Ooohhh Pretty Blue Lights :)

I've always liked lights, and I like the more recent LED lights, they are low power, bright, decorative, but also work well as working lights. So looking in Ebay, I wanted to find some blue LED's to begin with. Found a seller in Hong Kong, selling 20 12v prewired blue LED's, DELIVERED TO MY DOOR for £3.77 !!!! Would it be enough though ? They couldnt be that bright for that kind of money, and must be really poorly made, right ?.

:) Nope. Arrived about a week later, 20 as promised, all with a good length of wire already soldered on. So 20 would probably not be quite enough around the doorstep and roof would it, I did want them to light up the entrance to the back of the van on the side door, as the main lights now had their switch on the opposite side next to the cupboard, when the side door was opened at night, nothing now comes on. Hooked one LED up to a power source to try and gauge how many more I needed to buy. Hmmm. Blue dots for the next 10 minutes ensures me that I have enough already ! :) In fact I end up fitting 3 LED's into the side door step, and just 2 in the roof just inside the door pointing downwards. The roof ones you dont really notice when they arent on as the carpet fibres pretty much hide them. So have 15 left to play with :) Oh and play with I will ;). By the way, from the same company, now have 50 white, 20 green, and 20 ultraviolet ones coming ! :) The white ones I am thinking of embedding in the side wall behind the sink and hob in the shape of the VW logo, as the kitchen doesnt have a light at present, might put them in a seperate board first that can be fixed to the wall, in the same yellow carpet, just to see what it looks like before I start drilling holes in the side panel and ruining it. Incidentally the LED's are powered from the existing interior light wiring, so that they come on when the door is opened, and they power from the vehicle battery not the leisure battery, which isnt a problem as you can leave these on all day long without affecting the battery for starting. They are cold running too, they dont get hot, so no risk of overheating and starting a fire.



Had another thought today, I havent yet shown any pics of the bed made up, so think you guys may be wondering if it even has a bed ! :) Well it does, and this is it below, works great, quite pleased with the design, good old fashioned mechanics, nothing fancy, but works a treat, Im a big guy and it copes with my weight no problem at all. Think you will agree it looks kinda cosy ! lol. The quilt is borrowed, so need to get something that matched the colours more, but you get the idea from these pics, its very comfy, more comfy than our bed at home, and with all the curtains drawn and with the limo tinted windows is really very private. Seeing it like this brings home that my camper is almost done ! :) Well the inside, the outside still has a story to play out, and Im looking forward to seeing how it ends up myself because at the moment I really dont know. Not sure about the mystery machine now, but who knows, it could still happen..... watch this space ;). PS anyone notice the tv up on the cupboard ? :P Its only there temporarily until I think of a better way to mount it, may sink it into the side of the cupboard.

Got my new wheels !

Well not quite, got these £8.99 wheel trims from Lidl's, but I think they look pretty nice for cheapies, and you wouldnt have known from this pic that they werent alloys would you ? Come on be honest :P

Bought some speakers to replace the ones in the dash today too, got a pair of 160 watt JVC 4" speakers from Motorworld, Brockworth, only £18.99, and once fitted, I realised how knackered the old ones were ! Can actually listen to songs with Bass now ! Looking forward to using it tomorrow and testing them out properly ! :)

Electrics Well On The Way

As the cupboard is now practically done, I thought Id get on with the electrics. First job was to fit the Zig unit into a board that would fit into the lower cupboard, which was uneventful, its a pretty tight fit, which is good, ive made it a pull down board, so can pull it down and get to the wiring and consumer unit which will be behind.
Next thing was feeding wire here there and everywhere, ran one from back to front for the charging cable, was going to do this out through the floor and to the engina bay, but that looked like hard work, so ended up taking roof panels back down and feeding it up the back, along the roof, down the passenger door front pillar, and out through the bulkhead where it was to join up with the battery.
Had to run 3 cables from each of the 12v sockets (fitted the twin one now), one cable back up over the roof, and down the oppisite side, ready to connect the tap and water pump up.
Then had to rewire the lights to a light switch and the zig unit.

Pleased to say it all works ! lol. Battery state was 12.60v when first testing it, then startet the engine and tested again, was charging at 13.2v, which is great, hopefully wont have to keep charging the leisure battery inside now ! Oh with the battery, you have to have it vented, or it gives off poisonous gases, so in the pics you can see the angle and tubing i got to do this with.

So when I left it tonight, it was still a mess, but got the roof lights working from the zig and on its own power switch, wired the 3 12v sockets, so they now can be used to power whatever.

Still a way to go but its getting there :) Pics below.....