LED strip lighting for Nav and ARW

[madmaskbass]

Well we have all I'm sure we've all come to love the led lighting revolution and I am at the moment planning on the lighting for the tinny. A full set up from the boat shop for navs, arw with a switch board and battery is going to cost around the 300 to do properly. That is not what my tinny us about though and I'm saving fit a good sounder and keen to get to the sugar jetty at night this school holidays so this is my plan for a budget build.

I have a big roll of waterproof led strip that I used for a job on the Forby and this stuff is magic!! I was going to Mount a cup like thing wrapped in the strip with the wire running down the middle of some pvc for the all round white.. This thing will be bloody bright I reckon! ! It turns the back of the cruiser into daylight now.

I hsve also found in the wonderful world of ebay some three led red and green lights sent from a bloke in qld making them at the moment. Now 3 leds doesnt sound like much but I would assume the marine ones only really hsve that many anyway.

With a couple of switches mounted to marine ply with a fuse to the battery. Some tinned wire and maybe a bit of silicon I'm looking at around 30 for the whole job. Now I know they will die after a while but 3.50 for the lights is truly good.

Can anyone see any massive problems with this or share their thoughts. I understand this is a safety item and a pretty important one but I fail to see that with a proper maintenance that this could be a good one abnd fin what I can read would be within regulations as long as it's mounted correctly.


I made up the ARW on the weekend and it looks great..cost me $7 and has about 15 LEDS so I think it will definitley be bright enough!!8-)

Anyway would be good to hear some thoughts. Pics will follow in the next week or so hopefully

Cheers Josh.

[Moonlighter]

Josh, what you are planning will probably be ok, but i am worried that you could still find yourself in hot water with the authorities if they check you, because your home-made lights will not be certified to meet the COLREGs standards.

You should do some research and see if you can find out whether you have to have lights fitted that are certified to meet the COLREGs or not.

[Noelm]

Just buy some LED nav lights, the all round white light should be fine, as long as it is not too bright from when you are driving along.

[Marlin_Mike]

http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/Safety/Navigation-lights.aspx

[madmaskbass]

Thanks for that guys. I do see the importance of this stuff so I will purchase the correct nav lights and just run the strips as backups or something it will only cost me a bit of wire and a switch. As for the ARW how this wont be ok so i'm going to stick with that oine for now anyway...

[deckie]

These things can be a bit of fun if u like to tinker Josh. If it doesnt work simply go again with a bit of revision.
As mentioned by moonlighter up there ^^ just check the regs. Be aware too much light from the all round white or navs being visible from driving slot can reduce your night vision dramatically...as long as the all rnd white is nice and high and easily seen 360deg you'll be fine. As far as i know there are no rules to say you must purchase LED's off the rack. Good connections, good waterproofing, simple inline fuses around 1A, 2A with a spare a bit bigger and its hard to go wrong. In general the least u can actually see the lights shining from the driving position the better...i.e. indirect with nothing shining in your eyes. Not always an easy thing to do tho on an open boat.
If you want ideas have a look around with the search function on here, or if u just want to run ideas past anyone just yell out, coz plenty have been tinkering making these things up to suit their own rigs. Have fun. Steve

[Marlin_Mike]

The part you must be careful about, is the angle the lights can be seen on (port and starboard lights). Look at the link I posted earlier, make sure if you do your own LED's, that you make them so they are visible at the correct angle degrees it says in the regs.

Mike

[madmaskbass]

Cheers deckie, and yeah I will install nav lights as specified by manufacturer as legislated. I will be continuing to tinker though thats for sure....I already have plans for a small storage console/sounder mount/drink holder/switch board thingybebob in my head for the weekend so i will focus all my dodgeyness on that one and keep it for the experts with the nav lights.