AusVarmint

Hi Guys

Just wondering what others do for lights when you go camping? I have been playing with making some LED lights up to run off the battery system in my camper trailer.

Below are a couple of pictures to show the final product. One of these more than light up in the camper and one under the annex.

I Replaced 2 5W festoon globes with 2 1.44 leds .
I was looking around ebay for a led light to replace my ute canopy interior when I came across led festoon . They have 3 leds and I got the 36mm ones.

The 2 5w filament were drawing 710mA and the 2 led replacement ones draw 110mA and are a lot brighter.

The leds cost $15.80 delivered.

We've been making our own LED lights for various camping gizmos for the last few months.

We've found buying a 10M roll of strip LEDs is most cost effective <$40. The roll has self-adhesive backing (3M brand) and the strips can easily be cut (about six inch increments) and soldered to whatever wiring you need.

One metre of these strip lights consumes about 250mAh and, two sets of one metre strips is fine for the average campsite food prep.

Be aware of those selling pre-made units on eBay, they may be fine units but you're paying a massive premium for what is often little more than a 1 minute of soldering some wires/clips on.

I have always used these for 20+ years. Yes, I know they are Fluorescent but they work, bulbs last years
and they throw a huge amount of light out.

I string two up horizontally on rope between two trees and it gives light
over about 30 feet with no wires to trip over.

Whoever originally designed them did well as they come with a hook / loop
on one end and rubber on the other that you can easily attach rope to.

And more importantly, they only draw 1 amp so I can leave them on all night
and they won't drain the car battery.

(Beware of cheap Chinese imitations which look the same and might be 12 volt
but are about 3 pr 5 amps or something crazy so will flatten your battery.)

http://www.burnbrite.com/Our-Products-- ... Light.aspx


I see at the bottom of the page they now have LED versions of the same thing.
It would be good to do a comparison.
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The Raven wrote:We've been making our own LED lights for various camping gizmos for the last few months.

We've found buying a 10M roll of strip LEDs is most cost effective <$40. The roll has self-adhesive backing (3M brand) and the strips can easily be cut (about six inch increments) and soldered to whatever wiring you need.

One metre of these strip lights consumes about 250mAh and, two sets of one metre strips is fine for the average campsite food prep.

Be aware of those selling pre-made units on eBay, they may be fine units but you're paying a massive premium for what is often little more than a 1 minute of soldering some wires/clips on.

Ive got strip lights glued onto the side of the tray of my rabbit shooting ute, shine good light out to around 20ft, no more treading on wriggly stick in the night when picking up. dont know any of the technical stuff but they work really well wired into the door circuit so when I open the door they come on.

Camel

That is a good idea.

The newer LED lights are much better than a few years ago. They kick out significantly more light and use less power.

If there's anything to watch when making these it's the power consumption. There's a tendency to use more LEDs than necessary which can bump up power consumption enormously.

Two metres of these strip LEDs will consume only 500mAh. At that rate, a standard 7-9A SLA battery will run for 14+ hours. That's enough for at least two nights of camping (assuming no charging etc).

I use 7-9A SLA (gel cell) batteries for various things and, for camping they are small enough to pack/carry around the campsite. Better than a mile of lead running from your vehicle...

albow, have you measured the power consumption on your LED setup? I'm interested in how much light that kicks out for the draw.

Looking at the pics, do you really take a reloading press to the campsite?

For local light in tents etc, I run small Solar lights that I have had for years.
Run them out and recharge the next day.

The one's I got have superb batteries that have last for years - the only one's
I have found that seem to last ! The charge stays in them for a long time.

And on the way to the hunting / camping spot, I put them on the dash of
the car to boost them up so when I get there, they are at the top charge possible.

The EL6 and EL7 on this web site.

http://www.newlite.com/

500Nitro wrote:Camel

That is a good idea.

I have found that after putting them on there hasnt been any need to change the strides and jocks in the middle of the night either. I also wear gumboots when shooting.

I've settled on AAA battery powered devices for most portable camping gear (eg. radios, torches, electronic hearing protection etc). So, I carry a number of fully charged AAA batteries and a small solar battery charger. The charger isn't super effective but it will recharge some AA and AAA's, with a few days of good light. Enough to get by on if stuck in the bush.

There's also a solar/windup flashlight-radio combo. It has a USB charge outlet but, would take a few days of cranking to power up anything like a mobile phone. Radio is pretty effective for it's size and, removes the excuse for others to crank up the boom box in the 4WD (as some want to do...).

I also take a 12V SLA battery but, that's reserved for the campsite LED lighting.

The two areas where IMHO lighting has always been a problem when spotlighting
is the inside of the ute tray and the sides / rear of the ute tray. LED strip lights
alongside facing down is a good solution, both for seeing in the tray and
walking around the vehicle.

You don't want light high up as it ruins your night vision.

Like closing gates, for 30 years I have always put the vehicle in reverse
so they have light to work by but not the best solution.

Will have to look into them.

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