Just call me Thomas Edison, well not really, but I did build something using led strip or tape light to replace the two 1076 incandescent bulbs in my old original wall lamps. I replaced the on-off push button switch with a 3-way lamp switch so that it works a bit like a 3-way bulb. Switch position 1 is for reading, 2 is watch TV, 3 full bright. 2 is about the same as the 1076 bulbs. I measured the wattage of the two 1076 bulbs at 50 watts with a 12 volt power supply and they should produce 800 lumens total. My bulb uses 11.5 watts on position 1 & 2, 23 watts total and should be producing about 1440 lumens at 12 volts or more at 13.5 volts when the inverter/charger is working. Anyway it is brighter than the 1076. So far I have only made 2, rather labor intensive although it is faster with practice and gained knowledge. If anyone is interested, I can post some details. The tape is Ledmo 2835 warm white. My camera could not take good pictures with the lamp on or off.
@Jerry,
Brilliant! ^.^d ^.^d ^.^d
see ya
ken
Now that's a BRIGHT idea.
Decided to revive this thread and supply the details, just in case anyone may want to give this a try.
Roger Engdahl got me started on LED lights. First I converted the fluorescent light over the kitchen sink, and then decided that the biggest bang for the buck was to replace the most used incandescent bulbs with LED. About a year ago I had tried LED bulbs in the wall lamps and didn't like them. Not bright enough and not enough light shining down. Most LED chips project light outward in about a 120 degree beam. This works well in LED strips for ceiling lights as the light shines down. Most LED replacement bulbs have the LED's on the sides and top, not much light is directed down if the bulb is upright.
I decided to see if I could do something with LED strip light for the old original wall lamps. Since this stuff is made using the metric system, I find it is easier to use metric when working with it. You get 5 meters on a reel buying from the sellers on Amazon. Most reels have 150, 300 or 600 LED's; 30, 60 or 120 per meter. One LED uses less than 12 volts so they are usually wired 3 in a series with a resistor to work on 12 volts, and the tape can be cut every third LED, if desired. The tape is a bendable printed circuit board (PCB). A usable 3 led segment is 5 cm long for a reel with 300 led's or 2.5 cm for 600 led's. The number of the LED is the size in mm as 5050 is 5x5mm. Tape width varies according to type of led on the tape like 1 cm for 5050 or 8 mm for 2835. The lumen output of the LED does not seem to have much to do with the size though as a smaller 2835 is a little brighter than a 5050. The 5050 actually has 3 LED's in a chip or SMD (surface mounted device) for proper terminology, with different colors such as red, green, blue, or white/ yellow. With a proper controller the RGB version can display different color combinations or what the eye perceives as white with all 3 on.
My 1st attempt was not very good. I used some thin clear lexan bent into a cylinder with 3 strips around the outside, and a disk at the bottom with eight 3 LED segments facing down. I was also using the knock off fake Lampux 5050 tape from Ledone a Chinese seller. The cylinder put the led's too close to the shade, but proved the concept. I searched for more info about LED's and found that a 2835 LED is a newer version that is slightly more efficient than 5050. I bought some Ledmo 2835 in warm white, and used it to make my bulb. It's a bit warmer than Lampux 5050. There is also a Ledmo 2835 in white that I prefer for the ceiling lights. The Ledmo came in a plastic pack with a stick on Ledmo label. It's possible the seller is applying the label. All this stuff is made in China, so it is difficult to know what is good. I found out that 5050 may be good or not so good. I do like the Ledmo 2835 in both warm white and white.
On my 2nd attempt I used a 9.6 cm long piece of 1 1/4" thin wall pvc sprinkler pipe for the cylinder and kept the bottom disk of clear thin lexan. The actual outside diameter of the pipe is slightly larger than 1 5/8". Both can stand the heat from the led's and soldering. I sanded the outside of the PVC with 320 grit paper to remove the printing and give a better grip for the adhesive tape on the strips. I found I could wind 3 pieces of 8 segment led tape (40 cm) around the PVC cylinder in a spiral. In order to do this neatly the cylinder is divided into three 120 degree arcs by 3 vertical lines with 10 marks 1 cm apart (see picture). The 1st and last marks are 3mm from the ends of the cylinder. I used them as a guide to get a nice spiral. Since the tape is a Printed Circuit Board and most PCB's have holes for mounting resistors, capacitors, wire, etc. I drilled tiny holes for wire through the tape and pipe/lexan where a solder connection can be made and wired it from the back side. After soldering any excess wire can be clipped off. I used bare solid 22 awg copper wire to connect all the negative points at the ends of the strips. This locks the strips in place. Only one insulated stranded 22 awg wire to positive is needed for each strip on the cylinder and can be drilled and soldered anywhere there is a cut mark. A stranded wire also needs to be connected to negative. These wires are long enough to extend 2" above the end of the cylinder for making a connection to the wires from the switch. On the disk solid insulated wire was used to connect the positive sides of the strips and bare wire to connect the negative sides (see picture).
I found that the old bulb sockets are 2 pieces of molded plastic held together with a rivet. Drill, file or grind off the swaged end of the rivet to remove it and disassemble the socket. The rivet can be replaced with a ¾ inch # 4 screw and nut. I used Loctite on the screw threads to keep the nut from coming off. Remove the wire and clips and use a small round file or grinder to make grooves large enough for insulated wire to pass through the socket. I used # 18 wire, but #20 would be large enough. I could not find #20 wire at Radio Shack and the big box stores. Since I replaced the push button switch with a 3 way lamp switch it is best to have wire of different colors such as red, blue, green, or black. Green or white is usually the negative wire in 12 volt wiring. The lamp switch had black for the positive input wire, red and blue for the 2 load circuits. Also since the 2 conductor wire from the switch to the bulbs has to be replaced with 3 wires #20 is easier to thread through the tubes and hinges. If I had to do this again I would use the internet to find stranded #20 wire in 3 different colors and use it for all the stranded wire. The brass tubes used to make the lamp arm have sharp edges, so it is easy to damage the insulation when rewiring the lamp and it was difficult to get the #18 wire through the tubes and hinges. I found it is best to start at the hinge in the middle of the tubes. I made wire connections at the bottom of the lamp as that was the way it was originally wired, but I could have used longer pieces of wire and skipped that. The wires from the switch and the strips are routed through the center of the cylinder and about 2 inches above the top for making the connections, then the excess wire and connectors are stuffed inside the cylinder. (The picture shows connections at the bottom of the cylinder, but it is easier to make them at the top). Check previously posted pictures.
We have been using these lamps now for 3 weeks and are very pleased with the improvement. There are less shadows under the lamps. I could have wired it more like a conventional 3 way bulb, with each step brighter than the previous. Do what you like.
I know many of the coaches use a different style of wall lamp, but if it uses incandescent bulbs and you are the type of person that can do this type of work....
Great work & writeup.
Good job, Jerry. Thinking these things through and devising a solution that works for you is always fun and worth the effort. And sometimes it takes a second effort to include all the improvements you thought of on the first try.
After I did the wall lamps, I decided to convert the 30 watt Thin-Lite fluorescent lights in the coach to LED. Watt wise there is not as much of a reduction for fluorescent as for incandescent or halogen, but each watt counts whether it is from battery, generator, or shore power. The first one I did was the one over the sink. I used 4 LE Lampux 5050 warm white 45 cm strips mounted on a piece of thin lexan. Two of the strips were wired via an extra switch so that I could have 2 or all 4 strips on at the same time. The strips were connected by soldering wire at the ends of the strips. 2 strips gave about the same lumens as the fluorescent and 4 much more which we liked. Four strips used 32 watts as measured by a Kill A Watt meter and fed by a 12 v power supply. After a 3 week trip though, I found that some of the strips came loose from the lexan although I had used silicon caulk in several places after sticking the tape on the lexan to help hold the strips in place.
Since I had good luck with non-waterproof Ledmo 2835 on the wall lamps, I decided to try that on the ceiling lights. I really like the Ledmo as it has 3M tape on the back side and really sticks to the lexan. It's also slightly more efficient than the Lampux for about the same price. Warm white Ledmo is a little warmer than warm white Lampux. I used warm white in the wall lamps, but used white for the ceiling lights. Some may think the white is too white or maybe even a little blue. I used lexan because I had a partial sheet left over from another project and I had read in a review that LED strips can short out after a period of time when mounted on metal as the Led tape has spots on the back for connections. He thought that the problem was due to the sticky tape deteriorating. Other materials such as Formica could be used instead of lexan. The lexan I used is very thin and can be cut with metal snips. I wired the strips from the backside as is done on printed circuit boards by drilling small holes through the tape and lexan at the connecting spots for jumper wires and solder connections. Just push the wire through the hole, solder and clip off the excess wire. At the ends and middle of the strips at negative I used bare solid copper jumper wires to lock the strips in place even if the sticky tape should fail. The wire came from a roll of 22 awg door bell wire. I could make as many negative connections as desired. Only one positive connection is required for each strip and it does not have to be at an end. I used positive insulated jumper wires as required to connect the strips in the combination I wanted. I used a small SPST toggle switch on the ceiling lights to turn on or off 1 or 2 strips to change the light output and watts used. On the center ceiling lights I used 5 45cm strips wired so that either 3 or 5 strips can be turned on using ~ 20 or 32 watts. 3 strips give as much or more light than the 2 fluorescent tubes while using 10 watts less. For the bedroom I only used 3 strips wired for a 2 or 3 combination. For the sofa light and other side I used 3 strips without an extra switch. The dining table and sink light are 5 strips with a push button SPST switch. I redid the sink light from 4 Lampux to 5 Ledmo strips. When on battery power, I will switch the lights to minimum. I used switches rather than a dimmer to keep it simple and not have to hunt for a dimmer remote control. About the only con is that you can see the individual LED's through the lamp covers.
Most of the DC electrical devices used in the coach have a black wire for the positive and a white wire for the negative. However the coach DC wiring is usually white for positive and green for negative. I used green for negative and some other color for positive on the lamp. Use solid wire for jumpers and stranded for the other wire. If you get the positive and negative connections reversed nothing bad will happen the LED's will just not illuminate. If you decide to do this be sure to buy non-waterproof strip as it costs less and is much much easier to work with. When drilling the holes for the mounting screws (1" 8-32) place the side with strips against the bottom of the case, or put it inside the case strips up and drill from that side. Enlarge the holes in the lexan afterward. The nylon spacers on the screws are 1/2" long, but a couple of nuts would work as spacers also. I put a tiny bit of thread lock on the last nut.
Edit: Right after posting this I realize that the black wire connections in picture 4,7, & 8 should be reversed. I remember I made that mistake on one of them and had to make the change and that happened to be the one in the pictures. Wired as in the picture it was either 2 strips on or all 5 on instead of 3 on or 5 on.
Nice job, Jerry.
I did the same thing with a switch on the light fixture to turn on 5 or 3 strips. These LEDs strips are beighter that the first try so I am going to go to two strips or five. Most of the time two seem like enough. I like the idea of a piece of formica or some other plastic. I used thin aluminum sheet (thinking it would act as a heat sink) and haven't had any shorting problems but it is possible. I used double stick tape to hold the aluminum in place instead of small bolts and nuts. That seems to be holding too.
Decided to add the next project to this topic since it is about converting two bath lights to LED. My 96 U270 had a 3 bulb lamp on the sink cabinet and a puck type light in the bottom of the cabinet above the sink. I looked a long time for a replacement lamp fixture that I could convert to LED. I know there are replacement LED bulbs that will fit, but I didn't like them. Recently I found a plastic white frosted 2' diffuser for a T5 fluorescent strip light at Home Depot for about $4. Lithonia Lighting Model DMNS5 14D. There were 2 types for the same price, one slightly larger and not as frosty as the smaller one. They may be phasing out the smaller as there was only 1 of the small size that I bought. It was too long so I cut it to size with a fine tooth hobby saw.
Decided I could make a replacement lamp our of oak. Normally wood isn't used much for lamps due to heat and fire safety, but LED's don't get as hot as incandescent unless it's a really big LED. Used the same technique as for the Thin-Lite ceiling lamps with the 2 LED strips on lexan with spacers between the wood and lexan. I bought 1/4" thick oak at Lowes to make the lamp. The ends of the lamp are three 1/4" layers cut to shape first and then glued together as one piece fits inside the plastic diffuser. After the glue dried I rounded the edges with my router mounted in a table to function as a shaper. The part between the ends is 1/4" thick with a 1/8" thick piece of oak with tapered sides glued to it. The taper is for the diffuser which has bulbous edges to grip. Butt joints don't have much strength so after the glue dried, I routed a couple of 1/4" slots on the back side for splices to strengthen the joints. The diffuser can be snapped on and off the lamp for fastening with 4 screws to the cabinet. I used the old lamp base as a template for the screw holes and hole for the wiring. The new lamp is about 17.5" long, longer than the old one.
I used Ledmo 2835 warm white 600 LED's on a 5 meter roll. That's 3 LED's every 2.5 cm. I would have used white if I had it, but warm white is okay too. I have two 40 cm strips in the lamp with a switch mounted in an end piece for 2 light levels. One strip is about the same light as the 3 old bulbs. The old lamp used 40 watts; the new is 15 or 7.5 watts. I converted the puck light by using four 3 LED pieces mounted on a lexan disk. I removed the dome part of the reflector and some of the plastic tabs that held the bulb holder. The disk in held in place with some silicone caulk. The puck light dropped from 12 to 2 watts for the same amount of light. I had the lamps on for 2 hours and the big one was just hot enough to be a nice hand warmer.
The picture with the new lamp on is not yellow as it appears; the light fools the camera. Just one strip is on in the photo.
Reviving this topic as I finally used the coach for a few weeks after converting the fluorescent lamps. I think I have overdone the number of strips in some of the lamps. Except for the 2 bedroom lights (3 strips with a switch for 2 or 3 on) I put 5 strips in the other ceiling lamps and the ones over the sink and dining table. All the rest have just 3 strips. Most of the trip even when plugged into shore power, we had plenty of light with just 3 of the 5 strips on, or just 2 for the bedroom lights. Sometimes though we used all five strips on the sink and dining table lamps. If I were doing this again I would just put 3 strips in all the ceiling lamps and wire the extra switch so I could use 2 strips when on battery power. My wife thinks the ceiling lamps are too white, but I like it.
How about mixing one strip of cool white with one strip of warm white next to it? For new to LED folks, rolls come in 150/300 leds per 5 meter roll and 3528 or 5050 sizes plus warm or cool so wide choice in how much/color lighting you want.
I put an extra strip of red in the ceiling fixtures for night driving but have not connected the red yet. Red above the outside entry could bring in some interesting traffic.
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Thanks for your excellent how to, Jerry. Unintended bonus is the a/c sees less heat generated inside the coach so the energy saved is at least 33% more while cooling (and essentially more capacity available). Food for thought, do the floor night lights run 24/7? I'm still coachless.
My coach only has 2 night lights one at the door steps and one at the toilet, both are controlled by one switch just inside the front door. Not sure what other coaches have, but suspect that all lights will have a switch.
Thanks Jerry. What a great project and writeup. When we had our 5th wheel we converted interior lights to LED and it made a huge difference in our boondocking capacity since that particular coach had only a single marine deep cycle battery that ran lighting, water pump and furnace fan!
This will definitely be one of the early projects when we get our coach.
As an aside I just replaced many of our home interior can lights to LED and dimmers....what a difference in useable light. LED's have come a long way in just the last couple of years.