---
date: 2015-12-21
title: Blinkiecar
image: /images/blinkiecar/finished-front.jpg
---

Team project which is a 3D printed magnetic car with working turning lights.
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With the help of a friend with a 3D printer, I built a magnetic car with working turning lights.

![car front view](/images/blinkiecar/finished-front.jpg")

_Right, it's a present._

The car was printed in two pieces, the top and the bottom part. My friend downloaded the model from somewhere, I repaired it with [netfabb](http://www.netfabb.com/) (didn't like their software due to an annoying startup dialog and paid features), cut it with [slic3r](http://slic3r.org) (this program looked better) and gave him the [repetier](http://www.repetier.com/)-converted model back.

![car without top part](/images/blinkiecar/wip.jpg)

_This is how it looks on the inside._

Inside the car is a 3.3V coin cell battery, which is connected to two switches and orange blink LEDs on the bottom of the car. You turn the switch on either the left or the right side on and thereby make the corresponding turn light blink.

A strong magnet from an old hard drive is glued below the car so you can stick it onto a magnetic board.

![magnet below car](/images/blinkiecar/magnet.jpg)

_The magnet also covers the circuit a bit._

The blink LEDs are not in sync for some reason, but that did not matter as they still function as turning lights.

![both leds blinking](/images/blinkiecar/blink-both.gif)

_You can still try to use them as warning lights, but that's not reliable._

![front right led blinking](/images/blinkiecar/blink-right.gif)

Next time, I should think of another solution for power - with this setup, you cannot swap the battery and the LEDs are quite dark.