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23-03-2020, 20:45
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#46
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Portland, Oregon USA
Boat: Island Packet, Packet Cat 35
Posts: 954
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
My experience with SuperBrite was not positive. I never received the product I paid for.
Others like them tho.
I just received a shipment from Marinebeam. Fast, on time and truly the most awesome product I've seen yet. Marinebeam gets my business from now on
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24-03-2020, 04:13
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#47
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Virginia
Boat: Jeanneau SO469
Posts: 313
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
I went to “metal supermarkets”, which is a chain of metal supplier in the US, and had them cut some 22ga stainless steel strips that I used to mount my led strips. Since I don’t know how long the adhesive will last I added support by cutting rings of heat shrink tubing and adding them over many of the open spaces between leds.
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27-03-2020, 07:23
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#48
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: Puget Sound, WA
Boat: Nauticat 43 ketch
Posts: 794
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
I found these guys to have high quality stuff- https://www.cruisingsolutions.com/collections/lighting
For strip lights, waterproof ones from Amazon are cheap and durable. The waterproof strip lights are encased in a thick clear rubbery plastic that protects the lights and wiring.
I installed ours 3 years ago on the shelf under the windows that surrounds our aft cabin (moist environment), length @20 feet, out of sight just behind the fiddle rail, facing up, tapped into the cove light switch, and we love the soft indirect lighting. Easy install, replacing them if needed will be easy as well, works well, inexpensive, one of our more successful projects.
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27-03-2020, 07:32
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#49
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 254
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peeew
I went to “metal supermarkets”, which is a chain of metal supplier in the US
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They also exist in Canada. Amazing customer service.
Allan.
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27-03-2020, 08:11
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#50
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 254
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
For LED fixtures, I standardised on the Lunasea LLB-46WR-3A-BN. These are selectable warm white and red. I especially liked that they screw into a surface, rather than being held by spring clips.
https://www.lunasealighting.com/prod...d-nickel-trim/
Not inexpensive, but very high quality.
Allan.
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27-03-2020, 08:25
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#51
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Seattle, WA
Boat: Symbol 55 Pilot House
Posts: 37
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by aybabtme
I'm looking at installing LED strips for accent lighting under the settees and under other overhangs; replace all existing incandescent lights in the existing puck lights and reading lights, and replace the deck spreader lights.
I can find tons of online suppliers but it's hard to distinguish the crap from the good, and the overpriced from the fairly priced. Right now I'm eyeing SuperBrightLEDs but I don't know if their products are of quality or not.
Do you recommend a price efficient, quality source of LED products?
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I did this on my Beneteau 311 and loved the result. I used a mix of SuperBrightLED and Marinebeam LED.
More details at https://seabits.com/ambient-led-cabin-lights/
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27-03-2020, 08:27
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#52
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Seattle, WA
Boat: Symbol 55 Pilot House
Posts: 37
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by aybabtme
I'm looking at installing LED strips for accent lighting under the settees and under other overhangs; replace all existing incandescent lights in the existing puck lights and reading lights, and replace the deck spreader lights.
I can find tons of online suppliers but it's hard to distinguish the crap from the good, and the overpriced from the fairly priced. Right now I'm eyeing SuperBrightLEDs but I don't know if their products are of quality or not.
Do you recommend a price efficient, quality source of LED products?
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I did this on my Beneteau 311 and loved the result. I used a mix of SuperBrightLED and Marinebeam LED. SuperBrightLED has so many choices to choose from....
More details at https://seabits.com/ambient-led-cabin-lights/
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27-03-2020, 11:25
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#53
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Lighthouse Point Fl
Boat: Hake 32RK
Posts: 177
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
about five years ago I replaced the 12 V DC flourescent tubes in all the light fixtures in my cabin with self adhesive LED strips. I bought the roll of leds which can be cut to any length (every couple of inches) along with end caps and connectors. I am not at the boat so can't tell you the brand but it was less money than replacing the tubes in the lights and I have not had a failure (though I have plenty of extras). The cost waqs so cheap I didn't really care if they had to be replaced but still going after 5 years no issues and very easy to convert the existing fixtures so have more light and less power consumption.....boat is totally LED inside and outside plus NAV lights. No more bulb replacing!
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27-03-2020, 20:19
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#54
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 548
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
Any RF interference would be from a dimmer circuit not the LED.
If buy 12 volt LED's and put them on a typical ON / OFF circuit, you will not have interference.
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27-03-2020, 21:28
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#55
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Boat: 31' Cape George Cutter
Posts: 3,270
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by StoneCrab
Any RF interference would be from a dimmer circuit not the LED.
If buy 12 volt LED's and put them on a typical ON / OFF circuit, you will not have interference.
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Not true. LEDs are not always driven through a limiting resistor, they are frequently driven with constant current drivers, and the cheap ones do create a boatload of RFI.
Greg
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28-03-2020, 06:26
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#56
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 548
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarinaPDX
Not true. LEDs are not always driven through a limiting resistor, they are frequently driven with constant current drivers, and the cheap ones do create a boatload of RFI.
Greg
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You are making my point exactly... which is to buy LED strips which are rated at 12 volts without an electric wallwort or other electronic box which produces the 12 volt or produces the dimming feature. These "boxes" are what is creating the noise. The LED is a diode which does not produce RF noise.
A LED circuit will need a current limiting resistor to protect the LED which draws an increasing amount of current as it warms up. A resistor does not produce RF noise. If you buy the LED ribbon strips which are rated for 12 volts, you will see little resistors on the ribbon every three LEDs or so. The resistors drop the voltage to the LED level and limit current and are, again, passive devices which do not produce RF interference.
When you dim an LED, you introduce a circuit into the power supply which reduces the voltage arriving at the LED strip. This is done in one of two ways. Either you have a variable voltage transformer or it is done by chopping up the supply voltage with a switching transistor. The transistor is turning on and off very rapidly. If you are on a 12volt supply and the transistor is on 50% of the time, the LED strip will see effectively 6 volts and only produce half of the light. The switching transistors and the cycling voltage produce A LOT of RF interference. So to keep it simple, if you have any box between the power supply and the LED strip, that is your source of RF interference. It is not the LEDs or their resistors.
If you are buying 110volt LED installations and running the lights off of the inverter, you will have noise from your inverter and noise from the little box that plugs into the socket which produces the LED voltage. This is why I recommend just buying 12VDC LED strip lights and wiring them directly into the ships 12VDC lighting circuits.
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28-03-2020, 15:00
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#57
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Boat: 31' Cape George Cutter
Posts: 3,270
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
No, I did not make your point. "Dimmers" and "drivers" are different categories. And resistor-only current limiting is what caused so many problems when LEDs first came into the marine market years ago. Partly this is so because many were using LEDs with resistors chosen for a 12V supply, and boats with multi-stage charging were often operating at over 14V and burning out the LEDs; to survive the LEDs would have to be rated for the absorption voltage (14.1+V), but would then be dimmed when operating on battery at 12V.. The history is that, after so many failures on boats of the 12V LED with resistor current limiting, LED bulbs with voltage limiting ("buck" regulators) largely replaced them, and the better suppliers went with "buck and boost" regulators that supplied a constant voltage into LED/resistors, or constant current into the LEDs. The early constant current drivers used HF switching technology and created a lot of EMI, and are still available today. The best constant current regulators, from vendors like LunaSea (LED lights) or LUXdrive (component constant current drivers), have stable output without EMI.
Dimmers are another matter. There are many LED dimmers out there that use PWM (pulse width modulation) for dimming, which does indeed create a lot of RFI. These typically turn on/off the drivers quickly. They are a bad idea on cruising boats that need clean RF reception. There are, however, dimmable constant current drivers that do not create EMI, such as the LUXdrive - they just aren't cheap (~$20). You get what you pay for. So pay for a quality LED bulb from a known suppier, or if DIY then source the constant current drivers from a quality vendor. Running LEDs with limiting resistors from fluctuating battery voltages is ignoring all we have learned in the last two decades - at least create a separately regulated lighting circuit that stays at 12V.
Greg
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28-03-2020, 15:08
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#58
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Lake Ont
Posts: 8,547
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by StoneCrab
You are making my point exactly... which is to buy LED strips which are rated at 12 volts without an electric wallwort or other electronic box which produces the 12 volt or produces the dimming feature. These "boxes" are what is creating the noise. The LED is a diode which does not produce RF noise.
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CarinaPDX is not wrong; maybe not with LED strips, but there are many 12v screw/twist-in LED replacement bulbs which do incorporate digital current limiting; many of these weren't engineered well and they are RF-noisy as F, especially in a trilight or anchor light.
Quote:
I recommend just buying 12VDC LED strip lights and wiring them directly into the ships 12VDC lighting circuits.
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The trouble there is that those strips are often too bright when fully on, and they have a shorter lifespan when run from boat batteries that might be on a charger (13.5v or more). So either a DC-DC regulator is required, or dimmer. Both need to be tested for RF noise on your radios.
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29-03-2020, 11:28
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#59
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Raritan Bay
Boat: Morris Justine
Posts: 95
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
My experience with Marinebeam was not good. Some replacement bulbs
generated interference and their bow nav light I installed is dead.
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29-03-2020, 13:59
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#60
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: French Polynesia
Boat: Allied 39
Posts: 886
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Re: Quality source of LED strips/bulbs/assemblies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MooGroc
My experience with Marinebeam was not good. Some replacement bulbs
generated interference and their bow nav light I installed is dead.
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Have you contacted them? I have found their customer service to be excellent. We have had nothing but excellent results with marine beam and alpenglow led lights
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