So I found some LED stips on EBay and conjured up some ideas. I am an electrician in the navy. So things like this don't scare me to much. By the way this all started yesterday when I paid 7.50 dollars for a single F8 light bulb. I am going to take some of the following led strips and hook them up in parallel and then mount them in the light fixtures already installed in the coach.

I will take pictures and keep tally of money's spent so that all can duplicate if you desire. I am figuring about 2 bucks per light fixture depending on how well the leds disperse the light. The ones I am purchasing say they have a 120 degree spread. We will see.

Found these too.



Maybe use them for the turn signals. I think it maybe take away from the Barth feel though. Just looks too technilogically advanced. I will have to ponder this one some more.

quote:

I am an electrician in the navy.

Well I'll be doggonne! ....I thought that the SK in your sign. was for store keeper.

Either or both configurations 110V ?

@Dick. No the SK in sk8er is skater when spoken(child hood years I was big into skateboarding still do a few tricks now and then). Nuclear trained (Power generation not bombs)electrician through and through. Come March I am getting commisioned and moving to Idaho Falls, ID.

@Mogan. I think these were for 12 VDC applictions. There are a lot of converters on ebay that you just plug into an outlet if you looking for a more portable application.

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Come March I am getting commissioned

Congratulations! BTW Bill_NY is also a former skater.

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Come March I am getting commisioned and moving to Idaho Falls, ID.

Make sure Nick Cagle addresses you as "Sir" (I'm a retired officer, myself.)

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Could it be a circuit breaker in the panel box under the driver seat?

The breakers are typically manual reset. It sounds like a loose connection or bad ballast in the light fixture. Remove the fixture and connect an incandescent, and see if the same symptoms occur.

I agree with Rusty. Start with the fixture itself and look at the starter, bulb connection and the bulbs themselves. I assume you switched bulbs already. An easy check for wires shorted to ground(pinched wire) would be to use an ohmmeter(most likely to have) or a meggar to test the wires resistance to ground. Make sure you are checking with a good ground. Don't just use some random screw on the wall. I like to use outlet grounds or the chassis if I am working outside the coach.

I have several fixtures that seem dim and that is another reason I am researching the cheap LEDs.

Well it has been a while since I have been on. Just got the house packed in loaded(3 days worth). I am not able to follow what you have tried to describe with words. I would say that a simple picture is worth a thousand words. Then I may be able to help better. From the wiring that I have encoutered so far in my Barth I trust nothing. between the old convention of wire colors(atleast not what I am used to) and the DIY electrical additions over the last 25 years it could be anything. When in doubt run new wires as best as you can. If it is a relatively straight shot and you can access both ends of the wire, then snip the two ends and use the old wire as a pull to run the new wire. That would be a solution for a suspected ground on a wire. I will stress again that a picture will help out tramendously. Include the readings you have taken also such as where you have found ground and power sources.

Rodney.

I ran a 16' 12V LED strip underneath my awning, $21.99 on ebay + an extra switch, I also ran an 8' warm white strip around the base of the bed platform, and 2 amber strips under my entry steps,


http://i96.photobucket.com/alb...646.jpg?t=1338505458

Nice Mini!
I once had a 67 Cooper S many years ago, miss it.

I like the idea of putting a strip of LED's under the awning. That is going on the list of lights to replace/install.

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Originally posted by shtym:
Nice Mini!
I once had a 67 Cooper S many years ago, miss it.

Yes, that looks like a sweet classic Mini. Would almost fit in the basement of some coaches. There was some large coach that would accommodate a small Mercedes SL in a storage bay.

So I finally recieved my LED's from China(rather quick actually). These ended up costing 25 dollars for 4 rolls. Each roll was 5 meters long. One roll did 3 light fixtures like the one in the pictures below. They looked like this.


Here are some pics of the lights after they were converted to LEDs. I left as much of the original stuff just incase.



Here is a pic of it all lit up. Electrons flowing again makes me happy.

I don't have picture from before the project but you can just imagine a dark spot and that is what it looked like.

Over all these lights were really easy to work with. If you don't use the entire roll as a single strip you will have to solder on some leads for the next strip but that is probably the hardest part of working with them. Everything else is easy peasy.

The supplier I purchased from was hke supplier on eBay. Look for"3528 smd led light strip". The are lots of different options like length waterproof colors etc. I had lots of inspiration looking at all the options.