Stealth install LED drivers/controllers for boats

[annageek]

For some time, I have wanted an RGB LED driver that I can install for the LED strips fitted in our cockpit. There are thousands available, many for under a tenner if you really want to go to the budget end of the market. But none seem to meet my requirements of being suitable for marine environments, and allwing for a neat and stealthy install (i.e. doesn't stick out like a sore thumb/uses same switchgear as the rest of the boat etc).

I therefore plan to design a single switch general purpose controller. The idea being that you dedicate an 'on/off' switch (in my case, the existing Carling switch that currently just turns on/off power to the LED strip controller). It would work as follows:

1. Switch on, and the lights come on (either in their last setting / standard colour / low level red 'safe light' - not sure which is best, but possibly it could be pre-selected by an internal switch at time of install).

2. To change colour, toggle the switch off-on quickly and the colours gently scroll. You can either leave the colours scrolling, or perform another off-on toggle to freeze the scrolling on its current colour.

3. To change the brightness (not really an oft-used function in my opinion), double toggle the switch (off-on-off-on) and the brightness gently fades in and out. An off-on toggle will freeze the brightness on its current level.

The toggling sounds cumbersome, but with a rocker/toggle switch, is actually reasonably easy/practical.

Critically, this will driver will have sufficient input filtering in order to prevent conducted emissions messing about with VHF radios (a common problem with the cheaper LED drivers, in my experience) and will be encapsulated with flying leads for waterproof splicing into connections to eliminate any corrosion/ingress protection problems. Based on other similar products I've developed, I expect the cost to buy would be around £40-60

Would this be of interest to others? Is it too limiting/seem like too much of a faff to install? Is there anything else that would make this more worthwhile?

I'm am going to make a one off, because I want one. I'm not expecting to scale it up massively, but even if there is a small market (through eBay or whatever) then I would like to go the extra mile to make a polished 'product' rather than a one off DIY job.

 

[rafiki_]

I would like a dimmer for the saloon. The lights are too bright, as there are probably too many of them.

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

Bloo toof, everything is an app now.

 

[annageek]

I would like a dimmer for the saloon. The lights are too bright, as there are probably too many of them.
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...ers-controllers-for-boats#HtV5FZlZyWVcv0I6.99

It should allow for this... that's sort of the point of no. 3, above. It may be the lowest priority setting, but my thinking is that with most dimmers for rooms, you very rarely change the brightness. Once it's set, you don't normally need to adjust it hour-hour / day-day.

Bloo toof, everything is an app now.
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...ers-controllers-for-boats#HtV5FZlZyWVcv0I6.99

I know there are a lot of WiFi/Bluetooth enabled drivers available, but even that seems too much of an inelegant/overcomplicated solution. I don't like the idea of having to use an unrelated device to control a fixed installation of something. Its just my opinion though, and that may very well differ from the masses. I just know that I have numerous WiFi/Bluetooth devices that on the odd occasion I go to use, and they just don't work quite right, and I have to spend 10 minutes tinkering with settings, working out what is wrong. A very 1st world problem, but then I am talking about LED mood lights here - hardly one of life's necessities!

 

[jfm]

I've fitted plenty of RGB strips inside the boat (I had all the 4 core wiring installed to my spec during the build ). My thoughts are that you need good quality LED strips but the controllers off eBay for £10 or so are perfectly fine. They fail after perhaps 1000 hours but I keep spares to do a quick swap, and buy the ones in the extruded aluminium cases with green connectors on one end to make swapping them easy

For boat use I gotta say the remote controllers with these lights seem fine. "Unrelated device", admittedly, and I get your desire for a carling switch in a row of carlings. But I find that usually, once set, the LEDs are left for a while and once you have a favourite colour you might not alter it for ages imho, so you might not use the remote too often. The toggling idea you describe while neat is therefore perhaps a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. The controllers can be waterproofed inside a junction box obviously, and the rf-signal signal will pass through the box perfectly well

IMHO it is critical that they remember their last setting after losing the full 24/12v supply. I bought some that didn't, and they were a pita - this type with a controller that you wipe your finger over http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Touch-Con...886594?hash=item419d5b6442:g:GKwAAOSwWnFWClrQ. I want to switch them on/off using switches to match my other switches, which is what you're doing, and I want to switch the 12/24 supply to the whole thing so it's properly dead when it's dead.

But in answer to your q, and sorry to rain on a parade and I admire you're DIY-ery, a toggle switched controller seems a bit unnecessary when the whole thing is <£10 on eBay already and just needs a water proof junction box, and admittedly with poor quality components that mean you need to swap out the controller every 2 yrs or so depending on how much use you give them