LED lights in my boat?????

cmr287 · December 15, 2013, 07:58:36 AM

Good morning.. I finally got my boat up and running after some "JERKS" vandalized it while I was stationed in Korea.. It is almost the way I want it... I'm looking for ideas on how to light up the bow and back of my boat with little light as possible and not have to use a head lamp. I was thinking about LED light strips because they will have very little draw on power. I just don't know if they will light up the working areas (deck where the seat are) I'm looking for thoughts and ideas of inexpensive ways of doing this or something like it. I like whats in the pic.

Thoughts?

?

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fishinfranklin · December 15, 2013, 08:07:11 AM

Maybe Bigwrench will see this and chime in, he done his decks and lockers, you may want to post this in the boat ramp section. Sorry to hear some useless punk vandalized your boat while away protecting our freedom. And THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

cmr287 · December 15, 2013, 10:58:43 AM

Thank you, I love doing what I do and wouldn't have it any other way...

Craig314 · December 15, 2013, 11:02:48 AM

Thanks for your service and yes LED work great on boats. I installed Blue Water LED's in my lockers, deck and running lights in the front. I used white lights in my lockers and used red lights on the deck hooked to a dimmer switch. I used the red as it saves your night vision. The Nav lights on the front are sweet and light up way better than the stock light does. I also moved the rear light to the top of my motor so all i have to do is hit the light switch to turn on the Nav lights. You can go to the Ranger board and see the set up i am running and I believe Bigwrench has his set on there too.
There are several companies that sell LED's but i like http://www.bluewaterled.com/index.php as they are a faith based company and support our troops. Check them out as they have a ton of photos on their site you can look at. Be sure to post a photo of your boat when you get it done.

Craig

scbassfanatic · December 16, 2013, 09:17:21 AM

I have been thinking of piecing together LED strips in sort of a "build my own" deck lighting. I have looked at the LED strips they sell at walmart in the automotive section. But after calculating how many packs I would have to buy, Bluewater LED was cheaper. Then I searched LEDs on Ebay and was surprised to find how much I could save. I have a buddy that bought some for his motorcycle and had a few spare strips. I plan to wire those up to see how they work and see if they would be bright enough. I am somewhat mechanically and electronically inclined and I think all I would have to do is run a positive and negative wire to the locations and run them through toggle switches. I would not have a dimmer but I believe it will work. One of these days I will get around to it. LOL.

oldjim · December 16, 2013, 10:37:47 AM

Its been a while, but, I wrote a (how to article) on LEDS. Have bow strip double density nav lights on front strips on steps and strips on deck. I made a stern mounted nav light that sits on my moter. All have worked out well, made strips for TCTC members at cost I think it was $4-6 for bow strips. If you look around you can find domestic distributors of led strips for $18 for 5 meters 16.5 ft. As far as I can find all the led strips are made in the far east, could not find any us companies that actually made there own leds, all use leds from abroad.
Fyi Light Emitting Diodes by definition, are polarity senstative, and come in many voltages and colors with 30 to 600 diodes per meter and in several diode sizes, and widths. PWM is available for controling brightness of diodes,$6-10, pots will work in a limited fashion, but PWM gives a much wider brightness control.
Oldjim

Team_Reeder20 · December 16, 2013, 11:55:14 AM

I used the strips from walmart and autozone. I haven't finished yet but they work great!

Bigwrench · December 16, 2013, 12:05:33 PM

Yeah there's some fantastic posts on the site for LED installs ! There's a bunch of them ! My actual LED install post is in dock talk June 2012 ish. But didn't have very many pictures in it. I used Bluewater as well and bought 2 different kits . Jim did his and Craig did also both looked fantastic.
I probably need to move mine to the boat board or Ranger Board lol. I think I have a few pictures of them in other threads too

. I used the site search function and found a ton of them. I'm still not done with mine completely , I need to add a PWM dimmer switch , trailer lights , rub rail black lights and rub rail nav lights . I'm getting ready to start tearing it all apart again for a bunch of new stuff. Stay tuned to the Ranger Boards for a post

If you need any specifics just holler at me I'd be glad to try and help. Been sick for awhile now and still not 100%.

scbassfanatic · December 16, 2013, 03:01:39 PM

what is a PWM? will it work with any LED lights?

Bigwrench · December 16, 2013, 03:11:45 PM

Quote from: scbassfanatic on December 16, 2013, 03:01:39 PM
what is a PWM? will it work with any LED lights?

PWM stands for pulse width modulated , it is basically a on off switch that pulses very fast usually measured in HZ or cycles per second or a % duty cycle reading Whereas 100% duty cycle is on all the time. Jim could probably correct any Mistakes I made but I think that's it

scbassfanatic · December 16, 2013, 03:14:53 PM

thanks. so if I wing it that is what I need to look for in a dimmer switch then?

Bigwrench · December 16, 2013, 03:23:17 PM

That's what Jim suggested I get for mine over a standard Potentiometer "Pot" . Probably more durable for what we need