On to the electrical - something I don't have much experience with and contemplating bringing someone in with some experience to make sure it's correct. I can definitely do the rough-in and with some electrical testing from time to time, I may try to do all the electrical myself; but time will tell.
I purchased a dimmer switch for the interior cabin light I installed earlier. The dimmer controller is the small unit on the left that gets wired inline with the power feed to the fixture. It is operated with a remote control and all the wiring and controller unit can be concealed inside the headboard cabinet.
 |
| Interior Light Controller and Remote |
The red lines in the drawing below indicate the location of the LED I will be installing in the galley area. The one long fixture is installed in the curved headliner area of the galley and the two shorter strips will be installed in the galley hatch to provide lights from behind shining into the galley area.
 |
| Red Lines Indicate LED Lighting Strip Layout |
I purchased 2 of the housings and lenses shown below to light the galley. I cut one of the housings in half to install in the hatch area and 1 long one for the curved section of the headliner.
 |
| 40 Inch Aluminum Extrusion and Diffuser Lens |
 |
| RGBW LED Light Strip |
 |
| LED strip longer than track |
Several things that are irritating about LED lights is all descriptions and measurements are in metric so it is not intuitive when ordering this equipment. The other thing is the LED strips can be cut, but only at designated spots (every 5th or 6th diode). So when the LED strip is exactly the same length as the extrusion, the light strip needs to be cut in order to put the end cap on the track. Each cut point is approximately 4 inches so you loose 10% of your diodes just to fit end caps on the track.
I did not want the wiring to be seen coming out the end of the track so I drilled through the bottom of the track which will work with the way I'm installing the lights.
 |
| Amount of Diodes Lost due to Cut |
 |
| Cut Location of LED Strip |
A couple things I learned in my LED research is that if you purchase Red, Green, Blue (RGB) lights vs. just white LED's, the width and thickness of the RGB's is larger than the white only lights. You need to purchase a track that is wider and deeper if you plan on using RGB's and a diffuser lens. The other thing I found out after installing the ground effect lights on the trailer is that RGB's try to generate white light by blending all three colors. The white light does not come off as a true white and you can see some hues of the other colors come through on the edges of the light spread. The ones I purchased were RGBW which have a dedicated white diode and it produces a clean white light. This was important as the galley area needed good white light for the work area, but I wanted the colored lights for effects when the work in the galley is done.
 |
| Thickness of RGBW Strip |
 |
| Width of the Aluminum Extrusion and Lens for RGBW Strip |
 |
| Drilled Angled Hole thru Bottom of Extrusion to Reduce Abrasion on Wires |
 |
| Wire Leads through Hole with Clear Plastic Shrink Wrap to Protect Wires |
 |
| Half Tracks Cut and Prepped for Lights |
 |
| Light Fit-up in Half Track - Not Taped Down |
 |
| 20 Inch Tracks for Galley Hatch with Clamp-on Wire Connectors to LED Strip |
 |
| Wiring Run thru Spars in Galley |
 |
| Full Length Strip Installed |
 |
Full Length Strip Installed - View 2
|
 |
| RGBW Controller and Remote with Color Wheel |
 |
| White Light |
 |
| Red |
 |
| Purple |
 |
| Green |
 |
| Blue - Underside |
I took out the silverware drawer and stereo panel to access the wire chase and cabling compartment. This area has some space behind the silverware drawer and the stereo compartment to tuck the excess wire. This space is relatively comfortable for working in and storing the excess cable after hookup.
 |
| Silverware Drawer and Stereo Face Plate Removed |
 |
| Wiring for Cigarette Lighter, Volt Meter and USB Port |
I was not sure it this was the correct way to wire the meters and outlets, but I want to minimize the amount of wires running up to the breaker panel in the front of the trailer. All of this is low amperage and can be handled by one 20 amp breaker. I also want this circuit to be switched by one of the angle eye switches on the power console in the galley area. I can't test out this circuit until the wire connectors arrive for the angle eye switches.
 |
| Meter and outlets work in preliminary test |
 |
| All Outlets Working |
I ran a dedicated power source from the battery compartment to the stereo and bypassed the ignition switch cable by hooking the ignition switch wire to the + wire directly. At least I have music for now and will ultimately hook up the ignition switch lead to one of the angle eye switches when the connectors arrive.
 |
| Stereo Up and Running (Temporarily) |
Time to get the hurricane hinge ordered and galley hatch framed up while I wait for some parts to arrive.
No comments:
Post a Comment