LED Lights
I’ve been kicking around the idea of changing all my lights over to the low amp draw LED bulbs.
Being the tight wad I am, I didn’t want to spent $100 or more re-lamping the boat, so I gathered up all the raw material and started building what I needed.
So far I have the bait light, cabin lights and the red/greed running lights done. Next on the list will be the anchor light, stern light and the masthead light on the front of the fly bridge.
I ordered a bag of 100 of 60 degree viewable super bright LEDs form Hong Kong for 35 cents each shipped. Picked up some 1 ½” X 1 ½” PC boards to mount stuff on and a couple bags on ¼ watt 51 ohm resistors to drop the voltage to the operating specs for the LEDs. I used the LEDs in strings of 3 so 51 ohms was the resistance needed. If you use 1 LED across 12 volts, go with a ¼ watt 510 ohm resistor.
These are the LEDs I ordered from Hong Kong.
Cabin lights built on the PC boards
Cabin light lit up.
Light over table, 180 ma draw.
V berth lit up.
Port/strb lights potted and ready to install.
Port light
Port/strb lit up
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