Lighted Pony Project (back it!)

[RedDragon]

Yeah, that appears to be the way it works. After installing mine I was worried that "always on" really meant always on but you're right that it switches off after 15 minutes. It's strange that it doesn't go off with the rest of the lights after leaving the car. It goes on when anything wakes the car and also goes on and stays on while the car is charging. I looked at the security camera footage inside my garage to see what was happening, it came on when my car started charging at its scheduled time and switched off 15 minutes after it finished four hours later. I'm not enthused about taking my frunk apart again but I really don't like this setup, once the weather cools off a little I'm going to run the wire through the firewall to the inside fuse panel. It looks great, though!

Question for you - it seems there is some confusion on if the pony stays on while charging if wired with the "always on option" - based on your post above this is indeed the case correct?

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[RedDragon]

Also can anyone who has ran to the firewall confirm if the pony stays on when only the DLRs are on (not full headlights)? Thanks!

 

[Gullwingdmc]

Also can anyone who has ran to the firewall confirm if the pony stays on when only the DLRs are on (not full headlights)? Thanks!

My understand from talking to John if you run the wire to the BCM the pony will act like it does on the GTs. It will come on when you approach, but turn off when you start the car during the day and only stay on if it’s night and the headlights are on. He said the only way for it to come on and stay on is if you run it to the headlight using the “always on” method.

 

[KevinS]

I still haven’t received mine, but I know John was still mailing them out last week, so you may be in the last batch of mail outs.

Thank you. His latest Kickstarter update seems to imply everything is over, which is what concerned me. That and a lack of response to my inquiries.

 

[dsheib]

Question for you - it seems there is some confusion on if the pony stays on while charging if wired with the "always on option" - based on your post above this is indeed the case correct?

Yes, it stays on while the car is charging. It does go off when charging ends but the car is still plugged in.

 

[Xadion]

Still able to buy these?

 

[DidUGetTickets]

Despite watching the videos, I'm not confident in my ability to install the pony on my soon-to-arrive Premium... Does anybody happen to know an installer in Hawaii? I'm not sure the average radio installation place will know how to do it since it seems so specialized.

 

[PupSideDown]

The one I received on Thursday already had the zener diode attached. I had to drill out the upper hole for the wire a little bit more (1/4") to push it thru.

I also received the voltage regulator to retrofit my lighted pony. I have a couple questions which I sent to John via Kickstarter link, but haven't heard back. I know he posted the project is officially complete, and he has spent a massive amount of time on this, so he may be on to other ventures. Which is fine. I love my lighted pony and really appreciate all John has done to develop this project. You may not know the answer either, but just hoping someone can chime in.

Anyway, after watching the video link describing installation of the voltage regulator, my questions are:

1. Once I cut the white and red wires, near the pony, to insert both into the voltage regulator, then splice the red wire tail of the voltage regulator into the longer end of the red wire, which will then go to the headlight, what happens to the remaining long tail of the white wire? I had already spliced both the red and white wires into the wires of the headlight (according to original installation instructions). Should I just remove the white wire from the headlight wire, and seal the spliced spot with electrical tape so it doesn't short, or something? John's video doesn't address what to do about the old white wire.

2. If I wanted to avoid adding the voltage regulator, at what point in the circuit would I use a volt meter to check voltage? If my car doesn't exceed the 12-volt threshold, maybe I can just skip the whole thing and leave it as is (fingers crossed).

Thanks to all for any suggestions!

 

[Jim_In_Mass]

I also received the voltage regulator to retrofit my lighted pony. I have a couple questions which I sent to John via Kickstarter link, but haven't heard back. I know he posted the project is officially complete, and he has spent a massive amount of time on this, so he may be on to other ventures. Which is fine. I love my lighted pony and really appreciate all John has done to develop this project. You may not know the answer either, but just hoping someone can chime in.

Anyway, after watching the video link describing installation of the voltage regulator, my questions are:

1. Once I cut the white and red wires, near the pony, to insert both into the voltage regulator, then splice the red wire tail of the voltage regulator into the longer end of the red wire, which will then go to the headlight, what happens to the remaining long tail of the white wire? I had already spliced both the red and white wires into the wires of the headlight (according to original installation instructions). Should I just remove the white wire from the headlight wire, and seal the spliced spot with electrical tape so it doesn't short, or something? John's video doesn't address what to do about the old white wire.

2. If I wanted to avoid adding the voltage regulator, at what point in the circuit would I use a volt meter to check voltage? If my car doesn't exceed the 12-volt threshold, maybe I can just skip the whole thing and leave it as is (fingers crossed).

Thanks to all for any suggestions!

Couple of things to speculate on:
On the pony I received the zener diode had both the red & white wires on the pony end, but only a red wire heading out beyond the diode - so I would assume that this is now only a two-wire install. Ground (black) and signal/power (red).
IIRC correctly from my EE/CE labs (I'm a software guy, and it's been a while, so corrections may prove necessary) a zener diode restricts the direction of voltage/current but also introduces a .5V drop in voltage in the expected direction. I would expect that this .5V drop (and restriction of current) is enough to ensure that the voltage doesn't exceed the tolerance of the lighting circuitry in the lighted pony. So I'd assume you don't need to connect the white wire any more (since I can't even if I wanted to).
I expect the voltage would need to be measured between the power & ground. This would seem to be coming off the 12V battery (John's installation video showed him opening the circuit with the light green clip(?) over near the 12V battery - and there's no reason to drive an LED light directly from the HV battery) and from other posts the 12V battery typically runs near 12V, but when being recharged from the HVB could see 14V+. Which might explain the higher voltage (and resultant current) which might fry the lighted pony circuitry. But this LVB charging is expected operation, so why wouldn't the observed failure rate be much higher? Could just be the quality of splice + the random tolerance of the components of the circuit.

 

[ShaggySS]

1. Once I cut the white and red wires, near the pony, to insert both into the voltage regulator, then splice the red wire tail of the voltage regulator into the longer end of the red wire, which will then go to the headlight, what happens to the remaining long tail of the white wire? I had already spliced both the red and white wires into the wires of the headlight (according to original installation instructions). Should I just remove the white wire from the headlight wire, and seal the spliced spot with electrical tape so it doesn't short, or something? John's video doesn't address what to do about the old white wire.

2. If I wanted to avoid adding the voltage regulator, at what point in the circuit would I use a volt meter to check voltage? If my car doesn't exceed the 12-volt threshold, maybe I can just skip the whole thing and leave it as is (fingers crossed).

Thanks to all for any suggestions!

Just got mine and installed it.

1. The red and white wire gets tied together and crimped to the diode. Then connect the other end of the diode the wire that goes through the firewall to the green orange (if I remember correctly)
The red and white wire are signal and power. I forget which is which but earlier instructions had you run power and ground from the headlight and then signal from the fusebox. That green-orange can do both. The pony doesn't pull very much power so it should be fine.

2. Can't help with this one. Not sure when it goes over the 12v. seems pretty simple to remove the existing splice put some tape over it and connect red and white together. Though if you have made it this far maybe its not a big deal.

 

[RedDragon]

I am yet to receive my zener diode in the mail. Not sure if its lost along the way. I looked an amazon and these seem to be pretty inexpensive - does anyone know the correct kind to purchase? Ill probably wait a few more days and then just buy one if mine doesnt show up in the mail.

Thanks

 

[PupSideDown]

Couple of things to speculate on:
On the pony I received the zener diode had both the red & white wires on the pony end, but only a red wire heading out beyond the diode - so I would assume that this is now only a two-wire install. Ground (black) and signal/power (red).
IIRC correctly from my EE/CE labs (I'm a software guy, and it's been a while, so corrections may prove necessary) a zener diode restricts the direction of voltage/current but also introduces a .5V drop in voltage in the expected direction. I would expect that this .5V drop (and restriction of current) is enough to ensure that the voltage doesn't exceed the tolerance of the lighting circuitry in the lighted pony. So I'd assume you don't need to connect the white wire any more (since I can't even if I wanted to).
I expect the voltage would need to be measured between the power & ground. This would seem to be coming off the 12V battery (John's installation video showed him opening the circuit with the light green clip(?) over near the 12V battery - and there's no reason to drive an LED light directly from the HV battery) and from other posts the 12V battery typically runs near 12V, but when being recharged from the HVB could see 14V+. Which might explain the higher voltage (and resultant current) which might fry the lighted pony circuitry. But this LVB charging is expected operation, so why wouldn't the observed failure rate be much higher? Could just be the quality of splice + the random tolerance of the components of the circuit.

Thanks! That is helpful. I installed my pony about two months ago, and have had no problem. So, rather than go back in and disconnect wires, etc. etc. to retrofit the voltage regulator, I may just see how it goes. I gather from John's post about failures, it occurs fairly soon after installing, so maybe it is ok without adding the voltage regulator.

 

[PupSideDown]

Just got mine and installed it.

1. The red and white wire gets tied together and crimped to the diode. Then connect the other end of the diode the wire that goes through the firewall to the green orange (if I remember correctly)
The red and white wire are signal and power. I forget which is which but earlier instructions had you run power and ground from the headlight and then signal from the fusebox. That green-orange can do both. The pony doesn't pull very much power so it should be fine.

2. Can't help with this one. Not sure when it goes over the 12v. seems pretty simple to remove the existing splice put some tape over it and connect red and white together. Though if you have made it this far maybe its not a big deal.

Thanks. The pony has been fine for the last couple months, so I will hold off on pulling out all the wires and re-installing with the voltage regulator.

 

[Supertayt]

Good morning everyone!
A few weeks ago I ordered the front and rear lighted pony from AliExpress to test them against Johns' offerings. I have a few updates to the current situation.
1. I was pretty disappointed in the light dispersion with the kickstarter product. I don't want to rehash all that but I did want to try a little something to see if I could help spread the light output across the pony a little better. I basically taped off the front, top, side edge and the mounting posts of the pony and found a matte clear finish spray paint to "frost" the edges you cannot see from the front of the pony. The result is, much better. The matte spray on the back edge seems to diffuse the light output just enough where it's harder to see the individual LED hotspots. The top of my pony still has significantly less light output than the bottom, but you don't get the "litebrite" effect from the front of the mustang.
2. I haven't gotten to install the rear light up pony from China because apparently, the freight forwarder decided to open the package and take the pony itself. I got the harness for the pony, just no pony. Efforting that now.
3. I can confirm that the front light up Pony for sale on AliExpress does NOT exist. What they send you is a harness that ties into the vehicle wiring to light up an emblem that cannot light up. It looks like the MME in China has a completely different front emblem that maybe lights up or perhaps can have lights shoved into them. Such an absolute goat rodeo. Bottom line, do not buy the front logo because it doesn't exist but you will get a useless wiring harness.
China emblem.

I hope all that makes sense, it you have any questions, hit me up.

 

[Mari76]

I just got mine a few days ago too. But i've decided not to install it so if anyone near San Diego area interested in one, let me know.

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