LED Lighting for Cabin

I too mounted 3 of the LED cabin lights in the cabin and they have the red/off/white switch on each light. Way small wires....and hard for my fingers to work with but I like them.

I also bought a pair of Sea Dog Chrome Brass Chart lights with the flex neck and it is AWESOME only better the way I can point it and the range/angles I can direct the light. Better than a lava lamp any day and now I can see!! Great when measuring those morning coffee gounds you forgot to load the night before while you were awake...

Got mine from Fisheries up in WA state. Found them on another site here:
http://www.reddenmarine.com/marine-supp ... brass.html

Look like this mounted:
Heads_Up_020.jpg
 
Just a heads up on the possibility of RF interference on the 2 Meter ham band and Marine VHF. Last week while out I was trying to check into a morning 2 meter net. Everyone could hear me, but I couldn't get much but static. Morning light was just coming on so I turned off the three LED lights in the cabin and VOILA. Clear reception. I also noticed a little of added interence on the marine bank. I have two LEDs that I bought at the Seattle Boat Show which seem to give more interfeence that the other which I had bought somewhere else.
 
We have some of those Marine beam led panels in our lights now and we like the brightness and color but I have noticed they severely impact our FM reception when they are powered. Didn't notice any effect yet with the VHF but I will keep that in mind.
 
Checked the lights with the VHF and it is a problem. I only get broken static with the lights on. HMM...... I like the lights and can work around this I think but bummer.
 
Emailed the company and am awaiting a response. We get nothing but static on VHF and FM with the lights on. Maybe a defective product run? These lights were specifically marketed not to do this.

Greg
 
Prompt response from Jeff within one hour! It looks like they had a bad batch and I purchased them through Fisheries Supply in early February. I would send him a message if you are experiencing the problem with your bulbs.

Hi Greg,

Sorry for the issues.

We recently heard a similar story from another gentleman in Seattle who purchased our products through Fisheries Supply/IMTRA. We did some internal tests, and confirmed that a group of bulbs which were produced several months ago that could potentially exhibit RF interference. While we had CE certified that bulb earlier under the EMC directives, and had very good compliance, we had a quality issue from our subsupplier of driver IC's late last year which could not be resolve with the vendor, so we change brands. It seems that the new vendor's chip, while having the same topology, is not compatible with our filtering scheme. We are in the midst of solving this with a redesign of the board. So it is definitely our problem, and we will replace all your bulbs. It is important that you let me know which dealer you purchased them from at the show so I can track the batches.

FYI, our bulbs use a switch-mode converter to monitor and control the current the bulbs see. This technology is completely non-resistive, super-efficient, and necessary given a boat's variable voltage environment. One of the downsides of this technology is the potential for EMI. Thanks to the cell phone and automotive industry, we can leverage converter technologies which limit and filter EMI/RF emissions. Controlling RF, both conducted and emitted, is part art and part science, and the Matrix, with its long wires, has the greatest potential for emissions. Boats have lots of specialized devices (called radios and antennas) that are designed to collect and amplify very weak signals. Couple that with a bad IC, and we have a problem.

By the way, even with our CE/FCC compliant products there is still some potential for EMI, but it is usually a result of conductive noise due to an FM antenna laying across a power wire, or some other housekeeping issue like that and tends to be boat specific.

I hope that you can live with these for just a few weeks more. I am waiting for a new batch to be produced and am very hopeful we will solve this problem.

Jeff Field
Marinebeam LED Lighting
99 S. Harris Rd
S. Donaldson Industrial Park
Piedmont, SC 29673
864.275.7837
www.marinebeam.com
 
Jeff says the non-interfering replacement bulbs are now two weeks out. I will keep in touch with him to get the replacements I need and post the relevant info here as a reminder for others with the bad units.

Greg
 
He told me that the problem could not always be reproduced so I went ahead and bought some from Fisheries and will see if they affect my boat.

Warren
 
New non-interfereing bulbs are now available and Jeff shipped me out the three I needed yesterday for no cost.

I will let you all know how they work soon,

Jeff Field
Marinebeam LED Lighting
99 S. Harris Rd
S. Donaldson Industrial Park
Piedmont, SC 29673
864.275.7837
www.marinebeam.com
 
The ones I bought from Fisheries work fine. No interference.

I just plugged mine in but I am wondering if the double-sided stickies in the package are intended to stick the circuit board up against the inside of the fixture? I threw my stickies away by mistake so need to find out if there is a particular type to use.

Warren
 
I ended up putting a very small piece of the double stick foam tape on each (light side) corner of the panel and sticking them to the clear lens that way.

Greg
 
Why did you stick the circuit board & LEDs to the lens? What I meant was to fasten it to the metal of the fixture. Right now it is resting on the lens and works fine. I just thought by fastening it away from the lens the light might be slightly more diffuse and you would not be able to see the individual LEDs, as you can now.

Warren
 
Your right Warren but there was so much texture on the back of the light panel and so little in the way of smooth surfaces inside the fixture, I figured it wouldn't stick worth a damn so I stuck it down instead of up. Works fine and you don't really look at the lights much anyway while they are lit.

Greg
 
Installed the bulbs today and although there is a slight bit of VHF static generated, it is very minimal and doesn't really affect the clarity of incoming calls. The FM seems unaffected. So the new bulbs work and I recommend that anybody with some of the bad units contact Jeff using the info above and request replacements for your boat.

Greg
 
I bought LED conversions from China....from EBAY...under $3 each...and hooked them up last night...worked perfect and gave out about as much light as the original bulbs.... came with the 3M stickum on the back and the bulb socket adaptor....I thought that was in the way so I just cut the sockets off and soldered on to the wires...not bad for $3 each...they said it may take up to 5 weeks delivery but I got mine in a week and a half...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/48-SMD-Pure-Whi ... 7490173%26

Wow...something to improve the boat for $3

Joel
SEA3PO
 
I didn't like the way that the LED board attached to the light fixture...so I cut a small block of closed cell packing material about 1" thick and made a spacer to hold the LED board closer to the lens of the light....puts it about where the old bulb was mounted....I used silicone sealer to glue the LED board to the light fixture...should work just fine...

Joel
SEA3PO
 
I took the easy route, and the bonus was.......... real cheap.

Got three led lights with the sticky back, 2 for the v-berth and one for the helm. Cost $2.75 each. One bigger floodlight led light for the cabin. Cut the hook part off a wire coat hanger, glued it to the back of the light. Can now move it around, over the galley, dining table etc. Cost $8. All these lights take 3 AAA batteries. Will last for ages.

Martin.
 
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