Custom LED awning lights

When we owned the air awning, I made some lighting for the awning that would be durable, easily removable, yet completely unique. I created 3 lights that housed some multi coloured (RGB) LEDs and the idea was we could choose any colour we wanted when we were in the awning.

The lights worked really well, they could either be clipped into the roof or rested on the air beams. However we generally didn’t like the colour they gave off, we couldn’t “dial” in the colour that really looked warm and welcoming. But they did provide light when it was dark so we never changed them.

Fast forward to the rollaway awning and the lights I made up simply wouldn’t fit or be able to be clipped into the awning in a way that would work. This was also a great time to rethink the LEDs I chose and also redesign the concept.

So, the basic concept is an acrylic tube that can be hung from the roof beams, contains the LEDs is fairly damp proof, can be easily removed, can change location and looks neat and tidy.

This is what I came up with :

The main driver for making such a lighting rig was the price. The total cost for all the items I used, plus the power adapter and cabling came in at around £40 (This was originally £39, but is now around £42). That’s the total outlay. A second reason for making these lights was having something that was unique and looked really good. I’ve made up a wiring loom that feeds all the lights from one wire and also includes a remote key fob switch, which allows us to remote switch on and off the awning lights from a key fob on our keys. This is perfect for when returning to the ‘van when dark.

Here is the shopping list for everything I used in this build along with the price when I made these lights up :

▶ Acrylic tube (20mm OD – 2mm wall thickness)
http://amzn.to/2kjgfdt
£3.40 : 1 Meter length Qty = 3 = £10.20 (Plus shipping sadly)

▶ LED Strip
http://amzn.to/2k915az
£5.89

▶ Foam Board
http://amzn.to/2j9t4rg
£8.38

▶ End Caps
https://goo.gl/2Gim0O
£1.70

▶ Cables
http://amzn.to/2jOPhd3
£2.79 x 3 = £8.37

▶ Sockets
http://amzn.to/2jbpo8o
£1.16

▶ Mains adaptor
http://amzn.to/2jwwyTe
£6.58