Navigation Lights

[captcraig]

Recieved my new nav LEDs from Dr LED and they are very cool. One problem though the green and red would not go deep enough into the socket on the old fixtures. Waiting for a reply as to the best bulb for the old pearson sidelights. The stern light fit just fine as it is not as deep, bright as a lighthouse. Also put one of the 12v medium base (household style) bulbs in for the cabin lite and it is also very cool. Will be buying another. On the packages it says Zero RF.
I thought about trying to push the sockets up into the fixture but was afraid I would screw em up. Anybody ever try that?

[pbryant]

Careful... The Dr. LEDs I tested didn't have the required width of vertical light emission. If you heel past 20 degrees, the sidelights will disappear. The COLREGs require +/- 25 degrees. Here's my letter to Dr. LED and their reply:

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Date: Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: USCG Colreg Cert
To: customerservice@doctorled.com


Thank you. I will return the product to the vendor.

I am puzzled by your response since the brightness output requirements are the same for both powered and sailing vessels.

I recommend measuring the vertical sectors. My measurement shows the light being cut off entirely at 18.8 degrees referenced to the axis from the center of the LED to the top internal reflector.

Since this could adversely impact safety at sea, how do you plan to communicate this issue to vendors and the boating community? There currently is no labeling that I can find that indicates the LEDs are not certified for sailing vessels.


On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Dr. LED Customer Service <customerservice@doctorled.com> wrote:
Hi Patrick,

You are right that our red and green bulbs are certified for power vessels only for the time being. The reason being, red and green LEDs were not as bright as white LED in terms if lumen output. We can certainly improve the bulbs in our next production runs. For your information, the while bulb is certified for use with sail and power vessels as the lumen output is higher.

Yours truly,

James
for Dr. LED

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Also, "Zero RF" is an unattainable pipe dream for LEDs that operate at a wide voltage margin (12 to 24 volts) because they incorporate switching regulators that will produce some RF interference (RFI). They all produce some RF interference, although there is a great variation in how much. The only way to achieve "Zero RF" is to encase them in shielding.

Here are spectragraphs of the RFI noise from the red Dr. LED I tested.

The first image is the RFI noise level from the Dr. LED.


The second image is the baseline (background) noise levels (LED powered off) taken inside the RF shielded (several feet of steel and concrete) Screen Room I used for testing. The Dr. LED's RFI was more than 30 decibels (a ratio of 1,000 times) higher than the background noise.


Placed near your VHF antenna, this noise level from the LED lamp would practically obliterate your VHF reception.

I do wish there were RFI standards applied here in the US to these lamps. Most sailors don't have a screen room and a $20,000 spectrum analyzer handy. About the only test you can perform is to tune in the weakest weather station on your VHF radio and then turn on your LED lights. If the weather station reception is lost, you have a problem, though without a test instrument, it will be difficult to quantify how serious that problem is.

The best LEDs I've found have the European Community "CE" stamp on them. Unlike the United States, the Europeans have RFI test standards.

You can read more about Dr. LED issues here: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...hts-36083.html