Wakemakers underwater LED's

[bergermaister]

hehe... trade secrets my son, trade secrets.


Ok so I tinker around with LED stuff a lot at home on vehicles, etc. I started with 2 of these guys when they were on sale and the results were pathetic. https://www.oznium.com/marine-led-light
I have a fixed wake plate and wanted to mount everything as low as possible so that's where they ended up.


Next I did a little research on COB LEDs or Chip-On-Board LEDs and found some thin little light sticks that were exactly the size I wanted for the back of that wake plate. Thing is they get very hot when lit so they are typically mounted on a heat sink or something to dissipate the heat. I figured underwater would be plenty of cooling. For the life of me I can't remember what country / website I ordered these from but they only came in blue which was perfect for me. I want to say advertised lumens was 800-100 each.



I simply mounted these with industrial 2-sided tape. Then I soldered all the wiring down and covered with heatshrink to a single pair. Then removed one of the 3 screws that holds in my bilge drain flange. Ran the wires through, topped it off that hole with some Marine 5200 sealant, tied into my existing LED circuit, done.






I wish they came with a black backing but oh well. Pretty minimal impact overall. End result is decent.



Thought I had some other shots lit up in shallow clear water but can't seem to find them.

[trayson]

Yeah, how much power they consume tells a LOT. so about 1.5 watts. Meh. Not impressed.


I got a handful of these that are CREE and 6w each for just over $10 each.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-6W-CREE...item2a5ef7e9c6

I haven't gotten around to installing them, but when I do, of course I'll report back.

I'm thinking about going in a different direction with my LED lights... Anyone interested in buying these? $80 shipped to anywhere in the lower 48 states...

I might still do these... But I figured I'd put a feeler out.

[bergermaister]

Put 6 of those on our RZR. Not bad - can't say how they'd do underwater...

[Seahunt234]

Shadow casters are really good but they are really high in Price..

[trayson]

Yeah, how much power they consume tells a LOT. so about 1.5 watts. Meh. Not impressed.


I got a handful of these that are CREE and 6w each for just over $10 each.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-6W-CREE...item2a5ef7e9c6

I haven't gotten around to installing them, but when I do, of course I'll report back.

I finally got around to installing these...

Drilling edge with $10 lights . . . . . let the swiss cheese making begin and make sure to post pics this coming spring.

I went a different direction with the mounting. I chose to only drill a single 1/4" hole in my hull to run a single wire through. I mounted each of my six lights to the vertical lip of the wakeplate. I figure if I'm going to make swiss cheese, it'd be on the wakeplate and not in my fiberglass.

I brought the 6 pos and 6 neg conductors from the lights together and spliced that into a master lead that would go through the hull. That splice I did inside of a section of ballast tubing and then encased the entirety of the splicing inside the tubing with silicone... so I feel pretty good about the wiring being waterproofed.

Haha don't take that the wrong way, man! I admire your ingenuity. I definitely appreciate that you know how to stretch a dollar, because I'm the exact same way. I wouldn't have bought the lights on your advice if I didn't think you were on to something.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

Well, I was going to just bail on the project, but I went ahead and did it...

Because I had six lights and intended on mounting them to the wake plate, I had to figure out where they'd go. the "center" section between the mounting bolts for the hydraulic actuators was a bit narrow for two lights. And I figured that if I eventually get a FAE, it'll be in the center of the wakeplate anyway.

So I mounted 4 lights facing aft, and then mounted one light on each side of the wakeplate shining port and starboard respectively.



I finished this last night, so I won't have any water pictures until tonight probably...

Here is a shot on the trailer. You can see 5 of the 6 lights at a time with the limitations of camera angle...

[trayson]

water evening pics...
I like the side dispersion...


with the wide angle lens. good dispersion, but will get better projection when I add the drain plug light I ordered.