Ikea Dioder?

C

causeway

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http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00202324/

Has anyone used these on their boat? They look like they would make great uplighters.

What i really want to know is can i wire an extra switch to control them by? Is it like the cheap strip leds where you have to press the momentary switch to turn them on? I'd like to wire them into my main switch panel so i can hide the ugly control box.

many thanks
 
You'd probaly be better off buying the LED strips off of ebay. You can cut them to length. They are also self adhesive and work out a LOT cheaper than the Ikea ones
 
We have a set of them bought 2 years ago, main problem is the feeble output compared to the latest LED self adhesive strips described above.
 
I have bought an LED strip off e-bay. The plan is to fit it behind the slightly translucent holding tank so that by turning it on I will be able to check the level in the tank. Last year a test by dropping a bulb on a wire behind the tank showed that it did make it possible to see how full it was. A vertical strip of LEDs should do a better job.
 
I installed two dioder strips in my boat, with a extra switch. I did not use the ugly box. Pay attention to the polarity of the wiring. The strips give a lot of light!
 
Yep, I fitted four in the row in the galley, I have used my own switch, rest went in the bin.
Working fine last 10-11 months and give plenty of light too
 
BarryH said:
You'd probaly be better off buying the LED strips off of ebay. You can cut them to length. They are also self adhesive and work out a LOT cheaper than the Ikea ones
Click to expand...

I recently gave a talk to a Sailing Association and below is the Q and A sheet produced. The content is self explanatory and sends a clear message to boat-owners to be very careful when using LED products designed for the home on their boats where the electrical characteristics can differ considerably to that found in homes. Voltage on boats can vary considerably and this can present dangers when products are used that they were not designed for. Flexible LED strip can pose real danger of fire as poor quality strip uses very thin copper tracks on the PCBs and when excess current flows these tracks heat up to a point where I fear that flammable material could catch fire.

Q. 12V LED lighting strip seems perfect for lighting the interior of my boat, are there any issues that I should be aware of?

A. The supply voltage on our boats can vary considerably from a nominal 12V. Boat owners need to be aware of the effect this has on LED strip. It is not widely appreciated that the current passing through LEDs increases almost exponentially as voltage increases.

For example, test results for a small length of typical 5050 LED Strip comprising of only 9 x 5050 LEDs exposed to a range of DC voltages resulted in the following results:

@12V (nominal battery voltage) I=163mA, bright light, warm strip

@13.8V (engine running voltage) I=255mA, much brighter light, excessively hot strip

@16V = (charging voltage, equalisation mode) I=377mA, very much brighter light, burnt finger touching strip!

As can be seen, as the voltage increased both the current and light output increased. At 16V the strip was simply too hot to touch after a few seconds. 16V is becoming more common on boats, modern smart battery chargers apply this sort of voltage when automatically running equalisation cycles to even battery cell voltages.

Excessive current and associated heat generated is very damaging to LEDs and operating LED strip at any voltage above its specified working voltage will damage it and at best result in a very significant reduction in the service life of the strip and at worst could result in a risk of fire. Longer strips increase the risk of fire as significant current can flow in the often very thin PCB tracks used in low price LED strip products which are saturating the market.

A further point worth considering is that electrical conductors on boats are invariably tinned to limit corrosion, common in damp and often saline atmospheres. Most LED lighting strip comes fashioned out of flexible copper PCB commonly not tinned. PCB tracks are measured in microns, these strips may not last very long unless very well protected. We have even observed tell tale verdigris type contamination on the so called water-proof variety of the strip, particularly at the solder terminations.

12V LED flexible strip lighting its not really suitable for widespread use on our boats unless a voltage stabilisation product is used with it. The same is true of other resistive controlled LED products.

Regards
 
You can get a 12v regulator from RS for about £2.00 and the heat sink for it is another £3.00, well worth the expenditure since it will guarantee a long life and the colours won't change which can happen if the voltage goes high enough to overheat the phosphor.

Tony.
 
Adrian Jones said:
I recently gave a talk to a Sailing Association and below is the Q and A sheet produced. The content is self explanatory and sends a clear message to boat-owners to be very careful when using LED products designed for the home on their boats where the electrical characteristics can differ considerably to that found in homes. Voltage on boats can vary considerably and this can present dangers when products are used that they were not designed for. Flexible LED strip can pose real danger of fire as poor quality strip uses very thin copper tracks on the PCBs and when excess current flows these tracks heat up to a point where I fear that flammable material could catch fire.

Q. 12V LED lighting strip seems perfect for lighting the interior of my boat, are there any issues that I should be aware of?

A. The supply voltage on our boats can vary considerably from a nominal 12V. Boat owners need to be aware of the effect this has on LED strip. It is not widely appreciated that the current passing through LEDs increases almost exponentially as voltage increases.

For example, test results for a small length of typical 5050 LED Strip comprising of only 9 x 5050 LEDs exposed to a range of DC voltages resulted in the following results:

@12V (nominal battery voltage) I=163mA, bright light, warm strip

@13.8V (engine running voltage) I=255mA, much brighter light, excessively hot strip

@16V = (charging voltage, equalisation mode) I=377mA, very much brighter light, burnt finger touching strip!

As can be seen, as the voltage increased both the current and light output increased. At 16V the strip was simply too hot to touch after a few seconds. 16V is becoming more common on boats, modern smart battery chargers apply this sort of voltage when automatically running equalisation cycles to even battery cell voltages.

Excessive current and associated heat generated is very damaging to LEDs and operating LED strip at any voltage above its specified working voltage will damage it and at best result in a very significant reduction in the service life of the strip and at worst could result in a risk of fire. Longer strips increase the risk of fire as significant current can flow in the often very thin PCB tracks used in low price LED strip products which are saturating the market.

A further point worth considering is that electrical conductors on boats are invariably tinned to limit corrosion, common in damp and often saline atmospheres. Most LED lighting strip comes fashioned out of flexible copper PCB commonly not tinned. PCB tracks are measured in microns, these strips may not last very long unless very well protected. We have even observed tell tale verdigris type contamination on the so called water-proof variety of the strip, particularly at the solder terminations.

12V LED flexible strip lighting its not really suitable for widespread use on our boats unless a voltage stabilisation product is used with it. The same is true of other resistive controlled LED products.

Regards
Click to expand...

Agree with lots of that.
LEDs are wonderful things when used correctly.

Lots of places to get good value constant current drivers, LEDs etc.
 
Jabs said:
You can get a 12v regulator from RS for about £2.00 and the heat sink for it is another £3.00, well worth the expenditure since it will guarantee a long life and the colours won't change which can happen if the voltage goes high enough to overheat the phosphor.

Tony.
Click to expand...

I'm Mr Negative today...my apologies...

Linear regulators, which I suspect are being referring to as the device requires a heat sink, are great for powering very low powered devices. They are easy to use, inexpensive and consequently are popular. However, due to the way they work, they are extremely inefficient. By installing LED lighting we want to increase efficiency not reduce it.

A linear regulator works by taking the difference between the input and output voltages, and in effect just burn excess current up as waste heat. The larger the difference between the input and output voltage, the more heat is produced. In most cases, a linear regulator wastes more power stepping down the voltage than it actually ends up delivering to the target device!

With typical efficiency of 40%, and reaching as low as 14%, linear voltage regulation generate a lot of waste heat which must be dissipated with bulky and relatively expensive heat sinks. Even the new LDO (low drop-out) regulators are still just inefficient linear regulators - they just give you more flexibility with input voltage drops. Linear regulators can produce considerable EMI (electro magnetic interference), something not particularly desirable where VHF and AIS installations are present.

In terms of practicability, by the time you add the cost of an enclosure for each device and time spent building a controller for each lamp, in my opinion its far better to use a dedicated DC-DC voltage stabilser that uses state of the art switch-mode technology. These are available with 25W units for around £20 and are perfect for connecting a wide range of LED non controlled products and are far more efficient and don't radiate EMI.

Regards
 
nigelmercier said:
I agree with Adrian as well, but I'm interested in where you can get good value CC drivers: I have found it impossible to get a simple device to drive a chain of LEDs from 12V.
Click to expand...

We designed a DC-DC voltage conversion circuit and had it made for us in the Far-East, frustratingly I couldn't get anyone in UK to produce it economically! Its a small 10-30VDC to 12VDC switch-mode DC-DC converter which maintains its 12V output independent of the input voltage and is rated at 24W. My last batch has sold well and users seem very happy with it, if you need one order quickly they will soon be on back-order. We actually developed the unit so that we could sell less costly resister controlled lamps to boat-owners who were buying lamps off Hong Kong based Chinese suppliers on Ebay and unwittingly putting their boats at risk. By using the DC-DC converter, constant current for each lamp is pretty much guaranteed, in effect it's a constant voltage 12V DC supply. The latest trend in using LED flexible strip lighting on boats is set to continue and this device is also great for protecting strip from excess voltage.

Regards
 
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