interior LED lighting

John in Santa Cruz

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my 2014 E'21, has factory LED lighting... I want to replace one or two of the interior lamps with amber and/or red LEDs for my astronomy adventures....

I'm hesitant to pull off those streamlined clear covers without knowing exactly how they are held in place? any hints ?

edit: ok, took another look, and realized, you slide the cover away from the center about 1/2" then they come off.

so now, where do I find colored LEDs that will fit these fairly unusual lamps??

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I installed red led's in both my under cabinet light and the bath room light. You have to remove the entire light and find the wire connectors, I pushed the red led wires into the connectors until the led was lighted and then put a dollop of silicone to glue it in place. I drilled a small hole for the led in the light base and reinstalled the light. The red is on all the time and the switch activates the while light, Did it in my bath also- see here for the red lights on the floor at night
http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f8/prairie-schooner-modifications-8841-12.html
 
If you are preserving your night vision to see the sky you will not want as many LED's as are in the factory lights. Two LED's maybe per light max and if you can find 630nm 660nm LED's they are perfect. Karen taught Astronomy at the local College and we ran into lighting problems when she would have night observations. We found the Rigel astronomy lights work well and I modded a bunch of the cheap solar lights. The ones Walmart sells for a dollar are easy to take apart then you can swap a red led ( 630nm - 660 nm) for the white one. Set them out that day to charge and they light up the ground for hours. The Rigel lights were set up at tables and such. Two of them would work perfect for the inside of the trailer. One by the Dinette and one laying on the counter.
Be careful as there is a lot of red led therapy stuff out there and it is too bright .

Flashlights

EDIT, you want your LED's if possible at 660nm or slightly above. The Rigel light uses them for the astronomy light.
 
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I've found white LEDs have way too much blue in them for red gels to work well, they tend to shine pinkish through the gel.

I don't want to work with discrete LEDs, I was hoping for a plug and play replacement. I tried a regular wedge lamp in the fixture and it didn't light, not sure why.

maybe I'll rig up what I have in the past, dimmable RGB tape, put a strip under the cabinets or something, and use a remote dimmer. I've got that in the shell on my pickup truck, makes a great red worklight for my astronomy sessions.... I haul around a 20" Obsession :)

edit: ps, I have a couple of those dimmable red flashlights, indeed extremely useful for up close in the dark, like reading settings, finding the right eyepiece, etc.

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Cool telescope. There was a time when I wanted to grind a lens to build a smaller version, but the fantasy never made it to the top of the project pile.

Back on topic, more or less, I love the Petzl headlamps with the red led for night work on the boat. It is handy to have it on your head - one light for all locations, even unplanned ones.
 
I've found white LEDs have way too much blue in them for red gels to work well, they tend to shine pinkish through the gel.

I don't want to work with discrete LEDs, I was hoping for a plug and play replacement. I tried a regular wedge lamp in the fixture and it didn't light, not sure why.

There is a wide variety of "Red" in red color filters. Rosco (the major manufacturer of theatrical & photographic plastic color media) provides the spectral distribution of each of their colors. They have at least 20 different reds, and many pass chunks of the blue & yellow wavelengths since they are designed to light people & scenery. Pure red would turn painted scenery black (unless it was painted red, of course).

They do make some fairly pure reds -

Take a look at their E-Colour+ #787 Marius Red. Almost nothing other than red, and, at 2% transmission, it would cut down the amount of light quite a bit:

By the way, if you want to sort through the hundreds of choices, they have a neat color picker at http://us.rosco.com/en/mycolor
 

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I actually tried 3-4 layers of 'tail light repair tape', something I carry in my astro kit... sorta worked. I just remembered I have a bunch of Rubylith (I use it for making screen covers for my tablet, which I use for star charts in the field), thats a really deep red that passes nothing else as its litho-film safe. I'll have to give that a try.

but I might just end up using a bunch of red and/or amber LED 'candles' I have... they run for days on a pair of CR2035 quarter-sized cells. I also use these for path markers at public events to encourage folks to shut off their flashlights.
 
Wow, John . . . transporting that 20" Dob must be quite a grunt!

it comes apart. the bottom 'rocker box' and the main mirror box are one assembly, they weigh about 100 lbs combined, there's a pair of 'wheelbarrow handles' that bolt to the sides (you can see these in the picture above). that rolls into my truck on a pair of ramps, I leave the handels attached while its in the truck (normally they are removed when you'r eusing it, so you don't trip on them in the dark). the center part of the scope is a black fabric shroud and 8 72" long steel poles, shroud packs in a stuff sack, poles go in a bag. the upper tube assembly is quite light. I had to upgrade to a 7' ladder as that green 6' one in the photo was too short for kids to reach the eyepiece (which can be 84" high at zenith).

loaded in my truck, with the ramps, a chair, eyepieces (in yellow case) and accessories (in white bin), it looks like...

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from opening my truck to fully assembled and optically collimated, ready to go, takes me about 25 minutes if I don't get distracted.

the 7' ladder goes on my roof rack...
 
Wow! And I've been complaining about the portability of my EQ mounted refractor! Dark skies!

Chuck

I'm generally setup and waiting for dark long before any of the folks with EQ mounts and whatever. :cool:

gonna be bringing my scope and Escape to GSSP again this year... Golden State Star Party | Sponsored by TAC and the good people of Adin, CA

then traveling from there to the Oregon Coast FiberglassRV Gather at Bullards Beach OR, with a stop in the middle for the Oregon Shakespeare Fest.
 

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