Mood Lighting

lanerboy

lanerboy

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Hi All

Can anyone suggest some nice 12v lights to use for blue LED mood lighting in the cockpit of a sports boat below the seat bases, if anyone has a link to some I would like to take a look

EDIT-forgot to say is it possible to have them on a dimmer switch

cheers shawn
 
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That question is a bit out of my league, I know some can but not sure about these particular ones.

Would imagine if they are in the cockpit at low level then they might not need dimming, have you considered replacing your current LED bulbs with Blue ones?
 
Plenty are dimmable Provided you buy LED. I'd just fit an eBay £3 dimmer and try it (usually they have remotes, so chuck it out if it doesn't work and try another at £3). http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wireless-...812?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item56650ceacc

The timage one you link to needs a big rectangular cut out. I have a bag of 10 of those bought in error. You'd find life much easier if you bought the little Hella ones that are MUCH easier to fit because they just need a round hole. They are very nice, blue or white, lots of colours for the plastic cover, high quality made in NZ and OEM fit to Fairlines up to the 65. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hella-Mar...ated-Cap-/321563671871?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

I'd think carefully about the blue and consider cold (well, >3200k) white :) Each to their own though!

Finally, if you have an edge to hide them under, then LED strip lighting is best and you might as well then fit RGB. In a GRP cockpit you often wont have an edge to hide them under of course, but they're good in the interior under sofa edges, step nosings, curtain pelmets and so on. I've got them all over though will admit that my boat is a bit Gosport nightclub in this respect :D
 
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jfm said:
Plenty are dimmable Provided you buy LED. I'd just fit an eBay £3 dimmer and try it (usually they have remotes, so chuck it out if it doesn't work and try another at £3). http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wireless-...812?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item56650ceacc

The timage one you link to needs a big rectangular cut out. I have a bag of 10 of those bought in error. You'd find life much easier if you bought the little Hella ones that are MUCH easier to fit because they just need a round hole. They are very nice, blue or white, lots of colours for the plastic cover, high quality made in NZ and OEM fit to Fairlines up to the 65. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hella-Mar...ated-Cap-/321563671871?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

I'd think carefully about the blue and consider cold (well, >3200k) white :) Each to their own though!

Finally, if you have an edge to hide them under, then LED strip lighting is best and you might as well then fit RGB. In a GRP cockpit you often wont have an edge to hide them under of course, but they're good in the interior under sofa edges, step nosings, curtain pelmets and so on. I've got them all over though will admit that my boat is a bit Gosport nightclub in this respect :D
Click to expand...

Going to use the rope type led lights under the bathing platform, 5 mtr for £7.00 from our favorite Internet seller, best part is no transformer jus 2 bare 12 v wires to plumb in
 
One of the big issues with lighting these days is that we are all massively spoilt for choice. You can choose colour, intensity, shape of fitting, CRI and so on, plus different forms of control. Whole different world from 5 years ago.

Below pic shows the hella lights I referred to above, in my staircase...
cabins%20lobby.jpg



Somehwat randomly I suppose, while I like RGB moodlighting I prefer white on the decks:
nightsidedeck.jpg



Below are RGB in furniture edges and vases. IMHO you need RGB not blue. Blue is too dark; adding some green gives you a nice cyan and you can have anything else too - eg red is good for when you're watching back episodes of Dexter :D. The vase lighting is cool because there are glass beads in the vase that split out the spectrum projecting a kaleidoscope onto the white ceiling, based upon the source colours, So when the light is cyan it is just a green and blue kaleidoscope for example, but you can create any combo you want. BTW, I wouldn't buy RGB strips from eBay because I've tried several and they're junk. Single colour strips might be ok. All the RGB strips in pics below are £100/5metres from professional shop fitting suppliers. Anything else is waste of money. The eBay controllers and amplifiers are fine though
main%20deck_1.jpg

phoca_thumb_l_sized_imgp8307.jpg

IMG_4460.jpg

IMG_4461.jpg


This youtube shows cabin with edge lighting set to purple and also the effect as it glows on silver roman blinds
 
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jfm said:
One of the big issues with lighting these days is that we are all massively spoilt for choice. You can choose colour, intensity, shape of fitting, CRI and so on, plus different forms of control. Whole different world from 5


Below are RGB in furniture edges and vases. IMHO you need RGB not blue. Blue is too dark; adding some green gives you a nice cyan and you can have anything else too - eg red is good for when you're watching back episodes of Dexter :D. The vase lighting is cool because there are glass beads in the vase that split out the spectrum projecting a kaleidoscope onto the white ceiling, based upon the source colours, So when the light is cyan it is just a green and blue kaleidoscope for example, but you can create any combo you want. I wouldn't buy RGB from eBay because I've tried several and they're junk. All these strips are £100/5metres from professional shop fitting suppliers. Anything else is waste of money. The eBay controllers and amplifiers are fine though
main%20deck_1.jpg
Click to expand...

The lighting looks great but to bang an old drum you have excelled yourself in demonstrating the stupidity of scatter cushions. You cant even get on that aft most chair. Bonkers!! :)
 
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They're not made of blimmin granite Mark: they sqwish when you sit on them! I have (or maybe Hurricane/JimmyBuilderViewfinder has) a pic of our Jack and Chantal canoodling on that chair, with several cushions also in residence, which I'll have to dig out to prove my point! :D :D

(I presume the cushions on the beds don't pass muster either!)
 
jfm said:
They're not made of blimmin granite Mark: they sqwish when you sit on them! I have (or maybe Hurricane/JimmyBuilderViewfinder has) a pic of our Jack and Chantal canoodling on that chair, with several cushions also in residence, which I'll have to dig out to prove my point! :D :D

(I presume the cushions on the beds don't pass muster either!)
Click to expand...

Pah. I'd chuck em on the floor which would spoil the lighting. :).
 
lanerboy said:
Hi All

Can anyone suggest some nice 12v lights to use for blue LED mood lighting in the cockpit of a sports boat below the seat bases, if anyone has a link to some I would like to take a look

EDIT-forgot to say is it possible to have them on a dimmer switch

cheers shawn
Click to expand...

Just from experience not expert knowledge but the various dimmers can be very dependent on the length of led strip if you use or they really don't work properly. You can get much from ban good.com if you are a little patient and you may want to use waterproof led strip. If so you need to track down the electrical connectors as the silicon coating makes them a bit of a bujjer to connect. I have put a link up before but can't remember where to get these myself. Point is the usually available ones on eBay won't fit on waterproof strip.
If you want to adjust the brightness sort of permanently then you can use a 60p potentiometer from maplin.Again what dims within a suitable range will totally depend on the length not the strip. These LEDs are very sensitive to a suitable voltage?or is it amps--!
Anyway,I sorted all this out right at the end of the season as I wrapped the boat up so I don't have any photos.Swmbo was impressed.
Not that cost is your driver but 5m of strip might be a tenner'60p for the pot and about the same for the connector. Hell, if you don't like it, bin it!
I think you need to be careful that you don't end up with a scene looking like that hoak CSI sketch with the ahhh...love scanner :-)
 
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Hmmm. I don't agree all that. The dimmers are very tolerant of differing LED strip lengths normally. You just need to be inside the dimmer's rating, which is generally easy, and if not you just add an amplifier downstream of the dimmer. All these dimmers and amplifiers are a few £ only on eBay. Your proposed potentiometer method is very crude. The correct dimmers are switching transistors and they turn the LEDs on/off thousands of times a second, way faster than the eye can see. To dim they just turn the LEDs off for a few more microseconds in each cycle and turn them on for less time (pulse width modulation) , which is wholly different from using a potentiometer. I wouldn't use a potentiometer at all in this sort of project when proper dimmers are available for a few pounds
 
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