Building your own underwater Led

[trayson]

Well put my lights in over the weekend. They are brighter then I anticipated. Everyone on the lake was commenting in them. This really is a great DIY project with a professional look when complete. Attachment 13009Attachment 13010Attachment 13010Attachment 13012

How many did you end up using and where did you mount them?

I have supplies for more than I need, so I was thinking that I'd do 3 or 4 on my rear transom...

[Cusefan78]

I put two in. I have a third made that I may add over the winter. I mounted them between the exhaust flaps and the mounts for te swim deck. Getting the wires up is a pita. I had to take the blower covers off and reach down to pull them up over the gas tank then feed them over the tank to the wire tube then hooked them to my kicker speakers that have LEDs built into them. The one thing that annoys me is that back factory light that is clear. Thinking about getting a blue bulb for that also. Does anyone know what type bulb goes in there. It's the one that's in the center of the transom. Comes on with the from nav light.

[trayson]

I put two in. I have a third made that I may add over the winter. I mounted them between the exhaust flaps and the mounts for te swim deck. Getting the wires up is a pita. I had to take the blower covers off and reach down to pull them up over the gas tank then feed them over the tank to the wire tube then hooked them to my kicker speakers that have LEDs built into them. The one thing that annoys me is that back factory light that is clear. Thinking about getting a blue bulb for that also. Does anyone know what type bulb goes in there. It's the one that's in the center of the transom. Comes on with the from nav light.

It's a festoon bulb, just take it out and measure it in millimeters and that will correlate to a size on a website like www.superbrightleds.com

However, I would advise against changing that color. It's designed to be white as part of your navigation lights to signal that it's the rear of your craft. I think that changing it to blue would be quite frowned upon by any sheriff, coast guard or other law enforcement. I will probably change my white incandescent festoon bulb there to a WHITE led. But I won't be changing my rear white nav light color. Where I boat, we have Washington and Oregon law enforcement as well as US Coast Guard. Too much heat for me.

[Cusefan78]

Yeah I'm on a small private lake that's 5 miles by two miles. Very few boats out at night and never any police. I was thinking rgb but I'm either going to pull the bulb, put a blue bulb in or an rgb that I can change from blue to white when I want.

[Sdc77]

Nice replication Cusefan78. And kind comment on the DIY thing, thank you !
Hope you will enjoy your night excursions

I did replace my incandescent rear light with by a white led. As trayson said, I kept it white because of laws. Anyway if you stay on your private lake you can do what you want

[trayson]

Yes sgoyal, jasun gave a link on page 5 for underwater color intensity. But it seems to be true for 20' and more.
villain, sorry to read this. The blue ones are powerful, you can't look it directly, then you will see blue dots for few minutes.
Do you keep that color for your boat ? Will you test it in water ? Do you have pics of it out/in water ?

I tested one of my blue SMD's last night. They seemed pretty bright. so many projects though, this might end up waiting until winter (since I have to pull the gas tank and work on the rudder anyway in the winter.)

[Sdc77]

Glad to read that my DIY underwater led is in minds.
That will be a good winter with many réplications

I also plan to add a 3rd led in the middle.

And maybe to work on a v2 of this concept with 3 high power Cree leds with directive 60° or 30° lens. The main difficulty with that idea will be to find the plastic holder in aluminium or stainless steal, acting as a heat exchanger for the HP leds.

Keep posting pics of your réplications guys

[Sdc77]

Cusefan78, did you use the resin you show on page 6 ?
Do you have pics of the leds after pouring ? Do you have bubbles ?

Need this informations to update my first post with a link for a good époxy resin in the USA.
Thanks

[Cusefan78]

Yes I used that resin. No bubbles and they are crystal clear. I didn't take any pictures, wish I did. Been really busy with work. I bought the resin at micheals it was around $20 with the hardner.

[trayson]

Yes I used that resin. No bubbles and they are crystal clear. I didn't take any pictures, wish I did. Been really busy with work. I bought the resin at micheals it was around $20 with the hardner.

GOOD TO HEAR! That's the same stuff I bought off Amazon. Glad I have the right stuff.