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Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:10 am

the other day at Sam's club, I saw some AA battery powered LED lights. two strips and a 'remote' switch that turns them on.

we try to preserve our battery when we camp, so I have an odd collection of stick on, magnet mount battery powered led lights.

but these looked so nice! I mounted them on either side of the over the sink light, and mounted the switch (velcro) on the frame to the right of the sliding door.

it is a kick to open the door and flip a switch to turn on the lights. they are very nice and bright, and really illuminate the galley.

I think I'll get another pack. for above the seat and rear hatch area.

Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:21 am

LED is the way to go Debbie. That's all we use.

Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:33 am

How about some pics and make/model of the lights?

Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:47 am

I also use a solar charged reading lamp you can buy at Ikea for $20 It is the Sunman lamp I believe. I pop the batteries module out and place it on the dash next to the solar VW battery float charger.

When I was looking for the model of lamp, I see Ikea has lots of LED lamps, some of which are battery powered. EX: Dioder
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50126605/

Might we wroth a lookie...

Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:53 am

I think I have the same lights as the OP, and I really like them also. I like the fact that the leds give very little glare when they are on at night and I am driving. A PO had put wooden curtain rods in my GL and I used a rubber coated twist tie to hold the lights up. The switch is on my dash for now, but I will probably mount it between the seats.

Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:11 pm

I like the idea of the remote. Do you have a link to this light?

Fri Oct 21, 2011 3:58 pm

I couldn't find the lights on the Sam's Club page, but here is a link for them on Amazon. not available, but shows the information.

http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Remote-Control-LED-Light/dp/B003RPHV4I

I can take some pictures too, but I've thrown out the package.

Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:30 pm

Amazon says shipping weight is 13 pounds! :shock: I'm guessing that's a typo. Otherwise those are heavy little guys.

Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:05 pm

VanWilder wrote: LED is the way to go,,,That's all we use.
We've just got a set of 4 of these IKEA LED spotlights.

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/10192107/

Not finished yet, but the idea is to mount the four onto a thin strip of wood, and use them for reading lights above the bottom bunk. Each of them swivels in its little housing, like an aircraft light, and if you ignore all the transformer/extra wires business to make them work on 110V, they're rated for 12V, so perfect for the van without too much modification--switches would be needed.

They had them set up to work at IKEA. They throw quite a bit of light, so we figured two on each side, that can be focused together on each bunkmate's book, should do pretty well.

--
Kathy
88 Westy

Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:02 pm

So what is the supply voltage? I assume you toss the power supply. $59 seems a bit pricey though....

Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:39 am

I think by supply voltage, you mean the same thing as I do by "rated for 12V." 12V is what the backs of the units say. As you say, toss the power supply.

$59 is a bit much. However, as you can see, there are about 12 LEDs in each, and they really are quite bright. I've looked at some of the others, and they'd be marginal for reading. Also, you're getting the swivels in the mounting, rather than just having hockey pucks.

Having bought 12V lights for boats for year, I'd say these were pretty realistically priced for what you get.

I'll start a thread when we get around to building the unit. I think it'll work pretty well!

---
Kathy
88 Westy

Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:45 pm

Here is what we did:

Kind of Leds in band.
It is a nice setup, waterproof and soft (can go around curb, cylinder or you could even make a flat circle too), put it anywhere and there is 3M glue at the back.
The best part is you can get the lenght you want, minimum is 5cm.
I got 50cm, checked the current, got about 230mA so about 3W from the battery but it light up more than all the light we have inside the van (passenger van).

We decide to put it on a aluminium flat since we might move it around in case it doesn't work like we want.
Of course, we'll put velcro on the flat so not a big deal if we want to move it.

Thu May 10, 2012 11:28 am

Hi all!

I made a fun video of my favorite interior battery powered LED lighting solutions.. all very cheap... easy... and with velcro, simple to manage and remove if you don't like them!

Check it out!

Thu May 10, 2012 11:55 am

debbiej wrote: I couldn't find the lights on the Sam's Club page, but here is a link for them on Amazon. not available, but shows the information.

http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Remote-Control-LED-Light/dp/B003RPHV4I

I can take some pictures too, but I've thrown out the package.

Here's an active link on Amazon.
I guess Ammy doesn't sell them any more, but you can get them from a third-party seller.

http://www.amazon.com/LED-Light-Wireless-Remote-Control/dp/B005GXMSDS/

Here's a link to a much cheaper single remote control LED bar:
http://www.amazon.com/Rite-Lite-LPL700WRC-Wireless-Cabinet/dp/B005G5CDI6/

According to the reviews the remote for these works with multiple units, so you could buy multiples and turn them all on at the same time with one remote.

Lastly, this weird "Light Flute" also looks pretty handy:
http://www.amazon.com/LED-Light-Flute-Portable-Silver/dp/B003OX82KA/

I like that you can just take it out of the base and carry it around with you.

Thu May 10, 2012 1:44 pm

matthallett wrote: Hi all!

I made a fun video of my favorite interior battery powered LED lighting solutions.. all very cheap... easy... and with velcro, simple to manage and remove if you don't like them!

Check it out!

hey Magnet Matt,

Where does one buy the motion detector light you mention? Nice videos, BTW.

Thanks,
CJ

Thu May 10, 2012 9:24 pm

I have been using a Sylvania LED motion sensor light for a couple years now. It runs on three AAA batteries (which I have yet to replace). I mount it above the sliding door using the built in magnet and it comes on as soon as you enter the van. I think I got mine at Lowes for about $10.00. Here is a link to the model I have on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-72178-Activated-Battery-Powered/dp/B001LJNS8U

My wife favors the convenience of the motion sensor for the climb down from the top bunk during the inevitable middle of the night bathroom trek.

Fri May 11, 2012 4:48 am

Those look like the 2 strips i bought a the auto 'thing' here in jan, guy had diff lenght/colors, $5 each, test there to work.

Mon May 14, 2012 6:26 pm

climberjohn wrote: matthallett wrote: Hi all!

I made a fun video of my favorite interior battery powered LED lighting solutions.. all very cheap... easy... and with velcro, simple to manage and remove if you don't like them!

Check it out!

hey Magnet Matt,

Where does one buy the motion detector light you mention? Nice videos, BTW.

Thanks,
CJ

Btw..
They take a long time to arrive from china...

I think that about 8 to 10 would outfit a van with all the cupboards and shelves nicely! :-)

I bought them from here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Auto-sensor-Pir-Super-Whit...2772wt_984

Because he had the grey color that I wanted! There are a few other places on eBay where they are a bit cheaper, but other colors!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Infrared-8-LED-Li...664wt_1090

Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:16 pm

since pqhmike is asking about LED light options....

Last year I posted:

"We've just got a set of 4 of these IKEA LED spotlights.

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/10192107/

Not finished yet, but the idea is to mount the four onto a thin strip of wood, and use them for reading lights above the bottom bunk. Each of them swivels in its little housing, like an aircraft light, and if you ignore all the transformer/extra wires business to make them work on 110V, they're rated for 12V, so perfect for the van without too much modification--switches would be needed.

They had them set up to work at IKEA. They throw quite a bit of light, so we figured two on each side, that can be focused together on each bunkmate's book, should do pretty well. "
r39o wrote: So what is the supply voltage? I assume you toss the power supply. $59 seems a bit pricey though....

....Bump....almost exactly a year since I first mentioned them...I don't think I ever posted the results of this project, which was debuted at Westyfest in Oregon this spring...

The plan was to use 4 LED lights as reading lights over the rear end of the main bunk, with switches on either side, each controlling two lights. The lights swivel about 15 degrees in any direction. A side benefit is having permanently installed LED lights right above the engine compartment!

The original light set (shown above) was taken apart, and the transformer and all the 110V stuff discarded. What was left was four multi-LED spotlights with swivel casings.

This shows part of the set.

Then a mounting plate was made, about the width of the back bunk. We used some scrap teak because we had it, and the colour looked good with the beige Westy interior. Any tight-grained wood would work well. There was a hole cut with a hole-saw for each light, and two little lights for micro-switches, plus a routered groove for the wiring. Finding the microswitches was a bit of a job, because there wasn't much depth in the planned unit--only the depth of the lights, which was about 3/4".

This shows the back side of part of the fixture. Note how tiny that microswitch is--the light itself is only about 1 1/2" across.

Here's the front face of half the fixture. This switch controls these two lights. (In retrospect, we've found the lights are bright enough that one on each side would have been enough; then we could have made a couple of reading lights, or similar, for further up front. There are 18 LEDs in each light, and they're pretty bright.)

Here's what the back looked like. Because we were trying to keep the profile low, duct tape seemed like the simplest and best way of tidying up the back wiring. Not incredibly elegant, but it is inside the van.

On the other hand, the visible side looks pretty swish! Sanded and oiled teak to go with the retro 84 "Danish Modern" upholstery of the Westy.

Finally, it goes up into place. The wiring of the fixture is spliced into a take-off from the kitchen light, coming from before the switch in that light, so you don't need to have the kitchen light switched on to make this unit work.

And finally, the unit screwed into place with oval-head screws in the four corners. They go nicely with the aluminum surrounds for the LED units.

Conclusion: We are really pleased with this setup. It looks great and gives a LOT of light, using virtually no power. It cost us about $60 for the LED set from Ikea, plus less than $15, if I remember correctly, for the switches plus odds and ends. The wood was scrap. For a grey interior, I suppose you could replace the wooden strip with a piece of grey or charcoal-grey plexiglas or lexan; that would look good, too, and would be as easy to work as the wood.

---
Kathy