Interior lighting

[LeeZee]

My bus is just about finished on the outside so it time to start to put my efforts more toward the interior. I have a leisure battery setup and cabnet set etc ready to go in butI'm not sure on what to go for in terms of 12v lighting. Has anyone seem or used anything interesting?

LZ

 

[LeeZee]

http://www.campervanaccessories.co.uk

 

[Delilah]

12v decking lights. Sealed units and the diameter of a 10p piece. LED too so low output and nice and bright. To look at they are like small down lighters and brushed chrome finish. Came in a pack of ten individual lights I think for about £30 with 240v transformer ...just fuse 'em and switch 'em and off you go

I wired them so that they can connect to leisure battery or to the tranny and run from 240v when on hookup.

 

[sharky71]

12v decking lights. Sealed units and the diameter of a 10p piece. LED too so low output and nice and bright. To look at they are like small down lighters and brushed chrome finish. Came in a pack of ten individual lights I think for about £30 with 240v transformer ...just fuse 'em and switch 'em and off you go

I wired them so that they can connect to leisure battery or to the tranny and run from 240v when on hookup.

dont suppose you got a link to these led lights mucker??
missing my large westy light over table and am struggling to find one,candles keep going out due to the missus's flatulance :lol: :lol: :lol:

sharky

:sick0019:

 

[Nugsy]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DECKING-LIGHTS-KIT-10-LIGHT-WHITE-LED-POLISHED-STAINLESS-STEEL-/280856033189?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D170764570280%26ps%3D54" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

any good to you

 

[Magiceddie88]

Dudes and gals, so I came across this youtube.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFlAzeBiG5w&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFlAzeBiG5w&feature=youtube_gdata_player" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It inspired me a bit interior lighting wise. Also my 1969 has a nice round fixture in the poptop and I'd highly recamend putting something there, it is the best light in my Bay when it comes to camping. Brings the light of day during the night.

-MagicEddie

 

[VW van man]

Magiceddie, lov it.

LED flexiable stripe is the best.

I use it daily at work, with the newer version the light output is very good and the LED's are closer together so you get an even spread of light. They are also dimmable and colour changable as demonstrated by eddie.

We also do various aluminuim, wooden runners with diffusers to put it in, then you tidies it up if your unable to hide it.

I will be starting the inside of my bus this year with lots of lighting ideas and plans.

Most 12v LED strip is 7-11w per metre with a draw current of 350mA, so doesnt pull much from your leisure battery.

 

[lard]

Like yourself I'm intending on putting some better lighting in after my westy light went pop - for the moment I've put in a warm yellow LED strip - just powered off the existing feed to the interior light in the cab

As per the cool vid 8) - when I get round to doing it I'll take it all off the LB and fit dimmer/colour control

EDIT:

Looking at the pics that was done a while ago as I put a cooker unit in it last season so need to get my finger out

 

[Delilah]

12v decking lights. Sealed units and the diameter of a 10p piece. LED too so low output and nice and bright. To look at they are like small down lighters and brushed chrome finish. Came in a pack of ten individual lights I think for about £30 with 240v transformer ...just fuse 'em and switch 'em and off you go

I wired them so that they can connect to leisure battery or to the tranny and run from 240v when on hookup.

dont suppose you got a link to these led lights mucker??
missing my large westy light over table and am struggling to find one,candles keep going out due to the missus's flatulance :lol: :lol: :lol:

sharky

:sick0019:

here you go they're something like these... http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/outdo...cessed-Polished-Stainless-Steel-0-05w-9261658

 

[LeeZee]

Some great ideas guys. I'm sure Ikea do those strip ones that change colour, might be worth having a look through thier lighting bit.

LZ

 

[ZedBed]

I got some LED side markers - red ones and white ones - they suit my interior but won't be good for everyone. I wired them to two dimmers, one for the whites and one for the reds so I can adjust from bright through warm to a red glow like a fire.
If you're going to fit dimmers a word of pre-warning - you must run + and -ve to the dimmer so don't earth your lights locally. Doh!

 

[TimmyTimTims]

Nice work Lard - I've ordered my LED strip off fleabay Multi-colour disco raving here we come

 

[Magiceddie88]

Here's the inside of mine lit up, the light is old sure it sucks the power off the battery I can almost warm my hands by its light. ahhh well!!! :idea:

As you can see all three burning...they get the job done.

Excuse the grainy photos I haven't upgraded to the future.

 

[g16stu]

heres mine, works great. 4 different lighting zones and any colour you want, including white
http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31676" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31676

 

[Doomers]

Why would you use a transformer with Led lights (LED's are DC) , your converting DC (Battery) to AC (to power transformer) to convert it back to DC to power the lights (lED's), Thats a lot of wasted Energy, space ,and extra heating/ future potential problems.

Whats the individual Voltage rating of each Light Cluster.

If you send us the specs i''ll try posting a circuit that will save you a lot of wasted energy and space. )

Doomers

 

[g16stu]

are you talking to me?
its set so that when on a campsite i can plug into the mains, which i can then use to power normal 240 stuff, the 240 is also wired into a an inverter which will convert to 12v dc, this i can use for the leds, and stereo without draining the battery. the switch is automatic and instananous so the radio doesnt notice the switch and doesnt need restting and i can run boththe leds and stereo for as long as i want and just drive of in tho morning, or a month later for that matter.
i get theres power wasted in the inversion, but who cares? it comes from the grid anyway and doesnt cost me more if i use more?
when i camp where theres no power i can just use the whole setup from the battery with no modifications, to me this seems a better way of doing it then simply running it from the battery and having to recharge the battery, also the leds are remote contro, and the remote sensor draws power even when the lights are off, so if i wire it just to the batery it will draiin the battery unless i switch all the lights off and the remote sensor. running via the invrter this way i can turn on a zone with the switches shown, say the floor in case i want to take a piss in the night without waking everyone then turn the lights off with the remote, when i wake up in the night ihit the remote and only the floor lights are turned on, maybe with a low intensity also if i wish.
maybe im missing something or maybe you didnt know enough about the circuit but i cant think of a better way of doing this,

stu

 

[Doomers]

Time it would take to flatten your leasure battery with a remote sensor , i think you would be talking in the region of weeks. The circuit i recomended would save a lot of power when an electric hook up is not available. with the simple addition of an extra switch a fuse an a length of lead to the leasure battery. You have in built redundancy (ie if the inverter or transformer becomes unserviceable you would still have lights).

 

[g16stu]

for the extra switch your talking about i wired it to the switch thats already standard on the bus to turn the standard interior light power on right next to the headlight switch. the remote sensor takes around 3 days to drain the battery.
if the inverter fails it makes no difference since the 12v from the inverter and the 12 v from the leisure both go to a relay, 12vdc from the leisure flows through the relay to the lights. when its plugged into the mains the relay senses the 12v from the hook up via the inverter and switches the supply, disconecting the supply from the leisure and using the power from the inverter, if the inverter fails then the relay wont sense that power source and automaticaly and will switch back to the battery, as thought the inverter doesnt even exist.
the inverter fits in the recess in the lower part of the passenger seat bulkhead so takes up no useable space

 

[Doomers]

That must be some current draw to kill the battery in 3 days. That has suprised me. Sounds like you have most bases covered.

 

[pottinger]

can i ask, ive 2 original westy interior lights that i am switching over to the leisure battery.
how much of a drain are these ?? ie, left on all night for couple nights would it kill the battery ?
potts