LED What?

[bigdogandy]

Originally Posted by Bigjim

?.........
So, does anyone know why one such bulb will work in one socket but not another? And, yet the bulbs are all good and all work when connected directly to the battery!

LED bulbs are also voltage sensitive - check to make sure you have 12 volts or better at the fixture. When I converted my lights to LED there were a few fixtures that were at a little less than 12 volts due to old, corroded wiring and connections. Drove me nuts trying to track down the cause.......I eventually had to run some new wiring to the problem fixtures. The nav lights at the bow were the toughest to re-wire.

Hope you find the solution to your issues as quickly and painlessly as possible!

[Bigjim]

Originally Posted by unluckycharms

They come in multiple flavors.....some dual + on the bottom and - on the case, some with single + and single - on the bottom contacts.

As for the bayonets, some have are on-level with each other, others are offset:


There are so many sellers out there, I simply skip over them if they don't provide clear information about the contact polarity and bayonets.

Excellent graphic. The bulbs all have two contacts and pins that are parallel. It's very frustrating when bulbs will work in one socket but not another. All the bulbs work, just NOT in every socket. How can the socket make a difference when they are simply wired directly to the panel? Is it because the circuit for the running lights has more bulbs lit simultaneously? Is there a manufacturer who produces bulbs you can rely on to work?

Buying bulbs at ACE or West Marine is very expensive (2X) and there's no guarantee that they will work.

Do you have a supplier you can recommend?

[Bigjim]

Originally Posted by bigdogandy

LED bulbs are also voltage sensitive - check to make sure you have 12 volts or better at the fixture. When I converted my lights to LED there were a few fixtures that were at a little less than 12 volts due to old, corroded wiring and connections. Drove me nuts trying to track down the cause.......I eventually had to run some new wiring to the problem fixtures. The nav lights at the bow were the toughest to re-wire.

Hope you find the solution to your issues as quickly and painlessly as possible!

Running the new wires may be the only solution...

[Bigjim]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

"Some of my sockets are actually plastic so there is no ground function in the socket"
No, there still is a ground function. The outer case *must* be connected to the 12v negative lead for the bulb to work. Whether that is connected directly to ground, or indirectly and switched, it still has to go to ground. Unless the polarity was reversed and it goes to hot.

Earth ground, chassis ground, circuit ground, return, whatever you call it. Yes they are different but again "all catch mice".

The old socket was plastic, so the ground must have used the pins.

[Bigjim]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Trust me, 1157 bulbs CAN be rotated 180 degrees the wrong way in a socket. Cheap sockets will just flex enough to allow that. It has been done and witnessed. Properly made sockets and bulbs can't do that--but that immediately puts anything from anonymous online vendors in question.

"Black cat, white cat, all same. Catch mice."
1157 bulbs, same as 1156 bulbs. The presumption is that the center leads are both positives and the case is negative. For all standard cars, which use negative grounds and *switched positive* lighting supplies. Toyota is a major exception, their headlights all use switched negative wiring instead, although their sockets are wired normally.


Answer to the OP is still the same: Whoever wired up your boat's sockets, did it the quick and fast way, ignored polarity, because that never mattered on boats until LED bulbs came along.

If you are using 1157 bulbs in 1157 sockets and only some of them work? Check the polarity. (You can use a cheap 1157 polarity sensitive LED bulb to do that.(G)

And why would they use 1157 bulbs and sockets on a boat anyway? Don't tell me, you have two-level lighting in the cabin lights? Or tail and brake lights on the transom?(G)

Sorry, I misspoke. The bulbs are NOT 1157. They are 1156 compatible with parallel not offset pins.

[unluckycharms]

Originally Posted by Bigjim

Excellent graphic. The bulbs all have two contacts and pins that are parallel. It's very frustrating when bulbs will work in one socket but not another. All the bulbs work, just NOT in every socket. How can the socket make a difference when they are simply wired directly to the panel? Is it because the circuit for the running lights has more bulbs lit simultaneously? Is there a manufacturer who produces bulbs you can rely on to work?

Buying bulbs at ACE or West Marine is very expensive (2X) and there's no guarantee that they will work.

Do you have a supplier you can recommend?

Did you flip the bulbs in the sockets where they didn't work? Given the plastic socket, I would assume you required and purchased the "+ -" contacts on the base (as opposed to the "+ +" base, which grounds through the bulb body / socket.

Given the parallel bayonets and assuming "+ -" base, the bulb can be inserted two ways but will only work in one orientation.

As far as suppliers, I simply combed eBay until I found a supplier with sufficient information that I felt comfortable purchasing. If replacing incandescent lights in a living area and desiring similar color temp, make sure you get the warm white (around 3k), as the standard white bulbs (4-6k) can make even the nicest boat feel like a surgical suite; that said, the higher color temperatures are good for lighting engine spaces and the like.

[Nicholson58]

If you buy the low end replacement bulbs they may be polarity sensitive. There is a lot of historical discussion on LED bulbs. LEDs require a constant forward current. This is achieved in some by adding resistors in series depending on the voltage rating of the bulb. The resistor is nothing but a heater and a power waste. Bulbs which are current regulated by PWM, pulse width modulation, control the forward current by switching the current off and on at varying ratios at very high frequency depending on a wide variation in voltage. These bulbs are typically rated 9 to 32 volts. They also have a rectifier circuit so they are polarity neutral. If you buy bulbs from auto and truck stores such as NAPA you will get only the low end stuff. These are not tolerant of wide variations that occur during charge and equalize cycles and may drop out if the batteries are deeply depleted. They will probably be polarity sensitive. Marine bulbs will cost a bit more but they will consume less power and last longer. They will be PWM with a rectifier circuit. I buy from Marine Beam https://store.marinebeam.com/?gclid=...EaAn3KEALw_wcB or IMTRA

I have never experienced the issues you describe as we replaced over 60 bulbs in Roxy.

[hellosailor]

This is what is usually bluntly called "*icking around" as opposed to using simple logic to solve a problem. $20 for a multimeter will let the OP confirm exactly what the polarity in his sockets is, and I'd bet it would explain exactly which ones aren't working and what has to be done (moving wires) to make them work.

In the long run, using logic is both cheaper and faster than simply *icking around. And not a whole lot more painful, really.