Marine LED's - I'm doing a test...

[ian ashton]

On Sunday I placed an order with www.oznium.com - Being that my boat isn't in the water yet I'm going a little stir crazy and needed a project to keep me from going mental - So I'm going to mess around with a few different set-ups to see if I can concoct a 'budget' transom LED set-up. I figured even if what I ordered doesn't work for underwater I'll have some LEDs to tinker with inside the boat.

So I ordered 1 of these:
http://www.oznium.com/images/highpowerspot25.jpg
High Intensity Spot Light ($17)

1 of these:
http://www.oznium.com/images/highpower_flood120d1.jpg
High Intensity Flood Light ($17)

and 5 of these:
http://www.oznium.com/product_photos/large/2860.jpg
SuperFlux 4-Chip LED ($3 ea)

I have a feeling I'm going to be ordered a bunch more of the SuperFlux, as a lot of people have used them to illuminate cup holders/beverages, and I think that looks cool.


So, I'm going to see how bring each of the High Intensity lights really are - I think it might be cool to run 4 seperate lights under the transom; 2 flood, and 2 spot to get a really good mix of coverage.

I ordered on Sunday and my shipment arrived today, so far I'm very impressed with the product, packaging and prompt shipping. I'll post some actual pics tonight of what I've got, and how they look - perhaps even some 'bathtub' tests! haha.

[ian ashton]

I'm sure these aren't as bright as the Abyss or Bullet Lines LEDs, I'm basically just looking for something to tinker with - I'll probably end up buying Abyss any and using these for something else, unless they completely blow me away with their performance, in which case - SCORE!

[Birdman_08_LSV]

I'm having two Abyss lights placed under my swim deck right now. I'll post pictures when it's all done to give you an idea how they look without any photo shop done to the pictures. Now, the cost is another story! But ... It's not really something I want to get wrong and jack up my boat.

[ian ashton]

As I expected, I don't think the smaller LEDs will be bright enough to mount underwater, but they are definately perfect for the cupholder installation.

Here are some pics of the underwater lights - they are incredibly bright, I think I'll be ordering 4 more to install across the transom.

Flood light in the tub;
https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2315&stc=1&d=1238085834

Spot light in the tub;
https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2316&stc=1&d=1238085834

https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2317&stc=1&d=1238085834

https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2318&stc=1&d=1238085834


Yes, I have goldfish stickers in my bathtub - they were left over from the previous owner, and I never peeled 'em up, lol.

[ian ashton]

Both lights out of the water;
https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2319&stc=1&d=1238085834


I'm going to try to get to the lake this weekend around dusk to see what they look like in the open water.

[ian ashton]

It is really hard to photograph LEDs to show how bright they are.

The spot light is exactly that - I aimed it at a wall ~30 feet away it lit up the entire wall, these things are a lot brighter than I expected.

The flood light has a huge range, basically lights up an entire room.

I'm definately thinking a combination of 3 and 3 of each of these across the back of the boat will look awesome.

[Razzman]

Here's a water shot of the spots, can't say how many are on the boats though but i'd guess 6. Floods would def be better imo.

[ian ashton]

Here's a water shot of the spots, can't say how many are on the boats though but i'd guess 6. Floods would def be better imo.

https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2320&d=1238100791



I think the spots will be better in this application because they project. The beam is so wide on the floods I'm not sure that it would illuminate the water past the platform, but I will soon find out. I really like the look of several beams across the back, and they are so cheap its worth a shot.

[montanamoomba]

I ordered 4 of the spots to use on my tower since the boat did not come with docking lights. Great winter project and will have to wait to see how they work out in a month or two. All the water around here is still frozen......

Ordered some of the smaller single LED's for in the boat. They fit awesome in the hole in the bottom of the cup holders.

[montanamoomba]

Here are a couple of pic's of the install as it sits today.

[ian ashton]

I'd like to preface this with a warning - my boat is very dirty, I need to give it some love! I have it in my garage, which is apparantly pretty dusty/dirty.

I spent some time in the garage and installed these (http://www.oznium.com/marine-led-floodlight) into my cup holders. It was super easy, and they look awesome. I wired them to turn on with the courtesy lights, which is how I have the rest of my LED's wired as well.

This is what they look like in place, not turned on.
https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2331&stc=1&d=1238366682

https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2332&stc=1&d=1238366682

https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2333&stc=1&d=1238366682

https://forum.moomba.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2334&stc=1&d=1238366682

[ian ashton]

Are those the lights you had a picture of you holding on the first page? Those fit really nice in there. Nice job! I'm going to have to order some of those if thats the case.

Staight Pimpin!!

NOPE! These are the 'super flux 4 chip LED's' in the link that I posted. The ones on the first page are much much larger; about 1.5-2" of so diameter, these are more like 1/8-1/4"

Link to these LEDs:
http://www.oznium.com/marine-led-floodlight

[ian ashton]

http://www.oznium.com/product_photos/large/2860.jpg

Is this what you have in your cup holders?


Yes, exactly those. They are incredibly bright inspite of their small size.

[ian ashton]

I think I have 10 cup holders 07 OBv. this may solve the additional interior lighting i was thinking of adding.

Ian did you have to drill a larger Hole?
Did you mount from the bottom with adhesive or pull from the top?

Will the cup holder stiller drain or do you need an additional drain holder form those foamy beverages?:)

great job

I dropped the lights through the top, I didn't have to drill out the hole to make it larger. I put a piece of heat shrink tubing around the wires and zip tied it on the bottom of the cup holder, I did this for 2 reasons: 1-to protect the wires from chaffing on the bare metal of cupholder, 2-to secure the LEDs inplace. I did't glue them, so they have a bit of movement; the thought is that this will allow them to still drain properly, although I didn't 'test' it.

I'll try to snap some 'bottom' side pics of how I did it to give you a better idea.

[Birdman_08_LSV]

I'll post some on the water pictures as soon as I take some.

4362

[Birdman_08_LSV]

These are my Abyss Lites I had put in. The water is really dirty on this lake so they can't be seen really well.

[Birdman_08_LSV]

Newty, these Abyss lites are $220 each. I put two back there. They have other ones that cost a bit more. If you want to see them all just go to Abysslite.com and the prices are on the site. Now the cost of having someone else put them in for you is another thing. Labor cost is where you will have to pay the most. I didn't want to have to use my off time working on my boat. I want to play in it so I had the guys at Earmark Marine in Lewisville, Texas put them in. They did all my LED work ... other then the dash lights. I did those myself.

[Birdman_08_LSV]

Nothing wrong with that. The things that I can do myself I do, but if it's going to take three or more days to do it and I'll need another set of hands ... then I just pay to have it done. I work most of the month and when I'm home I don't want to spend 3 days of my week off working on my boat. Plus, these other guys make a living off of people like me bringing work to them. So if I can help them out by having them do it then I try and help when and how I can. I started a new thread for LED Upgrades. I put the prices for the items and link to find them. Check it out.

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?t=7621

[Birdman_08_LSV]

I'm not sure about that. I'll have a look at mine and see what they did with the ones they added.

[ABC]

Just run 1 wire off the switch all the way around the boat and use one of these for each light. Also do the same for the ground.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104093

[Loonytik]

Just run 1 wire off the switch all the way around the boat and use one of these for each light. Also do the same for the ground.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104093

Ok...the way that connector looks the two wires from the LED go in one side and the wire from the switch goes in the other. Where does the wire go to "jump" to the next LED?

[ABC]

one wire goes all the way through, and one wire goes to the led.. in the pic, the black wire would be coming from the switch and pass through 10 of these connectors (one for each led).. the red wire would run to the LED. you would have 1 set of these for the + and one for the -.

wiring diagram would look something like this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Parallel_circuit.svg

[ian ashton]

Just run 1 wire off the switch all the way around the boat and use one of these for each light. Also do the same for the ground.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104093

I would not use those for marine installation. I cut the wires, re-spliced, and heat shrank all of my connections for fear of moisture entering the wire and oxodizing/corroding the copper in the wire. I'm sure using those won't cause any trouble short-term, but I'd hate to do something now that I (or a future owner) will regret in 10 years.

[Razzman]

Save some time & effort and get a superior connectoin buy using heat activated sealing connectors. Once sealed they are completely waterproof. Motorcycle mfgrs have been using them for years, I use them on anything that might get wet. krimpa-seal/ (http://cableorganizer.com/krimpa-seal/) is just one maker, 3M is another and supplies Harley-Davidson. Genuinedealz (http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Genuinedealz__W0QQ_armrsZ1) on eBay is another good supplier for these.

[Loonytik]

These are grainy/poor cell phone photos(forgot my camera) but should give you some idea of the oznium lights in my cupholders. I think having some water bottles with no labels on them will spread the light out even more.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3581/3519042909_ff9bafb0f9.jpg?v=0

Another...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3385/3519856616_25e0385ffa.jpg?v=0

[ian ashton]

Hey how did those High-Intensity LED flood lights work from oznium.com work under your swim platform? We just started to mess around with LED's on our 07' outback v. If they are that cheap, why not. Im not putting my boat in a show just want to have some accent and maybe a little light for swimming. Let me know.

I never installed them under the swim platform, but I did test them out one evening. The spots project about 5' into pretty merky water, I was pretty impressed by them. They are certainly not as bring as the Abyss or similar transom lights, but they did work fairly well.

[Loonytik]

I never installed them under the swim platform, but I did test them out one evening. The spots project about 5' into pretty merky water, I was pretty impressed by them. They are certainly not as bring as the Abyss or similar transom lights, but they did work fairly well.

Where did you place them to see them project 5 feet into the water? Just over the side of the boat?

Just curious because I am thinking of adding either the spots or the silicone strips to install under my swim platform.

[ian ashton]

Where did you place them to see them project 5 feet into the water? Just over the side of the boat?

Just curious because I am thinking of adding either the spots or the silicone strips to install under my swim platform.

Yea, I just held them over the side, about 6-8" below the surface. I think they might work best if you made a bracket or something to mount them towards the end of the platform, rather than on the transom itself.

[Loonytik]

I was listening to the radio while hooking up the new lights that I purchased from oznium. I noticed when I put power to the lights the radio reception cut out. I wonder if its a result of running the power wire to close to the antenna or if while the flood lights are powered they cause interference.

Just wondering if any one else has the same trouble.

The lights look great by the way.

Do you have a dedicated switch for the lights or are you running them through something else? It could just be power interference and a simple re-routing of your wires should fix it. If its wired to a switch that also has power from the radio this could cause interference.

[gcombe74]

debating the abysslite S600-B lites.. but as I stare at my transom cannot determine where is the best spot fo them... they seem to have a mounting bracket that will allow you to get away from the 1/8 half in bore in the gel coat, thus just allowing you to mount with the 3 screw holes and a small through hole in the transom.

I see a few issues. the bracket mount for the swim platform...
thus shading or blocking light toward the inside. and just how high or low to mount... anyone have any images of how theirs are mounted. as far as I know i have only seen one post of of a pair being done?

Any suggestions would be great.

[jmvotto]

Ian, thanks for the idea. my 3 interior cabin light cost 200 installed. these 10 led in the cup holder cost me a total of 40 bucks plus an hr of my time. just hooked into the existing switch and loop.