Building your own underwater Led

[Cusefan78]

Just make sure you make enough to do one pour. I tried a test light and I didn't fill it all the way so I went back and refilled it and it wasnt as clear. I hot glued the lights to the cup then siliconed the hole that the wire went through.

[Sdc77]

Thank you Cusefan78, the first post of the thread is updated with a link to this resin to Michaels.com

To get the exact quantity of resin, I firstly pour water in the plastic holder, then transfer that water in a translucid plastic glass. Then I draw a line to the level of the water. I finally used another glass (to don't mix water and resin) and draw the same level line, to get the exact quantity of resin (a mix of catalyst + resin actually). Easy and cheap

[Cusefan78]

Yeah figured that out after my test light was made. Good tip though

[Sdc77]

Any news guys ?

[Cusefan78]

Yeah I took my white stern light out and added a blue one. The colors really pop now. Ill take a pic this weekend and post it.

[Sdc77]

Cooool ! Do you put a Led stern light ? You try the link I gave you in your dedicated thread ?

[Cusefan78]

Yeah it's a blue led I got from the local parts store.

[Cusefan78]

image.jpg did a little tweaking with my lights. Much brighter now. Ill try to get a picture with an actual camera next weekend

[Zteven]

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

Any update on a build with the Cree LED's? I'm thinking of doing this project with these (http://dx.com/p/mr16-5w-6500k-500-lu...-dc-12v-101352), but I'm a bit concerned with the possibility of heat build-up and burning out the LEDs.

[trayson]

Any news guys ?

So, I used the info on this thread to make my lights. I didn't have to break the housings of the lights, I was able to pry them up with a small screwdriver. I added a spacer underneath and hot glued them down. I chose to drill my holes more on the side corner of the housing. I then sealed the holes with some gasket maker RTV silicone I had laying around. You can see that one of these lights is partially filled with resin. Well, that's because I got ahead of myself and forgot to seal the wire hole before putting resin in. That was messy!!!



The encasing clear expoxy worked great and most the bubbles went away. I popped many too before it dried.




This is my hull with the gas tank removed. I had to get in there to replace my rudder packing anyway, so it was the logical time to install the transom lights: