Craig Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 I have been reading LED sites all night. Has anyone converted their PERKO running lights with the small festoon bulbs to LED? There seems to be two schools of thought on powering these. Resistors are the easiest but waste the dropped voltage as heat when running off the 12vdc battery. DC to DC converters are a more ellegant solution but drive up costs and add another risk factor to the reliability chain. I really don't want to reinvent the "light bulb" here so if any of you have made the conversion and wish to share the design I would be forever in your debt. The premanufactured nav lights offered today are just too expensive and none specify a replacement bulb. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Pyeatt Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 There was an article in Duckworks on coversion that made a lot of sense and seemed reasonable to do. I believe it took 9 LED bulbs to give the same coverage as the standard bulb but used only a small fraction of the power and of course should last almost forever. Didn't look too difficult to accomplish if I recall. Will see if I can find a link to it. OK, found it. http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/articles/twoideas/free.cfm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted November 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Thanks Barry. I had seen this article. He is using 1.5", 12v bulbs. My fixtures need the ~7/8" size and I can only get two of the led bulbs in the smaller housings for the mast and tail light. MY side lights are big enough for this though. I wonder if anyone makes the festoon bulbs with the leds pointing in diffrent directions??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeStevenson Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 A very good friend of mine is converting the clearance lights on his airplane to LED's. He's on a VERY limited electrical system, so ever amp counts. It's working nicely so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted November 6, 2005 Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 Good Old Boats had an article several issues ago about how to convert to LEDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted November 25, 2005 Report Share Posted November 25, 2005 "Good Old Boat", Sept/Oct 2005, pp 45-50. aritcle titled, " LEDs afloat: Modern lighting projects for cruising sailboats" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted November 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2005 Thanks Greg, I will look for a copy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud_Wilson Posted November 27, 2005 Report Share Posted November 27, 2005 Craig: Go to The Trailor sailor forum god old boat ad is at the top of the page click on it and you can order back copy, $7.00 I think Y'ALL COME Cap'N Bud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted November 27, 2005 Report Share Posted November 27, 2005 Sorry, I should have provided the link and never thought to do so. http://www.goodoldboat.com http://www.goodoldboat.com/backissues.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Yow Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Does anyone have any thoughts about using the LED running lights that operate on D cell batteries? I have not found such a discussion in any of the threads. Thanks, John CS17#102 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Those are essentially the same as any LED. The problem is the D cell battery's life. I use to sell industrial grade Duracell batteries. The D has about twice the life as the C which is twice the life of the A and so on. LEDs all use low voltages to operate. The higher voltage ones have an internal voltage dropping resistor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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