How to: Bypass ballast for LED tubes on EVC

[EVCSNOW]

Want to change out your bulbs fluorescent bulbs for LEDs? You've come to the right DIY post!

Note: if you're not familiar with 12V wiring, DON'T proceed! I take absolutely no responsibility for any mishaps related to this post. You are being warned!

Tools needed: Wire cutters, soldering iron and solder (or wiretaps), electrical tape, and some 12V led tubes from your favorite retailer.

Step 1: Disconnect both the engine and coach batteries!

Step 2: Remove bulb cover from the original light housing by squeezing the sides of the cover and gently removing it. Remove light tubes by twisting gently and pulling down. You should now see this:

This 1995 model seemed to have the original bulbs that were made in Japan still installed and working correctly!

Step 2: You need to bypass the ballast so that the LED tubes get 12Vs directly from the wiring of the coach. On this 12V light fixture, the blue wires are HOT and the gray wires are ground.

cut the blue wires that are going into the ballast board, the thick white wire, and the red wire. The red wire had an inline fuse that I kept.

See the cut white wire here (note: I placed some electrical tape on it until I confirmed the unit was working then I soldered all my connections to ensure they are tight and safe):

Step 3:

Connect via wiretaps or solder all of the grey/White wires together, and red/blue wires together. Again, for this 12V connection, the grey is ground and the blue is hot. One side of the LED needs ground and the other side needs a hot connection.


Step 4: Test your new LED tubes! Note: I was simply testing to make sure the light tubes worked. The wiring shown here was temporary.

Step 5: Go back and secure all wiring connections to ensure they are safe by soldering and covering with shrink tubing and tape. You can use wiretaps, but I don't recommend it.


Step 6: You're all done! Enjoy the fruits of your labor by having a bright light that doesn't use as much energy!

[sgirard]

Thanks for writing this up. This has been on my list for a while now!
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95 EVC
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64/71/72/82
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Intro

[dazey77]

Another cheaper alternative that I went for is to just use 12v stick on led tape. You can choose brightness by choosing from the different led chips and spacing.
Basically just remove all the drivers stick tape to the reflector and wire in.

It was only a stop gap for me as my diffusers (like yours I think) were seriously yellowed from age.

I ended up replacing with new strip lights (which I also modified with led strip as couldn’t find a warm white fitting that I liked). I meant to write that one up but never got around to it. The new lights fitted onto an interface plate as it’s impossible to find nice led fittngs as wide as the original fitting.

My roof light is also converted to LED with stick on tape
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My van modification blog:
www.dazedproductions.co.uk/Vanity

[wannabecamper]

It is cool that you reused the existing housing. I replace the entire assembly with these:

Over the stove and the back

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010PD9NRM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pop top

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010PDAB96/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They actually pretty much covered up the existing holes. There is a slight opening at the larger light location, but don't really notice it unless you are really looking at it. You can't tell that I even replaced the light with a non-OEM version for the pop top single light location.

[MrPulldown]

This post inspired me to get off my ass and throw in some LED tubes. My 2002 came with a single tube fluoro light which is slightly different than your 1995. Yesterday Amazon delivered my light led tube. Though I do not follow your wiring 100% I do get the basic jist and will attempt to do something similar.

I now have LED bulbs for the slider "dome" light, the pop top light, and soon the kitchen tube light. Still have yet to LED the cockpit map lights and the 1st floor bed room reading lights. Those did not look like they popped out very easily. Anyone know how to remove the covers/lenses?
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2002 EVC

[1994Karuso]

The issue with the LED strips I've tried is that some of the LEDs burn out when on shore power and the battery voltage is 14 volts+.

I do have two LED "bulbs" that have survived and are fine, though. So YMMV.

[Abscate]

You can use a voltage regulator to keep the supply voltage at 10V nominal. Just like what is used for the fuel and temp gauges

It’s a 5-cent chip,
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.ssS!

[1994Karuso]

Ya I thought about that, but a voltage regulator probably wouldn't work when boondocking on low battery power? But certainly a good solution for fuel and temp since they would be on alternator power at 13+ volts. Or if you had LEDs with a lower voltage than 12V. If anyone has tried this let me know.

The LED strips are cheap enough that I am planning just to replace them as they slowly burn out. I do find it interesting how different the voltage tolerances are for the individual chips on the strip.

[orbeamike]

My 2001 EVC has a slightly different CFL with push button power switch on the side. I gutted the internal ballast and the push button switch, replaced with a 12V LED dimmer. Potentiometer goes where the push button switch used to be.
https://www.lightinthebox.com/en/p/led-lights-dimm...aQOtpTFHFU

[MrPulldown]

The led light tube i bought has an input voltage of 10-30v
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2002 EVC

[1994Karuso]

[MrPulldown]

Last night I took apart the fluorescent light fixture to start my LED ballast bypass. This is what I am looking at. My 2002 uses a single light tube. The 2 blue wires feed one side of the tube power and the red wires the other. The black and white wires coming into the light fixture is 12v+/-. Assuming black is +, white is -. Did not pull out any tools to test. My LED light tube says that it is not polarity sensitive.

My plan is to cut ALL wires at the board. Connect the black wire to the 2 reds, and the white to the 2 blues. Anyone see anything wrong with this approach.

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2002 EVC

[MrPulldown]

Got it wired up and it works great. Here is halfway done and testing before buttoning everything up. Need to extend the black wire to reach the red(or pink) wires of the tube socket.

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2002 EVC

[HeyCrutch]