Hondo Garage's New Thing

The possible swap is something I asked about somewhere on TW. If the actual hole in the roof on 2nd gens is the same pre/post shark fin it would make sense to use the pre-shark fin lower profile piece. My 09 has the lower profile part. I couldn't wrap my head around why Toyota started using the shark fin. But of course I'm not a Toyota engineer or bean counter.

 

Sorry I probably wasn't clear enough in my post. You don't want to use the tri-color to generate white because as you say that results in amazingly crappy light. You can get strips that have dedicated white LED chips just like your current strips alternated with tri-color LED chips. Examples:

White with RGB

You don't actually need another circuit either. You won't use the green or blue portions of the tri-color, just the red. So leave the B and G wires disconnected. Use two rectifier diodes one connected to R and the other connected in the opposite direction to W. Connect the ends of those two diodes together to replace your current plus connection. Minus connection remains the same. (Some strips use a common positive instead of common negative but it really doesn't matter). By connecting the diodes this way you've now created a LED strip that can be powered with voltage connected in either direction. Connected in one way it illuminates white. Connected the other way it illuminates red. So still just two wires going to the fixture.

This is also completely compatible with a dimmer. The LED dimmers are all pulse-width-modulated dimmers. They don't care about the rectifier diodes at all. So all you need to do is have a way to swap plus for minus between your dimmer and the light fixtures. That's just a standard DPDT switch put on the output of the dimmer.

So you do need to find a spot for a DPDT switch if you are buying a prepackaged dimmer with no room to add one. But you don't need any additional wiring to the LED fixtures nor do you have to have compromised white light.

Certainly slapping a red task light is another solution but if you are looking to keep things clean and sexy it is likely pretty straightforward to add red/white lighting to your existing architecture with no additional wiring circuits. Replace the white strip inside the fixture with a white+RGB strip including the two diodes. Put a DPDT switch in between the dimmer control and your strips. Done.

 

^ This is good info. @DVexile

Would be interested if we can meet these requirements...

• Sourcing strip w/ >700 lumens per foot?
• White like @~3000k.

-g

 

It looks like the 3rd Gens have both radio and XM antennas in there. @ace7196 's links show the guts on each.

Personally, I don't give a crap about XM, but the connector might also be different between generations?

 

Agree on the 2800~3000K as appropriate color temperature for camp lighting. I see the ones I linked to quickly above are ~4000K which is too cool and harsh in my opinion. Doing some more searching I am finding some with so called "warm white" meaning 3000K which is what you'd want.

Your lumen/ft spec is pretty high. Are you currently using a double wide strip? Double wide are about 15mm wide and have two rows of LED chips on them. The single strips have a single row of LEDs and are about 8mm wide.

If you are using a single wide strip then I think 700 lumen/ft means you are probably running some of the brightest white LED chips available on strips that I can find and so swapping out half of those for RGB is going to drop the max lumens for sure. Thinking about it now it makes sense you want something brighter than typical as you are using a real nice indirect diffuse lighting effect which isn't as efficient as direct lighting (for the record I hate direct lighting and love the approach you took). Looks like the brightest white+RGB single wide that I find in a quick search are topping out at around 400 lumen/ft right now. If your fixture has more space for a double wide strip you've got more options.

I'm also seeing one single wide strip that is using RGBW chips instead of separate RGB and white chips but I've only found one example with no specs on lumens as it is being sold through a consumer vendor and I can't find their source (it is warm white at least though).

Last but not least depending on the fixture you are using if it would fit you might even be able to stick with your current white strip and then add a separate red strip if there is space. You'd still wire as described above so you wouldn't need multiple circuits but you'd have more options on sourcing. I'm guessing your fixture isn't really going to fit multiple strips though!

If you want feel free to PM me some more specs or part numbers on your current lighting and I can see what I can dig up.

 

I'll reach out directly. The diffusion makes the design a little bit different.

 

Dude that is some LED knowledge. Thanks for sharing and looking that up. I'd be interested in the Red option too.

 

x2

 

hot damn. You sure its not 700 lumens per meter? 700 lumens per foot is insane for a strip!

 

MOAR is better.

Definitely per foot, we like to get after it at GFC.

 

and they are single wide?

wow. Thats impressive.

 

Go Fast Lighting?

 

Strips with twice the density of LED chips on them get up there. But indeed the bog standard el cheapo strips are more like 700 lumen/m so I thought maybe the same thing as you did! But no, the GFC guys went the same direction with their lighting as they did with everything else on the camper:

 

Hey Guys,

Ross here, #3 @ GFC. We are currently testing 828 Lumens/FT and preferring the 4100 Kelvin because of the odd green shift the ceiling/roof panel creates. The extrusion we've chosen for our lighting kit is a bit narrow to add a strip of red LEDs and maintain the same quality of light. I'll look into DVexile's suggestion and see if it's something we can offer at the current price point. Love all the great ideas and input! From all of us @ GFC ... Thank You!

Ross@gfcengineering.com

 

Thank you GFC for being amazing!

 

Once again, color me impressed. I'm expecting Grahme's call any day.....

 

Likely not a problem at all. LEDs run way cooler than incandescent bulbs. Their strip is only about 5.7W/ft. And it is mounted to their metal extrusion which will shed heat nicely. As far as heat per foot goes that's a bit less than an old-timey Christmas tree light string.

 

I am debating getting the lights with my GFC. Depends on if the final option has red or not.

How do the GFC lights tap into power?

I have an auxiliary fuse box in a bedside cubby that runs off an auxiliary battery. I would tap any camplights into there.

I can easily do a clean DIY job, just trying to figure out options.

 

Any pictures of the camper with windows coming soon?....Yes, I know I’m impatient. I was the kid who carefully opened and resealed his gifts under the Christmas tree without his parents finding out.

 

Fixed your spelling haha