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I like building things and frequently get ideas for little hobby projects. This blog is for describing them.  Other stuff is on my homepage.

13 Comments

  5. Hey, loved the retrofit of the matchboxes. Doing the same thing on my Honda grom with a ruckus headlight swap.

    How has the swap been holding up? and what ballasts/bulbs did you use? I’d like to chat with you about the process if you have some time.

    Thanks!

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    • Hi Jari,
      Glad you liked it. The projectors are going strong, but I did get one of the ballasts replaced under warranty. I used the Morimoto 3Five ballasts and bulbs from theretrofitsource.com. The only issue I have is that sometimes a bulb will fail to start. Might be related to the very long high-voltage wiring I had to use.

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  6. Is there a way I can contact you about some of the arduino/MS2 Canbus stuff you’ve done? I’m still learning a bit about arduino and programming and have been able to do pull data from MS2/MS3 with an arduino perfectly. I’ve also been able to send data to MS3 perfectly over CAN. However, sending data over CAN to MS2 has em completely stumped, and you’re the only person I’ve been able to find proof of making it work!

    Reply to this comment

    • Hi Joe,

      The code for all my Arduino MS stuff is available at https://bitbucket.org/lutorm/arduino. I’m not sure I have any particular nuggets of wisdom except that it works. The basic MS CAN stuff is in libraries/MsCan, and the code that uses it in canbus/canbus.cc. It reads 11-bit broadcasts from the MS, which is the easiest (and lowest bandwidth) to handle, as well as the longer 29-bit MS messages that are used to send data to the MS and to request specific fields. The link to the MS documentation I used is at the top of the MsCan.h file, it explains the message formats and header fields, but as I remember it’s not exactly obvious.

      Hope that helps, let me know if you have additional questions after looking at the code.

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  7. Hey Patrik! I’ve been searching all around the internet to find a set of the original first Morimoto Matchbox V.1’s (Not the newest 2.0’s), with the mounting hardware on the back… Long story short, way back in 2013 I created a set of custom Fog lights for a Lexus SC 97+ project using them. Well, the finished awesome lights sat in storage until 2021! BUT… All the mounting hardware appears to be missing! 🙁

    …We tried using the newer Matchbox 2.0’s hardware, but it’s different from the originals from back then. I cannot find any of these original projectors (for the mounting hardware). I really don’t want to cut up a pristine set of finished custom lights to put some new projectors inside, so I was wondering if you would be willing to either sell me all of the mounting pieces and bolts for the 2 projectors, or the whole headlights themselves? I realize it’s a long shot, but I randomly found your WordPress blog post from back then- about retrofitting the original Matchbox’s, and now here I am typing! Thanks, and have a great one!

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    • Hi Zach,

      I’m not sure what hardware you need, but I don’t think I have anything left except what’s needed for mounting the bulbs in the back. I can’t sell you those, or the projectors, since then I’ll be in the same boat, I still need those for the bike.

      Hope you can find something. I don’t suppose TRS has spares for old projectors?

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