Dimmer install in main area of Laredo 225MK

[Snoking]

So I ordered a dimmer from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003L4KKF2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A study of the circuit indicated that they switch the negative/ground side on the lighting circuit.

The ceiling has six LED lights. I remove the switch panel I found that the light switch in the positive led to the ceiling lights and the negative/ground is in a bundle of wires crimped together. I removed dimmer from the case it came in and wired it in as follows.

1 IN V- = V- jumper from the negative/ground bundle
2. Out V- = V- the lighting circuit wire removed from the negative/ground bundle
3. IN V+ = V+ jumper from the 12V multi-lead connector on the back side on the panel. Because the IN V+ and OUT V+ as bused together in the dimmer only one positive input is needed.

I drilled a hole for the rheostat light control in a blank slide panel filler, mounting it there, and left the little circuit card floating in the wire bundles behind the panel.

The two pictures of lights on low and high do not do justice to the end result.

I ordered two more of these dimmers. I am going to one in the ceiling of the slide for those to lights above the theater seating. I pulled down the light that is closer to the refer and found that it is the first one in line to the two lights.

I will enlarge the wiring hole slightly and do a similar installation with the Rheostat mounted through the ceiling panel next to the light, as these two lights only use the push button switches on the lights.

The second additional one is going to replace the touch dimmer I put in the 5th wheel bedroom that we do not like. Chris

[DocP]

Thanks for sharing this ... it's a great mod! The 5 ceiling lights in my Cougar are far too bright and I will consider doing this. There are times when I would like more illumination, but most of the time I would like less.

[Snoking]

I created a wiring diagram and in doing it see a change I am going to make. I have a constant 12V+ feeding the dimmer. I am going to change that so the dimmer only has the 12V+ when the OEM light switch is on.

BTW when removing the circuit card from the case, you pull the green screw connector apart to get it out and then push it back onto the circuit card pins.

When I make the power source change this afternoon, I will take some more pictures.

Second drawing is how the circuit was before the mod.

Chris

[Snoking]

Here are a couple more pictures. You can see the buss devices with the spring loaded orange levels in the one picture. I moved the 12V+ connection to the light switch and all is working well. Chris

[Snoking]

So today I installed two more dimmers. One for the two lights above the theater seats and one for the two main bedroom lights. I ordered yet another for the two lights over the head of the bed. The shaft of the control is long enough to mount it thru the paneling on the ceiling or next to a wall switch like our bedroom light switch.

Getting it down to a pretty good routine. Chris

[Snoking]

With the 5th wheel I had a camera in the back of the front box that looked right at the hitch. The went with the box when I sold it. I ordered another little camera and put in on top of the license plate to look at the ball hitch. Got it wired up this morning. Chris

https://i.imgur.com/NZtrNpSl.jpg

[K_N_L]

Very cool mod! I will be trying this very soon. We've never been satisfied with the lighting in the main area, either too bright or dark. Thanks for sharing

[Snoking]

I did a kitchen back splash mod this afternoon with stick on vinyl tile. Chris

[Snoking]

I ran into a problem with the AC unit and the dimmer for the 6 lights in the main living area. These dimmers work on the ground(negative) lead two the LED lights. They had pull the ground to the AC control/thermostat from a ceiling light near the AC. So yesterday I fished a new wire from the AC across the ceiling and down to the control panel near the entry door, and tied it into the ground circuit ahead of the dimmer. Chris

[GeekSquadOfUn]

As long as your LEDs are dimmable, you can use this one.

I installed it and it works great..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTQSIG7/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_DGoHDb2YT07Y0