Courtesy Lights

I want to put some lights in the boat for the occasional night fishing trip. They dont need to be overly bright, would just be used for retying and dealing with fish in the boat and what not. I want something small that isnt going to take up alot of room or be in the way. I cant really find anything online that I like so now, I'm considering ordering some strips from our site sponsor, Bluewater LED. Anyone used these for courtesy lights? Any suggestions on which strips to get and how many? Also would the white lights be best? I just want to light up the interior of a 1436. Thanks guys.

I would get red. I believe it has the least effect on your night vision. White is the worst for night vision.

A quick search pulled this site which should help. Looks like they reccomend a blue-green with a dimmer.

https://stlplaces.com/night_vision_red_myth/

I'm literally making housings right now for mine. I picked up fourteen 24 led light strips (@10") for $20 mailed from China where they are made (eBay sourced). These things are rediculously bright and focused, I chose green since bugs tend to ignore that color and I can read a book 10' from the light if it's shining on it.

I have a couple more housing to make so I'll take some pics and update my build thread, and this thread if you'd like.

I just checked ebay and the place from Hong Kong has some really great deals. I think thats the direction I'm gonna go as well. i didnt see the strips you mentioned though. Most of what I saw was a 5 meter roll but they are cutable every 3 led's. Is that what you got?

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160497086578&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Thanks for the link. I was looking for a package deal. Didnt realize you ordered them seperate. I think I'm gonna go with green as well. Now just to figure out how many I actually need. These are cheap enough I guess its not a big deal if I order too many, lol. How long did it take for you to get them?

About three week turn around, but I also got 14 peices for $20. I just decided I was only going to spend so much on them and bought as many as the shipping allowed. There were some other guys in the states but they wanted a good bit more for the same thing. I searched 'green led' with lowest price and these came up first. There are also some surface mounts that look more like the Blue Water bulbs. Add double sided tape to complete it. I have the mill so I wanted to make some mounts to tuck the lights under the gunnel caps and seat edges. Double sided tape always falls off on me for some odd reason.

Jamie

I just ordered 14 of them as well. With shipping it was $19.50. I highly doubt I'll use all of them on my decks but I figure I can use the extras to light up my storage compartments. Thanks again!!

Do you guys not keep your running lights on at night? My anchor light is plenty bright to see how to retie things, etc.

Honestly depends on where I am, if I'm up river I'll unplug the anchor light because it's the biggest bug attractor ever made. same for white headlights. The green deck lights make moving around the boat without tripping or breaking things much simpler. I had a couple little marker lights with green covers and they were ok, but weren't bright enough to tie a knot or deal with a mad catfish so I'm putting these on.



Jamie

Ok, after an evening on the river I can report that these things are very bright... I need to do something so I can't see the bulb at all and I need a switch so I can navigate the river, bumped three times idling back through the bad stuff...

I draped a white washcloth over the fixture and that made them bearable. Caught 7-8 keeper channel cat in two hours, used the lights to deal with bait and hooks in fish and they worked great for that. They did attract some bugs but not as bad as the stern light.

Jamie

I plan to mount mine underneath surfaces or at least with a shroud over the top of them so I can't "see" the actual lighting units. Also, I would recommend putting them on a dimmer switch like the dash lights in most cars. You want them as dim as possible to see what you need to do to keep your eyes acclimated to the dark.

As far as bugs, I have heard thermacells are worth it even if they are overpriced.

A lot of LED's don't like to be dimmed. I'm going to remount them like I did the other lamps. These throw a lot more light vs. the green marker lights I have elsewhere and I'm going to put them on a seperate switch. I played tag with a couple boulders idling down river too, go figure that my spotlight died...

Jamie

squeak12 said:

As far as bugs, I have heard thermacells are worth it even if they are overpriced.

Click to expand...

They rock.

We've been using them for a couple of years and they are worth every penny.

I searched the forums for LED lights and found this thread on page 4! Thanks guys, I just ordered 12 of these for $17 shipped...they are exactly what I was looking for

I think I might mount mine down on the floor of my boat so if they are too bright I can just cover them up with my tacklebox or something. What kind of wiring did you guys use to connect these to your battery? I probably need to order that too.

I havnt wired mine up yet. My project kinda stalled momentarily while we handle the adoption of our son.

I plan to use like 16 guage wire. LED's draw very little amps so heavy wire isnt needed. Infact, 16 is probably overkill.

I see you are also in OH so your shipping should be similar. Mine took roughly 3 weeks to get here.

Mine are wired with 16ga. I mounted them so the leads for two lights would reach one feeder wire. The LED wires are tiny so plan on soldering them and check the polarity before you do. The darker one I think was the positive. Hook them up backwards and they don't work. #-o

Jamie

I used a 30' rope LED lights.



Enough light to see to tie one one, yet not so overpowering I cant see outside the boat. Plus I installed a switch panel, turn the lights off when not needed.

When you enlarge the picture, you can see a green light in the water on the right side. Taht is my night light to drawn in the bait while Crappie fishing.

Hanr3 said:

I used a 30' rope LED lights.



Enough light to see to tie one one, yet not so overpowering I cant see outside the boat. Plus I installed a switch panel, turn the lights off when not needed.

When you enlarge the picture, you can see a green light in the water on the right side. Taht is my night light to drawn in the bait while Crappie fishing.

Click to expand...

Cool!!! Looks festive!!!

sf

Could someone draw a simple wiring diagram for these please?

probably going to run 4-6 10" strips per switch

I know they have to be run parallel.. but what's that in english

Each + and each - to a common bus bar then the bus bar to panel?

thanks,