Animation on car wheels - prices, videos, photos

Car styling is a very popular topic, many drivers want to stand out from the crowd and decide on all sorts of experiments to change the appearance of their car. On the pages of our portal for motorists Vodi.su, we have already written a lot about styling: pasting with vinyl films and liquid rubber, backlighting with LEDs.

We also touched upon the topic of tuning - various ways to increase power.

Now I would like to touch on a new topic - animation on the wheels of a car.

This “trick” appeared quite recently, but already many owners of cool, tuned cars install a special module on their wheels, thanks to which, while driving, live images of galloping horses, burning flames, skulls are created - in a word, everything that helps us express our individuality . In addition, the animation looks very stylish, especially at night.

How is the moving image effect created?

As we all remember, a cartoon is a series of pictures showing movements.

When such pictures replace each other at a certain speed - 12 frames per second - the image comes to life. Sometimes the speed is 8 frames, and sometimes 24 frames per second.

However, when it comes to the wheels of a car, no one draws or glues pictures, a completely different principle is used here - the stroboscopic effect and the inertia of human vision. A simple example is if a red ribbon is tied to one of the spokes of the wheel, then at a certain speed we will already see not a ribbon, but a red circle.

If you want to install animation on wheels, then you need to purchase a special module - Phantom Owl. This is a small electronic device with LEDs that light up in different colors. If you just turn it on, you will only see how the LEDs alternately light up and go out. You won't see any animation.

As written in the instructions for the module, the animation appears at a speed of 16 km/h, at a speed of 30 to 110 km/h the image is clearest. If you exceed 110 km / h, then the picture starts to tremble, the change of pictures slows down. This is due to the fact that the speed of the processor is limited.

Animation on car wheels - prices, videos, photos

Installing the module on disks

The module for animation on wheels is not too expensive. At the moment, the average price is 6-7 thousand, and this is only for one wheel. If you want to highlight all the wheels, you will need at least 24-28 thousand rubles. There are, however, cheaper Chinese options, such as Dreamslink, but we at Vodi.su did not deal with them, so we cannot say anything specific about their quality. There are also more expensive ones - 36 thousand / piece.

Despite this price, the module is quite easy to install - remove the decorative plug from the central hole of the disk, screw the mounting plate in its place, to which the module itself is then screwed. The kit comes with detailed instructions, where everything is described, installation should not cause any problems.

The module does not need to be connected to the car's power supply system, it runs on ordinary AA batteries. Three batteries are enough for several hours of continuous operation. Comes with a remote control to change pictures.

Animation on car wheels - prices, videos, photos

The image can be downloaded directly from sites on the Internet, uploaded to a USB flash drive, and then uploaded to the module. There are also such modifications on which you can project an image in real time from a laptop or tablet. That is, you can simply write the text that will be displayed on the wheels, for example, if you want to meet girls in a nearby car.

Installation restrictions

Unfortunately, you can install such an LED module only on disks that meet certain parameters:

you will not be able to install them on stamping, hubcaps, alloy wheels with a large number of spokes;
disk size must be from 14 inches;
the diameter of the central hole is 50-76 mm, there should be a side along the outer edge;
Only suitable for cars with disc brakes.

Please also note that it will not be difficult for thieves to remove such a module from the wheels.