LEDs Etc

Sorry, No Prudent RVer at Gypsy Rally

Some of my health issues have gotten in the way of my being at the Gypsy Rally in Yuma the week of March 5. We will not have a booth in the market, but our booth at the Arizona Market Place in Row B up the street at 4th Ave and 32nd Street is still going strong. Nancy, the LED Lady, is running that show.

I will miss seeing all my friends at the Gypsy Rally, but that is the way of life sometimes. Take care.

Sam Penny, the Prudent RVer

Prudent RVer at Gillette WY for the Escapade

We will have a booth at the Escapade in Gillette SY at the Escapade starting 8/28/2011. Look for us and try out one of our latest LED lights. We still have the best product and price.

I will not be there, but Nancy, the LED Lady, will be minding our store. Come by and say hello.

sam

Ways to Use a ZL1, the zipDOT

I gave away a number of ZL1 units at the Yuma HamFest, hoping to get some comments from people who found a newer and better way to use the world's smallest regulated 12-volt LED. It did generate some traffic to this blog, but it did not generate the hoped-for comments on how to use the product.

For those who want to know what I am talking about, go see the ZL1 at PrudentRVer.com.

So how can you use a ZL1?

Use it to replace a footlight in your coach -- if it is too bright, cover it with multiple layers of frosted scotch tape.

Make it an appendage to the light in the ceiling of your toilet. Even if you leave it ON all night, it only draws 0.02 amps, or 0.25 watts of power -- not enough to drain your coach batteries. Connect it into the power before the fixture's switch. Again, reduce the light by covering it with layers of frosted scotch tape.

A single ZL1 light is sufficient to light the interior of a small cabinet shelf in an RV. Mount it at the inside top-of and against the backside of the cabinet moulding holding the door, on the hinge side of the door. It should point toward the inside of the shelf. If you want to wire a magnet proximity switch to the door, power the +12v to the ZL1 through that switch.

Put a ZL1 under the hood of your car or truck, always ON. Wire it into a circuit controlled by the ignition key. That way when you lift the hood at night, you can see well enough to at least get around.

Connect the ZL1 to one of the small 12volt drycell batteries and you have enough of a light to read a Kindle. And it is a lot cheaper than one of those Kindle Nite-Readers you see on TV. (ZL1s are $5.50 on the Internet -- batteries are not included).

Put a ZL1 in the back of the storage area under your sink in the RV. Just wire it into any 12volt power and ground pair that run through that area with a tap-connector. Just remember, the ZL1 is polarized, so you have to match up the leads with the right line.

The ZL1 fits into any of the zipLED bases so you can use it as a single point of light in any of your coach fixtures. It makes a great night light.

Some people are stripping the insulation back and inserting the bare wire into the socket of a halogen fixture that they want only for background lighting. You may need to bend the wire slightly to convince it to stay in the socket. Be careful when removing the hot halogen bulb -- it burns at 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit.

So come on, someone out there can send me an even greater idea for using the ZL1. It plugs directly into a 12-volt DC circuit.

Sam, the Prudent RVer

Clubs Can Purchase LEDs For A Discount

We have started offering a discount plan to RV clubs for the purchase of our RV LEDs. It amounts to an average of a 10% discount, which, with our recent price drops is beginning to put the LED replacements for incandescents into the realm of feasible for many, many more RVers.

The Skinnie Winnies are the latest addition to our fold. These are the owners of Winnebago Views and Itasca Navions. My thanks to Gary Gibson for getting this all set up.

If you are in that club, check the recent forum entries for more information on how to capture the discount.

If you are some other club that would like to have the same kind of priveleges, go to www.prudentrver.com and click on the Dealer/Club Information link in the left column and find out how easy it is to become an active club with the Prudent RVer.

Sam Penny, the Prudent RVer

Now at Arizona Market Place in Yuma

I have not been communicative the last few weeks. That is because I have been a little more than busy getting our new store front up and running.

PrudentRVer.com has established a retail outlet (a kiosk) at the Arizona Market Place at 4th Ave and 32nd Street in Yuma, Arizona. The kiosk is on Row B, near the front. We plan to be there through the season, every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until mid-April. If things go well, we will be back next year.

Nancy Lesser-Adamo, the LED Lady, is the primary person at the store. She has been a dealer for our LED lights for the last two years and has done a number of rallies and installations in the field. She knows about LEDs and is good at giving an explanation of the best way to use them in your RV.

Sam and Alice Penny will be there some of the time to help. Sam's major responsibility will turn to marketing and writing articles and maintaining the webpage at www.prudentrver.com. Alice is the bookkeeper.

Here is our press release:

PrudentRVer.com Opens LED Store Front at Arizona Market Place, Yuma, AZ

PrudentRVer.com, a provider of LEDs for RVs for five years on the Internet,

is now retailing at the Arizona Market Place in Yuma, AZ

YUMA, ARIZONA – Sam Penny, a.k.a. the Prudent RVer persona at www.prudentrver.com, announced that Prudent RVer has established an LED retail outlet at the Arizona Market Place in Yuma, AZ. “We are in space B142 of the market, near the front of the B row. The popular market is located at 4^th Avenue and 32^nd Street in Yuma.

“Nancy Lesser-Adamo, the LED Lady, who has been selling our LEDs as a dealer at rallies and doing installations in the Northwest and southern California for the past two years, is the primary salesperson at the kiosk.”

Penny said, “We offer a wide variety of new LED bulb replacements for the 12-volt incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen bulbs found in RV trailers and motor coaches. This includes both plug-and-play replacements and the ZipLED configurable replacements. Our fLEDescent panels replace the tubes and ballasts in fluorescent fixtures. Our new DL series of LED Luminaires replace entire lighting fixtures in the RV.”

Penny tells how he entered the LED business. “In February, 2006, I met the principals from Neutek, USA, of Mesa, AZ, at Quartzsite. This company had the world's first original working prototype for a B15s bulb LED replacement, and while at the show we designed the first LED replacement for the wedge bulb on the spot -- the W9.RV3-H.

“I became a dealer for Neutek's LED lights, calling myself the Prudent RVer and establishing a commercial website to sell LEDs. In April I gave Neutek the specifications for a halogen bulb replacement in puck lights. This proactive LED lamp manufacturer provided a prototype of the G4.RV3-H by mid-month. It took more than eighteen months for the 'knockoffs' from the Far East to start appearing on the scene – and some still don't understand the problem.”

Penny continues, “The bulb replacements we sell on the Internet incorporate the knowledge we have gained over the last four years of how to build the best and most reliable 12-volt LED replacements for bulbs in the RV and boating industry, knowledge that is only just now becoming apparent to our competitors. That is why we fully expect the LEDs on our products to lose no more than 30% of their luminosity over their 100,000 hour lifetime.

“It feels good that The Prudent RVer is now selling at a retail outlet, a kiosk at the Arizona Market Place in Yuma. Visit us on B row of the market this winter and ask for some LED Light -- you will be pleased with what you receive.”

# # #

One Difference Between RVs and Boats

This past week we have vended LEDs at the Northern California Boat Show in Jack London Square, Oakland, CA. Response has been so-so. I have learned a lot about lighting differences between boats (or ships as some would say) and RVs.

It turns out that there is a major difference between the incandescent bulbs used by boaters and by RVers. Most notably, the RV that have bayonet type sockets for using the 1141 and 1156 use the single contact type socket. Boaters on the other hand use double contact sockets for the 1142 and 1152 bulbs.

It is interesting to understand why the difference.

I got an inkling of why when a friend asked me to check out why one of the single contact LED lamps would not work in a sailboat at the show. I took along my DVM to investigate.

Yes, the fixture was for a single contact BA15s bulb, and such a bulb burned nicely in the socket. But when I tested the LED lamp, it would not burn, even though it had worked back at the booth. I used the DVM to measure the voltage, and found that the polarity was reversed from what the LED lamp expected. The center contact was ground and the socket was +12 volts. The fixture had been "mis-wired."

Upon inspection, I noted that the fixture did not use different color wire coming from the socket, so there was a 50% chance the wiring would be reversed. I checked another fixture, and found the ground was attached to the socket as I expected.

The salesman said the problem could be easily fixed, and I agreed. The question was, why had it happened in the first place?

Some people do not realize the dangers of having a hot +12v socket, especially in a marine environment where things can be consistently wet, and a salty environment where even the water becomes a good conductor. It is a good way to develop a short and drain a battery.

Someone in the sailing industry realized this early on, and they decided to use the double contact socket and bulb. In this manner, the socket could not be shorted out to anything, and the current would be limited to the wiring, not to the chassis like in an RV. This practice has continued in most boats, especially in the salt water environs.

This problem did not appear in the beginnings of the RV industry. Using the same techniques as those used with automobile, the common ground throughout the RV is the chassis. This is not the best thing to do, but it works.

In many cases, ground connects in the electrical system are wired to the nearest chassis point, and the chassis is connected to the final ground wire back into the batteries. It saves a lot of wire, but can produce some interesting situations when some ground connect does not make good contact with its chassis point.

Of course, it is not a good idea to submerged the chassis into water. It does strange things to the electrical system.

Moral: be careful about transfering your knowledge of RVs to boats and vice versa. Sometimes, things are different.

sam

A Calamity at the FMCA Charlotte Rally

Not only are we selling LED Lamps for RVs at www.prudentrver.com, but we have been working as vendors at RV shows and rallies around the country. I will tell you more about that in a later post.

I want to tell you about today's news, because there is a lesson about being wary as an RVer.

Alice and I are vendors for LightBlasters LEDs and had a booth in Gillette, WY for an FMCA rally. We were preparing to travel to the east coast to set up our booth at the FMCA National Rally in Charlotte, NC, when we received the news that our grandson in Tacoma, WA had been hit by a speeding pickup and critically injured. We needed to head back to help.

We immediately started a search for someone to take over our booth in NC, and to cover the Fall Escapade in Van Wert, OH for us as well.

Jim and Linda Harriss of Edwardsville, IL answered our call and we traveled to near St. Louis to hand over the booth parts and inventory and to train them. They agreed to do both FMCA and Fall Escapade. Then we headed back to Tacoma.

Last week the Harrisses traveled to Charlotte to do the FMCA show. I had arranged for onsite parking as a vendor, so they had a place to park when they got there. They were put in the vendor area next to a creek at the Charlotte speedway.

They told me the first day went well, and that evening they headed out for supper with Kelly from LightBlasters.

It started to rain, and rain hard. When they returned, they were horrified to find their fifth-wheel trailer and truck under water from a flash flood of the creek. They had been placed in the flood plain.

The latest word is that both vehicles are being totaled by the insurance company. The Harrisses are picking up the pieces and returning to Illinois. They will not be able to cover the Fall Escapade.

Why am I telling you this? First for the news about our representation at the shows (or lack of it at Fall Escapade). Second as an example of things to watch out for when traveling in an RV.

Flash floods happen, and they happen quickly. Water destroys RVs and their contents. Jim lost his laptop computer among other things. Their records and other papers in the trailer and truck were water-soaked. Luckily, the water did not get into the upper level, else they would have lost all their clothes and bedding.

So far, no one at FMCA seems interested in taking any responsibility for what happened. Nor does Charlotte speedway take responsibility, even though the same thing happened in 2003 during a Nascar event. The Harrisses and others caught in the flood will be "talking" with them.

Moral of the story: it is up to you personally to be wary. Watch for risks, especially the unobvious ones, and if someone puts you or your rig at risk, do something about it. You can refuse to accept the risk.

And finally, don't park in a flood plain, in North Carolina or in Arizona or anywhere else you may travel.