Rope lighting problem solved

[John Fitzgerald]

I had posted a few months ago asking for any advice on troubleshooting my rope lighting, because none of it was working.   I took apart the rear cabinet where the electrical distribution panels are yesterday.  It took about an hour and a half to gently pry the silicone that at least two techs applied to all the joints in the wood surrounding the two electrical panels.  I took the panel off between that bay and the adjacent cabinet to see what was behind the electrical section facia, of course destroying the luan panel that been stapled in from the other side.  Once I had the whole thing apart it was apparent that the last 'spare' 12 volt breaker, which was off, actually fed the rope lighting.  It all still works other than the bedroom, which I have mostly apart, and had disconnected the window lighting to repair water damage.  It was a trip back to '90s elegance for the wife and I.  My Garnet has no other ceiling lighting in the bedroom other than the rope light around the ceiling mirror.  I am not going to try to make a schematic, there are at least 5 or 6 relays scattered around the coach.  Of course the two three gang switches for control are not marked with anything other that on / off and one of the switches in the rear panel is not functional, but at least it matches the front switch assembly. 

[Keith Moffett]

There are sure to be a group of people this will help.  Very informative.
Thanks

[John Fitzgerald]

A little more, now that I can see what is going on.  Most of the control is from the front switches, you kind of get high, middle and low lighting with those three switches.  One of the rear switches turns everything off, assuming that when you are in bed, you want to turn off all of the lighting in the front of the coach.  The other switch controls the bedroom window valance and the lighted overhead mirror (the wife kind of freaked out when I drove the coach home last year and she saw the ceiling mirrors).  The underbed lighting is controlled from the front.  I assume this was an option, probably cost a lot, amazing how many lights, wires, switches, relays are part of the system.  And also any of these systems would be customized to fit to the floorplan you got.  I have had the coach for 9 months and just got around to diving in to figure this out.