led anchor light

M

mwilson

New member
Anyone know of a source for a led anchor light that would replace the one that comes with the 22 cruiser? Bulb or the post. I'm thinking the lower power drain on the hook would be worth the investment.

michael
 
If I am not mistaken, this question has come up a few times before and no one, to my knowledge, has found a direct LED replacement for the anchor light. I have ordered a few that were "supposed" to fit, but had to send them back.

One way to save power while running an anchor light is to buy the Mega Utility Light from Davis Instruments, which only draws a tenth of an amp per hour, comes with a long cord and plugs into the 12 volt outlet. I have attached mine to a short piece of PVC which slides onto my radar arch-mounted VHF antenna, which gets it up over all of the stuff up there. We run the cord through the helm window.

This light can also be used in the cockpit by hanging it from the bimini. It works well and will do until I can find an LED replacement light for our anchor light.

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
it's not LED but they make cheap battery powered ones , no draw on batteries . west marine and pretty much everyone carries them .
 
well, Sarge, I finally noticed that you are now a Harbercraft owner. I looked at those boats, and thought they were great aluminum boats. Unfortunately they didn't build a cruiser AND they weren't cheap. I think they were lighter than the C-Dory. Is yours trailerabel, and what kind of engines did you get? If you've described this elsewhere, just let me know.

Boris
 
Here is another options for bulbs. About half way down the page are 15 LED bulbs of type BA15d for $9.99 each. Based on the specs, it seems like they could be used in the anchor light or the interior lights. I have not tried them yet, but I plan to. I inquired about some other taller bulbs for the anchor light, but I think they are too large to fit into the anchor light.

Rob

http://autolumination.com/otherleds.htm
 
Boris,

A lot of your questions are answered in this thread:

http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?t=8457

In addition:

Dry my boat weighs 5000 lbs, which is 1000 lbs less than the TomCat. Not bad considering that it is 28' long (loa is ~31.5') and has a beam of 9'6".

I have dual Mercury Verado 150s, top speed ~45 mph.

If you look on the other thread and click on the factory link you'll see that she is set up very much like a CD 25.
 
LED anchor light

I bought one light bulb replacement - I think a Series 25? at SBS from Fisheries Supply - had to flatten out the wires where they attached to light fixture inside - bulb just barely fits.

It is very bright and about $40 - from Dr. LED .

I don't have the part number - but Dr LED can probably come up with the part number if you have the details on your current bulb.

Thanks

Jim on Endurance
 
might try something like ebay item 130208361453 . i bought one of these and intend to fab a base to fit it from a std. auto base. (delivered for under 20 bucks, 3.1 watts). unfortunately my current anchor mast uses 2 bulbs of a diff type, but shouldn't be hard to modify.

chris
 
Long term known problem. FCC Part 15 rule deals with this, It is usually in the circuit for the light (in the bulb in this case, not the LED itself).

I would start by putting ferrite beads on the power supply of the Light--it should be as close to the light as possible. You can go with ferrite beads on the VHF lead, and VHF power supply. There are also filters you can put on the VHF power supply. I don't know if I have any I'm my ham junk box or not.

If the Bulb is up to FCC 15 standards, it should not--this means that the bulb is not tested. I have an LED dedicated light, I put on the Radar Dome strut, and no issues.

Hope that helps…or not. You can find LED bulbs which won't…but it may be happen chance.
 
Thanks Bob - For now I've decided to try to replace the fold-down anchor light with a new Perko unit that was designed with LED. I found one that I believe has the same base pattern so it should in theory be a drop-in fit. I can't find any info on its compliance with FCC 15 but I also cannot find anyone complaining about it interfering with VHF, and it is designed for marine applications. I also found a website that claimed to have tested this light for interference with no issues:
http://www.boatingmag.com/gear/boatinglab-tests-led-lights

The unit I ordered was the Perko 1636DP0CHR as seen here in the perko catalog:
http://www.perko.com/catalog/naviga...series_-_led_fold_down_white_all-round_light/

I'll report back after I install and test it.

I assume that a good test is to tune to a weak weather station, and turn the lights off and on to detect any changes in the signal.

I've done this with all the cabin lights in my boat and the red/greens, and the only one that gave me trouble is the fold-down all white.
 
That should work well. Too bad that some manufactures don't follow the guide lines. Generally the product is less expensive, but don't count on that!
 
+1 I bought the same Anchor bulb from marine beam along with LED replacements for all my fixtures in the boat. Excellent customer service, good product. The girlfriend was first concerned about the cabin lights being a cold glow as many LED's are but we are both very happy with all the bulbs. I keep a few of the incandescants onboard as spares but hopefully we will never replace another bulb in our lifetime of the boat!
 
I replaced the bulbs in the interior lights with the flat LED arrays that was mentioned sometime ago in this forum. They are available in "warm white" which I find more appealing than "LED white".

The flat array lights come with a bunch of adapters to fit different sockets. I just crimped the panel wires to the leads in the light. The flat arrays do require making some sort of mount to hold the array though. I just used a square of plastic and some 3M 4000.

I read that it is recommended to get the "cool white" color for the anchor light (vs. warm white) because it stands out better.
 
I replaced my incandescent anchor light (OEM) with a Perko LED, non folding and longer than the original because I needed clearance over my inflatable. Had no issues with VHF interference. Replace the nav lights with Marine Beam colored LED's, again with no interference. Marine Beam addresses that issue in their Web site info. Excellent observability and never expect to have to replace any bulbs again.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

1_10_2012_from_Canon_961.highlight.jpg
 
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