Ok folks... sorry for being a day late on the follow-up. Got the 24-hour bug yesterday, and didn't feel like doing anything. Bleh!
Anyway, woke up this morning feeling fine, so I got to it.
Considerations:
First off was how I wanted to wire it up: 110v AC, or 12v DC. The garage has 2 pre-wired 110v AC receptacles conveniently located on either side of the ramp door opening. If I wanted to use 12v DC, that was going to require finding & tapping into a continuous hot wire from something else already installed. Considering that 99% of the time I'll only have the patio deployed and using these lights when I'm on shore power... why makes things difficult? So I opted for for 110v AC.
Next issue... the LED strip I was using for the trial run was for indoor use only, so I spent part of the day yesterday looking at other options.
You can buy exterior LED ropes at Lowes, Home Depot, and/or the hardware store... but the problem with that is that you only want to use anywhere between 6' - 8'. Most of the ropes they sell are 13' or longer, and they can't be cut to size. And, most of them can't be dimmed... which is something I wanted. (Yes, I saw your suggestions for aftermarket 12v dimmers... but again, I was going to use 110 AC)
I considered buying another 17' LED strip kit from Carefree, like I have underneath my side awning... but $135+ is a tad expensive, knowing full well I was only going to use 8' of it, with no way to wire up and use the remanning 9'.
So I sorta did a compromise...
The photo below shows a product from Sylvania that you can find in stock at any Lowes. On the Sylvania website, it shows it is for indoor use only... however, it looks identical to the type of LED strip that is on my side awning except for the plug-ends that I'll get to in a moment.
Basically, it's a kit that allows you add 2' sections as necessary for your project. The starter kit was $45, and comes with two, 2' sections and the necessary 110v plug, control module, and dimmer control. The expansion kit was another $25, and contains 2 more 2' sections only.
Where & how these expandable 2' sections plug together is why Sylvania doesn't rate these for exterior use. That said, I figure if I just run a few rounds of electrical tape around those joints, then it shouldn't be a problem. Guess I'll find out at some point.
So in addition to a drill, here's what I used for the job:
I began with drilling a ½" hole through the ramp door frame... and then using an 'expansion bit', made it just a tad bigger for the power connector to pass through. Since I had to drill through BOTH sides of the box frame, the hole had to be made a little further inboard than I'd have liked, or else the frame for the pull-down screen would be in the way.
With that done, I plugged the 4 self-adhesive LED strips together... and then peeled the backing paper off and installed them just under the molding piece below the rear awning.
I then taped the exposed wiring to the frame, and placed the controller box on the inside of the box frame using double-sided adhesive tape pads.
The photos below show the LED strip placement... and various lighting conditions on the patio:
Full Bright White:
Dimmed White:
And finally, a blue tint: