Another LED tricolour supplier ! any good

[mhouse]

Just found this Aqua signal led mast head light
http://www.seamarknunn.com/catalog/items/item17958.htm
Its about £60 less than the lopolight.
Is it any good? I had a look at the NASA light and it had a small vertical angle of visability, and I felt at very small angles of heal it would not be seen.
Matt

 

[aknight]

It's a Series 32 - they are type approved. I've got essentially the same Aqua Signal series 32 tricolour combined with an anchor light, on my boat. Viewed from a distance, it appears perfectly visible over a range of angles. Not a very technical answer, I'm afraid, but I'm hard-pressed to tell the difference in brightness/visibility between the current lights and my previous, traditional nav lights in real-life terms. You should find it to be fine.

 

[hubert]

Nasa claim that at 25 degree heal their tricolour light is still visible at 2nm.

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
Nasa claim that at 25 degree heal their tricolour light is still visible

[/ QUOTE ] OK for cats then. I was goung to say mobos but they dont use tricolours !

 

[donncha]

PBO included the Aqua Signal Tricolour LED Series in there latest test and it got some pretty good results.

The green and white LED's out preformed the Lopolight, but it wasn't really as good as the lopolight when heeled 25 degrees. When heeled the the performance of the red and green went down a bit although the white was still better then the lopolight.

The test also said that the lopolight didn't suffer at all due to the heeling, that the light's were just as visible.

 

[Stevie_T]

Just bought some from here Ultra LED's

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
Just bought some from here Ultra LED's

[/ QUOTE ] One is left to ponder why Aquasignal produce the series 32 tricolour lantern retailing at about £200 when the alternative would have been to offer the old series 40 lantern with an LED bulb like the Ultraleds one for under £80.
Either these new offerings are vastly better or they are a rip off. Which is it?

 

[Stevie_T]

Well, at just a few quid I prefer to replace the bulb rather than the fitting, plenty of options including 'warm' light to give the 'correct' colour for the tricolour, which is the one i went for, plus a cheaper one for the anchor light.
Im going to see how it goes and then maybe replace the main nav lights too and some of the cabin lights for night passages.

Or am I missing something here? Is there a reason everyone seems to be changing the fittings?

 

[charles_reed]

I understand

that a white LED is a mix of colours from red/blue and that the only way to produce a "true" colour from LED is to have an assembly for each colour.

The observed result with a white LED in an Aquasignal 40 is that the green sector turns to a muddy blue.

 

[VicS]

Re: I understand

[ QUOTE ]
a white LED in an Aquasignal 40 is that the green sector turns to a muddy blue

[/ QUOTE ] Thats not what Ultraleds claim for this one

 

[charles_reed]

Re: I understand

Yes and it doesn't - note the form of words on the site. "We are informed.."

Mind you the charitable would say it was greenish and unless the wavelength was specified, opinion on the colour would be totally subjective.

 

[tross]

Re: I understand

BTW

Just a couple of facts aabout things that I keep seeing on this subject

White are not a mixture of other colours - it it created by florescence in the same way as fluorescent lights work.

Not all LEDs do not have narrow viewing angles - some of the modern high power ones have viewing angles 120 degrees So when healing over they should still be viewable However, when you heal more than 60 degrees you my start to hit the cut off but I guess you will worrying about other things at that point!

 

[VicS]

Re: I understand

[ QUOTE ]
White are not a mixture of other colours - it it created by florescence in the same way as fluorescent lights work

[/ QUOTE ] I think you will find if you examine the light from fluorescent tubes or leds with a spectroscope that neither produces a continuous spectrum. The light is concentrated into bands corresponding to the phosphors used. I suspect that although modern fluorescent tubes may give a pretty good coverage that is not the case with LEDS.

It is important therefore that a white LED used in a tricolour lantern emits a good proportion of its light within the wavelength bands specified for the red and the green lenses as well as producing an overall emission that will be perceived by the eye as white.

I would guess that the difference between the new Aqua signal lamps and the Ultraled replacement bulbs is that they use different LED arrays for the red, green and white sectors. The red one emitting exclusively within the wavelength band for the red sector, the green one emitting within the band for the green sector and the white one simply emitting a blend of wavelengths that will be seen as white by the eye.