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Perimeter L.E.D lighting

Hey Jim_R. My dealer just installed my factory lights and they used an adhesive to fasten them inside the outer lip. Can see if I can get you a pic tomorrow, though they are very hard to see up in there. Gerry
 
gerry said:
Hey Jim_R. My dealer just installed my factory lights and they used an adhesive to fasten them inside the outer lip. Can see if I can get you a pic tomorrow, though they are very hard to see up in there. Gerry
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Thanks Gerry, that would be great!
 
That would be sweet... I know about the dissimilar metal issue, but it should be fairly negligible. Stainless screws and aluminum stuck would work too. There is no real way to provide a dielectric union otherwise.
 
Jim- so I have been schooled. I ordered 3528 LED strip lights but should have ordered 5050... The numbers coorelate to the dimension of the led chip itself. 5.0mm X 5.0mm or 3.5mm X 2.8mm.

The 3528 does not change color, rather there are multiple colors soldered on the strip. The led is also smaller and thus not as bright. So when you consider that their are 1/3 lit per primary color and not as bright the 3528 are a bad choice.

The 5050 on the other hand are bright, have 3 led chips per light and actually change color. Make sure to go with 5050.
 
Bummer! Yeah I went with 5050's for the perimeter lighting. I also bought some single color white strips which are 3528's, here's a pic of a side by side:

2013-03-17_20-00-20_983_zpsf8200ec6.jpg


Huge difference in chip and strip size. In case anyone is interested, here's a link to where I got mine. Seems to be a pretty good deal - quick delivery and all three strips I ordered test good.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AW61Z10/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also in case anyone is wondering about why I would buy a 5M strip of white 3528s, I'm cutting it up to make these, which I will be installing as cubby lighting in all of the storage areas:

2013-03-17_20-36-24_392_zpsc2f528a1.jpg
 
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Nice! Compartment lighting would be awesome. I'd love to have some under (inside) my helm, too.

Does the silicone body feel like its good quality? How about the double-side tape?
 
PDX Hosedragger said:
Nice! Compartment lighting would be awesome. I'd love to have some under (inside) my helm, too.

Does the silicone body feel like its good quality? How about the double-side tape?
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The silicone on the 5050 strips is thick. Those strips are rated for submersion, and I believe it. Even the silicone on the 3528 strip is impressive - in fact removing the silicone to solder the positive and negative connections requires some effort. I'm using Seal-all to reseal the cut end, and coat the shrink wrapped end as well. I plan to do an underwater test, as I'll have some extra to play with. The double-sided tape on the 3528 strip is 3M and seems sticky, but I haven't tried applying a strip anywhere yet. FYI - the Helm storage area is getting two 8" strips. ;)

The 5050 strip is advertised as double waterproof, silicone and sleeve, which must explain why it's so thick. In checking to see if it had 3M double sided tape also I discovered there is no adhesive tape at all. D'oh!
 
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I had planned on using a light bead of clear silicone sealant along both sides of the 3m tape to reduce its exposure to water. It will also hep keep it adhered too.
 
Been playing some more.

Here's a pic of the controllers I am using. I will be using one per side. The remotes use the same IR codes, so I only need one.

2013-03-23_12-09-47_769_zpsaaf2c4ca.jpg


This is known as the IR Remote Controller 44 Keys for RGB Strip. The power input is 12V DC, and uses a 5.5mm barrel connector. At the bottom of the pic above you can see the IR receiver, and the standard 4 pin connector. This controller matched up with the BRG ordering of colors that the LED strip uses. Here's a pic of the corresponding connector on the RBG strip.

2013-03-23_12-10-43_12_zps54628721.jpg


My project today was to wire in the additional 5+ feet of extra strips needed to light up the 21' of pontoon log on my boat. I cut the 5+ foot lengths from the ends of the 5M strip so the factory end connectors were in place. And just for the heck of it, plugged the 5' length in series with a 5M strip and the controller. This combined length of LED strip was out of spec for the controller, so I was not greatly surprised to find that although both sections lit up, the 5' section was notieable dimmer than the 5M section, so an inline amplifier is required. The inline amplifiers I acquired from superbright LEDs do not have connectors on the ends so I cut the factory connectors and hard wired the LED amplifiers as shown below.

2013-03-23_12-11-42_891_zpsaca5b39b.jpg


The inline amplifier requires a12V power connection in addition to the 4 wire LED connection. The amplifier worked well, if anything the 5' strip appears ever so slightly brighter than the 5M strip connected directly to the controller. Color changes, fades, etc appear in perfect sync between 5M and 5' strips. I can't go much further with the perimeter lighting without the boat (which is in storage far, far away) but as I had almost 6' of RGB LED strip, I bought another controller and continued playing.

2013-03-23_12-49-32_862_zpsd3202c23.jpg


This controller is different from the 44 key IR controllers in a number of ways. First, it is RF rather than IR. With RF, placement of the controller is much more flexible as line of sight to an IR receiver is not required. Second, this controller has a 12 amp output opposed to the 6 amp output of the 44 key IR controller, so it should be able to power two 5M 300 LED SMD 5050 strips without amplifiers. Lastly, it has music sound sensitive modes that change LED color with the rythm and vary brightness with the volume of the music. The controller does this via a bulit in mic with a sensitivey adjustment,or by a mono headphone jack audio input option. I wired up a strip remnant, attached it to this controller via screw type connectors and tested it out. One neat thing, is that the controller remembers the last mode selected, and the controller turns on this mode when power is resumed. So a switch at the helm can be used to turn on/off the strips without use of the remote. Very amusing. I plan to place several remnant LED strip sections around the interior of the pontoon just for fun.
 
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Dude, your awesome. Seriously.
 
This is great. Could you tell us the source for the RF controller you bought? It would be really nice just to have one controller for both 21.5' lengths, or maybe one for each at worst, without extenders.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RGB-10M-5050-SMD-LED-light-strip-60leds-M-44Key-IR-Remote-Controller-2-outputs-/111029546540?pt=US_Car_Lighting&hash=item19d9e06e2c

This is the one I bought. I emailed the seller and they confirmed that the controller has the power to run 10meters. Since the controller has two separate outputs, I was going to use rgb two extension wires in a split-loom to run essentially two lengths per side, starting in the middle and running fore and aft. I will use two separate controllers per side, so I can have independent control if I want to. Eventually I'll probably add an amplifier with music controller, but the wife says I'm spending too much on the "other woman" and I need to chill. :)
 
PDX Hosedragger said:
http://www.ebay.com/...=item19d9e06e2c

This is the one I bought. I emailed the seller and they confirmed that the controller has the power to run 10meters. Since the controller has two separate outputs, I was going to use rgb two extension wires in a split-loom to run essentially two lengths per side, starting in the middle and running fore and aft. I will use two separate controllers per side, so I can have independent control if I want to. Eventually I'll probably add an amplifier with music controller, but the wife says I'm spending too much on the "other woman" and I need to chill. :)
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Nice find! That two output contoller looks alot like the IR controller I bought, the remote looks identical. I have seen many versions online that appear to be from the same manufacturer, there's even one that has music modes and a built in mic. One thing that concerns me from the auction description of the controller is "Max load current: 2A each color" hopefully this is per output and not a total figure for the controller, as 3 x 2 = 6 amps, same as mine. Worst case you have to buy the 'other woman' a couple in line amplifiers.



lakebum said:
Jim, I guess we will be getting a full set of pics when you're done? Steve
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No doubt about it. But something tells me we'll be seeing pics from PDX Hosedragger first!

*Edit - thought I'd post some more pics for comparison purposes. Here's one comparing the size of the two controllers I have, the 12 amp controller is on the left, and the 6 amp on the right.

2013-03-23_19-24-01_554_zps02ecc880.jpg


Also here's a pic of the RGB LED 5050 Strip lights I bought (remember these do not have the adhesive tape on the back). Pretty easy to distinguish as they overlap the reel. I'm thinking the strips with the adhesive tape will be easier to work with.

2013-03-23_19-24-40_793_zps60c319d3.jpg
 
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Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I did the side and under water lights from the factory. The side lights were wired from factory and the lights were dealer installed. The rectangle slide led lighting is in cased in a clear plastic / rubberised casing and held every 10" inches or so with zip ties under the deck just outboard of the pontoon risers. There are small 3" or so wide supports that go from below the rub rail back inboard to the risers. This is where they are zip tied or tie strapped, depending on what you call them. I will be at the boat next week, and take detailed pics

Hope this helps. There is no instance in when a double sided tape or adhesive is used.

Todd
 
PDX Hosedragger said:
Jim- if I am going to power 14 meters of strip total, how many amps would I need if I was going to add an amplifier to run the lot? (In two separate lengths of 7m wired in parallel) I'm thinking about getting this amp: http://www.ebay.com/...=item5d3a2f1506
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My understanding is that it takes 6 amps to power a 5 meter strip. A 12 amp controller should power two 5 meter strips, assuming there will not be any line loss from long cable runs. So far I've only tested a six amp controller with a 5' strip in series with a 2M strip. Tomorrow I will try running two 5M strips in series off of my 12 amp controller and will post the results. If you are planning to run two 5M strips off of the 12 amp controller and another 4M in series, a single in line amplifier might work, If you are planning on adding 2M strips to a 5 M strip on each side, then probably two amplifiers is the way to go.

BTW - I am starting to second guess myself on the wiring of my strips. I currently have it wired to go controller, cable run, 5M strip, amplifier, 2M strip on each side of the boat. I'm now thinking the way to go is controller, cable run, 2M strip, amplifier, 5M strip. Guess I'll have to try adding a long cable run between the controller and my planned 5M, amp, 2M configuration. Could be some de-soldering and re-soldering in my future as the amps are directional. Good thing this stuff is fun!
 
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mtudb24 said:
Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I did the side and under water lights from the factory. The side lights were wired from factory and the lights were dealer installed. The rectangle slide led lighting is in cased in a clear plastic / rubberised casing and held every 10" inches or so with zip ties under the deck just outboard of the pontoon risers. There are small 3" or so wide supports that go from below the rub rail back inboard to the risers. This is where they are zip tied or tie strapped, depending on what you call them. I will be at the boat next week, and take detailed pics

Hope this helps. There is no instance in when a double sided tape or adhesive is used.

Todd
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That would hep a great deal! Thank you.
 
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