hey guys, i decided to build my own underwater marine lights because the commercially made ones are waayyyyyyy too expensive. this is the commerically made one in the first link.
according to led calculator.net, the emitters will be hard wired in series with a 3w 2.7 ohm resister assuming a 13.7v power suppy (alternator voltage), 3.7v drop, and 1050ma led current rating. does this sound correct?
housing: i plan on getting some 3" round aluminum stock and having the center machined out to drop in the led assembly. then, i'll use resin epoxy to seal all the components up to make them water tight. this is a common approach to home built marine lights and the design works well( so i am told).
does this look like it would work? all the other types of lights i've seen made use different types of drivers, etc and i am not aware of where to get those parts or even how to put them together. i figure this seems like a simple direct drive approach.
Found components that are even better than these from ledsupply.com. four three-up green led emitters with lenses, two 1400ma Buck block drivers resulting in a total of 1800 lumens. Looks like I’m going to have about $110 in parts. Sure beats buying them premade!
My wife has been wanting me to add underwater LED lights in GREEN color to our boat. Yeah, the prices are outrageous for them and have put it off until something less expensive comes around. So I'll be tracking your progress and see if it's something we can duplicate on our boat. Last night we did find some really cheaply priced underwater LEDS in various colors on Ebay, but I don't know how good they are. We want something that emits a very floody beam and not a Light-Saber effect, which these I have linked to below may be. Please keep the forum posted as to your progress.
I wish those green emitters would show up from Manafont so I could confirm if they are worthy of this project. They shipped on the 24th I still don't have them.
If they are decent and you can get 150-200 lumens at 1 amp you can make a kick ass light for cheap.
Richie, if you go to thehulltruth.com and go to the electronics forum you can see my post about the boater sports led lights. One of the members there posted a picture of six of those lights he mounted on the back of a boat. They seem to be well made but not bright at all.
Hi Lake...thank you for the link. That was exactly the information and photo I needed for my wife and I to decide if the beam is right for us. I'll let you know if we purchase them in Green color.
I can't stop playing with this light it has a ridicules amount of green throw. A triple green XRE will be unreal. I would drive them at least at 1.4 amps each for best results.
Thanks. Ill keep that in mind. I may go a different route as those type of led's will need heat sinking. I've learned that its hard to keep the unit sealed from water intrusion if the light isn't fully encapsulated somehow. I've ordered some smd 5050 panels which don't require any heatsinking so I think I can just cast them in acrylic which will keepp the water out.
