What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Rate my interior lighting plan

Brantel

Brantel

Well Known Member
Here is my interior lighting plan at the moment, please feel free to let me know if I am all wet on an idea or not....

Starting in the back and working forward...

2ea of these puppies for the baggage area mounted on the rollover bar brace, white:
cat-med_led-dome.jpg


1ea of these mounted on the tipup roll bar brace pointing forward over the shoulders of the pilot/pass,Blue:
&
2ea of these mounted on the tipup forward canopy decks for actual map lights/panel floods/etc, Blue.:
15z1t1z.gif


1ea of these mounted under the tipup glare shield for a panel wash light, Blue: Purchased from Stein of course...
blueledstrip.jpg


One of these on any backup instrument that is not internally lit, white:
wedge5.jpg


Two of these under the panel, mounted to the subpanel just in case you drop something or need to look down there at your feet, white:
cat-med_led-dome.jpg


Four of these to provide four channels of control. All four will be connected to a common "Interior Lighting" power switch. I may just build me a custom 4 channel dimmer using the LM317 regulator to save space and to beef up the heatsink.

cat-med_dimmer.jpg


Channel One: White baggage domes/under panel lights
Channel Two: Blue Maplights on canopy decks/Overshoulder Light
Channel Three: Blue glareshield strip panel wash light
Channel Four: White internal instrument/avionics and Nulite lights
 
Last edited:
I would ditch the post lights and go with nulites (aircraft spruce has them). They are way better and the price is comparable.

I would say you don't need the LED light strip and the light over your shoulder. That's a little overkill. The LED light strip, one map light, some baggage lighting and I would say you are done.

Just my opinion...but isn't that why you asked...to get opinions? :)
 
Brian, how are you going to mount on the roll bar?

I don't think that I would mount on the bottom side as it would compromise strength to much If you go to the back side, I don't think that the light you have will flex forward enough to work. Also how are you going to attach the nut?

Kent
 
Thanks Jamie, I will check into the nulites...Yep, love the feedback from the guys that have been there done that...

Jamie said:
I would ditch the post lights and go with nulites (aircraft spruce has them). They are way better and the price is comparable.

Just my opinion...but isn't that why you asked...to get opinions? :)
Click to expand...
 
Hey Kent,

This is a tipup so the light would be mounted on a coverplate that would go on the bottom of the tipup rollbar to bulkhead brace. There are some pics here somewhere where others have done similar.

Found one example of something similar...Thanks Chris!

RV-7-67%20050.JPG


RV-7-67%20049.JPG


kentb said:
I don't think that I would mount on the bottom side as it would compromise strength to much If you go to the back side, I don't think that the light you have will flex forward enough to work. Also how are you going to attach the nut?

Kent
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Brian:
On my tip-up, I use a light strip under the glare shield and only one of the small spots mounted to the underside of the roll bar brace. The spot can swing up out of the way when I'm stuffing bags into the bay. I've found that in spite of the center line mounting, I really don't see interference from the latch handle. I have an "old school" panel with mostly Van's gages. I've eliminated the lights from most of these in the interest of reducing the number of wires behind the panel. I have internal lighting only in my compass, ADI, VOR and my EI triplex gage (EGT, CHT, OAT). Of course, radios are also internally lighted. Both the light strip and overhead spot are wired to the same rheostat. At night, I'm typically dialed down to half power. Too much light and your night vision is affected.
Terry
 
OK Jamie put me on to something better so I took his advice and swapped the post lights for the Nulites.

Jamie said:
I would ditch the post lights and go with nulites (aircraft spruce has them). They are way better and the price is comparable.
Click to expand...
 
Only thing I'd say is that since you're going glass (G900's right), go with either blue or green map lights and LED strip, becase the red will wash out some of the stuff on the EFIS or EIS screens. Most of the newer heavy iron has gone away from red interior lights for similar reasons.

Also, thank goodness you got rid of those @!#!%^& post lights!

Cheers,
Stein
 
No red with the "economy" glass panel per Stein so I will go with Blue cuz I just like it better than Green.

SteinAir said:
Only thing I'd say is that since you're going glass (G900's right), go with either blue or green map lights and LED strip, becase the red will wash out some of the stuff on the EFIS or EIS screens. Most of the newer heavy iron has gone away from red interior lights for similar reasons.

Also, thank goodness you got rid of those @!#!%^& post lights!

Cheers,
Stein
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Perihelion

Hey Brian,

Check out the Perihelion site. They make a dimmer with a built in On/Off switch which can drive everything you are talking about or you can buy one for each circuit. I am getting 3 of them. 1 to drive instrument brightness, 1 for pilot map light, 1 for the co-pilot map light.

I like your idea about the lights in the baggage area, but I would probably control those from a simple switch since I only need them on when loading/unloading bags.

Perihelion Dimmer
http://www.periheliondesign.com/egpavr.htm

Mikey
 
Sample of Blue Strip and Map lights

Brian,

Plan looks very nice.

I installed two of Stein's blue map lights and one of his blue LED strip lights. Nice units and lots of light. The map lights swivel all over and are great for charts, or for pointing at the panel if needed as a backup. Here is a pic to show you how much light they put out, and how the blue looks (I like it...very easy on the eyes, IMHO). (The displays are washed out due to the exposure...they show up very clearly in person under the blue light).

nightpaneleu3.jpg


Cheers,
Bob
 
Bob,

That is exactly how I want my side map lights and glare shield strip mounted. Thants for the pic!
 
Thanks Mikey,

I think I will make my own multichannel dimmer package. I can build a 4 channel one for about the price of one of these commercial single channel ones. They are really simple to make.

I like the idea of just a switch for the white floods, most likely will never need to dim these because they won't be on in flight. HMMM

Thanks again!

TTU_RV7 said:
Hey Brian,

Check out the Perihelion site. They make a dimmer with a built in On/Off switch which can drive everything you are talking about or you can buy one for each circuit. I am getting 3 of them. 1 to drive instrument brightness, 1 for pilot map light, 1 for the co-pilot map light.

I like your idea about the lights in the baggage area, but I would probably control those from a simple switch since I only need them on when loading/unloading bags.

Perihelion Dimmer
http://www.periheliondesign.com/egpavr.htm

Mikey
Click to expand...
 
Blue vs Green

As a future builder, anyone actually compared blue vs green lightning as far as discerning all printed colors on things such as charts?
All our NVG capable fighter aircraft use a Turquoise (Blue/Green Combo). It's an odd color but the best at preserving night vision and allowing for visual acuity.
Perhaps a mix of both blue and green lighting would provide the right wavelengths, seeing as it might be difficult or cost prohibitive to get the right NVG Filters.

http://forum.photonlight.com/turquoise-night-vision-preservation-vt1040.html
 
Problem is finding off the shelf LED lighting that is that color specific is hard unless you want to pay a fortune for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top