This is not an original mod - I definitely "stole" the idea from others who posted on other forums. Some of the posts go back to 2016 and earlier. I have no idea if these individuals are here, but you know who you are and I thank you for the information. I'm sure this is an incomplete list, but the one's I know of are Ramgunner, dannysdaddy, guns338, Maximum216 and Papahoosh.
The purpose for this post is to add to their work by documenting what I think are slight variations to their mod as I think I did it a little differently. Let me apologize up front for the length of the post, but hopefully my verboseness (is that a word?) helps someone to understand what I did.
If you're not familiar with how the motion-sensitive lights in our campers work, I'll attempt to explain the wiring in post #2.
The LED strip light I purchased was from Amazon. Search for GuoTonG Dimmable LED Light Strip Kit and you'll find many options. Note that there are color differences in what can be purchased. I bought bright white but you may want a warmer color. There are also many options for power, too.
Here's what I bought:
How does it look? Below is result--Fran's happy so I'm happy.
I'm pleased that the color difference from the OEM light isn't obvious. I think it is due to how I installed the LED light strip. It's attached to the interior trim. The glue backing on the strip works great.
You'll note from the picture below that the corners aren't secured down to the trim--I'll explain that next.
The reason the lights aren't secured in the corners is because I used one continuous run of lights. This necessitated "bending" the light strip around the 90 degree corners of the pantry. While it may not look elegant on the interior, you can't see this from the outside and it saves from having to solder together multiple strands or supplying more than one power source. Hopefully that makes sense once you read the rest of this post.
The blue painter's tape at the top is holding excess wire in the cavity above the trim. Again, not pretty but it's functional.
To power the lights I used the motion sensor circuit from the OEM pantry light. I attached the power leads to the center point of the light strip. I found the center of the installation by tacking up the light strip with blue painters tape. Once I knew that point I found the closest point where I could input power. On the light strip there are copper ovals (it's about every three lights) where the strip is meant to be cut. What I did was carefully trim off the clear plastic leaving the strip intact. (This wasn't easy but it is doable.) The picture below with the red lines shows where I removed the clear cover over the oval. To get the solder to stick to the copper ovals I had to lightly rough them up. I used the tip of a razor blade meant for a box cutter. Then I soldered on 18ga wires, leaving plenty of excess that was trimmed later. (The gauge matches what the LED OEM had supplied at one end that I later cut off.)
If you look again at the previous "scary" photo with me in it, the red shrink wrap is covering the wires soldered to the copper ovals in the middle of the light strip.
The picture below shows another view. The ground, or white wire, isn't attached from the OEM light yet. It will go to the green wire coming from the LED strip.
Securing the lights was easy. I started by wiping down the trim with 91% alcohol to ensure it was free of contaminants. Then, starting in the top center of the pantry to ensure the power leads were aligned with the OEM light, it was a simple matter of pressing the light strip on the interior of the pantry's trim.
See post #2 for Power and How the Circuit Works
The purpose for this post is to add to their work by documenting what I think are slight variations to their mod as I think I did it a little differently. Let me apologize up front for the length of the post, but hopefully my verboseness (is that a word?) helps someone to understand what I did.
If you're not familiar with how the motion-sensitive lights in our campers work, I'll attempt to explain the wiring in post #2.
The LED strip light I purchased was from Amazon. Search for GuoTonG Dimmable LED Light Strip Kit and you'll find many options. Note that there are color differences in what can be purchased. I bought bright white but you may want a warmer color. There are also many options for power, too.
Here's what I bought:
How does it look? Below is result--Fran's happy so I'm happy.
I'm pleased that the color difference from the OEM light isn't obvious. I think it is due to how I installed the LED light strip. It's attached to the interior trim. The glue backing on the strip works great.
You'll note from the picture below that the corners aren't secured down to the trim--I'll explain that next.
The reason the lights aren't secured in the corners is because I used one continuous run of lights. This necessitated "bending" the light strip around the 90 degree corners of the pantry. While it may not look elegant on the interior, you can't see this from the outside and it saves from having to solder together multiple strands or supplying more than one power source. Hopefully that makes sense once you read the rest of this post.
The blue painter's tape at the top is holding excess wire in the cavity above the trim. Again, not pretty but it's functional.
To power the lights I used the motion sensor circuit from the OEM pantry light. I attached the power leads to the center point of the light strip. I found the center of the installation by tacking up the light strip with blue painters tape. Once I knew that point I found the closest point where I could input power. On the light strip there are copper ovals (it's about every three lights) where the strip is meant to be cut. What I did was carefully trim off the clear plastic leaving the strip intact. (This wasn't easy but it is doable.) The picture below with the red lines shows where I removed the clear cover over the oval. To get the solder to stick to the copper ovals I had to lightly rough them up. I used the tip of a razor blade meant for a box cutter. Then I soldered on 18ga wires, leaving plenty of excess that was trimmed later. (The gauge matches what the LED OEM had supplied at one end that I later cut off.)
If you look again at the previous "scary" photo with me in it, the red shrink wrap is covering the wires soldered to the copper ovals in the middle of the light strip.
The picture below shows another view. The ground, or white wire, isn't attached from the OEM light yet. It will go to the green wire coming from the LED strip.
Securing the lights was easy. I started by wiping down the trim with 91% alcohol to ensure it was free of contaminants. Then, starting in the top center of the pantry to ensure the power leads were aligned with the OEM light, it was a simple matter of pressing the light strip on the interior of the pantry's trim.
See post #2 for Power and How the Circuit Works
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