplugged it and said there you go. Claire said "Daddy, the headlights don't work." I said, well...maybe Santa ran out of headlights. Claire said, well...headlights would be Awesome! (As she jumped into the air) I said, that I will call Santa tomorrow and ask him why didn't it come with headlights? Claire hugged me and said "Thanks Daddy!" I told my wife that I'm going to put headlights on that Power Wheels. Gaby said ok, If anyone can do it, you can! After a little thought I set out to do just that! While I was working on this Power Wheels I thought to myself that if my daughter wanted working headlights, I wonder if another child thought about the same thing too. So, I set out to make this Instructable!

The LED Headlights will illuminate the floors and walls in your house and it's cool!

Step 1: Step 1: Kid Trax Disney Jake and Neverland Pirates (electric Motor / 6 Volt Battery)

My daughters Kid Trax Disney Jake and Neverland Pirates has a 6 Volt battery. The configuration that I'm using will work with a 6 volt battery only, if you use any other size battery it will Not work unless reconfigured.

NOTE: You need to have some electrical knowledge before beginning this project.

Step 2: Step 2:

The Tools and Components required for this task is:

  1. Soldering Iron
  2. Solder
  3. Heat shrink and/or Liquid Electrical Tape
  4. (1) 150 Ohm Resistor Color Code: Brown, Green, Brown, Gold
  5. (2) White 5 MM LED's, 20 mA
  6. Wire Strippers
  7. 20 AWG Wire (2 colors Switch wire color "Blue" and most likely black)
  8. Phillip Screwdriver
  9. Hot Glue Gun
  10. Multi-Meter
  11. Zip Ties
  12. Drill and 3/16" drill bit

Step 3: Step 3: Disassemble the Front Nerf Bar

  1. Disconnect the Battery!
  2. Remove rear brown caps. They are held in with 4 plastic clips, they will just pop out.
  3. Remove all screws and set aside. Hint: I like to set a small magnet on the table to hold the screws. That way if you accidentally bump them, they stay attached to the magnet until your ready to remove them.
  4. Pop the Nerf bars apart and determine the best route for your wires to lay. I had to trim back some plastic fins, about 4-5 pieces in total. This won't hurt anything, this is where your wire will lay.
  5. Now, drill a 3/16'' hole in the center of the headlight and install your LED. LED's have and Anode and a Cathode lead which denotes the polarity. Just think of it as Positive (Longer) and Negative (Shorter). Install them both horizontally and keep the Positive (Longer) leads on the right side which will help you when wiring.
  6. After pressing the LED's firmly into place add a little bit of hot glue to hold LED's into place. Just a little bit for now and be sure to stay away from the leads,
  7. Next, solder the 100 Ohm Resister to the Positive + (Longer) lead on the right side led, if it's laying in the same location as Image 4 Image.
  8. Next, take 2 sections of 20 AWG wire 3 ft. in length or longer and solder 1 wire to the Resistor and apply heat shrink.
  9. Then, take the next 3 ft. section and solder it to the Negative (shorter) lead on the opposite LED.
  10. Now, take a section of 20 AWG wire and solder it on the remaining Negative (shorter) Lead to the Positive (Longer) lead across both LED's to act like the jumper wire. Add all Heat Shrink into place before the last solder connection and shrink it! Refer to Image 5.
  11. Apply hot glue to adhere wires into place and to the backs of the LED's.
  12. Test and verify Polarity! If it works correctly they will light up.
  13. Reassemble and reinstall screws.

Step 4: Step 4: Reinstall Nerf Bars

  1. Reinstall Nerf Bars
  2. Run wires to the battery compartment
  3. Secure your wiring with zip ties to existing wiring

Now, this part you will have to double check on your model. All Models and Manufacturer's may not be the same!

  1. Disconnect Switch / Molex Connector.
  2. Turn your Multi-Meter dial to test Continuity.
  3. Attach test probes and press the "Go Forward Button" on the handlebars. Do you have continuity? If so proceed to step 4 keeping in mind the colors of the wires.
  4. My Hot wire is (+) Red, Switch Output is Blue (switch wire) and the (-) wire is Black.
  5. The Switch Output Blue wire will be the wire that we work with first. Cut back 1/2'' of the blue insulation and solder on the positive wire that goes to the Anode side of the LED with the Resistor. Cover with heat shrink or liquid electrical tape.
  6. Cut back the insulation on the Black (-) wire coming from the rear of the motor side connector (same as the previous step) and solder the Negative (-) wire coming from the Cathode side of the LED and cover with heat shrink or liquid electrical tape.
  7. Let Cure for a couple hours if you used liquid electrical tape.
  8. I had some extra 3/8'' Flex Tubing left over from another project, so I covered the wire harness to make it look better then it did new. Shown in Flex Tubing Image.

Step 5: Troubleshooting Techniques!

  1. If your LEDs are staying on all of the time without pressing the "Go Forward Button" on the handlebars, you wired it to the positive led wire to the positive battery terminal instead of the switch wire.
  2. If you have no light at all when pressing the "Go Forward Button" on the handlebars, your wires could be reversed.
  3. The type of LEDs used in this project will only work with forward current.