LED Light's

[W9WLS]

I bought a reel of these off E-BUCK a few week's ago and have been playing with them quite a bit.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261236463328?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

They are not water proof , but they are darn bright , have put some up under the shelf to light up the desk and another strip overhead to light up the radio's (put a 2500 Ohm wire-wound pot on this one to dim as needed (overkill but is what I had handy) works great .

Ordered 2 more reel's to do some converting in the Motor Home , figure at this price I can afford to play a bit !

[NN5I]

Looks like just what I need for a reading lamp behind my head at the pillow end of the bed. I read in bed a lot, and there's no easy way to install an appropriate lamp there. This looks like the solution.

Cool, thanks for the tip.

[NN5I]

Just now ordered a couple rolls of them. Can't tell from the listing -- what provision is made for hooking them up to a power supply? Is it, for example, a flexible printed circuit with the LEDs soldered to it?

[W9WLS]

They have a set of solder tab's every 3 led's .
Cut to length needed and solder on a couple of small wires and hook to 12 VDC power source , they are polarity sensitive so you need to pay attention to the hook up .
Once you have them inhand you'll understand.
A4 foot strip doe's a fair job of lighting up a room, not daylight bright , but not bad !

[W9WLS]

One other thought.
These have an adhesive back , clean whatever you intend to stick them to with alcohol or a sure-prep pad and let air dry.

[NN5I]

Sounds like they thought it out pretty well. Thanks!

[TimeToGetGoing]

Thanks for posting this! I will try some too.

Bob
KV4MJ

[KF5BET]

I have LED lighting attached to the underside of the hutch here at the desk. They light quality has degraded over the past few years to almost nil. Might have to see how these work (could use the same wiring probably.

[W9WLS]

I can't really say anything about how long they will last, have only had these in place for about 3 week's here in the stick-built (sort of ) , have another reel or two on order to try in the MH next trip to Ga.
Like what I see so far or I wouldn't have posted the information.

[N3LYT]

Wonder if they would make a 90* bend?

[W9WLS]

Wonder if they would make a 90* bend?

That looks like it would depend on which way you want to make the 90.
I have not tried to "fold" a corner bend as yet ( haven't found a reason to ) , an "in-line" 90 should work alright .
My next experiment with them will be to replace the burned out meter light's in my Carvin Mixer (big meters).

[N3LYT]

Another question how come so cheap? I was looking on line and some of the LED sellers are getting like $150 for a 16' roll? I would like to make that kind of profit! Have you checked the current draw by any chance?

[NN5I]

The listing gives the current draw as 350 to 400 ma per meter. Since it's five meters long if you don't cut it, the current would then be 1.75 to 2.0 amperes. That's consistent with the manufacturer's stated specs.

That's at 12 volts. At 13.8 it would surely be a little more.

[N3LYT]

Wow then they are pretty generous with their light output specs.

[NN5I]

Wow then they are pretty generous with their light output specs.

Not necessarily. The five-meter piece consumes about 24 watts. According to the listing, it produces about 200 lumens per meter, or 1000 lumens for five meters. Since one watt equals 683 lumens (at the wavelength of the eye's peak sensitivity), the 24 watts consumed is the same as 16,368 lumens. If we actually get 1000 lumens as light, and the rest as heat, then the efficiency is 1000/16368 or just over 6%. Incandescent lamps typically run about 2% to 2.5%, with small ones usually at the low end; so the LEDs are about three times as efficient as incandescent lamps. I would have expected more, actually. They've probably got series resistors in these strips, one for each set of three LEDs in series.

Fluorescent lamps generally run about 10%, so I can easily believe these LED strips are 6% efficient.

[W9WLS]

I can't seem to do a simple copy and paste a pix here but, yes there is a smt resistor every three led's along with a set of solder pad's.
If I were going to daisy-chain , I would cut in the middle of the solder pad's.

[N3LYT]

OK that won't do for me I'm looking for low wattage and I am very skeptical of lumen claims I'm down to 3 (that seldom get turn on) 1156 bulbs after starting with 13. I am using G4 base 15 smt's at 2.4 watts per so I have already reduced my wattage by a factor of 10. Super bright seem to be the only ones that post their ratings with some degree of accuracy the G4's are rated at 160 lumens @ 3100K and 2.4 watts. I seldom am near anything that looks like a power pole and charge my batteries with a 100 watt solar panel. My theory is the more power in can save the longer I can use the HF! Pictures of LED’s and custom fixtures there are just 4 on.

[NN5I]

They look very nice.

If you're getting 160 lumens, that's 160/683 watts as light, or 234 mw. If they consume 2.4 watts of electricity, then their efficiency is 0.234/2.4 or 9.76% efficiency.

The claims for the LED strips come out to 6% efficiency. The claims for your LEDs come out to 9.76%.

The claim of 6% efficiency is about right for most inexpensive conventional LEDs, which of course is what are in the 5-meter LED strips.

The claim of nearly 10% efficiency is believable too. Philips, for example, manufactures new-technology LEDs that are in that range. They are considerably more expensive.

You get what you pay for, of course. To me, the advantage I anticipate from the LED strips is (1) astonishingly low cost; (2) light that is much whiter than the light from my incandescent lamps; (3) better efficiency than my incandescents; and (4) most important for me, the strip is apparently only about 5/16 of an inch wide, and can be mounted where I need it, which can't be done with anything else I've seen, including incandescents and LED lamps (or fluorescents) intended to replace incandescent lamps in the same fixtures.

But I would also like to do, gradually, what you've done: replace the incandescent lamps in existing fixtures with efficient LED lamps that simply plug in. They would greatly improve my dry-camping house-battery endurance. Where'd you get'em?

[N3LYT]

They came for Amazon they were not cheap just short of $10 but I refuse to buy from a re-seller and then wait until they arrive from China. The build quality is noticeably better then the bulk Chinese stuff I have seen. I think they are down to around $8 now. The fixtures I made they are all flush mounted I got rid of the cheap plastic old fixtures. The G4 base come with pins I just removed them and soldered the wiring direct to the board.

[Dizzy-Dick]

I can see a lot uses for them. Thanks for letting us know about the lights.

[NN5I]

Zowie! I now have the best reading-in-bed lights I've ever had, or heard of.

When I was buying the LED strips on eBay, I noted that there were (at least) two different kinds: the ones with 300 LEDs in five meters, and similar ones, but waterproof, with 600 LEDs in five meters. I ordered both.

Just now I mounted a strip of the 600-LED-per-five-meters all the way across the bottom of the frame of the utterly purposeless window in the back of the motor home. As I said, this turns out to be the best reading-light I've ever used anywhere. It's bright, it's diffuse, and it's very white. Runs cool, too. It's about eight inches above the bed and shines directly out from the rear-wall surface.

The particular strip I used is waterproof and could be used for outside lighting, though I'll probably not use it there. I haven't used half the $12 roll yet.

Highly reommended.

[W9WLS]

Spent the last two week's in Macon with the Kid's and the MH.
Did a refit on several of the light fixtures in the MH , adding the "strip" leds to the fixture's.
To most , I installed two set's of the 3 led strip, worked very well ! put out a good bit of bright white light and lowered the lighting load in the MH considerably .
I even converted the "PORCH LIGHT" and with the awning deployed , light's the whole under awning area as well as the incandescent and NO BUG"S .

Son Jeff (WA9DDK) also introduced me to some LED "STRIP" lighting and florescent tube replacement's he has been installing in convenience stores , 4 foot and 8 foot florescent tube's and canopy light's , really bright ! and one tube of led's replaces two of the florescent eliminates the ballast transformer and wires directly to 120 VAC line.
Station canopy light's typically present a 250- 500 watt load with a ballast transformer per unit at 240 to 480 VAC, the led replacement fixture presents a 100 watt load with the driver at 120 VAC and illuminates 3 times the area or more (he lives in a very rural area of BIBB County, and we rigged one on his 70foot tower at the 20 foot level , it illuminated his whole 2 1/2 acre yard quite well enough to play any yard game you would care to, some of the neighbors even came out to ask if he was installing street lighting !).
Well, there's the report !
"73"
PS , If you want or need more information on what Jeff is using please contact me "OFF LIST" and I'll give you his contact Information, I Don't want to exactly "ADVERTISE" for him on list without approval !

[TimeToGetGoing]

John,
anyway you could share a photo or two of how you did the light conversions? I'd especially like to see what you did on the poarch light.

73
Bob
KV4MJ

[N3LYT]

Saw a brand new Jaco 32' trailer it had LED lighting strip the full length of the awning against the body from the factory. We installed some T5 fixtures with chrome plated reflectors that were 120 volt with no ballasts very bright they were florescent tubes.

[W9WLS]

John,
anyway you could share a photo or two of how you did the light conversions? I'd especially like to see what you did on the poarch light.

73
Bob
KV4MJ
Bob:
See my earlier post on these, they can be cut every third led and wire's added if needed , I used "Sure-Prep" wipes (available at medical suppliers) to prep the surface the led's I used have an adhesive backing so they were "peel & stick" .
From there it was just a matter of wiring to the switch and ground (remove the old bulb before you start) .
These are easy, just use your imagination , they are not water-proof so use some common sense , but they work well !
73, John

[NN5I]

[QUOTE=W9WLS;11562] they are not water-proof so use some common sense/QUOTE]

The waterproof ones are not particularly any more expensive on eBay, but are a little harder to solder -- you've got to scrape the waterproof transparent silicone off the solder pads.

[wa8yxm]

I picked up a couple of LED :"Accent Lights" at a local auto department and glued one to the top of my top Kwikee step (In an area where I can not step on it or kick it) and bolted the other to the bottom of the same step angled down to light up the bottom step.

WORK GREAT.

These are a little flat LED assembly about 2-2 1/2 Inches long with about half a dozen LED's each..

The light Kwikee put up next to the controller.. Useless.

[W9WLS]

[QUOTE=W9WLS;11562] they are not water-proof so use some common sense/QUOTE]

The waterproof ones are not particularly any more expensive on eBay, but are a little harder to solder -- you've got to scrape the waterproof transparent silicone off the solder pads.

Stainless Steel "toothbrush" like the ones "Harbor Freight" sell's maybe ??

[NN5I]

The silicone is abut 1/16 inch thick over the solder pads. I used an Xacto knife.