LED Deck Lighting

[SkipEye]

Hey folks, thought you'd be interested in seeing my completed LED Night-lighting project. The intent was to project the light down-ward to identify the perimeter of the boat while anchored and fishing at night. I am always a little uncomfortable moving around the boat at night and wanted have my safe boundaries lit up to help keep my bearings.

I mounted 12 LED Marker Lights under the gunnels facing downward. These worked out well on the SeaArk because the mounting screws missed the wire race, yet I was still able to conceal the hole into the race for the wires. Planned on installing a PWM dimmer circuit but after lighting it up it seems about perfect. Night-vision should remain good because most of the intensity is directed downward plus it is RED.

All wiring is concealed. Marine-grade wiring was used, all connections were soldered and heat-shrinked.

12 LED Marker Lights from BP at $7.99 each, about $45.00 for the wire, Marine-grade switch $14.99, rubber boot for the switch $8.00, plus misc solder, heat shrink, terminals, in-line fuse, close quarter drill attachment was purchased to get the tight areas around the front deck $38.00

I am tickled to death with this. :big_smile:I will use these when anchored although I don't think they'll be visible (or mistaken for Nav Lights) to other boaters because they are under the gunnels.

Description of pics:

LED Marker light in the package



Installed under Gunnel



Tight Fit Drilling area



Proper in-line splice, soldered



Heat shrinked



Lit up



After Dark

[SkipEye]

Oh..... forgot to add that according to the specs, these puppies ought to burn for 100,000 hours. And they are LOW, LOW amperage draw so won't use up much juice from the battery!:big_smile:

[SkipEye]

Darryl,
For my further education did you connect each of the marker lights in parallel or series? It looks like parallel and I'm guessing the individual LED's within each light are in series, yes???
Thanks...W
B.T.W....Nice job!

Yes, parallell connections for each assembly, which in turn has a series circuit consisting of 6 LED's.