I Yam what I Yam

Here’s how it is being me, working on a project.  Back in the late spring I decided I liked my LED mood lights in the back of the van so much I wanted to buy another set to put into the “kitchen” of the van.  Something to make teeth brushing a little less harsh than turning on the three super bright puck lights.  So I bought a string of the lights on Amazon Prime.  Originally I was thinking I would wire them all together with what I have to make one long string. 

But then I got thinking, it would be nice to control them independently.  Being able to turn those lights off would be nice.  —I keep it pretty dim in here at night.  Plus the power savings, only running the lights I needed to.  It just seemed like a good idea.   Additionally, I found out how much I liked the touch panel control I bought for the first set (…and finally got installed.)  It is a really intuitive color picking touch panel.  It even remembers what color you had the lights set to the night before and that’s how it comes on.  It has a couple of quick present buttons for the rare times when I want to choose something other than dark red. I can’t say enough good things about it.  (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N0W1HJP)

Loving this one so much, I decided I wanted another control panel exactly like it to run the front lights.  So another delay while one is ordered.   I now had the two pieces in my hands and I was thinking some of getting it wired in.  That was the point that I noticed another problem. The first set I bought from Johnny Menards included a crappy IR remote control.  I threw that away.  So, didn’t care at all about the new set I bought not having one.  I was just going to throw it out anyway.   Ah, but wait.  True, I did throw away most of the crappy IR remote but I had kept the little wire with the five pin adapter on it.  I had no way to attach wires from the controller to the LEDs.  Nothing is ever simple here right? 

Officially these are called LEDENET 5 pins
10mm LED RGBW Strip Light Quick Connectors.  I call
them "grippy things"

I did more looking on Amazon.  I found the little five pin/wire adapters.  I also found they sell color coded five conductor ribbon cable.  Specially colored for these LED light setups.  Well gosh, that could be kind of handy.   Then I also found little grippy-ends.  These will allow me to cut the LED light string, attach a grippy-end wired to some ribbon cable and after some distance reverse this.  Going from wire to grippy to LEDs.  Excellent!

Here is where I will use that.  I will run some of the five conductor ribbon cable over to the other side of the van.  I will put the balance of the LEDs from the kitchen, over underneath the table. So I will get some pretty accent color under the table to match the kitchen lighting.   Very cool.  I could totally see how if I had a bigger space…. Say like a school bus or something… I could get totally carried away with accent lights and cute little features.

I went ahead and installed the control panel before it could fall into the vortex.   You see because…

A week later (theoretically) I had everything I needed.  See here is the thing though.  We are now up to four elements.  The lights.  The five connector ribbon cable.  The grippy-deals. The LEDs.   They have all arrived over the span of a couple of months. Really, there is a fifth thing as well.  Electricity.  I am going to have to solder these wire ends together and I can’t do that from my batteries.  Doing so would use all my juice.  I am going to have to be someplace where I can plug in.  But anyway, at no point since …I am guessing… ~June when the final bits arrived, have all five of these been within my reach at one time.

I realize who and what is to blame here.  I own it.  I know.  I was so close, two weeks ago.  The LEDs had been sitting at my house, just above my sock drawer.  They fell out of a box several months ago and that is where they have resided since.  But this weekend when I saw them I tossed ‘em into the van.   I had to buy 25 of the little grippy pieces even though I only need two.  They were poorly packaged in a damaged tyvek envelope when they arrived back in June.  Riding around in a holey envelope for six months.  Shuffled between my various boxes of van construction stuff has led to them being sort of strewn across several of them as a few would leak out.  I know the two I found on the floor cab are now poking up out of the drink cup holders of the console.  Then there is the five pin adapters.  I only need one of those and had to buy a ten pack.  They are in a pretty secure white envelop but three or four got taken out over the months to be examined and not put back.   They fell into the vortex.  Two weeks ago there was one showed up on my table.

Sorry for the crappy picture.  It is an Amazon photo, not
mine for the reasons explained within.

It was that five pin adapter that made me think of this whole project.   I was sitting at my table, having just taken some home cooked leftovers out of the microwave.   I was parked at the shop but a little unsure of what I should work on.  Seeing that adapter made me think, “hey, I should get those lights wired!”  The lights were on the floor in a grocery bag I had loaded into the van.  I found them right away.  I had my five pin adapter.  The grippy things were everywhere.   All I needed was the wire.  I searched the van.  But when it wasn’t in a couple obvious places I was pretty sure I knew where it was.  At home in my garage where the overflow pile of van project materials sits.  In the wire box.  It wasn’t to be that night.

This past weekend though I remembered to look at home.  Sure enough!  There was the wire.   Now I knew I had it.  Everything I needed to get this project done.

That brings us to tonight.  I have the wire, I have the LEDs, I have the grippy things.  Do you think I could find that five pin adapter that was just on my table?  Or any of the five pin adapters?  Hell no. 

Damn.  Yeah, I own it.