Make your own anchor light.

[GHA]

Finally got round to soldering this up so thought it might be of interest to a few and probably no one will build one ?
This has been evolving slowly, original cobbled together version shined bright every night for a long time, DIY anchor light -also previously... Collaboration for DIY anchor light anyone?

This version has plc made up by jlcpcb, ordering the board is easiest through easyeda circuit & board here >
EasyEDA(Standard) - A Simple and Powerful Electronic Circuit Design Tool

Most components presoldered apart from the LEDs & transister. LEDs used are Cree C503D, mouser has them for about £0.19 each - https://www.mouser.co.uk/datasheet/2/90/C503D_WAN_935-274589.pdf
Transister used is a BUF725D pdf, BUF725D description, BUF725D datasheets, BUF725D view ::: ALLDATASHEET ::: , actually messed up a bit there by just grabbing one out of a bits box which I though was a FET as used before, but seems to be just fine.

Made from some 50mm plastic pipe, board was trimmed down til it just fitted inside the pipe a little bit tight so it's stayed there while the first LEDs were soldered on. LEDs a bit fiddly to get in but not that bad after the first few.
PDF attached with template for the hole centres though I used CAD so be worth checking the scaling of the pdf.

Draws about 140mA. Really bright and LEDs running just under 60% of their rated current so should last forever.

Potted in epoxy now glue gunned onto a piece of plastic, just waiting for that to harden and job done. ? This one will go on top of the tricolour so there's a bit of studding to mount it inset. Took a few hours to solder up, boards were E17.69 for 5 plus delivery. LEDs, about £22 for enough for 5 boards, so under 40 quid for 5 boards or about 8 quid each plus delivery of the boards & LEDs.
Well worth a good few hours on google/youtube figuring it out ?

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Fine job but I think would bebest left for the electronics hobbyists, as whenever I attempt to solder anything onto a PCB it always ends up fried ?.
If I didn't already have an allround white incorporated in my tricolour, I would just take the path of least resistance, (forgive the pun?), and just hang a light in the foretriangle with a lead running to a 12v socket.

 

[GHA]

If I didn't already have an allround white incorporated in my tricolour, I would just take the path of least resistance, (forgive the pun?), and just hang a light in the foretriangle with a lead running to a 12v socket.

I've both, masthead just cos you should and a low one for the real world. Might mount another on the radar arch, 8 quid a pop why not ?

 

[rotrax]

I use an LED lantern with 3 'D' cells. Cheap cells from the pound shop.

Lasts about ten nights hung in the foretriangle and is very bright.

It was not expensive.

 

[rogerthebodger]

People will come along ant tell you you are wasting you time as you can buy one cheaper and use it straight away.

I personally don't subscribe to that as its the challenge of designing and producing some thing useful. Certainly I get great pleasure from the design and manufacture for my self. But like others we get ridiculed as some just write a cheque.

Maybe it because they just cannot do it and that OK but they should not ridicule those who can.

I also challenge convention with a view to improve convention. This is how we the human race progress.

 

[GHA]

That should get them going, Roger ?
Though in fairness not many people spend much than a night here and there on the hook, cheapo will do. LIveaboard cruising mainly at anchor is different where an ultra bright, low power, ultra reliable light is an absolutely vital piece of kit.

 

[rogerthebodger]

That should get them going, Roger ?
Though in fairness not many people spend much than a night here and there on the hook, cheapo will do. LIveaboard cruising mainly at anchor is different where an ultra bright, low power, ultra reliable light is an absolutely vital piece of kit.

Agree

Your design could also be the basis of internal lights and other nav lights with different colour LED is.

I made some under shelve LED from strips of LED's and Cockpit lights using both red and white LEDs inside using warm white in outside a combination of warm and cool LED to be used if I need to read charts or have a nice romantic evening with SMMBO.

Another application could be life buoy light with a tilt switch or a Dan buoy light with a magnetic switch.

I made some life buoy lights of our night time catamaran sailing to light the course markers.

 

[scruff]

I use an LED lantern with 3 'D' cells. Cheap cells from the pound shop.

Lasts about ten nights hung in the foretriangle and is very bright.

It was not expensive.

Decathlon, in their camping section, do a led camping lantern with a hook. Takes 4 (AA's or AAA's I forget which) batteries and lasts basically forever on one set of batteries. I had to change them last season for the first time in 3-4 years. Must be 100+ nights used as an anchor light. Really quite good!

 

[Black Sheep]

I'm really interested in the ideas here, as making-it-yourself gives options for things you can't (as far as I know) buy.

What I'd love, is an annular light. Doughnut shaped. It would go round a 25mm alloy tube. A 1m+ tube with a red-led version near the top, and a green-led version near the bottom would mount nicely as a pole on top of the main mast. Red over Green with great visibility, and legal to carry at the same time as deck navlights. Perfect for a little boat in big waves.

It might take me a while to get to grips with the EasyEDA tools, but it looks do-able.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I'm really interested in the ideas here, as making-it-yourself gives options for things you can't (as far as I know) buy.

What I'd love, is an annular light. Doughnut shaped. It would go round a 25mm alloy tube. A 1m+ tube with a red-led version near the top, and a green-led version near the bottom would mount nicely as a pole on top of the main mast. Red over Green with great visibility, and legal to carry at the same time as deck navlights. Perfect for a little boat in big waves.

It might take me a while to get to grips with the EasyEDA tools, but it looks do-able.

Just replace the white LED in GHA's design with red and a second with green and Bob's your, well you know the rest.

 

[Black Sheep]

I think my post can't have been very clear.

I can work out that swapping white LEDs to red ones will change it from a white light to a red one. That doesn't require any changes to the circuit board.

What I am after is an annular light; a doughnut shaped one; one with a hole in the middle through which I can thrust a 25mm alloy pole.
That way, I can have a very simple and strong tube with all-round LED lights mounted integrally around the pole.

GHA's design, as it stands, is similar to the commercial all-round lights I have seen, and would require mounting on a bracket offset from the pole. More complex, heavier and with greater windage than what I have in mind for this specific application.

So I'd need to modify the circuit board so there's nothing in the middle (which might put the power transistor a little close to the LEDs, thermally?) and ideally with the middle already punched out. Also look for a short length of tube with an ID slightly greater than the OD of the pole. And sort out how to manage the power connections. But GHA's done the hard work.

Here's my CAD (crap-awful-doodle) of the sort of thing I mean (not to any kind of scale!):

 

[[70521]]

This chap has a much simpler design

 

[rogerthebodger]

I see what you are looking at but there are numerous ways to make the gap between the lights without any mods to the PCB.

GHA uses 50 mm PVC tube you could fit a 50 to 40 PVC reducer the use 40 mm OD PVC tube to connect the to lights together.

You could use 3 aluminium strips screwed to the outside of the lights narrow enough to go between the LEDs.

You could also use 3 or 4 mm stainless steel rods to hold the lights apart.

round conduit boxes could also be used with the same PCB but the led legs extended to poke through the conduit box. The lids modified to glue 25 mm conduit with aluminium tube inside for strength.

These are just some off the top of my head.

 

[TernVI]

I think my post can't have been very clear.

I can work out that swapping white LEDs to red ones will change it from a white light to a red one. That doesn't require any changes to the circuit board.

What I am after is an annular light; a doughnut shaped one; one with a hole in the middle through which I can thrust a 25mm alloy pole.
That way, I can have a very simple and strong tube with all-round LED lights mounted integrally around the pole.

GHA's design, as it stands, is similar to the commercial all-round lights I have seen, and would require mounting on a bracket offset from the pole. More complex, heavier and with greater windage than what I have in mind for this specific application.

So I'd need to modify the circuit board so there's nothing in the middle (which might put the power transistor a little close to the LEDs, thermally?) and ideally with the middle already punched out. Also look for a short length of tube with an ID slightly greater than the OD of the pole. And sort out how to manage the power connections. But GHA's done the hard work.

Here's my CAD (crap-awful-doodle) of the sort of thing I mean (not to any kind of scale!):
View attachment 112327

It's pretty easy to make something like that with no CAD or PCBs.
I made an anchor light years ago with white LEDS. 3 LEDs in series, resistor to set the current, a few of these strings in parallel. Solder it up as 'birds nest' align the LEDs as you wish and smother it in hot melt glue.
It's not posh, but it's worked fine for about 10 years now.

You could arrange the red and Green LEDs around a length of plastic or ali tube, or even around a C-shape which would clip around the mast?

You can make a slightly more efficient job using complicated electronics, but the basic resistor is nearly as good, so if you want one, just do it. LEDs are cheap, resistors are cheap ebay is your friend.

It helps if you have a voltmeter and a variable supply to play with.
But take some typical white LEDs. 20mA, 3.3V
3 in series = 9.9V. Assume 14V with the engine running, 4V/20mA = about 200ohms in series.
With your battery down to 12V you'll only get 10mA, so put plenty of LEDs up there.

Unlike actual 'nav' lights, red over green doesn't need accurate angular divisions.

So long as you remember which end of the soldering iron is which, you are unlikely to do yourself much harm with this project.

 

[greeny]

I think my post can't have been very clear.

I can work out that swapping white LEDs to red ones will change it from a white light to a red one. That doesn't require any changes to the circuit board.

What I am after is an annular light; a doughnut shaped one; one with a hole in the middle through which I can thrust a 25mm alloy pole.
That way, I can have a very simple and strong tube with all-round LED lights mounted integrally around the pole.

GHA's design, as it stands, is similar to the commercial all-round lights I have seen, and would require mounting on a bracket offset from the pole. More complex, heavier and with greater windage than what I have in mind for this specific application.

So I'd need to modify the circuit board so there's nothing in the middle (which might put the power transistor a little close to the LEDs, thermally?) and ideally with the middle already punched out. Also look for a short length of tube with an ID slightly greater than the OD of the pole. And sort out how to manage the power connections. But GHA's done the hard work.

Here's my CAD (crap-awful-doodle) of the sort of thing I mean (not to any kind of scale!):
View attachment 112327

Strip led lighting coiled hellically up the pole for whatever length you desire maybe a simple answer.

 

[greeny]

5 minute lash up on a broom handle for example. Or do the same on a slightly bigger tube that your pole will slip inside.
Apologies for the state of the garage, work in progress.

 

[rotrax]

Decathlon, in their camping section, do a led camping lantern with a hook. Takes 4 (AA's or AAA's I forget which) batteries and lasts basically forever on one set of batteries. I had to change them last season for the first time in 3-4 years. Must be 100+ nights used as an anchor light. Really quite good!

Seen that one, but not as bright as mine.

That probably explains its longer battery life.

Mine came from a Farm Supply outfit locally.

Pity it take 'D' cells, but pound shop ones last equally as long as Duracells - and dont leak!

 

[PetiteFleur]

I have two anchor ĺights, one is an Aldi led lantern with AA or AAA batteries which last a long time, just hung up in the foretriangle. The second is a bought all round white which I've fitted with a bright led bulb and a night time sensor, plugged into the boats 12v system, also hanging in the foretriangle.

 

[MADRIGAL]

Nice work (the OP by GH). Although I would have to ask for some help with the electrics, I might look at doing something like that to make all around red-over-green sailing lights, to place “one metre apart, at or near the top of the mast”, as the Colregs say.

 

[prv]

I've both, masthead just cos you should and a low one for the real world.

No idea why “you should” - my anchor light is just above the ball, hoisted by the spinnaker halyard with the wire running down the middle of the braided downhaul. It also looks very similar to yours - it’s a (no longer available) Bebi, which I believe was the inspiration ?

(Mine does also have a daylight sensor built in, which I find useful. I switch on the power to it as soon as I anchor in the afternoon, and ignore it until the morning.)

Pete