Seeking LED Conversion Input

[Craig Curtis]

John, I just received the light a few days ago and have yet to install it and I won't be back in the water until mid April. Here however is another informative article from the same source concerning potential radio interference. My biggest takeaway is that it's not really a concern for lights so far away from the antenna and as long as you're buying a quality light it shouldn't be a concern even if close to the antenna. Nonetheless while the rest of my onboard lights (both interior and nav) are now entirely LEDs, the anchor light and tricolor will remain the exception.

https://store.marinebeam.com/blog/rf-in ... -and-leds/

[John Stone]

John, I just received the light a few days ago and have yet to install it and I won't be back in the water until mid April. Here however is another informative article from the same source concerning potential radio interference. My biggest takeaway is that it's not really a concern for lights so far away from the antenna and as long as you're buying a quality light it shouldn't be a concern even if close to the antenna. Nonetheless while the rest of my onboard lights (both interior and nav) are now entirely LEDs, the anchor light and tricolor will remain the exception.

https://store.marinebeam.com/blog/rf-in ... -and-leds/

Craig
Excellent info. My learning curve is steep, though I think I’m on the right track.

[John Stone]

John,

Perhaps just go with the colored less for port and starboard and white for stern/running lights and use white for the spare(s). With life expectancy of the led being longer then yours you will most likely never have to put a white bulb behind a colored lens.

Food for thought,

Keith

Hi Keith
Thanks for the input. That is my thinking too. I discussed this approach with Dr LED on the phone this evening. His comment was that the white may not be bright enough in the colored lens to be certain of meeting the 2nm range but for an emergency it would make sense to carry a single white light for all three lights. And, if the light remains water tight I should have no issues as the LED has a long life under normal circumstances.

Hi Keith, I reread your comment. Somehow I missed your idea of skipping a LED spare and just adding the original bulbs to the spares box. Duh. That’s a much better idea. Saved me $40. Put yourself in for a raise and take the rest of the day off!

Seriously, thanks for taking the time to comment.

[BernieA]

John,

It's doubtful that your deck running LED running lights, even if they emit some RF, will affect your VHF as long as the antenna is some distance from the LEDs. Interference could be a problem if you have a masthead tri-color and anchor light as well as a VHF antenna mounted at the masthead.
I used the running light breaker to power my compass light as well as running lights. I have a masthead tri-color/anchor light as well as deck mounted running lights. When I bought my boat it had only the tri-color/anchor light. I found out later that a masthead tri-color is not legal when under power. That'
s when I added the legal running lights for under power. Coming off the breaker, I added a switch to run the appropriate lights (tri-color under sail, deck lights under power) and the compass light is on any time the breaker is on. One of these days I'm going up the mast to replace the incandescent bulbs with LEDs. I just need to get a roundtoit.
Also, your breaker is probably 15 amp,which will be fine. If all your lights are LED, the current drain will likely be about 1 amp.

Bernie

[John Stone]

John,

It's doubtful that your deck running LED running lights, even if they emit some RF, will affect your VHF as long as the antenna is some distance from the LEDs. Interference could be a problem if you have a masthead tri-color and anchor light as well as a VHF antenna mounted at the masthead.
I used the running light breaker to power my compass light as well as running lights. I have a masthead tri-color/anchor light as well as deck mounted running lights. When I bought my boat it had only the tri-color/anchor light. I found out later that a masthead tri-color is not legal when under power. That'
s when I added the legal running lights for under power. Coming off the breaker, I added a switch to run the appropriate lights (tri-color under sail, deck lights under power) and the compass light is on any time the breaker is on. One of these days I'm going up the mast to replace the incandescent bulbs with LEDs. I just need to get a roundtoit.
Also, your breaker is probably 15 amp,which will be fine. If all your lights are LED, the current drain will likely be about 1 amp.
Bernie

Excellent info. Thanks Bernie.

[fmueller]

Hey John ...

Short:

Use warm white LEDs if replacing traditional filament bulbs in incandescent fixtures. This is by far the least expensive way to go and there are festoons and bayonets that fit every common traditional fixture.

Long:

The thing about all colored nav lights is the the "color" of the observed light is a combo of the color temperature of the bulb and the color transmission characteristics of the light's lens. Generally speaking if you replace a "white" incandescent bulb in a traditional fixture with an LED - be sure the LED is "warm white". (what I did on Jerezana)

In tech talk, white 12 volt incandescents have a color temperature of about 3000 degrees kelvin (very yellow), and the glass of the fixtures are tinted such that the resulting greens and reds are true (ie centered in the red and green sub spectrums). Almost all early LED bulbs were very much more "blue white" with nominal color temps well above 5000 degrees kelvin, resulting in a very bluish green starboard light and a much more dim red port light (red passes very little blue) if you used them in fixtures that were engineered for 3000 degrees. Now we have much more variation is LED color temperature, (and they are also much more full spectrum). This is what your contact Jim is trying to say in so many words I think ... but I'm not sure of his solution ... or put another way ... a sure solution is to just use LEDs that mimic the original expected color temperature. If you look at your green fixture notice that the glass has a decidedly blue cast to it; that's because it will need to pull the expected yellow incandescent source toward blue. Look at your red fixture and I bet you judge it to be a blueish red (verging toward magenta or away from orange (this will be more subtle) - for the same reason pulling yellow away from orange to a centered red.


I know a little about this stuff because I'm a semi pro photographer and understand color temp and reproduction just enough to stay out of trouble ...

cheers

Fred

[John Stone]

Hey John ...

Short:

Use warm white LEDs if replacing traditional filament bulbs in incandescent fixtures. This is by far the least expensive way to go and there are festoons and bayonets that fit every common traditional fixture.

Long:

The thing about all colored nav lights is the the "color" of the observed light is a combo of the color temperature of the bulb and the color transmission characteristics of the light's lens. Generally speaking if you replace a "white" incandescent bulb in a traditional fixture with an LED - be sure the LED is "warm white". (what I did on Jerezana)

In tech talk, white 12 volt incandescents have a color temperature of about 3000 degrees kelvin (very yellow), and the glass of the fixtures are tinted such that the resulting greens and reds are true (ie centered in the red and green sub spectrums). Almost all early LED bulbs were very much more "blue white" with nominal color temps well above 5000 degrees kelvin, resulting in a very bluish green starboard light and a much more dim red port light (red passes very little blue) if you used them in fixtures that were engineered for 3000 degrees. Now we have much more variation is LED color temperature, (and they are also much more full spectrum). This is what your contact Jim is trying to say in so many words I think ... but I'm not sure of his solution ... or put another way ... a sure solution is to just use LEDs that mimic the original expected color temperature. If you look at your green fixture notice that the glass has a decidedly blue cast to it; that's because it will need to pull the expected yellow incandescent source toward blue. Look at your red fixture and I bet you judge it to be a blueish red (verging toward magenta or away from orange (this will be more subtle) - for the same reason pulling yellow away from orange to a centered red.


I know a little about this stuff because I'm a semi pro photographer and understand color temp and reproduction just enough to stay out of trouble ...

cheers

Fred

Fred
Good info. Makes sense. Many thanks.

I’m familiar with the warm vs cold LED. That’s why I went with the Alpinglow bunk lights. Huge difference from the cold blue LED. But the part about how it effects the colored lens is very insightful.

We have a kind of soft yellow paint inside our house. Great almost golden color in natural sunlight an with incandescent bulbs in the living room lamps. But we got a couple new bulbs hi tech bulbs a couple years ago for a lamp as the old incandescent ones are hard to find. Those bulbs caused a horrible change to the color of the paint. We tossed them.

Sounds like the same thing.

I also want to make sure the LED and associated electronic component does not affect our AIS. Saw some Scandvik festoon bulbs today. About $10. Don’t know anything about them though.

Learning lots. I miss it when I got excited just working on the sculling oar. I hope this technology upgrade phase proves to be a good decision. This is supposed to be fun....

[gates_cliff]

I found that the stern light fixtures on my boat was crushed. I promise I didn't back Into anything.

So I ordered a LED replacement. I thought I ought to rewire it since the old wire is cracking Trouble is that I cannot figure out where the wire runs. I'd just. cut it off flush and run a new wire but I have no idea how to pull the old wire out. I had planned to attach new wire and carefully pull/run the new

Any help would be greatly appreciated