Replacing interior lights with LED
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:01 am
Hi.
The cab lights in Barry had already been converted to LED, so I decided to replace the rear door light and neon tube with LEDs as well.
I found these nice panels on eBay. They come with a variety of adapters to fit most sockets. The LED panel has a good quality foam sticky pad on the back.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T10-501-W5W-B ... 1933722852
I started with the rear light as it was easiest and also to gauge the brightness of the LED panel.
One of the adapters was a festoon one, so fitting was pretty easy. Simply a case of taking the old bulb out, fitting the adapter and plugging the panel in.
I then stuck the LED panel onto a piece of curtain track I had lying around which sat nicely in the fitting. Almost made for it in fact!
It gives off a good even white light. Brighter than the original filament bulb. When I get a moment, I might shorten the wires a bit so they are not visible.
The neon light is a little bit more involved and required some soldering. Getting the unit off was easy. You pop off the lens and there are three screws holding it in. The plug is easy to get off. I thin removed the neon tube and the end support bracket. Then stuck the LED panels on. The rear one seems to have stuck on well enough.
I then spliced the two panels together and used heat shrink tubing to keep everything insulated:
Next step was to wire them into the existing switch. Simply remove the panel on the rear:
Like most automotive electrics, the light is activated by grounding the circuit. Remove the wire from the center switch contact to the neon inverter PCB. This will also stop the inverter burning power, which is the main draw. I simply unsoldered the wire from the PCB so I could easily put things back if needed. The light will still be switched either via the door or the light switch as normal:
I then spliced the wire to the negative wire of the LED panels, again using heat shrink tubing. I soldered the positive wire for the LED onto the PCB + terminal:
All wired up.
Fitted back on the van. With hindsight, I should have routed the wires the other side of the fitting (door side) so they wouldn't be visible so much. I might correct that later :
The two panels give a nice even light. Slightly brighter overall than the tube and instantly on of course. The existing diffuser still works well enough:
Interior all LED now:
Overall it saves about 300mA according to the battery monitor. The main saving is obsoleting the neon inverter. 300mA doesn't sound like much, but I guess that a few amps over an evening. Plus the LEDs should last forever as well.
The cab lights in Barry had already been converted to LED, so I decided to replace the rear door light and neon tube with LEDs as well.
I found these nice panels on eBay. They come with a variety of adapters to fit most sockets. The LED panel has a good quality foam sticky pad on the back.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T10-501-W5W-B ... 1933722852
I started with the rear light as it was easiest and also to gauge the brightness of the LED panel.
One of the adapters was a festoon one, so fitting was pretty easy. Simply a case of taking the old bulb out, fitting the adapter and plugging the panel in.
I then stuck the LED panel onto a piece of curtain track I had lying around which sat nicely in the fitting. Almost made for it in fact!
It gives off a good even white light. Brighter than the original filament bulb. When I get a moment, I might shorten the wires a bit so they are not visible.
The neon light is a little bit more involved and required some soldering. Getting the unit off was easy. You pop off the lens and there are three screws holding it in. The plug is easy to get off. I thin removed the neon tube and the end support bracket. Then stuck the LED panels on. The rear one seems to have stuck on well enough.
I then spliced the two panels together and used heat shrink tubing to keep everything insulated:
Next step was to wire them into the existing switch. Simply remove the panel on the rear:
Like most automotive electrics, the light is activated by grounding the circuit. Remove the wire from the center switch contact to the neon inverter PCB. This will also stop the inverter burning power, which is the main draw. I simply unsoldered the wire from the PCB so I could easily put things back if needed. The light will still be switched either via the door or the light switch as normal:
I then spliced the wire to the negative wire of the LED panels, again using heat shrink tubing. I soldered the positive wire for the LED onto the PCB + terminal:
All wired up.
Fitted back on the van. With hindsight, I should have routed the wires the other side of the fitting (door side) so they wouldn't be visible so much. I might correct that later :
The two panels give a nice even light. Slightly brighter overall than the tube and instantly on of course. The existing diffuser still works well enough:
Interior all LED now:
Overall it saves about 300mA according to the battery monitor. The main saving is obsoleting the neon inverter. 300mA doesn't sound like much, but I guess that a few amps over an evening. Plus the LEDs should last forever as well.