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Perimeter L.E.D lighting

Link said:
Floatin Stones I have to admit we are just fooling with the new deck hand, none of us can see it. :rolleyes: .
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Floatin above was not true, just a joke. I do see it. Hopefully you can see it through PDX's link above. If not send me an email off line markjlink@earthlink.net and I will grab the picture and email it to you directly
 
My head is spinning and I still don't see it in any of the above posts. Guess it's like they say, if you want a job done right...

gallery_1162_153_32470.jpg


*edit - ok, I get it now, a link to the image and not the image itself was provided.
 
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PDX Hosedragger said:
Jim- I found the angle at Home Depot in the hardware section in 8' lengths for around $7. Fits the budget and my needs to a T. The 5050 strip LED's are .43" wide so they will fit perfectly in the 1/2" angle, with enough room to run a bead of clear silicon to protect the double stick tape from the elements and act as a second adhesive.
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Nice! I'm going to go take a look today while I'm out Mother's Day shopping, yeah that's it, Mother's Day shopping. Being a belt and suspenders kind of guy, I'm thinking that drilling hole in the aluminum every foot or so to allow use of zip ties to secure the LED strip might be a good alternative (or addition) to the clear silicone.
 
I like that idea. In fact since the angle isn't much wider than the strips I might drill a 3/32 hole every foot and use aluminum piano wire to tie them, just as a safety.
 
Weird, no success. I'm even a Captain now not a deckhand ! Lol
 
TomS said:
These guys sell them as kits with a nice plastic track http://www.pontoonstuff.com/Pontoon-Boat-Under-Deck-Lights-P493C54.aspx

Anyone know where you might find just the tracks and if the 300 count RGB SM68 type 5050's would fit? I'm wondering about the silicone casing being too thick.
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I don't know about the plastic tracks, I looked around a little a month or so back with no joy. I can tell you that the silicone does add at least 1/8" in width and height to the strips. Also, my strips did not come with adhesive backing, so there would be a bit more height from any backing used.

Back to the 1/2" aluminum angle, how to mount it to the edge trim? Through bolting? Spot welding? Adhesives?
 
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I'm using 1/2" X 45mil 3M 5952 VHB industrial grade double sided tape. The same stuff auto manufacturers are using to hold body panels together in like of welds. The same could possibly be used to hold the strips on in your case.

I tried out my lights for the first time. I bought (4) 5m sections. My controller has (2) outputs. I tested (1) section and it looked great. I connected in series another 5m section and there was zero change in brightness at all. I connected. 3rd (5) section to the other output. No change. Finally I connected the 4th in series to the 3rd and got not changes. So the controller worked to power 20m with a negligible change in brightness. I already have (2) 12amp amplifiers on order. My question is: do I even need the amps? The one controller alone gets the job done, or am opi gonna break it from the loads I'm subjecting it to?
 
Did you select white and push the controller to max brightness? That's where the load peaks as white is all colors on. If so, very impressive results - I saw some faint drop in intensity towards the end of the second of 2 5m strips with white on full brightness using a 12 amp controller. Having said that, I have always been suspicious of the amp claims. In fact I ran a couple tests. First one, I ran a fuse inline to the 12A controller that was powering two 5M strips in series. I started with a 10A fuse, no problems at all. I dropped to a 5A fuse, still no problems. I dropped to the smallest fuse I had on hand - 2A, finally was able to blow a fuse. The 10A and 5A fuses were ATC fuses, and the 2A an old strand in tube style, btw. So, I next bought a digital multimeter that could measure loads up to 20A. Hooked it up in series with the controller and strips, and the reading I got was something like 3.7A, again this is on a supposed 12A controller. Maybe run a similar test and see how many amps your controller is pulling under load? If it is higher than spec, use one or more amplifiers, if not - I see no need to wire the amps up.
 
I think I promised Jim some pics of my sidelights about a month or so ago. Just remembered. I just posted them in my gallery. These are Bennington lights my dealer installed in March. Hard to get a camera up in there, but hope these help. Gerry
 
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Looks AWESOME! I hope they get mine working soon... :/
 
Jim- it looks like in Gerry's pics that the lights are indeed pointed inwards, not down. I'm still going to use the 1/2" angle to try to get the most output that I can.
 
PDX Hosedragger said:
Jim- it looks like in Gerry's pics that the lights are indeed pointed inwards, not down. I'm still going to use the 1/2" angle to try to get the most output that I can.
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Yes, they are pointed inward. I think that is to reflect off the pontoon and then into the water, maybe if they were downward they would go straight into the water. Maybe less visible ? Gerry
 
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Thanks Gerry! Very helpful.
 
I would definitely agree with Gerry, I think just pointing them down will give you a fairly narrow illumination, whereas having them reflect into the cavity around the toon creates a more of a glowing, softer light. But hey, what do I know!
 
Photos of LEDs are always different from what one sees in person. In my experience, the light shown in photos is always dimmer. So looking at Gerry's photos one can see that the LED strips do have some diffusion, I don't know but I'd guess an arc of light of about 60 degrees, but the majority of light is straight forward and apparently directly at the trim panel above the pontoon log. Because the trim strip is near the top of the pontoon log, if one were to mount the strip as shown in PDX's diagram 16 posts above, at least on my boat it would not shine down into the water, it would shine at the curved portion of the tube as seen in the pic below:

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I mounted the LED's on the 1/2" angle; was the perfect fit for the strip. Used 'Through the Roof' roofing silicone to adhere the strips to the angle. That is some of the STICKIEST stuff you can imagine! This was a fun and easy mod to do. Dave (my husband) said I have become an LED MONSTER as I am installing them everywhere and he is afraid to stand still in one place too long in fear of finding himself glowing like a rainbow. :rolleyes:
 
In my "humble yet deadly accurate" opinion pointing them down will give out the highest yield output. Shining inwards does just that. You will get a narrow band of light on the skirting above the pontoon. Pointing them downwards, according to my calculations, should illuminate the entire tops half of the tube and most of the skirt.

Buckman my led strips came with 3m tape already attached. Phew!
 
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