TheSamba.com :: View topic - Flexible LED lights for interior van lighting

Sat Nov 27, 2010 7:02 pm

thatvwbusguy wrote: I have one of the Alpena strips mounted above the glovebox on my '87 Wolfsburg to give a more reasonable amount of light when rummaging around in there at night. I soldered the wires to the switch for the small dashboard light.

After reading the above post, I set about replicating this idea for improved light in the glove box. Thanks for the idea thatvwbusguy.

Started with the strip of warm LED strip lights from superbrightleds.com. I figured with the adhesive backing I would slap them up with no issues. Unfortunately the catch to the glove box lock was right where I wanted to run the light. I ended up with a 1" wide flat piece of aluminum that I notched to go around the catch and also set the light back about a 1/2". This gave the strip one continuous flat surface to mount to.

I then drilled four holes in the aluminum and into the bottom of the dash just above the glove box. I simply pop riveted the light in place. Then after an ugly solder job to the contacts on the stock glove box light, I had a functional light that allows the user to actually see what's contained in the box at night. A simple project that cost less than $20 in materials.

Taking the last photo reminded me of the hamburger scene in Pulp Fiction when Travolta opens the briefcase. Great movie. 8)

Sat Nov 27, 2010 7:53 pm

Beautiful job there 1621. I like that a lot. Nice Pulp reference too by the way.
I don't even know if I have a light in the box.

Sat Dec 04, 2010 8:13 pm

1621,

Nice write up and pix, thanks for the post!

-CJ

Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:09 am

somethign i use a lot for other projects is flexible electroiluminescant wire, but i probably spelled it wrong. thought about having their stuff with strips attached sewn in as welting next time i have a set of seats re-done www.coolneon.com

Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:18 pm

Okay, here’s a review after I installed these and had them in a few weeks.

For my eyes, I feel these LED light strips work best as a source of indirect lighting, such as footwells and closets, and not so well as a source of primary light, as in over the rear cabinets and sink. But this is just an opinion.

I have the standard white color, not the “warm” white LEDs, and the cooler color of the light just does not seem quite right as the main cabin lights. The warm white LEDs may be a bit better; I’d love to see some in person.

So, I opted to put mine up front, to light the footwells. The front part of the van has always been as dark as a black bear in a coal mine, even with the barely adequate map light over the driver door.

Procedure:
1) Following the stunningly brilliant lead of 1621 on this thread, I bought a 3 foot strip of 1/8 inch by 1 inch aluminum from the local hardware store, about $3.50. The idea was to mount the lights on metal, so they could be easily moved if I later decide to do so.

2) Cut 2 pieces off it, each about 15” long. Filed off rough edges, and spray painted them black.

3) Stuck the lights onto the now-black metal bits with the 3M mounting tape, with about 2 inches on one side and 1 inch on the other.

4) Drilled two small holes in the aluminum bar for mounting screws, and one slightly larger hole to run the wire through.

5) Decided where I wanted to place the lights, and drilled pilot holes and a larger hole into the van’s dash for the wire. See the photos below for location. This offers great foot well and glove box lighting but is fairy unobtrusive. NOTE: If you do this, I suggest centering one light over the glove box and the second over the slide-out plastic trim directly behind the gear shift. Looks much better if it’s properly centered.

6) I chose to use the existing switch in the tiny light over the glovebox (the light never worked anyway.) The OEM power wire to the switch was removed and capped off; it never had power.

Power came via an 18 g wire came from a Posi-Tap splice (more on this great tool below) into an existing always-hot wire located behind the dash. The ground wires from the lights go to the ground side of the OEM light over the glove box, and then another ground wire to a body ground behind the glove box.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I opted not to have these lights always come on when a door is opened by connecting the ground to the front door switches. I want to live with them for awhile, and can always adjust the wiring later.

So, what I have now is a single driver side map light over the door come on when I open the van door, with two Alpena strip lights activated by the OEM light over the glove box to turn on when needed. The amount of lighting is great, easily enough to read a map or book by if needed, find things dropped on the floor, etc, but not overwhelming. The switch is easy to reach from the driver position. Overall, this is an easy mod that adds a lot of useable light in a place that was previously very dark. If an 12 volt bumblefutz like me can do it, you can too!

Tips:
Mounting these on thin aluminum stock worked great.
Use 18 g wire for power and ground.
Invest in decent tools, they make electrical life SO much easier, see below.
If you wanted to be schmancier, you could find some spray paint that more closely matches the color of your dash mounting spot, dark brown in my ’86.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo of lights in place, daytime. This taken with the camera about 1 foot above the front seat. When sitting at normal height, you can hardly see the lights at all.

Wiring detail of the OEM glove box switch. The two grounds from each Alpina light are soldered to one side of the switch via a female spade connector. The other goes to a ground connection behind the glove box.

Both lights on at night, great floor and glovebox illumination

and

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS - As part of this wiring project I discovered 2 great tools: A good stripper (no, not THAT kind of stripper) and Posi-Tap and Posi-Lock wire connectors.

Man, I wish I had heard of both these before I started so many wiring projects on the van. Both are huge time savers and frustration reducers.

Goodie #1: Irwin Vise-Grip Self-Adjusting Wire Stripper — 8in., Model# 2578300,

About $21 online.

This makes electrical work SO much more fun. Perfectly stripped wires every time.

Goodie #2: Posi-Tap and Posi-Lock wire connectors

These wire connectors cost a bit more than the FLAPS cheapo connectors, but are vastly sturdier and even reusable. I bought some from the website below. For anyone here doing electrical work on their vans, check them out, highly recommended.

6 Posi-Taps, $9
26 piece assortment of Posi-Locks, $19

http://www.posi-lock.com/

Short (1:25) YouTube vid on using Posi-Tap connectors:
Posi-Tap demonstration and review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQWYWuNbpog

Cheers,
CJ

Tue Dec 07, 2010 2:07 pm

...and my to-do list grown by 1.

Thanks climberjohn!

Robyn

Tue Dec 07, 2010 8:15 pm

John, That looks great! Looking forward to the meet up on the 19th.

E.

Sat Dec 11, 2010 1:46 am

They look great, I've just bought a few strips of these from hobbyking (a RC model supplier) they're about $5 for a 1m strip with 60 LEDs on. They can be cut into sections with 3 LEDs on each and come in several colours.
I was struggling with mounting ideas but sticking them onto a metal strip is a great idea.

Mike

Sat Dec 11, 2010 12:35 pm

I just replicated this mod as done by 1621. Fun project.

Rave reviews so far! Thanks for the idea and how-to.

Sat Dec 11, 2010 2:24 pm

Teej,

You are most welcome, and welcome to the Samba!

- CJ

Sun Dec 12, 2010 12:37 am

The Posi-Lock and Posi-Tap connectors are great! I use them often for projects where I might want to have the option of a 2nd shot at wire lengths since the Posi-Lock can be removed and reused. The same company makes an excellent inline fuse solution, you guessed it, the Posi-Fuse. Works the same way as the Posi-Lock and takes a standard ATC/ATO fuse. Installs quickly and easily, looks professional and only cost a couple bucks. 2 thumbs way up from me.
http://www.posi-lock.com/newproducts.html

Sun Dec 12, 2010 11:57 pm

Finally got some pics of the IKEA lights I mentioned in my last post.

Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:44 pm

Hello all,

When our vans were made, LEDs could do little but illuminate themselves as indicators and that was pretty darn cool at the time. Today, LEDs are really coming into their own as light sources with new products emerging at a rapid pace. There is much to like: LEDs are long-lived, very efficient, and agreeably compact. In just the last year they have become more powerful, less expensive, and their color continues to improve.

Having just competed a few basic mechanical chores (yes, including new 30R9 fuel lines!) with the 1990 Westfalia I acquired in September I thought the dark days of winter would be a fun time to play around with an interior lighting makeover. Thus, as a relative newbie I have followed this thread with interest.

I ended up using products from Oznium thanks to a pointer from climberjohn in this thread. It was very smooth doing business with Oznium – they were fast and reasonably priced (I have no business connection with them). I ended up using two different LED products from Oznium, both quite satisfying. The first is their Waterproof SMD Bar, which provides about 30 surface-mount LEDs in a ¼” by ½” aluminum channel that is 20” long. Each SMD Bar consumes ~2.4 W at 12V. I have placed two bars above the kitchen counter, a bar above the rear bench seat, and a bar in the lower center of the dashboard. I have also used Oznium’s High Intensity LED Flood Light in the back bay of the van over the engine compartment.

As climberjohn notes, these LED strips are a bit too glaring for use in the normal field of view. For the installation over the kitchen counter I used a length of ½” x ½” aluminum angle as a mounting shield. This works really well to direct a useful swatch of light on the top surface without glare and the 1/2" "fixture" is so small you hardly see it. I mounted the strip underneath the inside edge of the shelf above the counter. In this position it illuminates the cooking surface and sink nicely when the kitchen lid is raised.

Daytime view of the installation:

… and the light it provides at night.

The strip of lights over the rear bench seat was a bit more prone to glare since folks sitting there would be just a foot or so away from the source and looking toward it. In this case I recessed the LED Bar into a 5/8” x 5/8” aluminum channel. The sides of the channel are just right to block the occupant’s view of the LED bar. Since aluminum is a shiny reflector I placed a strip of old, black Velcro tape (it was handy) on the inside surface of the channel so it would not reflect back into passenger’s eyes.

Daytime view view:

Nighttime view:

I followed the lead of thatvwbusguy in mounting a strip of lights on the dash board. In the case of Oznium’s LED Bar the LEDs are already mounted on a tidy strip of aluminum. I elected to mount one 20” bar at the bottom of the metal portion of the dash using two small plastic clips that came with the bar. I applied black electrical tape to the exposed aluminum surfaces of the bar to help it blend in with the dash and, like thatvwbusguy, routed the power leads to the existing map light. This is working fine except the map light switch is a little fiddly.

Daytime views with the dash light off and on:

Light number 4 is a single Oznium High Intensity LED Flood Light mounted over the engine compartment. This is a small single LED fixture with a substantial 1-1/4” round aluminum heat sink. It lights the engine bay quite nicely but is probably the wrong geometry for a reading light.

View of the small flood light and the light it produces:

So, I feel like I have a fine start on the relighting of my Westy’s interior. So far I have installed 12 W of LED lighting – far less than the single incandescent fixture that was mounted over the counter – and the cabin now has much more light over a wider area. I bought the Westy, in part, to serve as a mobile field office for my projects in landscape photography. In this role the increased amount of light is a great thing. Less light would be fine too on occasions when I am in a more relaxed camping mode. For the main cabin strips I will install a PWM dimmer as mentioned by vwlovr. I have tested one and it works quite well.

BTW, warm white is a great option for the van interiors. A general principle in visual perception is that we expect lower levels of light to be relatively warm in color and higher levels to be cool (Google: Kruithof Curve). All of my Oznium lights are warm white and they match well.

Still to do:

1. Mount the dimmer and finalize the main cabin wiring runs.

2. Work out a switch for the flood light over the rear compartment. I want to group a 120 V outlet, two 12 V outlets, and the engine bay light switch all together in a panel on the rear-facing side of the cabinet,

3. Add 12 V sockets and flexible (gooseneck) reading lights for the back bunk space and perhaps the rear bench seat.

4. I still have incandescent festoon bulbs in the driver's side ceiling light and the map light. I will replace these with warm white LEDs.

5. Think through a lighting option for the upper space when the top is popped.

My thanks to all of you on Samba for leading the way and particularly to climberjohn for the thread plus vwlover, thatvwbusguy, and 1621 for thought provoking suggestions.

Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:23 pm

WOW! =D>

Cris, that looks fantastic! Smart use of the LEDs to light the whole cabin. I can't wait for the updates with the PWM dimmer in place.

Now a little challenge for anyone interested...

I'm thinking it would be nice to have an outdoor porch light on the B-pillar between the passenger door and slider. LED of course, must be waterproof, unobtrusive, switched from the inside, perhaps with a yellow tint to keep the bugs at bay. All good ideas and suggestions are welcome.

Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:50 pm

1621 wrote: I'm thinking it would be nice to have an outdoor porch light on the B-pillar between the passenger door and slider.

Quick Picture of 1621 taking out the trash... :D I kidd.

Just google "battery operated motion sensor LED" or something close to that. Lots of options for putting one on a magnet for easy campsite attachment.

Tue Dec 14, 2010 9:04 am

=D> x2!!!

Wowzer, nice work! (I wish I gave this much thought to mine.) You are are wise to get such good integration between all components. Excellent photos too, but that's your job, right?

Your choice of angle aluminum for over the sink and channel aluminum for over the bench seat is especially clever; seems to perfectly solve the blast-in-your-eyes effect of LEDs.

That High Intensity LED Flood Light is DAMN bright, wow! I agree, maybe not so good as a reading light. For that, I suggest this from Go Westy; a nice warm light and easily bendable to where you want it:

http://www.gowesty.com/ec_search_results.php?search_phrase=osram

Keep up your great posts and photos, thanks!

-CJ

Tue Dec 14, 2010 9:24 am

markz2004 wrote: 1621 wrote: I'm thinking it would be nice to have an outdoor porch light on the B-pillar between the passenger door and slider.

Just google "battery operated motion sensor LED" or something close to that. Lots of options for putting one on a magnet for easy campsite attachment.

Fellas,

Methinks this is the answer you seek.

Gorillatorch

- Magnetic (stick it on dark parts of van for mechanical work)
- Infinitely bendable
- LED (of course)
- Water resistant
- Brightness, color (white/red) and strobe settings
- Extremely cool looking
- One model turns into a lantern for outside evening festivities.

Link: http://joby.com/gorillatorch

Wed Dec 15, 2010 9:32 am

I hid 2 strips of red ones in the back of my 68 weekender and they work great. Red allows me to see, but red does not effect night vision like white, so going in and out at night is easier on the eyes. plus the red glow looks cool.

Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:02 am

Jamos wrote: I just ordered 1x3' and 1x2' of the warm white LED strips, as well as one of these:
http://www.ledlightsworld.com/led-dimmer-p-118.html

I want to mount the 3' section above my rear bench seat with the dimmer mounted in the cabinet. The 2' section I want to mount above my slider door, just need to find a good switch for that one.

Hopefully the stuff is decent!

OK, so I finally got this job done!
There are some great ideas and info in this thread, so thanks to everyone for that. I ended up buying some of that 5/8" x 5/8" aluminum U-channel, and mounted the 3' strip of LED's in there. A little extra on each end and it fits perfectly above the rear bench seat. You wouldn't even notice it was there.

I tapped power at the flourescent fixture and ran new wires back to the rear cabinet. Mounted the dimmer with double-stick tape right to the cabinet. I ended up using the 2' LED strip in the flourescent fixture and that works great as well!

Very happy with some improved lighting. I got the warm white LED's and they still look slightly cool, but that's just the quality of LED light. I think having the a dimmer is key, especially while camping at night.
I'll get some pics up soon.

Sun Jan 09, 2011 5:06 pm

Thanks Chris for the pics of your install, it was eactly what I was looking for when I
saw them. However, the leds color was too bright for what I want them for.
I was looking for light not to cook or prepare, just something that would light the
area and still provide enough light to see but without the white light. I've looked at
the blue lights mutiple times and thought how could I use them, as I have other blue
LEDs throughout the van. When I saw your kitchen fixture, that was the answer.
From a different thread, the poster removed his kitchen shelf to get at the wires
for new light fixtures he was installing. I didn't want to remove the shelf so that I
could tap into the kitchen lamps' wires. However I did want to put the LEDs over
the sink/stove. I removed the end piece of the shelf and used three 36" zip ties that
I had cut the clasp off from and taped then together. In the end I ended up with a
flexible piece that I could tape my new light fixtures wires too and pull them through
the small space behind the shelf too the front of the closet. I pulled an extra set
of wire through in case I want to add more LEDs down the road in this location.
I already had an LED light fixture in my closet so tapping into that power source would
be the easiest thing to do, to power the new set. Hopefully others that want to add
these lights in a same location can use this information and not think that they have
to remove the shelf to get to wires. They can just run their own, if they already have power
somewhere else close bye. Here are some pics of my new LEDs, thanks again Chris.

Backlit from my other Blue LED over the slider. That one is a POD and is very bright.