NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
FW: Lights etc.
From: Doug Royer
Date: 2003 Oct 10, 14:45 -0700
From: Doug Royer
Date: 2003 Oct 10, 14:45 -0700
A conversation Jared and I were having.It's informative. -----Original Message----- From: Royer, Doug Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 13:19 To: 'jared.sherman@VERIZON.NET' Subject: RE: Lights etc. Jared,I don't know off hand but beleive there is circuitry inside each unit.I'll check when I get to the yard tomorrow and write back. As for the spikes and such from inductive loads I have placed 1,000uf caps and 15mh chokes in parrallel with each of the batteries to the boats ground.Also smaller value caps from +12v to ground closer to each electronic device on board. I also beleive that the units installed I talked about earlier do indeed pulse at some frequency.I don't know this for certain and will find out.Makes sense though.If they would pulse above 40 hz or so they would appear as always on and current consumption would go down. I bought the set up at a marine hardware store here on the west coast that the commercial boaters use.I'll have to check about the specs to meet the C.G. regs.I didn't check that just took it for granted they were being sold at a marine store and would comply.Good point and thanks for mentioning it. -----Original Message----- From: Jared Sherman [mailto:jared.sherman@VERIZON.NET] Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 12:39 To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Subject: Re: Lights etc. Doug, I would be very curious if you could look into those LED arrays you bought. Specifically, are there other "things" on the circuit board, or just the LED's? There is an issue regarding the use of LED's in a marine electrical system, in that LED's like most electronics are prone to damage from electrical spikes. And unlike cars (where the "run" circuits are physically disconnected during starting by the ignition switch) marine electronics tend to be left on during the engine starting process, so they are subjected to spikes. There are ways around this of course, but if there are 20 LED's in an array the manufacturer may simpy accept the loss of a few over the year in use. If you have seen LED arrays on the back of trucks and busses, this is not uncommon, to see several burned out over time. And the lights you bought--are they actually USCG approved?
