Finally fixed those ungodly bright LED awning lights

[Taxus812]

One of my favorite things to do when camping, is sitting around the picnic table playing cards until the quiet hour. I enjoy seeing the fires slowly die down and the lights going out until there are just a few night lights on.

My 2015 Shamrock came with LED awing lights so bright you could light a stadium. They were not dimmable either. It is great when you are working on something and need the light, but really takes away from the general feel I want in the evening. I also wanted to have a very very dim outside light for some campgrounds I frequent. I feel the yellow outside light is just too bright to be turning on in the middle of the night when all I need to do is see the stairs and the ground.

Anyway, I decided to add a RF dimmer module. The I found one I liked that could handle the 5A rating of the white strip of light and also had a second RGB channel. I decided to add a second strip of RGB LED lights as well. Both the white and RGB colors can be controlled independently. The RF control meant that I could control them from anywhere inside or outside of the camper. Most are IR and need a direct line of sight to the sensor. I had the remote in my hand when taking the pictures.

I like the result. I can put it into stadium lighting if I want to piss off the campground or Disco mode if I only want to piss off my neighbor. Just kidding. I plan to use the white mostly when I am cooking in the fall. Disco is probably not going to be used. You really don't want to see my fat old booty dancing around. Now I can set the lighting color and brightness so we can play cards and not be to over lit. I know there will always be someone who doesn't like something, but my conscience will be clear.

The install wasn't bad. I found the point the white LED wire came into the camper from the awning, cut the wires, added ferrules (I like them when using braided wire on screw terminals) and connected them to the screw terminals on the control module. The second strip required me to run a length of 4 wire ribbon wire (12+, red, Green, blue), connected to the control box and ran it up to the strip light. I chose to install 5, 3.3ft sections of LED channel with 3M VHB tape to the bottom of the awning mount. I probably could have gotten away with just attaching LED strip but that is how the white was mounted.

Stadium mode and Nightlight mode. The reflection from the neighbor's house lights 300ft away is brighter for reference (seen on door). Just what I wanted.


I think this will work good for cards.


Other colors. Most of which I likely won't use. It can make any combination of red, green and blue.







Here are the lights

 

[PopUpSteve]

Nice job, thanks for documenting it so well too.

 

[Taxus812]

Nice job, thanks for documenting it so well too.

Hey PopUpSteve I had a question is there a popup portal referral type link we can use for product links?
I like to link parts I use when I mod. It would be nice if someone did click the link I used and then buys it, the website gets a few bucks.

 

[PopUpSteve]

If you mean like you did it the original post, yes, that's fine. It does help others to find the parts if doing the same type of mod.

 

[jmkay1]

After seeing newer campers having under the awning strip lights I decided to add them to mine. Like yours I got the dimmable and can change color. So much easier now when I camp off grid I can actually use my camper battery to power my awning lights. So far two camping trips in they are still working. Best mod I did. I have way more control over the lights and no separate strands needed.