Flexible LED lights for interior van lighting

[climberjohn]

Timwhy,

Crafty tip on the long zip ties as a wire snake; that's a good trick.

May I ask why you went with blue?

I can see the blue for some indirect mood lighting.

But such an oft-used area like over the flip-up cabinets and stove/sink seems to require more "normal" white lighting.

What happens when you drop some blueberries or Viagra pills? You'll have a really hard time finding them!

But, to each his own, and I hope it works for you.

Cheers,
CJ
_________________
'86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often.

[Timwhy]

[climberjohn]

Gotcha.

I did not see the stock white light in your photos, maybe I missed it. Nice work, I do like the alternate colors for mood lighting.

-CJ
_________________
'86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often.

[rockfish]

The other nice thing about a blue, red or orange night light is that the passenger's can turn that light on while you're driving and it won't be as much of a distraction. Not so much to read by - but if they're trying to find something in a bag, etc.
_________________
89 Westy
GW 2.5 5-speed trans

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."
- John Wooden

[purplepeopleeater]

Question, I see in one picture that a C-channel peice of metal was used then another an angle one....my question is.

the c-channel would hide everything better but will this cut down my reflective area? I don't want the light directed in one spot (this is going over the cabinets.

[Timwhy]

[climberjohn]

[purplepeopleeater]

[heliodon]

The aluminum sections I used to mount my Oznium linear LED strips serve two purposes: 1) they neaten up the installation and 2) they shield the bright LED light sources from the direct view of our Westies’ occupants. The trimming function is pretty subjective so we can all do that to taste. The shielding function is a more quantitative geometry / finish properties exercise. The idea would be to prevent line of sight to the LEDs (or their bright reflection) from any common, nearby point of view while minimizing obstruction to the useful flow of light.

Since the LED strip over the side counter is only viewed from one side, an L-shaped angle section is sufficient to shield the strip. The light over the rear seat can be seen from the front and the back so a C-channel used there shields the strip from both points of view. One thing I noticed while putting my installation together was that the inside surface of my clear anodized aluminum channel did an excellent job of reflecting the bright LEDs. This is good for getting light out of the “fixture” but bad from a glare perspective since the reflection was almost as bright as the carefully shielded LEDs. I worked around this by covering the offending surface with black tape (in my case leftover Velcro.) Climberjohn’s C-channel with a black finish should be a good approach – I am interested to see how it turns out.

I think C-channel would work fine over the side counter, especially if you do something to tone down the back reflection from the inside surface, but an L-shape section is better.

BTW, I recently checked the Oznium WWW site and they have a new wireless remote for the LEDs with eight-step dimming. The system appears to have two circuits but, sadly, they are only used for flashing back and forth for a "wig-wag" effect. What I would really like is a remote that controls on/off and dimming individually on two (or more) circuits.
_________________
Cheers,
Cris
_________________
90 Westfalia (current)
91 Cabriolet (current)
60 Bugeye Sprite (good prep for VWs)

[Timwhy]

[Timwhy]

ClimberJohn you got me thinking Mood/Work light so here's my compromise.

Mood Only

Mood with work

Only Work

Work plus Stock

The Whole ShaaaaaaaaaaaBang!

I'll clean up the wiring after work tomorrow and add another switch to the Kitchen panel
for the new Work light.
_________________
'15 Audi A3 Quattro
'09 VW Tiguan (dead)
'87 VW Westy
'91 Tin Top
'90 Cabby
What the Westy wants the Westy GETS


http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=Timwhy&show_results=summary

http://www.youtube.com/user/TIMWHY2?feature=mhee

[climberjohn]

Schweeeeet, I like it!

I tell ya, these Alpina lights are pretty addictive. I just want to add more and more and . . .

CJ
_________________
'86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often.

[markz2004]

[Timwhy]

[populuxe59]

I really like the lights. I've seen the strip type on dealextreme for awhile but haven't tried any. Do these lights (Alpeen) handle the higher charging voltage, or do you have to add a resistor?

The blue lighting--very cool. A military guy I know told me the U.S. uses blue in it's armored fighting vehicles for night time use, while most the Europeans use red. The German tankers favor complete interior black-out, figuring that you shall know where everything is and must be able to operate in total darkness.

[purplepeopleeater]

I started my LED conversion today, I opted for a 4ft light above the sink/stove, I ran out of LED's and need to add another in the middle and finish my wiring. I believe i'll add a dimmer in an easy to reach area.

[purplepeopleeater]

http://www.superbrightleds.com has this stuff way cheaper....however, i'm kinda of an LED newb and most of the ones on superbright look like they need power supplies.


http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index...xible.html

[Timwhy]

Found one more spot to put the extra string of LEDs.Tied it into my dome lights' power,
but not controlled by the door switch. I added a switch for off/on and I think it's
the right amount of indirect light on that side of the bed/back. The pic makes it look
much brighter than it actually is.

_________________
'15 Audi A3 Quattro
'09 VW Tiguan (dead)
'87 VW Westy
'91 Tin Top
'90 Cabby
What the Westy wants the Westy GETS


http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=Timwhy&show_results=summary

http://www.youtube.com/user/TIMWHY2?feature=mhee

[Jake59]

I was down at IKEA a saw this for $15. It is nice and clean comes with a mounting bracket that alows the bar to rotate the light 10-15 degrees. The plan is to mount it to the pop-up bar to get some light up stairs. May also get another for between the rear door and cabinet for the downstairs BR

I did checked the transformer and output is 12vdc .5 amp max, tested it from the lighter socket and it works great.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60180767
_________________
Curent ride: 87 2WD Westy, 2012 Jetta Sportwagon 2.5S

Past Rides: 62 (23 window) Bus, 64 Ghai convertable, 68 single cab, 72 Super Bettle, 78 Bay window Bus, 84 GTI.

[heliodon]

I continue to work on my Westie’s lighting, albeit slowly. Back during the holidays I installed one of Oznium’s bright little 2W warm white LED floodlights over the engine bay.

This little puppy does a fine job of lighting the engine but is definitely too bright for someone using the lower bunk. So, I milled some scrap ¼” tk. diffuse acrylic to make a little diffuser for the fixture.

The diffuser is made from three circles, all 2” in diameter held together with three 6-32 stainless steel machine screws. The upper circle has an inner cutout to press fit on the outside diameter of the Oznium light’s aluminum housing / heat sink. The middle circle is just a thin ring while the lowest circle is solid. I did mill the center of the bottom diffuser to 0.10” tk. to allow more light transmission. I have been very happy with the way this works. It slips on and off easily and makes the light quite comfortable to the eye.

_________________
Cheers,
Cris
_________________
90 Westfalia (current)
91 Cabriolet (current)
60 Bugeye Sprite (good prep for VWs)