LED Nav lights

[Idlerboat]

I am building a set of Nav lights using super bright LEDs so far I think that I have got the whole system down to about 10 watts including a white mast head or red over green mast head, white stern, red port and green starboard. Has anyone else had a play with these LEDs ? Any advice, problems , reflectors etc etc.

Our weather is going crazy too here in the land of Oz bushfire season is three months early its a worry.

regards to all

marty_dean@yahoo.com
Idler.

 

[rogerm]

On the one hand it would be a really good idea if LED nav lights could be arranged and I have to say I haven't tried to do it myself.

On the other hand (as an electronics engineer) it seems to me there is a bit of a problem. Nav lights are built to work with bulbs which not only produce light in 360° horizontally (assuming base down) but also in something like 300° vertically and the light output is fairly even in all of these directions.

Now most LED's produce light mostly within a 30° cone of their centre line. Even the most I have seen is a 180° cone but even then most of the light output is towards the centreline and falls off drastically as the angle moves away.

Since, as sailors, we are mostly interested in a more or less horizontal component I guess things could be improved by mounting, say, 8x super bright wide angle LED's in a horizontal ring. 16 LED's would be even better.

So is that how you are doing it? Or another scheme might be to have a single (or small bundle) of super bright wide angle LED's pointing upwards underneath a small cone shaped mirror, with the LED at the pointed end??
Roger

 

[dickh]

I remember reading recently that one of the Nav light manufacturers were going to market LED nav lights - I think it was Hella or the other German Manufacturer - sorry can't remember their name! - it's the well known one that has very expensive spares!!
Haven't seen any yet and I bet they will be expensive!

dickh
I'd rather be sailing...

 

[seaesta]

It is worth looking at the collission regulations which specify the power required for each light. Even if your get the LEDs to give more light than say a 10w bulb you may be open to claims (from your own insurers and third parties) that you are not using proper lights.

The dry land sharks are cruising on this one

Martin of Seaesta of Whitby

 

[Plum]

have you seen this: http://www.goodrich-hella.com/catalog/Chapter08_Position_Lights\08_0010_Navigation_Lights.pdf

 

[Plum]

have you seen this: http://www.goodrich-hella.com/catalog/Chapter08_Position_Lights\08_0010_Navigation_Lights.pdf
or this: http://www.hellamarine.com/eng/produktinfos/i_prodinfnaviled.html

 

[bedouin]

I found a company in America that sells kits to convert various standard nav lights to LEDs - but they were fairly expensive.

It is possible that you will have problems with the colours required. Although LEDs look white I am sure they do not produce a continuous spectrum - but must just produce 2 or 3 frequencies that together look to the human eye like white. Sticking a green lens in front of it might not produce the expected effect.

 

[ccscott49]

These are for aircraft, different regs I think.

 

[andyball]

The second link does say hella "marine", so they're probably for boats <g>

 

[dickhicks]

Look at www.naviled.com - they are made by Hella Marine, but only seem to have green & red and only for 1 or 2 NM. Also only approved for USA, European Approval pending...
They look like small ones suitable for say up to 20' boats but they are sealed to IP67, last for years, use 8 watts instead of 20watts, but probably only available in the US - no prices shown.

 

[andyball]

West Marine sell Perko made led lights too,bi-colours,sidelights(for under & over 20m) & a white all-round.

 

[ruthhobson]

Spoke to HWMBO as he works for a firm that makes road signs and that kind of thing. From his experience he said his main worry would be the visibility as the LEDs he works with are not suitable for all jobs - for example you can see them from straight on be as soon as you are viewing from an angle you have problems. So if they are the same type he is using they would be OK but you would need to use them in a "cluster".

Hope the advice is useful and makes sense.

Ruth

 

[spark]

Just been to the West website and can find no mention (via search or browse) of LED nav lights, Perko or otherwise. Where did you see them?

 

[andyball]

Ummm, West Marine catalogue 2002,p.664+668.

Must say, that I can't find 'em on Perko's (normally v.useful) site

 

[spark]

Found them in the West e-catalogue thingy. Thanks.

 

[Idlerboat]

So far I have done it by having the Leds facing upwards with a circle of acrylic mirror above and below all in a lens I got from a car odd parts place. It seems to work very well and has no problems with angle change. I am going to play with it some more!

marty_dean@yahoo
Idler

 

[Guest]

Hi,
I have been interested in LED internal lights, hadn't thought about nav lights.
Some traffic lights here appear to be made from LED's, they must be bright to be seen in the day. We are on the sunshine coast, where are you?

Lash

 

[Guest]

Hi guys,
I have built an LED anchor light and will soon fiddle with the nav lamps. A good source of superbright LEDs here in OZ is from http://www.oatleyelectronics.com/ , unfortunately they are currently out of stock of the white ones but they usually get them in pretty fast again. Use two of them in series with a current limiter for each leg. I used four for the mast light with a cone of alfoil glued above them to solve the beam width problem not unlike you suggested with the mirror. The crushed alfoil seems to spread the light all over the place and is visible from a long way for 60mA current draw!! (less than a watt)

A lot of the replies mention legalities and insurance implications of doing this, I am not sure if this applies in OZ as I haven't seen any mention of regulations covering boats under 12 metres. I use the anchor light on my trailer sailor in Moreton Bay and haven't been run into yet!!! Mind you until I made this light I used to just light a kero wick storm lantern and hang it off the forestay but I have become paranoid of fires. You would have needed a night scope to see it!

If you need to know how to do the current limit thing I have a PDF on it somewhere. You can get the regulators from tricky Dickies for about $1.00 and all you need is one resistor as well.

The traffic lights using them are simply the same LEDs as you or I can buy however they do tricks which I am going to experiment with soon too. You can pulse an LED with about 10 time it's normal current provided you only have it switched on for 10% duty cycle and you get about the same amount of apparent brightness. This means you can run 10 of them for 10 times the light but the same average current as one.

When I get some time (yeah right) I will have a fiddle with this as well.

Cheers

Derek

 

[brianrunyard]

Don't nav lights have to be "approved"? Brightness, range, coverage etc. Might affect insurance.

Brian
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/brunyard

 

[Guest]

Saw an add for LED lighting but specifically stated that they were not approved for use as Nav lights - can't remember why though but I am sure if they were ok they would have been marketed ages ago.