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From: grant harris (no email)
Date: Tue May 08 2007 - 17:25:43 EDT
Ken,
Your information is excellent. Thanks for contributing
Grant
Ken James <> wrote:
I make LED nav lights, (www.firststarled.com) so can answer you question
with some updated info.
No, the Lopolight is not overkill. It uses older 'lamp' style leds, and
you need a lot of them to get enough light where it needs to be.
The other lights use newer and larger 'lamp style' leds, so you do not
need as many of them.
It is possible to use just one led per sidelight now, as the newest leds
can run at five watts and 360 deg F. You would not even be 'making them
sweat' in this application! However, even so, you would need a BIG heat
sink to run them at full power! These leds are not the traditional 'lamp
style' but are surface mount devices and can make more light because
they use much more power, and can do that because the can get rid of the
heat they make much better than the older style leds. But once the heat
is out of the leds, you must have a means of getting it out of the
light, that is why you need a heat sink. Orca Green uses some of the
newer (but not the newest) leds in their (very nice) units.
My new MKIV units (not shown on the web page) also use less leds, in
this case two of the newest high tech leds available per side. I use a
large copper heat sink and active thermal feedback to control the temp
of the leds.
Less leds means a better, more even beam pattern and much better efficiency.
The Lopolight is a very, very good unit but kinda bulky and not as
efficient as some others.
The second light you sent the link to looks a lot like a Perko model,
good units, but again not as efficient, and not as rugged as the Lopolight.
Don't go for the 'bottom line', this is a case of 'quality counts'!
One thing that you do not seem aware of is transient and surge
protection, neither one of these lights have a very high level of that
built-in although the Lopolight would be my choice there.
BTW, although my MKIV units are NOT certified, they DO exceed the
intensity requirements.
And why use led sidelights if you can put a led tricolor on top of the
mast? That way you can use the tri for sailing, just one (cheaper)
light, and the sidelights can stay old fashioned since they will be on
when you start the engine.
I even make a masthead light that is a tri, steaming, and day-sensing
anchor light all in one retro-fit led bulb. Very cost effective that
way. Orca Green also makes a very nice dual function masthead light.
If you do want led deck level lights, another option instead of
sidedlights for the bow is a led bow combo. This gets the lights out of
the way from feet and winch handles and big deck level gennys that may
block it.
As a last note, be careful, some cheap Chinese made lights are
dangerous in my opinion as the do nothing to make the proper color
sectors between red and green for instance and will show a confusing
display to other boats...with leds you cannot just aim and hope for the
best, for small leds light units you must use some form of optics or
light shields to obtain the proper sectors. Also they say to use a white
led bulb for a tri, that will not work at all well as up to 80% of the
light will eb lost through the filters and you will get only a dim glow,
not good!
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