Bright white LEDs to dimmable color

[estesbubba]

I love that the new campers come with LED strips under the awnings but boy are they bright. I've installed these on the porch of my shop and they have been running twice a day for a year with no problems.

Amazon

The kit comes with a power supply which isn't needed but the cord from it is to feed 12V into the controller.



The controller mounts nicely into the awning bracket. I want to come up with a way to better protect it from the weather. Also the awning has to been open a bit to expose the IR sensor and I might try extending it with wire to an exposed location.



Here are pics of the base colors at 100%. You can also change it to several other colors.











Last night we camped with both strips set to 50% and it was so much better than the white on 100% which lights up the neighbor's camper!

[need-a-vacation]

Looks great!!!

[Manitoban]

So how do you get the colors this attachment you got changes your original LEDs to color? That looks awesome!

[5swigerts]

[I did this on my x18D last year. LOVE these lights.

I put my control/remote box in my refrigerator access panel. Shielded from weather, allows for the IR to stick out, and is now hard-wired into the fridge 12v.

[need-a-vacation]

Originally Posted by Manitoban

So how do you get the colors this attachment you got changes your original LEDs to color? That looks awesome!

If you look at the first post, bubba has a link to Amazon for the second set of LEDs that he added to his rig. So he has both the factory white LED strip light and the aftermarket set with the multi color option. From the post it does sound like he either wired the factory set into the same controller to be able to factory LEDs or wired in an additional dimmer controller to the factory set.

[Manitoban]

Ok thx

[estesbubba]

Actually I removed the factory LEDs and the replacement color ones slide right in the channel. The white pic is actually from the color strip.

[need-a-vacation]

Originally Posted by estesbubba

Actually I removed the factory LEDs and the replacement color ones slide right in the channel. The white pic is actually from the color strip.

Looking at the pics on my phone earlier I didn't notice the slide on the awning side with the "second set" of lights. When I read "both sets at 50%" I hought you still had the factory lights as well.

I will have to look at our factory led's again, but not I believe our's are just "stuck on" and not in a channel... Maybe I haven't looked at them close enough???

[tkhollywood]

How did you mount the box to the awning rail?

[estesbubba]

Originally Posted by tkhollywood

How did you mount the box to the awning rail?

Double sided exterior tape.

[tkhollywood]

Originally Posted by estesbubba

Double sided exterior tape.

Ok Thank you, I've had a set of those sitting around for 2 years now waiting to make the switch. Now I have another mod to do finally.

[stevejon]

This looks like a MUCH better solution than trying to install a dimmer switch on the existing lights. And, it looks like we have similar floor plans because I have two awnings as well. So, before I start messing with this, I just wanted to make sure on the steps.

1. Remove the factory lights, and cut the wire connecting them to the coach.
2. Install new lights in the existing channel
3. Cut the end of the cable on the power supply provided with the new light kit (your pic. # 1)
4. Mount the white box (control box?) in the awning rail using outside sticky tape
5. Attach the end of the cut power supply wire into the coach power wire, then attach to white box
6. Attach new lights to the white box
7. Since I have two awnings, repeat 1 - 6 for 2nd awning. Or, do you control both with one control box / remote?

Are those the correct steps?

And, I assume since it ties into the existing power of the previous lights, you can still turn them off and on from the coach wall switch, then control color / brightness from the remote.

[estesbubba]

Originally Posted by stevejon

This looks like a MUCH better solution than trying to install a dimmer switch on the existing lights. And, it looks like we have similar floor plans because I have two awnings as well. So, before I start messing with this, I just wanted to make sure on the steps.



1. Remove the factory lights, and cut the wire connecting them to the coach.

2. Install new lights in the existing channel

3. Cut the end of the cable on the power supply provided with the new light kit (your pic. # 1)

4. Mount the white box (control box?) in the awning rail using outside sticky tape

5. Attach the end of the cut power supply wire into the coach power wire, then attach to white box

6. Attach new lights to the white box

7. Since I have two awnings, repeat 1 - 6 for 2nd awning. Or, do you control both with one control box / remote?



Are those the correct steps?



And, I assume since it ties into the existing power of the previous lights, you can still turn them off and on from the coach wall switch, then control color / brightness from the remote.

That is exactly what I did. I did end up removing the ferrite filter from the original power supply wire. On #7 above you do need 2 sets since you have 2 awnings which means you can run 2 colors if you want.

On mine if you run white at 100% they will eventually turn to a random color. This could be that white on these is actually red, green, and blue all running and the controller isn't getting enough power. I would never run white at 100% as it's actually brighter than the originals so no biggie. You can run all other color combinations at 100% but actually 50% is plenty bright.

[estesbubba]

BTW I ended up running the IR sensor up and to the right so it's exposed when awning is closed. I also used liquid electrical tape to seal everything up good.

[tkhollywood]

Thanks Estesbubba for showing this mod it's been something I've wanted to do from the beginning. Finally got it done.

[stevejon]

And I thank you as well! I got one of my awnings done this weekend, and will hopefully get the 2nd done soon.

One thing I wanted to point out for anybody else attempting this - on mine, I was having strange power fluctuations. Sometimes I would have power on the existing wire to the coach and other times I would not. I eventually traced it to a connector further down the line that must have gotten pulled out when I was doing the wiring. Just keep in mind that if your power keeps cutting out, trace the wire further down to the connection.

Thanks again for the info!

[estesbubba]

Glad to hear you guys got the color installed. One thing I found is if the awning is retracted, extending it 6" gives off better light.

[ScarabChris]

I like these mod threads. I just got a new Jay Feather 25BH and plan to do a few things. I'm in the marine LED business and I have all those same strips and color changing controllers. I'm going to put them under the trailer. As in boats, the light is much easier on the eyes if your eyes are not in direct line of sight with the LED strips. You can light the ground around the trailer and have nice bright usable light but not bother the eyes when it's really dark.

[wanderlust]

Originally Posted by estesbubba

Here are pics of the base colors at 100%. You can also change it to several other colors.

I like the RED so it doesn't kill your night blindness.

[Bassdogs]

Originally Posted by estesbubba

I love that the new campers come with LED strips under the awnings but boy are they bright. I've installed these on the porch of my shop and they have been running twice a day for a year with no problems.

Amazon

The kit comes with a power supply which isn't needed but the cord from it is to feed 12V into the controller.



The controller mounts nicely into the awning bracket. I want to come up with a way to better protect it from the weather. Also the awning has to been open a bit to expose the IR sensor and I might try extending it with wire to an exposed location.
Last night we camped with both strips set to 50% and it was so much better than the white on 100% which lights up the neighbor's camper!

Think I just bought the same led set from Amazon and a couple questions. What does the ferrite filter do? What is the 2nd wire coming out of the controller do?? I understand the controller says it is not waterproof, but is it the connections or the box itself? I see everybody says to heat shrink the connections and use liquid electrical tape on the box. Is there a way to weather proof the control box so it can be mounted on the outside of the TT near the end of the awning?