| Author |
Message |
CoryDane RTSII
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - 7:45 pm: | |
Everyone at one time or another has talked or thought about LED lighting for the coach.
I found some LED light bars at a marine store that work well for the floor lamps and door lamp, and use so little power that the battery is not in jeapordy, not even when it is at low charge.
I also used an LED light for temp instrument panel lighting since my original panel lights are out. Lights the panel up very nicely.
More and more, discussions are of MAKING an LED light for more area type lighting. The problem has always been, you had to fabricate your own fixture and circuits in order to get one.
Well, today I found at MENARDS, LED undercounter lights. They are in their own puck type fixture, about the same size as the halogen ones, have 9 LEDs in them (white) and put out a directed field of light. They are priced about $9.99 each I think if the clear lens was replaced with a frosted one, you would get a better FLOOD light affect.
I always thought it was a matter of time before they were going to start producing them, well, gentlemen, and ladies, this is the start.... hold on, theres gonna be a flood of LED lights out there......
LOL
cd |
TWO DOGS
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - 8:34 pm: | |
I'd be interisted...do they have a website ?? |
Brian (Bigbusguy)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - 9:57 pm: | |
Lots on eBay , I got some of the LED type direct replacment for the 110v screw in home bulbs.
They use almost no power but very little light output. About the same as a full moon letting light in a bed room.
I also tryed some 12v with the screw type base like light home 110v. Same not much light output. Would make a good night light ,probley could not read from the light output. But use almost no power.
I run one 12v LED on two 6 volt lantern batt. wired for 12 volt and it lighted for over 2 weeks non stop. I could see with it in the room but not much more than what a full moon would do.
And I had one 110 volt led only last 2 weeks not the 10k plus hours the web site said. They no longer sell them.
For under counter, floor lights or marker or tail lights they are good.
But for in side coach lighting I have not found any that you could see with .
The florsent type are realy good for that using 1/2 the power of inconsendent type.
Brian 4905 Klamath Falls Oregon |
Moonrover
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 12:19 am: | |
Check this out:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/led_prods.htm |
J.B.Phillips (Jbp)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 1:14 pm: | |
Can LED's be placed on a dimmer???? They would be very cool for dash lights or interior lights with a dimmer switch.
J.B. |
jp shelton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 1:19 pm: | |
cd,
where did you find MENARDS LEDs? $10 for a 9-LED unit is a good price.
Joe 4106 |
Stephen Fessenden (Sffess)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 8:57 pm: | |
Yes you can dim LEDs but they may not dim at the same rate as incandescent bulbs in the same system as in dash lighting with some instsruments having built in bulbs. LEDs tend to dim much less than incancescents with the same dimmer change.
But have you ever asked yourself why all the instruments need the same illumination? It might be nice to have Speedometer and Tachometer brighter than the other instruments as long as all were readable. I certainly do not need to catch battery voltage on every scan on my bus, but it is the brightest guage. Wouldn't it be cool if the guage got brighter if it was reading out of normal range. |
Robert Wood (Bobwoodsocal)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 9:28 pm: | |
That is a great idea Stephen! Bob |
CoryDane RTSII
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - 9:31 pm: | |
JP SHELTON
The MENARDS is in Illinois, Gurnee.
They were on the display next to the halogen undercabinet lights. If fact, they look the same, same puck housing.
9 LEDs inside the housing. Price was $9.99
Sorry 2DOGS, I didn't think far enough ahead to catch the manufactures name or web site. I'll look when I go back. |
Tim Strommen (Tim_strommen)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 12:40 am: | |
JB
Yeah you can dim LEDs very easily in fact you can do it at the same rate as your pre-existing lights. However, you can't do it the good ol' fasioned way. New solid state light sources prefer to see a constant current, and the easiest way to make a constant current is to use a series current limiting resistor. This is the way your dash dimmer rehostat works. By increasing the ammount of resistance in the rehostat, the device simply dictates how much of the overall voltage it will use. Eventually it exceedes the resistance of the filament bulbs and the available current goes down (thus dimming the light). However, the difference in current draw from an LED is no where near what a fiament bulb draws, thus while you may have almost completely dimmed the filament bulb you will have just begun limiting the current of the LED (typically ~20 milli Amps each)
But AHHA!!! Cole Hersee has come to your rescue with a PWM (that's Pulse Width Modulation) dimmer which affects the current in a different way. This dimmer "chopps" the DC voltage into chunks over time and then selectively stops sending voltage to the circuit every so often. This limits the amount of current over a given time as opposed to the total available current. Your eye then tricks your brain into thinking that this "flicker" is really dimmer light. What you get then is 50% (example value) of the current that both the incandecent bulbs see and 50% of what the LEDs see thus dimming the two different light sources at the same rate.
Cheers
Tim |
J.B.Phillips (Jbp)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 12:54 am: | |
Good explanation Tim.
Thanks, J.B. |