Dimmable LED Lighting (With 2-Way Switches!) | Transit Van Conversion E24

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Hey guys, we decided to re-upload this video as we wanted to add a small text overlay to make it more clear in the edit around insulating the crimp connectors of the lights as we thought it was a little misleading. KZbin doesn't allow doing that without uploading again unfortunately. Thanks to everyone who commented previously, we really appreciate all your comments and enjoyed reading them all as usual and kept a copy 😊

[@markleader2622]

Really enjoying your van build series. I'm about to start the first fix wiring in my van. Can you tell me what size cable you are using in your lighting circuit please? Many thanks

[@SelfBuiltStories]

​@@markleader2622 We used 3mm^2 duplex wire, and as our lights are very low energy usage the wiring we have is overspec for what it needs to be. We used the blue sea wiring chart quite a lot (assets.bluesea.com/files/resources/newsletter/images/DC_wire_selection_chartlg.jpg) and after working out the ideal for everything we had to power, we rounded up a few as we wanted to standardise the different sizes as much as possible and by larger spools of each. HTH!

[@markleader2622]

@@SelfBuiltStories Phheeww!! When I saw the size of the cable you were using I thought I'd messed up and bought the wrong size. I calculated I needed 1.5mm for my lighting (it looks so much thinner than yours). Thanks again. You're doing a quality job on your build....it looks great!!

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cheers! And haha sorry, yeah 1.5mm^2 would have been fine for our lights too. It's a lot easier to work with the thinner wire as well, the 3mm^2 duplex doesn't bend very easily with the extra insulation sheathing around it. Possibly we'd buy another slightly smaller size for some of the really low power things if we were doing it again, but it is nice to know we can use the same wire (and we've added a couple of spare lengths around) for most things 🙂

[@GCSol]

I just found your page today. Now I'm wrapped up in watching your progress on the van.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thanks for the comment, hope you're enjoying the videos 🙂

[@simonluckett8156]

Hi there. So I have literally just binged watched all 24 episodes. I didn’t realise I have now caught up. You are doing an amazing job with the conversion. Keep up the good work and can’t wait for the next episode. Thanks

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Wow, thank you, we're happy that you found it enjoyable enough to watch all 24 episodes! Cheers and we will try, we're looking forward to the inside starting to take shape! 🙂

[@siajnesdunk]

Thanks for a good series, folks.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Our pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it! More to come 😃

[@rph31015]

I absolutely love your ceiling, I think it's the nicest I've seen in any van build. Really enjoying watching the conversion take shape 🙂

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Wow, thanks so much! We really like it too :) It was hard to know how it would turn out but we love the end result and the colour choice we went for 😍Really enjoy using the osmo oil too, made it quite fun doing it seeing it transform so quickly

[@russ_vee_jr4199]

ALSO, cut wires about 3 inches from connector so you can reuse it on future projects. Love your work on this build....

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Yep also a good idea, we didn't do that for the dimmer switches as the wires were so short before the connector that we wanted to have as much extra length as possible in case we had to remake any connection (which we actually did when we crimped on the wrong one first 😛). Cheers!

[@CoolMusicToMyEars]

Looking like the James Bond Van, more switches for Number plates, Oil on road, & Matchine Guns behind headlights

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Haha yeah, don't worry, still quite a few more switches to add! 😂

[@PresidentBust]

My van arrived today!!! :D The same model as yours :D Im sooooo happy! Wanted to tell you guys :D Thanks for this video also. Was fun as always. The dual switch makes sooo much sense to install and i definitely want it now. I never thought of it before this vid!

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Woohoo! 🎉🥳Now the fun starts! We're happy for you, was very exciting when we picked up our van (and quite nerve-racking too walking inside it thinking... 'how are we going to turn this thing into a home?!' 😛 What's your plan of attack? Good luck with the build and look forward to hearing more as it progresses, make sure to celebrate the wins along the way as it can get a little overwhelming at times. Enjoy!!

[@vancraft_chronicles]

Hi, Great van build series and great to keep going back too for reference as I am currently converting my Transit and just about to start at my 1st fix cable run. Not many videos go into detail so its great to watch your and see your build choices.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cheers, glad the detail is useful and good luck with your build! 🙂

[@vicki9929]

Hello from Wyoming, United States! I’ve enjoyed your videos very much. Will anxiously wait for your next one!

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Hello! Thanks for watching and we're glad you're enjoying our videos over there! 🇺🇸😃

[@geraldgooding7430]

When you yiu joined tge wires up abd poped them up into roof i new you had forgotten to insult them, loojing forward to more excellent video,

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thanks 😊

[@johnray1075]

New to your channel just watched last 5 videos your doing an amazing conversion,I'm sure it Will be amazing when finished with you attention to detail. Mind you you baffled me with the electrics looking forward to your future videos, .👍👍

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cool, and thanks for the kind words, we hope so! 🙂

[@rod8073]

Found you guys a week ago and am binge watching your series. You are a joy to watch! Lots of great info and ideas.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cheers! Glad you're enjoying them all 🙂

[@russ_vee_jr4199]

I would've put one male and one female on each pair of wires to provide a 'no- brain' polarizing connection. Also, a female connector on the van's hot wire, which you already did. I've watched several of your videos and have gleaned lots of good info from you two. I love your work......

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cheers! And yeah interesting, you mean having each pair with a male and female, and then the inverse on the other side so it's not possible to connect them the wrong way? Yeah that would be helpful especially for things that use two same colour wires and not standard red and black 👍

[@ssteele1812]

this is fantastic. I have 5 fixtures in my camper that are all on the same switch that is by the door. I've been wanting to add a three way switch system on them. now I want to split the fixtures up too. thank you for an excelent demonstration of how you accomplished the task. I almost wish you had to rout wires thru the ceiling so I could copy that too.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

No problem and thanks a lot, glad you found it useful! Definitely took a bit of pondering to figure out how we wanted to do the lights but we're really happy with how it turned out in the end. The wires in the ceiling are just simple duplex ones going to each LED, we did film that part too, it's in our ceiling video if that helps (kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5TVepqfd9WahKc) . Good luck with yours 🙂

[@dalison1]

Another fantastic video again. Well done

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cheers, glad you're enjoying them 🙂

[@rustythecat2163]

Congratulations on wiring job very well done. Lighting system is really well thought out. I especially turning in on the kitchen light without getting out of bed.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thanks! Yeah it's been really handy already, we use both sets of switches quite a lot while we're working in the evening 🙂

[@tomfranzmeier1480]

Well you two, I have really enjoyed all of the trials, tribulations and successes that you have endured throughout your series. A great job for doing such fine and meticulous work! I cannot wait for your next installments! Thanks to your trouble-shooting and perseverance on how to remedy your challenges one at a time, I am now more motivated than ever to begin my project - my 1942 Dodge WC-54 Powerwagon Ambulance! Oh boy, can't wait to see what's behind those walls! Thanks again for such a great and enlightening series and safe travels to you with your beautiful van build!

[@SelfBuiltStories]

So we just googled your Powerwagon Ambulance and it looks awesome! Can imagine there being some interesting challenges but it'll be great when it's done. Good luck! We're so glad you've been enjoying our videos and thanks for all the kind words. 😊

[@intensewalkera]

Love your channel as a resource for ideas , the dimmers have the 4 very small gauge wires that you are using, then connecting on to your regular lighting run circa 2.5mm gauge, any concerns about these being a weak point in carrying the loads. I am using your concept , but when stripping the wire back on the dimmers, they just look undersized. I accept that it is a short wire run and relatively low current being ran. 14:45

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cheers 🙂 And yeah the dimmer wires are thin but we're not worried about it for such a short run and low current. From what we've measured each of our LEDs draws ~0.25A, so each set of 4 combined going through a dimmer is ~1A at full brightness . Not sure exactly the mm2 guage of the wire it's using, but if its ~0.5mm stranded copper then it should have a max amp rating of around 11a. Possibly it's a bit thinner than that (the listing says it's rated to 6A), but still multiple times higher that what we're putting through it, and we have each light set on a 3A fuse. And for such a short length, we're not concerned with voltage drop either. If you were paralleling a lot more lights then possibly it could start to be something to think about, but we've had them in for coming up to two years now with no issues 👍

[@graham_ozzy]

Great video guys well done 👍

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thanks 🙂👍

[@chrisb2273]

came accross your videos, watched most and i have to say you both seem to work well, everytime you talk about one thing you explain the materials, sizes et,c i love the reasons you give for each item you usedo you have a list of items ie materials products tooling etc would be a fantastic help cheers chris

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thanks a lot, glad you're finding them useful 🙂 We don't have a big list of materials and tools for the whole build yet, but we've been putting the ones relevant to each video in the video descriptions. Hope that helps!

[@stevemcgowan3017]

Thanks informative video. Handy for 2 way switch while in bed in our t4 saves stretching down bed towards kitchen well by our feet😂

[@SelfBuiltStories]

You're welcome! And yeah really handy! You wouldn't think they'd be that useful in such a small space but they really are 😛

[@robindieckmann123]

Nice Van, nice Team, great job.... Super nice video's...

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thanks very much!

[@marc3793]

Your channel is great. In part because it's just normal people learning new skills and enjoying it along the way. No fancy editing and overlays but focussed on the key bits of having a good picture and being able to hear you clearly. More time do actually work on the build too! Look forward to watching the rest of your videos 🙂

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thank you for the kind words! We're happy that people are enjoying them as it makes it worth the effort to film it all 🙂

[@fishfishing1309]

Very happy 👍

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thanks 🙂

[@filipcoxner7707]

Hey guys. You are awesome and we have decided to follow along with your style of building. Looking forward to the next video. Cheers 😄

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cool, and thank you! Hope it goes well for you 😊

[@megazw7740]

Really helpful. Thanks

[@SelfBuiltStories]

You're welcome!

[@CoolMusicToMyEars]

You need dropdown cinema screen Projector Blueray 7.1 Amplifier 😉👍you have the mood lighting

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Haha yeah, well we are planning on putting in a small projector 😛 Haven't thought much about the audio side of it though... 😀

[@PtangPtangBiscuitBarrelSmith]

Your doing a great job, its great to watch you learning new skills without the drama / fires / explosions lol.. I have to admit as a sparky I was shouting at the screen when I saw you hadn't insulated your connections, I think I'm turning into Victor Meldrew . . ;-/ When you get round to putting your Diesel heater in take a look at bobilvans Hot water adapter kit. Or take a look at David Mcluckie YT channel He is the man when it comes to diesel heaters.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Haha funny you mention that, we actually have a few tabs open from David Mcluckie right now! And yeah spot on again, we're going to be using the bobil kits with our diesel heater. We're pretty much finalised on our heating and water setup now on paper, just need to actually finish getting all the bits and build it! And yeah not sure how we forgot to put the tape on the first time round, probably because we were focussing so much on the switch setup. If we were doing it again we'd probably just use the wago's everywhere for simplicity 🙂

[@PtangPtangBiscuitBarrelSmith]

@@SelfBuiltStories You have Way too much spare income throwing it about on Wago's. i'd have used block connectors.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

We picked them up for £15 for a box of 50 for the whole van which didn't seem too bad, so we have lots spare 🤷‍♂️

[@Fattrucker]

@@SelfBuiltStories It may or may not be useful to yourselves at this point in the proceedings . Maybe it could be useful to others considering a build ? As mentioned above David McLuckie is an excellent diesel heater channel ( kzbin.infovideos ) But I find John Mck 47 to be a brilliant troubleshooting resource for the off brand diesel heaters also ( kzbin.infovideos ) As for you two . Very nice , well shot and interesting videos . Subscribed . Thank You Fattrucker

[@Fattrucker]

@@SelfBuiltStories Do you have a link for these still please , or was it a one off deal ? Thanks Fattrucker

[@TRS-Tech]

I felt I had to comment on this and the two previous episodes on the electrical work you both completed on your van build. I must say it's rare to see such a well planned and executed install. It was great to see such a well installed system with quality terminations, correctly gauged wiring and properly torqued connections. The system will give you years of trouble free operation and you should be very proud of the quality of your install. It is certainly a change from the many dangerous installs I have had to rectify. Just one bit of constructive criticism.... Double check that the panels have a good sound connection to the ground chassis of the van. The van body is essentially your safety connection so all your ground terminations need to have a decent ground termination. If for example one of the positive wires made a connection to the chassis of the solar panel and you came in contact with the panel you could receive a very nasty shock especially if it was wet. I assume you will be installing an RCD for your mains wiring with your grounding to the chassis. This will protect you from the mains side of your system but not the DC side. If you do not have a good ground to the panels you can buy grounding plates that have sharp points on both sides. They will dig into and pierce through the oxidation on the body of the panel and give a good ground to the solar rails. You may need to run a third wire with piercing washers to the solar rails and terminate the other end to your grounding stud. You may well be aware of all of the above as you have clearly done your homework but I felt I should mention it just in case. Don't forget your carbon monoxide detector low down the wall just above the floor and your smoke alarm above the bed. I wish both of you a fantastic adventure and as long as you keep your safety In mind I am sure nothing will spoil your travels. A beautiful install and build you should both be very proud of 👍 Warmest Regards Stuart

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Hi Stuart, thanks so much for your kind words, and it's reassuring to hear your thoughts on our setup . We did spend a lot of time researching and planning everything so it was great when it all came together and we're really happy with how it turned out, and as you say, we're hoping it will last a long time 🙂 We'll make sure to check the solar ground again, and yes we will be installing an RCD and mini consumer unit for the AC side. And we have a combined CO and smoke alarm and a fire extinguisher. Definitely our priority is to make sure our setup is safe as well as being practical to power everything we need. All the best and thanks again for taking the time to comment 😊

[@michaelgentry8619]

How are you guys getting on with these lights? Do you think 8 was enough or too many? Do you have to dim them for regular use? Just planning my own build and you videos are really helpful. Thanks

[@SelfBuiltStories]

We love the setup! 8 works great for us and having two separate zones has been really nice. We dim them if we're watching a movie or maybe if one of us gets up before the other, but most of the time we keep them at full brightness 👍

[@csteutterman]

Great video! I'm looking forward to watching the rest of your videos as well. I came across this one as I was researching how to set up the lights in our van almost the same way that you two did and I think I finally found the answer I've been looking for. One question for you - can you use the dimmer switch to turn off the lights entirely or does it just control the dimming? Not that you would need to do that since the actual on/off switch is right there two, I'm just curious. Thanks!

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cheers, glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out if the setup we were imaging with all the dimmers would work and it was very satisfying having it all working. That's a really good question, and the answer is yes you can turn it off with the dimmers as well. You just touch once instead of touch and hold and the lights turn off. If you touch it again they come back on at the same brightness they were before. In practice though we won't use the on/off on the dimmer as the one quirk is that if you turned them off with the dimmer, then the rocker switches wouldn't turn it back on again until you had remembered to turn them on via the dimmer again. What we did is put the dimmers *after* the rocker switches in the circuit, because the dimmer has an LED light ring around it. So we did that for two reasons, one so it gives a visual indication when the lights are on, and if we ever try the switches and they're not working we can see visually if the dimmer has been accidentally pressed. And the other is the inverse, when the switches are off (e.g. at night) we didn't want the blue glow to be visible, so we cut power to the whole dimmer switch when the lights are off. Hope that all makes sense!

[@RichardStrong86]

You can use in-line wago connectors to connect two wires together. It's far simpler.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Hmm yeah those look cool if a little pricey. If we were doing it again we would probably use the 3 way wagos for the ceiling lights too as we already have those and there's enough spare

[@abeandmel]

Hey thanks for the video! We are new subscribers! We are working on building out a transit as well

[@SelfBuiltStories]

No problem! Good luck with your build, hope it's going well. What model do you have? 🙂

[@abeandmel]

@@SelfBuiltStories the high roof extended

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cool, same as us then, good van choice! 😀👍

[@ianmead2473]

❤

[@SelfBuiltStories]

🙂🙏🏻

[@steppe21]

Hi, sorry for my broken english. Amazing chanel, love your skils and solutions. I'm wondering about the kabel diamention for your LED ceilinglight, in my opinion 1,5²mm is big enough for that. What do you think? Best reagards from Berlin, Germany Steppe

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Hey Steppe, thank you! And yeah 1.5mm^2 would have been fine for the lights in our case, and our wiring there is definitely over specced for what it needs to be. We did that because we bought a big spool of 3mm^2 cable for all the low current DC accessories so we figured it was easier just to buy one size that would suit all them. We would have bought 2.5mm^2 but the company we bought from doesn't sell that size. HTH!

[@DazSheepy]

Did you guys remove the standard cargo lights connected to the doors in the back at all?

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Hey, yeah we took out all the cargo lights as we wanted to put our own spotlights in, but they were useful up to that point as it was the only light we had in the van for working into the evening 😄

[@lucasn2535]

Hi! How did you calculate the wire size for this circuit? What did you end up going with, and what was the total length of wiring? Thanks!

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Hey 👋 We used 3mm2 duplex, which was a bit overkill for the lights but we decided on using that for most of the low power 12V accessories as we could buy a big spool of it and not have loads of different wire sizes. Later on in the build we bought it non-duplex as well as it can be a bit cumbersome to route the duplex one with the extra sheathing. We put the wiring in for the lights in our prewiring video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoXdknSebNShasUsi=RIGJTYDEycyVB78A&t=447 . And talk a lot more about how we picked all the wire sizes in the van in that one too based on wire run distance and voltage drop. Not sure exactly how much wire we used specifically for the lights, but it was probably ~20m or so as we used up most of a 30m spool with just the maxxfan and the lights, and to get to the fan is probably about 8-9m round trip. Crazy how quick it adds up! Good luck 👍

[@TicketyBoo.]

You've probably figured it out by now but the bedroom dimmer switch looks like you have the power in and power out pair the wrong way round. I did the same :-)

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Cheers, yeah they're both working well now :)

[@joedeath332]

love your dimmer switches , are they still working good , did you get the second one working or did it need replaced ? lastly do you have a link for the dimmer switches :) keep up the great work guys

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Hiya, yeah they're working great we love them and use them quite a bit! The link should be in the video description, and yes we have had both working for a while now. 🙂 For the second one we contacted the manufacturer and they sent us a replacement which was fine 👍

[@joedeath332]

@@SelfBuiltStories Super jobs guys , thank you , nice you put the items used in the descriptions :)

[@SelfBuiltStories]

@@joedeath332 You're welcome :)

[@greatcesarsghost]

So it’s good to do-your wiring and your solar wiring even if u don’t connect your solar before you do your ceiling and walls ? Trying to find a step by step guide but everyone want charge you 😐 ..

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Yeah that was a confusing one for us at the beginning figuring out when to lay the wires. There is no set order you have to follow though and different pros and cons. We decided to do a lot of the wiring early on behind the walls to tuck it all out of sight, but you could equally leave the wiring till later and do it in front of the walls. Some people like to do that and make a feature of the wiring, putting it through copper pipes or something like that as a show piece. One advantage of doing it later on is it might be more accessible to get to if there is an issue that needs fixing later on. For us we decided we wanted to hide most of it but left some places where we can access behind the wall if we need to. We've also since added some more possible wire runs for future expansion that are in front of the walls but still hidden inside furniture, through the bench seats etc. It's good to think about the things you want to power in the van and where they will go in relation to the rest of the build/furniture etc and it starts to fall into place.

[@greatcesarsghost]

So are puck light the only dimmable .. those small 6” LED strips are not dimmable ? .. I see people putting up to twelve puck lights that’s a lot of holes to drill where the strip lights you only drill 6 - 1/4 holes to run wire then u screw them on won’t 6 LED lights strips light the whole van ?

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Nope you can have dimming LED light strips too, the touch dimmer that we bought is actually designed to be used for those. It's just personal preference what you go with really, we prefer the look of the puck lights to having the light strips. The holes only go through the cladding in ours and with a hole saw it's quick to cut them out, the longest bit was just figuring out where we'd want them 😛 We might add some LED light strips too in places like the garage or maybe around the step area though, haven't decided yet. But sure you could easily light the whole van with some strips if you wanted, and have seen quite a few vans like that 👍

[@davidlstevens]

are these puck lights wired in parallel or series?

[@SelfBuiltStories]

They're wired in parallel 👍

[@flyonthewall7026]

Every person from these electric vids including me at some point FORGOT the Shrink on the connectors I garentee it 😅 👍

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Yep! We're using a lot of insulated connectors instead for other bits 😛

[@RoaminRob]

So I caught up! Is this where your upto in real life now? 🤣 If yes when do u plan to leave...

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Haha, well the videos are a bit delayed as it takes a while to get round to editing them all :) But having said that they're not too far behind now! We're hoping to have it pretty much ready around June, lots to do yet!

[@RoaminRob]

@@SelfBuiltStories haha so many people just crack on then become youtubers when they finally start traveling 😊 hoping to be one of them 😁 anyway good luck for now. I just shared some instalove too sorry 😊

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Thanks! And for the instalove too 😛

[@RonanBrowneMusic]

This might be a good place to ask (I’m sure someone else has on another video) what’s going to happen with your cats? Will they travel with you?

[@pinkbsl7972]

Me again! I am really liking your lighting circuits and think they would suit me quite well. I have also been watching videos from another popular UK gentleman converting a van and he shows us that he is going to use spotlights that can switch on and off by touching the metal rim of the spotlight. This is a 30 second video that demonstrates one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4KyqZSknLOnb7c I thought this seemed really nifty and would be great from saving electricity as you could for instance, turn on only one or two if needed and set more scenes in the van. But what I am wondering is, supposing I used your circuit that you demonstrated and I used touch lights such as that described, would it work? Would it 'muck up / confuse' the electrics? Do you see what I mean? Supposing you had just the one light in the kitchen you had tapped on, then you want all the kitchen lights to be on immediately as it’s an emergency. You push the switch… would the remaining 3 simply come on? Or would that first singular light not have been able to come on in the first place from your touch because the switch wouldn’t have allowed it to?... You might not know the answer but you seem more clued up that me so if you don't know, no worries, if you think you might know then great! 🙂

[@SelfBuiltStories]

Yes you could wire up touch LEDs in the same 2-way circuit that we have, but it might get a bit annoying. If the two-way switches were off then you wouldn't be able to touch them to turn them on (as they'd have no power). And if they were on and you touched one to turn it off, then using the 2-way switch afterwards wouldn't turn it back on, unless they were designed so that with no power they revert back to a default 'on' state. In your example if you touched one on in the kitchen then flicked the switch, you'd just cut power to the whole circuit and all of them would be off. Essentially you'd be able to get into states where flicking a switch might not cause a light to come on. We like the two-way switches as we want to be able to turn on the lights from far away, so we can turn off the kitchen lights when we're lying in bed etc. Whereas for touch lights it's the opposite where you need to be right next to the light to control it, so slightly opposing goals really. You could definitely do it, but it might get a bit confusing. To save power we have the dimmers instead, so we don't turn off a single light but we can with one press dim all 4 in a zone, and if you dial them right down they use hardly any power at all. Funnily enough we have the same sort of quirk with the dimmer which is that you can also turn off the whole set if you just tap the dimmer, and then we'd get into the state above where you can't turn the lights on with the switches anymore until you turn them back on at the dimmer. For that reason we only ever use the dimmer to actually dim the lights, and we always turn them on/off with the 2-way switches. HTH 👍

[@pinkbsl7972]

@@SelfBuiltStories Gosh, it does get a bit confusing as I'd suspected. You've written a really full and thoughtful answer - thank you very much. I was looking at these touch sensor lights on websites and even came across ones where holing down your finger on the rim of the light increased / decreased it's dimness also; in reading their reviews it seems other people have put them in a circuit with switches and say that the lights have a 'memory' and at least in terms of dimness, retain the memory of that. I think I was expecting that I'd have to do 'double clicks' sometimes, as in flick the switch to turn the one off and flick again to then get them all on. It's good that you've let me know abut the situation with the dimmer and switches; ensuring you use them separately as I can see the difficulty you mean. Maybe I am being a bit over the top with concerns about electricity as lights don't use too much electricity after all. Hmm... I'll have to think about things a bit more and look at my design again and I'm sure the obvious answer will come to me. I might still do this idea, but I'll trial it first and see what I think! If I try it I'll update you! Thanks again! 🙂😇

[@SelfBuiltStories]

No problem, yeah our dimmer switches have a memory too. If we dim them and then turn them off and on again they'll be at the same dimness. We do that a lot but we don't turn them off with the dimmer, as then both the switches and the dimmer are competing for which puts them into the on or off state. Our dimmers remember they're off as well, so if you turn it off with a dimmer, then flick the main switch off and on again, it'll still be off as the dimmer is still off. Your double click scenario would only work if the lights _didn't_ have a memory, as otherwise the first flick would turn the single one off, and the second flick would just turn the single one back on again at the same state. You'd have to have some that when they have no power they just reset to being completely on and full brightness, then it would work like you say. If you always used the lights just to dim but not to turn them off it would essentially be the exact same setup we have, just dimming at each light instead of a master dimmer for a set. That works pretty well. It's when you start having two different ways to control whether they're on or off that it gets a bit confusing! 😛

[@pinkbsl7972]

@@SelfBuiltStories Oh yes, of course, your point in your second paragraph is true of course, that would be an issue and wouldn't really help me out with my thought of needing to get them all on in an emergency, would it. The single one on would be the only one that comes on again! Very good point. And thus, double clicking the switch not gonna work. Online, I find that the spotlights with touch dimmer function aren't informative enough to tell me if they retain 'memory' or not as you say, as this, now that you have pointed out would be better if they have memory. And I think I've only found ones Bummer. I think I would then ideally need ones that reset then. Which I don't think I'll find to be honest. The term 'master dimmer switch' is very useful by the way. Helps me out with my clunky explanations. Thanks once again, you've helped to clarify it in my mind better. If, which I'm dubious I will, find some lights that don't retain memory and can do this magicery that I wish I'll let you know. Thanks so much, don't have to reply as I'm sure yo're fed up of me! Thankyou, PinkBsl

[@SelfBuiltStories]

@@pinkbsl7972 haha no problem, good luck with it!

[@matthewmann7713]

Next time your doing electrical bro, push some heatshrink onto the wires, do your connections and then pull the heatshrink over the spade connectors and heat it up. It insulates but also stops them working loose over time and it looks nice and neat.

[@SelfBuiltStories]

We've done that with other connections but we've used spade connectors where we want to be able to disconnect them again easily so wouldn't want to heatshrink over them. We used heatshrink terminals instead so they're nicely insulated but still removable 👍