Navigation Lights

[Sprite]

If you look at West Marine's catalog the new one, I noticed they have bayonet LEDs, which can fit into the bayonet sockets of your old lights where the GE 90's would go. They sell them for $40 clams. But you can get them from url]http://www.superbrightleds.com[/url] for $8.00 found them out in Boat Works Magazine

[Sprite]

Bill,

You don't have to change the sockets on your old lights. You get the bayonet LEDs from superbright LEDS. Your old sockets are fine!!!!! But do you know a place that sells the rubber gaskets that fit the glass globes. They have the bayonet LEDs in West Marine but they are asking $40.00 for them. Totally ridiculous. http://www.superbrightleds.com does it for $8.00 per light.

More Sane


John

[Bill]

But do you know a place that sells the rubber gaskets that fit the glass globes.

No source for these, to my knowledge. I plan to fabricate new ones. Maybe use "O" rings.

[Theis]

Question: How well do the LEDs relate in terms of brilliance to the incandescents?

I don't want to diminish either the brilliance of the light or the angle at which they can be seen. The lights are relatively low to the water to begin with. I am not certain the big 1,000 ft freighters, not to mention the cigarette boats racing around at midnight, can see them that well.

[Mike Goodwin]

Not all , if any are USCG approved . Approval = x lumens at y feet or yards . LEDS tend to be not as bright and more directional . I have replaced all interior lights with LEDS , but hanging back on the running lights . I have a photometric light meter , left over from a previous life, that can take spot readings from sources and surfaces far away . I may do a test in the future . Also get a red bulb and a green bulb , they will not be filtered by the lenses and will appear brighter .

[Theis]

Interesting. The reason I ask about brilliance (in addtion to my experiences with LEDs in the business world) is that this year I replaced my Saturn bulkhead compass with the ITT/Danforth/Rule bulkhead compass. (They are the same compasses but the company(s) have been through a few mergers - hence the different names). The new and old compasses are largely identical, except that the incandescent bulb on the old unit has been replaced by an LED. What a piece of junk. You can hardly read the card on the new one, whereas the old one you could read from several feet away.

I have heard for many years the expression "but the new stuff doesn't have the problem the old stuff you are familiar with" and "the technology has really improved" and more often than not wound up disappointed. I have concluded that most of the the users of those expressions has no first hand experience with the old stuff. That is why I still prefer film cameras.

[Mike Goodwin]

I have a Nikon I purchased in 1969 ( and several newer ones including a Nikonos that is my boat camera) and I have a Nikon D-70 digital SLR I purchased in Feb of 2004 , I have shot one role of film since the D-70 arrived . Nikon got it right and I have felt no need to shoot film anymore , getting better prints from the digital .