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LED Lights

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Daren
1st Mate

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USA
81 Posts

Initially Posted - 10/16/2008 : 09:01:50

Does anyone have a recommendation on a good place to buy LED lights to replace my existing OEM Catalina bulbs on my boat?

S/V Prima Donna
1986, 15 HP Universal Inboard Diesel, Fixed keel, Hull # 5362

Edited by - on

Sloop Smitten
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1181 Posts

Response Posted - 10/16/2008 : 09:29:26

A few sites I utilize.

http://www.donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/b.pl/82~usa.html
http://www.ledlight.com/detail.aspx?ID=102
http://www.interlight.biz/light-bulb/90&title=PERKO%200337011DP%2090

Edited by - on

Daren
1st Mate

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USA
81 Posts

Response Posted - 10/16/2008 : 09:52:38

Thanks! Can a one for one swap be made for most of the bulbs? Mast light, steaming, nav, interior cabin lights? What your experience or comments about swapping out bulbs for LED?

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Sloop Smitten
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1181 Posts

Response Posted - 10/16/2008 : 14:10:28

Daren,
I would do a comparison of dimensions to make sure the bulb will work first. Donsbulbs.com is a good place for that. Look up the bulb you have and its possible replacement and compare. Then you have to make a judgement on intensity and color. Most LED lights are rather dim, so dependent on which bulb you are replacing, you may need to go to a high intensity light. If you give us some idea of the bulb you are replacing, and which light it came out of, someone here can probably advise a solution.

Edited by - on

Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 10/16/2008 : 14:13:17

Also beware that LED lights can have limited visibility based on the angles they emit light at.

you want to be sure that the bulb you buy has a wide angle of visibility.

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Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 10/16/2008 : 23:46:49

LED emissions in many respects are similar to laser emissions. The surface lens of the diode disperses the light somewhat and the housing lens provides more dispersion, but hotspots and dark areas are common. I replaced the bulbs in my original white fixtures with LEDs from WM and it was noticeably brighter in the cabin. I subsequently replaced the housings with new LED fixtures with well designed clear lenses and got an even more dramatic improvement without hot or cold spots. Because of the directional nature of the light and consequent hot and cold spots, using approved LEDs for navigation lights is really the best route. A 1 inch dark spot at 3 feet is a large swath of invisibility at 1 or 2 nautical miles.

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Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 10/16/2008 : 23:53:43

P.S.

In the above process, I also discovered that my interior lights were wired backwards - LEDs are polarity sensitive. I'm hoping and guessing that they weren't factory installed. No 20 minute boat job can be done in 20 minutes.

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Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 10/17/2008 : 09:08:58

Dave,

You are very right - my experience is with swapping out incandescent lights wit LED for traffic signals. The earliest specs didn't mention emission angles, and some municipalities ended up with LED's that became invisible as drivers approached the intersection. Thats really bad for someone trying to figure out whether they still have a green arrow and stuck in the middle of the intersection.

It would be interesting to mount multiple LED's at the masthead with different incident angles and see how close you can get before they are invisible.

If you do get LED's for nav or signal lights, be sure they are super-bright, wide angle LED's.

Also beware that there are some colours which still haven't been "perfected". (It took years of research to come up with an amber LED for use in traffic signals).

You may also want to be careful about how your array is set up. The ones we use are set up so that the whole light should never fail (traffic lights again, but the same principles apply). If one LED goes, it may take down a strip of LED's but not the whole light. Other areas have them set up so that each LED is it's own "pixel" but this is more expensive. Still other areas have "patches" or a honeycomb so that a spot will go down rather than the whole light. The point is that if one LED fails, you don't want to lose the entire masthead light. With as small of an array as a nav light, you should be able to lose one LED and keep the rest.

Edited by - on

Daren
1st Mate

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USA
81 Posts

Response Posted - 10/17/2008 : 12:31:09

Thanks, guys! I will start with the interior cabin lights. Picked up a flier at the Annapolis Sailboat show last week...I think the vendor was on the list from Sloop Smitten.

Edited by - on

Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 10/17/2008 : 13:04:17

Had to add this:[url="http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.panbo.com/LED_Shop_Aqua_Signal_and_old_OGM_bicolor_cPanbo_small.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.panbo.com/archives/cat_cabin_deck_gear.html&h=264&w=465&sz=15&hl=en&start=157&sig2=CuRHgx8RMan0SD7GQvPoNA&usg=__P6Ve3QMneK4nzrxLPP532F8XUDc=&tbnid=qB4u8dCCd5Yg-M:&tbnh=73&tbnw=128&ei=CtH4SMClE6P-NOeTySo&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLED%2Bsignal%2Blight%26start%3D140%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN"]LED writeup[/url]

This is a poor writeup on LED's, but it has a great pic.

When you look at the red/green nav lights, you will notice that the ones that are face-on to the camera appear brighter than the ones that are turned oblique to it.

Since there is about 2" max from the front of the light to the back, the dimming can't be because those lights are further away. It is because light doesn't come out of the sides of some LEDs well. This is a great example of the incidence angle I was talking about.

Personally I wouldn't be happy with this light, since another boater may only be able to see 1 or 2 LED's before the incidence angle is too great for the light to be seen from much more than 10 feet away. (Think of a drunk powerboater moving at say 40 mph at night and you can come up with a story about why LED's are insufficient as masthead lights unless properly set up).

If you get LED exterior lights, be sure that the lens on them disburses light. For the bulb, don't use auto bulbs. A car's tail-lights are almost directly in front of another vehicle, not 30 feet up in the air at an oblique angle.

Sorry to keep harping on this, but it could become very important if you do go with an LED masthead light. (Your red/green lights are likely less of an issue since they are lower down, and easier to replace if they don't work out.

I suggest that if you do go with LED Lights, anchor out once you are done, and go out in another boat to see how visible your lights are from a ways away.

Edited by - Prospector on 10/17/2008 13:06:57

bigelowp
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1773 Posts

Response Posted - 10/18/2008 : 17:53:03

BTW -- Catalina Direct sent out an e-flier about a month ago offering "replacement" LED lights for Cat 25's (and other models) You might want to check out what they have. If I were going to (I probably will but low on the to-do list) change the fixture to LED i would go with the red/white type light so if yo are doing night sailing (or sitting) the glare can be controlled as the LED lights are brighter.

Edited by - on

panhead1948
Captain

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345 Posts

Response Posted - 10/22/2008 : 19:11:00

Go to mastlight.com I replaced my lights this year and they are bright. I replaced all the running lights and the anchor light. They were 25 apiece but I have gotten several comments on how bright they are. They are a direct replacement for the stock bulbs.

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OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3440 Posts

Response Posted - 10/22/2008 : 20:13:08

I also bought an LED from Mastlight.com. I saw them at the Annapolis Sailboat Show and bought the Stern light LED replacement that they sell for the Aquasignal 25 housing with the Festoon bulb.
A year or two ago, I replaced my anchor light but in that case, I replaced the whole works and bought a Coast Guard Approved Anchor LED with a photodiode for automatically turning it off at daybreak. That was an expensive Anchor light -- Here's link:

https://secure.orcagreen.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16142& cat=0& bestseller

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JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

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1520 Posts

Response Posted - 10/23/2008 : 20:44:07

My anchor light fixture had been removed by a PO, so I added a new anchor light with an LED bulb and constructed a custom conical aluminum reflector to keep 95% of the light horizontal with about 5% shining upward to illuminate my windex. This was a 28-LED superbright "tail light" 1056 pin bulb designed to shine straight ahead.

Here's [url="http://www.catalina-capri-25s.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16867"]that thread[/url] from last winter.

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