Masthead LED

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doug748

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Force Four do an LED replacement white 'bulb', which would fit my AquaSignal series 40 masthead tricolour, for about 49 quid.

Have you used one? How did the light look, was it OK?

Does the base fitting have to be changed or an I mixing this up with something else?

Thanks
 
doug748 said:
Force Four do an LED replacement white 'bulb', which would fit my AquaSignal series 40 masthead tricolour, for about 49 quid.

Have you used one? How did the light look, was it OK?

Does the base fitting have to be changed or an I mixing this up with something else?

Thanks
Click to expand...
I replaced the bulb in my AquaSignal tricolour with one of the "proper" three sectored LEDs from Force4.

That came with new holder which was necessary to align the LED unit correctly

A white LED array will be a bit of a compromise because warm white is better for the coloured sectors while cool white is better for the white sector .......


The three coloured sector LED array is currently £42.95 from Force 4 http://www.force4.co.uk/5546/Force-4-50-LED-Replacement-Tri-Colour-Nav-Light-Bulb.html


But why not also check out Boatlamps. http://www.boatlamps.co.uk/


Force4 say not to use the whte LED unit for the tricolour http://www.force4.co.uk/5557/Force-4-50-LED-Replacement-All-Round-White-Nav-Light-Bulb.html
 
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VicS said:
I replaced the bulb in my AquaSignal tricolour with one of the "proper" three sectored LEDs from Force4.

That came with new holder which was necessary to align the LED unit correctly

A white LED array will be a bit of a compromise because warm white is better for the coloured sectors while cool white is better for the white sector .......


The three coloured sector LED array is currently £42.95 from Force 4 http://www.force4.co.uk/5546/Force-4-50-LED-Replacement-Tri-Colour-Nav-Light-Bulb.html


But why not also check out Boatlamps.
Click to expand...

LED unit and new holder:

DSCF0956.jpg




Old and new holders:

DSCF0958.jpg
 
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>The three coloured sector LED array is currently £42.95 from Force 4 http://www.force4.co.uk/5546/Force-4...ight-Bulb.html

From the Force 4 site:
50 LED Replacement Tri-Colour Nav Light Bulb
This ultra bright 50 LED Bay15D replacement bulb will replace conventional 25Watt bulbs in Tri-Colour lights, converting them into LED ones. • Consumes just 3.5Watts • Extends battery life • Over 50,000 hours life • Waterproof • 12/24V.
Please Note: Some other LED products on the market are not bright enough to replace a 25W conventional bulb and safety is of the utmost importance when specifying navigation lights.

I love the bit about: 'Some other LED products on the market are not bright enough to replace a 25W conventional bulb and safety is of the utmost importance when specifying navigation lights'. Giving absolutely no proof that their LED's are brighter than others. I've seen many boats with LED lights and they are not anywhere near as bright as incandescent bulbs.
 
KellysEye said:
>The three coloured sector LED array is currently £42.95 from Force 4 http://www.force4.co.uk/5546/Force-4...ight-Bulb.html



I love the bit about: 'Some other LED products on the market are not bright enough to replace a 25W conventional bulb and safety is of the utmost importance when specifying navigation lights'. Giving absolutely no proof that their LED's are brighter than others. I've seen many boats with LED lights and they are not anywhere near as bright as incandescent bulbs.
Click to expand...


I know that it is purely subjective, but I fitted a dual sector red/green LED into my Aquasignal bow lamp a couple of years ago.

The boat was in our club marina and the bow could be clearly seen from a nearby bridge over 360 paces away.

With the incandesant bulb fitted First mate gave it marks out of ten. Then I fitted the dual sector LED. The marks out of ten were higher-the bulb was brighter and sharper.

The dual sector festoon bulb would rotate in use, misaligning the sectors and spoiling the cut off and colour.

The fix-perfect now-was to fix a cable tie at each end with the ends cut to tuck into the lamp body on opposite sides-so resisting any turning. A dab of superglue firmed it up.

I have seen our bow lamp from distance-about half a mile and it is very bright-certainly bright enough for me not to worry.

And, of course, it uses so little power now. Result.
 
KellysEye said:
I've seen many boats with LED lights and they are not anywhere near as bright as incandescent bulbs.
Click to expand...

The amusing thing is, of course, that you usually have no way of knowing what kind of bulb a particular light is using. So if you see a good, bright, correctly-coloured light go by, and you're prejudiced against LEDs, you'll probably assume it's incandescent even if it is in fact a good-quality LED.

There are a few bad LED nav lights out there, where people have stuck any old 99p eBay bulb into an existing holder. But if those are the only ones you notice, then your sample will be massively skewed.

Pete
 
prv said:
The amusing thing is, of course, that you usually have no way of knowing what kind of bulb a particular light is using. So if you see a good, bright, correctly-coloured light go by, and you're prejudiced against LEDs, you'll probably assume it's incandescent even if it is in fact a good-quality LED.

There are a few bad LED nav lights out there, where people have stuck any old 99p eBay bulb into an existing holder. But if those are the only ones you notice, then your sample will be massively skewed.

Pete
Click to expand...

+1

except I have been asked many times what type of bulbs I have in my nav lights, Hella incandescent I reply, the questioner sagely nods and says yes I can tell they're bright and the correct colour. (they are bright and red one is red and green one is green and I can see them for at least 2 miles - yes I tested them)

I fact they are 99p ebay LEDs . . . . . . .
 
Thanks everyone.

Vic, so you continue to use the existing Red Green and Clear lens then. Sounds like it could lose a lot of light?

What I have never understood - maybe I should put this in the other post - What I have never understood is why it has been designed with a new bulbholder. The adjustment is crude and just shoving into an existing holder could register it with the same degree of accuracy - I guess I am missing something here?
 
doug748 said:
Thanks everyone.

Vic, so you continue to use the existing Red Green and Clear lens then. Sounds like it could lose a lot of light?

What I have never understood - maybe I should put this in the other post - What I have never understood is why it has been designed with a new bulbholder. The adjustment is crude and just shoving into an existing holder could register it with the same degree of accuracy - I guess I am missing something here?
Click to expand...

Yes it continues to use the existing lens. Provided the colour of the LED's match the color of the lens it wont loose a lot of light. In fact one of the reasons not to use ordinary white LEDs is that they don't emit a continuous spectrum like filament bulbs so there is no guarantee that they emit much light that matches the colour of the lens.

Having said that Boatlamps suggest that their warm white gives a satisfactory performance in a bicolour.

I dont know why it was not made to fit the existing holder....... maybe the lanterns vary, maybe different makes vary I just know that it came with the new holder, which I was not expecting, and that if shoved into the old holder it would have been a long way out of alignment; 90 degrees or more.
 
doug748 said:
That's it I guess, different makes.

Anyway thanks for your post and the grand photos.
Click to expand...

I took the photos because the new holder surprised me a little. I thought it would be useful for others to know about it, esp if they thought all they had to do was pop up the mast and swap the bulbs over!

Oh and the LED thing is not marked so impossible to tell by looking at it which LEDs are which colour. First thing I had to do was power it up and mark the front.

You'd have thought it would have been marked but it wasn't.
 
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Highly reccommend that you contact Boatlamps as others have suggested.
I used their's for the tricolour and also fitted a "cool white" in the Anchor light at the same time.
The information supplied was excellent, and fitting was just a case of changing bulbs.
 
Bav32 said:
Highly reccommend that you contact Boatlamps as others have suggested.
I used their's for the tricolour and also fitted a "cool white" in the Anchor light at the same time.
The information supplied was excellent, and fitting was just a case of changing bulbs.
Click to expand...

Boatlamps offer warm white units for vessels upto 12metres and red/green/cool white units for vessels up to 20 metres

http://www.boatlamps.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d153.html
 
I replaced Aquasignal 25W bulbs with Searolf red, green and white LEDS. The LEDS are much brighter with good colours and 4 years on are still ok. Much cheaper than other marine suppliers. Just need to get up the mast (groan) and fit the anchor light LED.
 
>The amusing thing is, of course, that you usually have no way of knowing what kind of bulb a particular light is using.

If you look closely the white light on an LED tricolor has a slightly blue tinge.
 
AGREED if there is a light and you can see it then you must act upon it. I have viewed my cool white LED driven nav lights through both red and green filters and both are clearly visible and identifiable as red or green lights at 2 miles - so what is all the fuss about?

Incident Report:

Late at night I saw a light ahead, it was a white light tinged with blue so assumed it was of no significance, for that reason I deny all responsibility for the ensuing collision.
 
KellysEye said:
>The amusing thing is, of course, that you usually have no way of knowing what kind of bulb a particular light is using.

If you look closely the white light on an LED tricolor has a slightly blue tinge.
Click to expand...

...except when it doesn't.

If your means of identifying LEDs is "has a blue tinge", then of course 100% of LED lights have a blue tinge. The problem with this logic ought to be obvious.

Pete
 
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