LED lighting suggestions

[jhance]

Any recommendations for kits for marine grade LED light strip courtesy and deck lighting? Interior and exterior, need LED controller to control colors, IP68 waterproof, low profile, fused, switched, etc.

Suggestions/recommendations?

Jamey

 

[stevemitchell]

I updated a lot of my lighting to LED last year and documented what I used here. I used standard commercial LED strips and lights, mostly from SuperBrightLEDs. I did the same on my sailboat a few years ago and they are still going strong.

Marine grade strips for internal stuff didn't make sense to me, and cost a lot more, if you could even find what you needed.

For outdoors, I have used the outdoor version from SuperBrightLEDs for several projects, and so far they are working extremely well, at least for strip lights.

For spotlights and other things, I use marine-grade stuff for outdoors, as the knock off brands or cheaper stuff I've tried has failed or looked like a fire waiting to happen.

 

[caltexflanc]

Highly recommend these folks. Give them a call and discuss your needs lighting-wise.

https://store.marinebeam.com/remote-control-led-dimmer-or-rgb-controller-dm-rf-12a/

 

[Flatswing]

Standard commercial LEDs probably fine for stationary use but personally I only use Marine beam LED replacements for any lights used while running because of the small but potentially serious risk of interference with VHF & AIS that some of the cheap versions may cause.

 

[rsn48]

I installed several of the type of light linked below (note: Canadian price). They come in various sizes and shades of white and blue and dimmable.

https://www.stevestonmarine.com/boa...x180-frosted-cabin-dome-light-cool-white-blue

 

[Beaverlake]

A second vote for Superbright. Good website with very complete specs plus knowledgeable staff if you need to talk to someone. A rarity. That said, if you are simply looking for interior light halogen replacement bulbs Amazon is a good source. Warm white.... I haven’t had any radio interference from any of my interior bulb replacements.

 

[ranger58sb]

Most of our LEDs have come from marinebeam.com and a few (mostly the engine room strip) from superbrightleds.com. Both very good sources.

Saw some signs of too much heat on some of our previous LEDs, from when before marinebeam existed; none of that with the newer products. And the current products seem to deal with voltage fluctuations better.

-Chris

 

[ssobol]

I used 12 VDC LED sign modules. They're waterproof, and come in many colors including RGB (need a controller for those).

I cut them apart and extend the wires as needed. They can be glued, screwed, or held in place with double sided tape. The modules come in various configurations usually squares or strips. The ones I used are about 3/4" wide, 3" long and about 5/8" high.

The modules work out to about $1 ea.

Have some on the exterior of my boat for courtesy lighting for over 6 years. Still work fine.

An example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-200FT-3...694889&hash=item41ec306145:g:6xcAAOSwMapbWc0O

 

[tugabago]

Coast guard put out a warning about switching to led’s. The article said that some leds will interfere with vhf radios and ais.

 

[rslifkin]

Coast guard put out a warning about switching to led’s. The article said that some leds will interfere with vhf radios and ais.

That's mostly for cheap, low quality LEDs. For the most part, decent ones don't have that issue. Of course, it doesn't hurt to test with any lights you install.

 

[ssobol]

That's mostly for cheap, low quality LEDs. For the most part, decent ones don't have that issue. Of course, it doesn't hurt to test with any lights you install.

It's actually the drivers for the LEDs bulb "assemblies" that can cause the problems. If you just use a resistor for current limiting and a plain old LED you won't have a problem.

 

[rslifkin]

Good quality driver circuits shouldn't throw off enough noise to be a concern either. But a poorly designed driver circuit definitely can.

 

[Woodland Hills]

Call Norman Lamps: they have everything.