Camp Lighting

[ScottiesNav]

Hi all i been reading the forums for awhile now and i am now in need of a couple of questions answered well opinions anyway. I am just about to mount my 3/4 roof rack over my tub with the tradie roll bars and i want to mount a led light strips on the rear bar to light the tail gate to cook and under the awning as well which will be mounted off the rack. However the lights are to bright for what i want. I will be mounting a LED flood light on rear bar also for a reverse light and added lighting if needed.

With wiring up this system i was going to use a rocker switch up near the center console and be running a relay and ect in behind the rear seat. I want to run a dimmer / Resister to change the lighting out put as required, which i will mount with the relays but what sort of variable resister will i need to use as when i had my last dealing with LED's they used like 5 Volts instead of the up to 13 volts for battery voltage. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks Scott

 

[Old.Tony]

You'd have to be certain that the LED equipment could handle the dimmer. Some circuits use a lower drive voltage and utilise zeners to keep the volts down regardless of input.

I would imagine that you could use a dimmer like your dash-lights uses, if the LEDs could tolerate being dimmed. Do you have access to a variable voltage supply, like a lab power supply? Alternatively, since they're low power, try connecting them to a 6V battery, then a 9V battery and see how the lights react (don't mix up the polarity, LEDs are diodes and usually only work in one direction).

Now where to put this gear ... if the lights you're getting don't have a switch, for convenience's sake I reckon you could hide the switches up near the back of the tail lights. Have a master switch inside if you feel the need, run the relay in the engine bay to reasonably heavy cables that take the power to the rear. Fuse that cable right near the relay too.

 

[ScottiesNav]

Thanks i thought that might be the case and i should have said id have a master switch or something along those lines. I just saw on a couple of those Ebay led lights one did have the option of a dimmer. I will still look into it more as i will be putting a dual battery system in soonish.

 

[sparra04]

I purchased a set of led strip lights that came with a dimmer and remote control
got them from www.buyincoins.com
the dimmer and remote work great