Under counter lighting?

ksanders · Oct 20, 2013

Peregrinator said:
I looked into these inexpensive voltage regulators but they do not meet the requirements for a boat. they require the input voltage to be about 3 volts greater then the output which means to provide 12 volts you would need a 15 volt input. Also the ones I looked at would not regulate to a steady output unless the input was a constant voltage. I have considered installing multiple diodes in series with the leds which would drop about .7 volts for each diode if I remember my basic electonics. this would mean that as your boat voltage declined with battery discharge your lights would get dimmer but should help with led life. using diodes rather then resistors makes the system less dependent on current draw since voltage drop across diodes only changes slightly with current change. 3 diodes should work well, plus diodes are really cheap only pennies.

Great post, but 100% unnecessary.

My cheap led bulbs work great!

Oh I understand electronic theory. I'm a 30 plus year industrial electronics tech by trade. Great theory, but again 100% unnecessary in real life.

Edelweiss · Oct 20, 2013

For those not into soldering or modifying lights. Here is another company selling LED replacements for common bulb types. They're not the cheapest, but certainly reasonably priced. Just don't let your wife see this, they have some really neat decorator lighting ideas using LED's. :flowers:

Home Lighting Bulbs

ranger58sb · Oct 20, 2013

ksanders said:
I do not know what you've heard, but I had zero out of the box failures and I've had zero failures all season with close to a hundred bulbs installed.

FWIW, we've had a couple T10 wedge-base courtesy LEDs fail...

And three of the six diodes on two of our red overhead G4 bi-pins on the bridge have gone. (The same three diodes -- by position -- sometimes go out on our third overhead G4, too. Kinda weird.)

-Chris

Peregrinator · Oct 20, 2013

Another manufacturer of retrofit led bulbs is Gold Stars, I have some that are designed to replace the 12 volt bubs, square patch with 24 leds, comes with two different bases for different fixtures. part #83000512. don't know price as they were a gift. I suspect they were purchased off e-bay. Good for 11 to 18 volts.

Datenight · Oct 20, 2013

Have to go with Ksanders here. I used the cheapos from eBay on the old boat and have been changing over on the new one. No problems with failures.

Rob

Edelweiss · Oct 25, 2013

Edelweiss said:
OK.......YOU GUYS . . . . . you hooked me!!
I just ordered a 15' length of LED tape off Ebay. Came to $7 and change with shipping. My engine room lighting, on the 12 volt side sucks. SO has got to be a 150% improvement. I'll be letting you know if it's not!!

I received my Ebay, LED tape order from Shenzhen Guangdong, China. It is as advertised, all the LED's work and the card say: "operate 10 - 16 volts" Delivery time was 8 days, not as bad as I anticipated. lol

ksanders · Oct 25, 2013

Edelweiss said:
I received my Ebay, LED tape order from Shenzhen Guangdong, China. It is as advertised, all the LED's work and the card say: "operate 10 - 16 volts" Delivery time was 8 days, not as bad as I anticipated. lol

Rope lighting for the engine room...

What a GREAT idea!

I replaced my engine rom lights with led bulbs, I think three total. It's still too dim (always was). Rope lights will solve the problem!

CaptTom · Nov 3, 2013

CaptTom said:
FYI about the link I posted from Amazon: I got a very nice reply saying they've been shipped - from China - and will be here in about 12 days.

They came in Friday, Nov 1, just about 2 weeks after I received the e-mail saying they shipped. Amazon's estimated delivery date was Nov 12-29, so the Chinese shipper was closer to being correct.

Moral of the story: check where they're coming from when ordering from Amazon, and if you're in a hurry, stick with a seller closer to home.

Under counter lighting?

ksanders

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Edelweiss

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ranger58sb

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Peregrinator

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Datenight

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Edelweiss

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ksanders

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CaptTom

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