More Lights

I was going to link this post to another, but it turns out I apparently never did a post when I added some additional LED lights, so this post will document what I did recently as well as what I did a couple years ago.

Every year I think there are no more mods to do on our Scamp, and every year we end up with a few things on the list by the end of our summer travels.

Our trailer doesn't have an oven. What it does have are two cavernous cabinets below the stove that are the definition of black holes. The upper cabinet typically has extra paper towels, paper plates, and bread.

The lower cabinet is even darker, and we use it as the home for our pots & pans.

A couple years ago we got a pair of Striberg lights from Ikea. One replaced the light below the communications shelf, and one added light on the mirror in the bathroom. These assemblies draw 3.5 watts when they're on. While these lights have a sensor for automatic operation, we didn't use that feature in either of the two initial installations.

The packaging makes you think the lights are 110v, but in fact, the included power supply converts the 110 AC to the 12 v. DC that the lights require. I toss the power supply and direct wire the lights to a 12 volt source.

I could have used more strip lighting, but thought the auto-on feature would be nice in these cabinets, so we sprung for a couple more Striberg lamps.

The lamp assemblies could be mounted with double-faced VHB tape, but I've had good success using the snap mounting bracket that Ikea includes in the package. They also include a pair of threaded stand-offs in the package - I've never found a good use for those!

It made for a clean installation. It was a bit challenging since I was installing it on the back side of the cabinet face frames, working in the blind and backwards, but the installation still went pretty quick.

I took this picture before I finished the wire routing. Real pleased with the lit cabinet. It will be much easier to find stuff.

Unfortunately, the auto-on feature isn't going to work. There's enough light gap around the cabinet doors, the light never goes out. Instead, we'll just use the switch when we need the light.