The Camper Build

This is the Blog Addendum. To see the main page, go here.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Lateral Progress Involving Lighting

My camper has (will have) lights so somewhere between my kickass battery/power distribution and those lights, I need to install some switches. Inside, I'll have 12V LED rope lights on either side, and I think I want to have some kind of light for above the door on the exterior. I want to be able to turn these lights on and off from either end of the inside of the camper, so that's not too hard a circuit to make.

I got some thermostat wire (8 conductor) that will handle what I want plus provide for a 3rd circuit to run to the bed end of the camper for an auxiliary 12V service connection, probably something like an automotive cigarette lighter outlet.

Meanwhile, back to the switches, I need what's known as Single Pole, Double Throw switch and I found some beauties on Digikey for like $2.68 each.

So now I turn to my CAD pc, model up the housing for the switches and build some:

Seems simple enough. The notches in the walls are sized to fit around 1/2" PVC that I'll be using as conduit.
Fast-Forward to the end: I printed to scale, glued the print to some .080" thick 5052 aluminum, punched the holes and cut  out the pattern on the sheer. Then I bent the box with this brake, sanded, primed and painted with glossy white enamel. Lastly, I installed the rocker style switches and they're ready to be soldered up. The small ends are bent over 90 degrees, but I'm ok with that.
So now I need to finish up that roof or do other stuff if the weather is crappy again.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Make it cool, smart or funny, or even polite.
Otherwise, put it on your own blog.