LED pucks in a '73

[Zeppelinium]

I'm doing finishing touches to my Safari (the one with the new dinette), which includes better lighting. I'm putting "pucks" in the ceiling center panel. A few years ago I posted that cutting this panel is almost the only way you can work on by yourself. It's not pretty, but it's not ugly, either.

First step is to gain access to the ceiling area. So you take down the vent bezels and the air conditioner lower half, then remove the pop rivets at the ends of each section of the ceiling panel. Bow each section downwards and then it's easy to slip out of the edge channels.





The pucks I happen to have on hand have a pair of tabs on the inner body, so I removed the outer shell, cut an appropriate hole(s) in the ceiling panel(s) and used the tabs to secure the pucks in the panels. It was a simple twist and they locked into the panel.



With the panels installed and the bezels back up, the ceiling looks fine and the illumination from just two LEDs is very bright. On full brightness they take about 350 ma each and on dim (see next post) about 100 ma each. If you look real close you can see the tiny switch (with a red handle) in the center of the first photo below. You can see the patch where I removed the center vent. Three vents in a 23' Airstream are a little excessive with the Fantastic Fans that are now available, plus you get some room for solar panels if you want them permanently on the roof.





Zep

[Zeppelinium]

My other method of using 12v disc LEDs is to print my own fixtures. For the sink and stove area, I printed fixtures that are specific to the underside of the cabinet and have a geometry that shields the dinette area (these suckers can be irritatingly bright).



The cabinet is made from 1/4" plywood, so the depth is not sufficient for routing wire channels. So the wires are routed along the interior edges (covered with very thin printed covers) and the fixtures are installed to cover the wire where it penetrates the exterior surface.



The LED is the same as in the post above, so you can imagine that the working space is well lit.



This is the LED and a link to one source ($20 for 12). They say 400 lumens and I think they achieve it.



These LEDs are advertised as "non-dimmable." That's a challenge. I get acceptable dimming with this simple circuit (imagine the switch has center "off" position) and very low cost components. If you use different LEDs, you'll need to experiment with the resistor value. The resistor is dissipating about 0.4W when in dim mode, so I'm using a 2W rated resistor to keep the temperature down. The diode allows only one LED to be illuminated in the dim mode. I don't know why, but you need to click on the link below to see the circuit.

Attachment 371399

Zep