LIGHTING

 Anypowk Puck Lights, warm white, 300 lumens, 3 watt -- $28 for a set of 6 (x3)

Aloveco 12-volt DC Dimmer Switch -- $39 for 2-pack

        Ah, yes, the lights.  The ten silver, aluminum, recessed, LED, dimmable, puck lights.   My little touch-of-luxury accessories.  They would be mounted in the underside of the cabinet, which would be cedar.  On the P-side, it’s one long (75”) piece.  Looks great.  There are four lights, spaced about 18” apart, right up the mid-line.  The D-side is three 41.5”-44” cedar panels, with two lights in each.

        I find myself really taking my damn sweet time in these recent steps.  This totally defies my runner’s instinct to do them as fast as I can, constantly checking my wristwatch to see how long it’s taking, and rushing more if it’s later than I thought.  I do everything this way.  If I have 50 things to assemble at work, I time myself and try to get progressively faster, silently celebrating every new record.  The game mitigates the tedium, and I get my work done much faster.

 

        But, with this, time just doesn’t matter.  The Step takes however long the Step takes.  I stand back and look things over, ponder my approach, examine it for potential pitfalls, and search for better ways (like using bolts instead of screws, for instance).

 

        And that was more the case than ever with The Lights.  There was a lot here that I knew I could screw up.  And there was a lot here that, if I did screw up, I might not even know it till I was almost done. 

 

        For starters, the pucks themselves.  Their neatly round shape seemed easy enough, but each has these prongs (they call them “schrapnel”, wtf?) that will compress inward as you jam the puck through the hole, and then spring outward to hold it in place.  At first, that seemed nifty. 

 

        But what if the light burns out, goes bad, malfunctions, needs to be replaced?  Maybe you just pry it down and rip it out?  I dunno.  But it didn’t seem as fool proof as this fool would like it.  So, I concocted a plan to cut a more precise hole around the puck itself, create two gaps for the prongs, and then rotate the puck to secure the prongs over the wood. 

 

        This needed to be done from the “inside”, though, because the prongs sit just a tad too low to clear the ¼”-thick panels. 

        The Anypowk lights are well-designed.  Each puck has about 6’ of wire, with a clip that snaps neatly into a small white plastic “connection box.”  The box accommodates six lights.  In the end of that box, another wire plugs in.  That wire contains the + and – leads to the power source.  Those leads are clearly marked.

 

        But that was way too simple for me.  My electricity was going to have to pass through a dimmer switch before it could reach these pucks.  My first choice – by Aloveco, pretty much just a ½” round knob with wires coming out the back -- was sold out on Amazon, so I bought a couple that they showed in the “Customers Also Bought…” area.  Well, customers bought the wrong shit because those were for plugging into a wall switch on house current.  Bah. 

 

        By the time I figured that out and got back on Amazon, the Aloveco was in stock again.  That bought me a little time to arrange a location for the dimmer.   

 

        When you get switches and outlets and such for your van build, you gotta remember that while the visible part may look compact and neat, most of the gadget’s mass is behind the wall, and that’s going to need some room. 

 

        The dimmer wasn’t bad at all – maybe ½” plus a little extra for the wires to bend -- but, while I was at it, I was also going to install a 6” wide black plastic panel with a toggle switch, a 12V socket, and a dual USB charging port.  Seemed like a handy thing to have.  But the sockets extend way back about 2” or more so you can’t insert them just anywhere. 

 

        This called for an on-the-fly change of plans.  But this, too, was practice.  I’d really be wiring the stuff, but the placement on the wall would be temporary.  The walls and everything affixed to them would not be finalized until all the windows and furniture were done.  What I did here would be around for, I dunno, a year?  A few months?  And if I end up deciding that I prefer this configuration, then I’ll dress it up and make it permanent.

 

        I chose that spot – spanning two of the middle-back ribs just below the cabinets, identical on both walls – because it was easily reached while fat-assing on the bed.  I mean, who likes to get up to adjust the lights??  No matter which way I’m facing, I’ll have one dimmer near my head, and one that I can adjust with my toes. 

 

        The USB charger ports are also ideal next to the bed.  I charge my phone and iPad every night.  I just plug them in, leave them on my bed table – the iPad is my alarm clock anyway – and have them fully charged the next day.  People who let their phones die are dumbasses.  Just charge it overnight, Dwight.

 

        So, I cut two of my leftover pieces of cedar down to nice 30” x 8” ones, perfect for rib-spanning.   The laser cut hyper-accurate holes in it for the dimmer and the sockets-thing.  I cut 2 six-inch-long pieces of 2x4 and drilled-n-screwed them into the middle ribs.  That gave barely enough room for the hardware and wires. 

 

        BUT … before I could mount those switch-boards onto the walls, I had to wire up the suckers.   That required taking a little time to wrap my head around it all.  I had bought plenty of wire, some of which I’ll probably never use. 

 

        Solid wire was my first mistake.  Wire is either stranded – made up of many hair-thin strands of copper – or solid (one solid core).  Solid wire is crazy hard to work with:  flexibility is horrible.  So, those two small spools are just taking up space now.

 

        I got a spool of 12 AWG (American Wire Gauge) stranded red and a spool of 12-gauge black.  Then I thought, that was freaking dumb; why didn’t I get one spool of both together?  Duh.  This I now did.  So, those two spools look like extras now too.

 

        12 AWG is actually pretty thick wire.  It’s nothing like your car’s battery cable (which is 6 AWG, or maybe 4, I forget), but it’s a good bit thicker than speaker wire.  My YouTube mentor Will Prouse had a video in which he discussed all things wire, and I was left with the sense that Too-Thick was never a problem, but Too-Thin often is.  Check out this chart.  You use it to figure out what gauge wire you should use, factoring in the amps and the distance they need to travel:

 

 

        Ya, right, right?  Right.  Got all that?  Me too.

 

        So, I figured 12’s would be more than enough for anything I’d be using.  But I also had to determine what kind of connectors to use, how to run the wires throughout the van, and what size fuses to use.  Fuses seemed to be like wire gauge:  Too-Big is not a problem but Too-Small is.   But if both of those are true, why does anyone ever use thin wire and low-amp fuses?  I’m still unsure.  I’ll start with 15A fuses for just about everything

 

        Adding to the confusion, all the wires that came connected to the dimmer switch and the USB ports were TINY.  My 12 AWGs dwarfed these things.  They had to be around 20 or 22 … I guess? 

 

        But I hooked them up with female disconnects on the outlet posts, and with female-to-male pairs coming off the puck light leads, ran the passenger side wires up through the cabinets and across the ceiling, ran the driver side stuff through the spaces in the ribs, and connected them to the fuse box -- some with ring connectors and some with blade connectors.

 

         I turned the Maxoak Bluetti EB240 back on and – voila! – we have lights and powered outlets!

 

        When I added the upper shelf to the desk, I moved the driver-side dimmer switch from that temporary over-the-bed panel to the front vertical panel.  It just made more sense to have the lights that would illuminate my work area actually be controlled from within my work area.  No sense walking all the way back to the bedroom to brighten up the desk lights.  I mean, you don't have to do that, I bet.

        The passenger side dimmer knob stayed in just about the same spot when I installed the final full wall panels.  It made good sense there.  I could or whatever as I lay in bed and then just turn the knob right near my head.

         Note:  For some reason, I envisioned the head of the bed as being on the passenger side.  It could go either way on any given night, right?  And it has.  But I'm finding out, two years later, that I'm laying my head next to the driver side wall instead.  The reason?  The crown of the roads.  In flat parking lots and campgrounds, it doesn't really matter, but in a curbside parking space, BM is at a significant slant, with the D-side a good bit higher than the P-side.  Once all the pillows and sheets are configured that way, well, there's just no sense moving them.

        So, I end up with that P-side dimmer over my feet instead of over my head, making it far less convenient than I had originally intended.  No big deal, really, but had I thought it through, I might have done it differently.

THE CEILING PUCK LIGHTS

        When it came to the lights in the actual ceiling, the deciding factor was the length of the wire from the puck to the connection box.  I had done CorelDRAW layout with as many as 12 pucks but settled on a much more sensible six.  Conveniently, they come in sets of six.

    With the wooden slat running straight along the spine, there would be no way to do the lights in the center, so I opted for pairs:  rear, middle, and straddling the fan in the front.  I mounted the small white connection box, which comes with the set, on the inside of the top beam of the center cabinet.  The 7’ wire from the back-right puck would barely reach. 

    That box needed to be reasonably removable, so rather than screwing it in, I used Velcro.  And, just to be sure that the “cro” would not come loose from the cabinet frame, I staple-gunned it in place.

    I wired the connection box to a dimmer switch, which I decided to locate halfway up the small panel on the front side of the cabinets, where I could easily reach it while sitting in the driver seat.  So, even though the little white box hangs less than a foot from the DC converter and fuse box, five feet of wire had to run forward to the switch, and then seven feet of it back to the wall and rearwards through the rafters to the electrics. 

    These lights probably won’t even get a real lot of use, either.  If I need to see into the cabinets at night, I’ll use them, or if I need to see the whole floor.  They can be useful as I leave the driver seat to head back into the belly of the whale for the night.  Or if I need to take a quick look backwards for something.  In either case, right behind the driver’s head is a good spot for the switch.

    The cutouts for the puck lights were the same as before (i.e., on the underside of the cabinets):  a 2” hole-saw cut, with small gaps carved out by the jigsaw.  The puck fits perfectly into the 2” hole, but the prongs that secure it to the panel need to go through the gaps, get lifted a millimeter or two and twisted to lock the puck in place. 

    If one ever needs to be replaced, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we have to.

 

THE ROPE LIGHTS

YoungPower Battery Operated LED Rope Lights, Warm White, 40ft -- $14
Outwater Plastics Styrene Moulding, 1/2" x 1/2" x 3/64", 18 72" Pieces -- $100

   All the puck lights came out great.  They really did.  When this whole thing started, I put the pucks in the plan and figured I concoct some kind of Plan B when I messed 'em up.  But I didn't mess 'em up.  Yay, me!

    But, the whole time, in the back of my mind, I knew they would not be the whole story of Blue Maxx lighting.  With three distinct sets on three different switches, dimmable to Pretty Dim and brightable to Really Bright, you'd think I'd have every level of illumination covered. 

    Somehow, though, I knew there would be rope lights up along the top of those cabinets.  Something just right for a candlelight mood.  Something dim enough to keep my pupils wide open, but just bright enough to keep darkness at bay.  That is my soul soothing illumination level.  Anyone who has ever been in my abode knows I am a huge fan of indirect lighting.  You'll never find a room of mine lit by some dome light in the middle of the ceiling.  More likely to find a couple of pole lamps in the corners with all their pods turned to shine on the walls, floor or ceilings.  You'll never be looking at the light bulb itself in my nest.

    The puck lights didn't fit that criterion, and it's fine.  They are get-things-done lights.  But when all the things are done, those will get turned off and the dim, soothing rope lights will go on.

    I have a set of rope lights on my front porch at home, strung up among the laces around the awning pipes.  Glowing green under the green canvas, they create a great atmosphere.  I also have two sets lining my walkway, casting a white glow upwards in the lower palms on each side.

    For this set, though, there had to be "next level" parameters. 

    First, I wanted battery-powered lights.  Those ropes come with AC plugs, with USB plugs, or battery packs.  The home string was AC, plugged into a timer.  You might think that I'd be all over the USB version, given that I have 22 ports in the van. 

    But, no, no, Jojo, me want batt'ries.  Double-A's, three of 'em.  I'm thinking ahead to nights when I'm fatassing in bed, iPadding myself into sleepy-time-time.  If any DC or USB device is still on (except the fridge), I'll have to either leave it on all night, or get up and shut it off.  And getting up is counterproductive in such moods.  With the AA-fueled lights, I'll be able to just click the red button on the Rear Remote and slip into darkness without putting any drain at all on my solar stockpile.

    And, yes, there will be a Front Remote as well, so I can flip on my glow as soon as I park -- or even while I drive, just for atmosphere.  Having a soft glow behind me as I drive through the inky night will help ward off evil spirits.  Plus, it'll just look dang cool.

    Most of the time, going battery-power only will be excessively thrifty.  I think I could leave all my puck lights on all night and probably burn just a bar on the Maxoak's 5-bar gauge.  But, still, it might save a tiny bit on the life cycle of the Maxoak, and maybe, just maybe, I'll get an extra day or two at the end of its life.  Maybe.

    Second, I didn't want the rope lights to be raw.  No raw ropes.  That indirect light thing again.  My ropes needed a gutter. 

    This would have been a useful thing to consider as I built and installed the cabinets, right?  Oh well, maybe next time.  I had to concoct a plan to support and hide the rope itself but leave enough space for the glow to escape -- and do it all in a 1.25"-high space, the height of the top bar of the cabinets. 

    Somehow, there had to be a flat vertical surface to adhere to the wood, a flat horizontal surface to lay the lights on, and another flat vertical surface to go straight in front of the lights.  And I needed a total of about 32-linear feet of it all. 

    The plan was easy to concoct, but the details took their time revealing themselves.  It was clear that it would not be a one-piece thing; I was going to have to assemble something.  That notion had been in motion quite a while, though. 

    When I got the wood angle-molding for the slider-side edge of the floor, I thought that might be the ticket.  I could slap two pieces of that together with little screws, then use more little screws to connect to the wood bar.  But I took a couple of small pieces, taped them together and held them up for a test fit.

    It was a big No Go.  The angle-molding itself was too thick.  The horizontal part had to be two-layers thick, so if I laid them outside each other, they went all the way up to the ceiling, which was useless.  If I laid them inside each other, the gutter was not deep enough to hide the rope. If I was going to see the lights, I might as well save a ton of trouble and staple the rope up there in plain sight.

    But the notion had a back-up.  Before I got that wood molding, I had bought a sturdy styrene plastic version of the same thing.  While the wood was 0.75" on each side, and 3/16" thick, the styrene was only 0.5" high, and just 0.047" thick.  I had purchased it to use on the edge of the floor, to cover any gaps and to keep the tile edges from rolling up.

    The floor was aces on its own, though.  It fit great, and it stuck even greater, making the plastic molding useless.  Down there, at least. Where floor duty bottomed out for it, a ceiling job might lift it up.  Plus, when I bought it, I had to buy 108 feet of it; it was only sold in a pack of 18 six-foot lengths.  In the side of my mind -- not all the way back -- I knew I might need it for gutter time. 

    Once I used it for another sample fit of the same two-piece design, it was clear that the Outwater plastic was the way to go.  It was so lightweight that I wouldn't even need to use screws; long strips of 1/4"-wide two-sided tape would be plenty strong enough to hold it up.

   I wanted as few gaps as possible, so I used 72" lengths wherever I could.  Two 36" strips of tape got applied to both outer sides of one of the lengths.  I peeled one side and stuck the naked length to it, in the opposing direction.  Then I peeled the remaining side and stuck it to the top bar.

    The corner provided a bit of a challenge, especially the back corners where the cabinets met the Logo Board.  But I took my time, cut some smaller strips, and assembled them the same way, even where the gutter went to vertical orientation. 

    I kinda regret not running the lights right under the RAMACK laser-cut lettering.  I could have done it, but it would have looked forced.  The track would have had to jump from one the cognac layer to the cedar layer, and it just would have been hack. 

    Might have been a bit vain, too.  Bad enough even having it there at all, I suppose, but fukkit, it's all part of the Stealth Mode.  We'll get to that later.

    I started at the front end of the cabinet on the driver side and worked backwards.  The rope would follow a crooked U, ending at the overhead compartment (OC) past the slider door.  I didn't see the need to cross the OC and complete the loop.  For one thing, there was no reasonable way to do a gutter across the top, and one across the bottom would just get in the way of the curtains.  Also, instead of illuminating a nice cedar ceiling, a rope there would light up all the crap I store up there:  raincoat, sweatshirt, first aid kit, toilet paper supply, umbrella, and I don't even know what else for sure.  So, yeah, no need for that.

    Once I got U'ed around past the cabinets, the space above the slider door threw me a curve, literally.  Since it was not flat, vertical metal, but, rather, rounded and sloped diagonally, my gutter design seemed unnecessarily complex.  I simply taped one length of styrene molding up there really close to the top and the space was perfect.

    The battery pack sits at the front edge of the OC, near the slider.  There is a six-foot-long piece of silver wire/cord between the pack and the lights themselves.  This allowed me to choose exactly where to start the glow.  I worked the U in reverse, tucking the rope in as I went.  The vertical-horizontal junctures didn't want to play at first, but I thought "screw them" and secured them with a drywall screw in each corner to snug them in.

    When I got to the starting point of the gutter, I had about 8 feet of lights left.  I toyed with the idea of running them across the top of the office window, but quickly bagged the idea.  It would have meant creating new gutters, and it would have looked a tad obnoxious.  So, I rolled them up fairly tight and stuffed them in a black fabric bag and rested them in the corner of the OC.

    The glow is perfect.  Love it.