18. The lighting install begins.

 Lighting is something I really wanted to take my time with, because I didn't want to do it twice. It broke my brain trying to work out the best ways to keep it hidden when it's turned off, and how to stop it shining directly in my eyes when it's on. In the end I decided to use adhesive COB lighting strips.

It has a sticky side and a side where the lights live. Two wires, they don't get too hot (unlike puck lights), and they're super low profile.

I hid them behind 3 of the panels in my bunk area, and I immediately loved the effect. (Still not properly wired in yet, so you can see some wires and a bit of droopy COB strip visible, but that will all get tucked away soon).

Passenger side of the van- feet end of the bunk. The van metal wall you can see is where one of the bump-outs/flares is going to go. The black panel above will be covered in a kuba cloth style cushion design made of foam and linen in earth tones. Same thing will be above the rear door windows.

Driver side of the van- head end of the bunk. Same as the other end, except because my head goes up this end, I want to install a switch to turn off the lighting strip, so it doesn't blast my eyes when I'm in bed with the lights on.

I bought one of these switches from Temu for less than AUD$4. I've used them before, and the ones I bought from AliExpress 6 years ago are still going strong.

I made a little mounting panel out of an offcut from the floorboards. After I drilled and countersunk the holes, and rounded the corners, I sprayed it with a couple of coats of clear polyurethane.

I had to re-mask and sand the clear coat flat, because I'd accumulated a bit of overspray. But I like the way it turned out. I have two switches available. One I will use to turn off the light strip at the head end of the bunk, and the second I will wire to the start of the bunk area lighting circuit to turn off all of the bunk area lights without having to climb out of the bunk and go to the main switch panel near the sliding door (or it will be).

This is me working out how to wire the first switch. I use test leads to ensure everything works, before soldering/heat shrinking the permanent connections.

Tested and working perfectly. It was too hot to wire the second switch and clean up the finish on the panel today, but as always, when I upgrade the system in any way I'll be sure to upload it here.

As you can see I left some space on the panel in case I decide to add something else at a later stage. There is also still plenty of room along the extrusion it's sitting on, so I can mount all kinds of things up there if I feel the need. I also have lots of floorboard offcuts put aside so I can maintain the aesthetic if I do add other panels in future.

I also bought some very cheap lights off Temu for the stair/entry area, to see if they would even work... they were $4.77 each! 

This is how they are advertised.

I used the 'natural white' setting at 100% brightness.

They are attached with magnets, so they can be easily taken down to recharge, or replace. This is during the day:

And this is at night: 

The magnets held firmly, the colour was great, and the brightness excellent. The sensors worked perfectly, and I really loved the way the lights turned on sequentially as they were individually triggered by the opening door.

Of course we'll have to see how they hold up over time, but I'm amazed at what great value these are without needing to sacrifice utility. My only criticism is they could be less deep- if they work out a way to make that happen I'll definitely upgrade.

When I first did the wiring diagram for Lorca I was overwhelmed by just how much there was to keep track of and to find space for. I'm such a fan of these wireless rechargeable lights (that come in a variety of lengths) that I'm going to use them in all of my cabinets. That's 13 lights that I don't to run wires for, don't need to have fuses for, or any of the cons of fixed systems. That makes the electrical setup so much simpler, I'm obviously so happy these lights exist.

There are still lights to install under the two upper cabinets and one above the sliding door that will all be on the same wired circuit/fuse/dimmer, but I can't get them done until I actually make the cabinets! So as always I will update this entry when that time comes.

Unrelated, but looking at the state of that step I decided it was time to finally clean it up. I had some adhesive 90 degree rubber that I got in a box of all kinds of stuff off Marketplace, so I thought I'd give it a go. 

Instead of using black aluminium which would scratch, I thought rubber might be a better choice.

This is what I'm starting with. I removed the aluminium and cleaned up the tape residue.

And this is after I stuck on the rubber angles, and cut/installed some anti-skid strips I bought online. 

Looks a lot neater now (and definitely safer!)

See you next time!