Fiamma rafter Pro LED mod

Detritus

Detritus

VIP Member
Messages
181
Location
Winchester, Hampshire, UK
Vehicle
T6 Beach 150
Hi all,

Don’t you just love a productive day? Made a few mods today to get ready for our three week trip on Monday - first one is a mod to a Fiamma Rafter Pro to add LED light strips to it:

1. First I bought a 5m strip of Led lighting that has a self adhesive back:

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then I took apart a solar panel y splitter cable, cut the led strip into two metre lengths, used solder and heat shrink to attach connectors onto each one and stuck the LED strips onto either side of the rafter:
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I used the the third connector to wire up a longer lead with a cigarette lighter connection on the end and then connected this to the rafter using the another y splitter cable, it then plugs into the socket by the sliding door. Using the y splitter means Imcan choose to disconnect just one side of the rafter if want to only have light on one side - or I can easily disconnect the cable to shut the door but leave the rafter in place
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Thought I’d give a quick report on how this worked during our three weeks travelling. General feedback is that it was incredibly useful and we had quite a few nice comments and people asking where I got it from. The light was really bright - to the point that most of the time I unplugged one side and only use half of it unless we really needed lots of light. On a few campsites that had no ambient lighting it made the van stand out from a distance. It does attract bugs and I’ve seen a post elsewhere saying that a yellower light would attract fewer bugs so that might be worth thinking about in the future. However because the light points sideways then all the bugs stayed over on that side - so sitting on the ‘unlit’ side meant no bugs but still plenty of light to read by etc.

On one site we arrived quite late and pitched up next to an Italian couple in a T2 who were playing cards on a Camping table using a little lamp. When I plugged in the rafter I heard an exclamation behind me and turned around to apologise for it being too bright and to offer to unplug it - only to see the chap heading towards me! I started to apologise but he quickly shook my hand and thanked me, saying that it had been impossible playing cards in such dim light
 
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