LED Cupholders

[txav8r]

The 240 has more cup holders @Bruce .
@robert843 , if I recall, it took 14" to cover the circumference of the sidewall of the cup holder above the bottom recess. You don't have to fill it, but you can only cut the strip ever 3 LED's, and that is between 1.5-2". Depending on whether your using 5050's or 3528's. There are new chips out now too and I don't know their spacing. I can't remember how many cup holders, trying to count them in my head. Let's say 10. That's 140" or 11.66'. Allow for messing one or two up. So your right on the edge of you just do cup holders, and don't do more than 10, with a couple of feet to add here or there. But if you do under the swim deck seat backs, you will use about 18" on each. You could do only 1', but you may run short if you break a couple, but you should be good. Disclaimer...I don't remember the exact measurement of he cup holder inside circumference but it shocked me! And 14" sticks in my head. But measure!, allow for cutting, allow for a nice radius on the strain relieved wire, and put some additional insulation where it passes thru the cup holder sidewall.

 

[Bill D]

I'm pretty sure my 242 LS has 14 cup holders on it... I know my wife was excited when we were buying it that it had more cup holders than seating capacity.

2 on the swim deck
2 in the corners beside the engines
2 at the helm
2 by the glove box
2 on top of the head
2 in the bow seats
2 at the front of the bow on the floor

 

[robert843]

The 240 has more cup holders @Bruce .
@robert843 , if I recall, it took 14" to cover the circumference of the sidewall of the cup holder above the bottom recess. You don't have to fill it, but you can only cut the strip ever 3 LED's, and that is between 1.5-2". Depending on whether your using 5050's or 3528's. There are new chips out now too and I don't know their spacing. I can't remember how many cup holders, trying to count them in my head. Let's say 10. That's 140" or 11.66'. Allow for messing one or two up. So your right on the edge of you just do cup holders, and don't do more than 10, with a couple of feet to add here or there. But if you do under the swim deck seat backs, you will use about 18" on each. You could do only 1', but you may run short if you break a couple, but you should be good. Disclaimer...I don't remember the exact measurement of he cup holder inside circumference but it shocked me! And 14" sticks in my head. But measure!, allow for cutting, allow for a nice radius on the strain relieved wire, and put some additional insulation where it passes thru the cup holder sidewall.

Thanks I will Likely get two rolls them as I plan to do some other accent lighting as well. I was looking at the 5050's whats the difference between them and the 3528's?

 

[Bruce]

I was looking at the 5050's whats the difference between them and the 3528's?

5050s are brighter. More detailed info at http://www.ledluxor.com/flexible-led-light-strips-smd-5050-vs-smd-3528

 

[txav8r]

5050s are the chip of choice for RGBs but it is also offered in single color. The chip actually contains 3 small chips that in an RGB, is the red, the blue, and the green LED on the 5050. The 3528 is less watts and not as bright, but more importantly is the number of chips per inch. Closer spacing is better for some things. You can get 150, 300, or 600 chips on a 16' spool.

 

[txav8r]

I also have a cupholder on the captains dash...15!

 

[robert843]

@Bruce my led strips have arrived and I'm going to start doing prep work today but waiting for my Kicker LED marine speakers to arrive to finish the project. Two questions. On the waterproof marine strip led it is coated in a thick water proof layer what did you use to scrape that off at the connection points and how careful do I need to be during that process? Second I'm debating tapping these things into the interior light in the bow area would that handle this or would I likely blow the fuse or any other reason that is not recommended?

 

[txav8r]

The casing can be removed carefully, by using a razor knife. Cut down to the strip without cutting it. Then slide the knife along the strip face, under the casing. Once removed, scape the solder dots to remove the conformal coating

It's a question of amps as to whether you can add addional load to courtesy lights. In the past, we have replaced higher draw incadecent lamps with LED's and made room for addional.

 

[robert843]

@txav8r I have debated even just disconnecting the courtesy light and using that wiring and the led's as the courtesy light. I thought there was one in the bow of the boat but when I was just there I didn't see one. Is it just the two on the by the captains and passenger seat?

 

[Bruce]

I replaced my courtesy lights with LED lights. I believe it was a bulb upgrade on the port side. I moved the light and used a LED light on the starboard side.

You will want to have a way to turn the cup holders on without turning on the courtesy lights. I sometimes run at night with the cup holders on red. The kids love it and the red is not blinding.

I considered upgrading the courtesy light switch to a DPDT version and having both on the same switch. I found that the negative side of the circuit is switched. I had an extra switch in my secondary switch panel and decided to use it.

 

[txav8r]

Yeah, I would recommend secondary switching myself as well. I kill all the light I can at night because we are not on a city lake with lots of light around. It is DARK! And any light kills vision. But I would work zones into it or at least lay out your harness so iii can zone it in the future after you see what we're talking about. You could get going with the courtesy switch but your going to want white light for chart reading or similar use. The LED's will be atmosphere. There are numerous Blue Sea switch panels. I used a 4 gang switch panel that was also fused. Definitely fuse your led circuit.

 

[robert843]

@Bruce @txav8r I have begun the fun parts of this cutting down and soldering. I have decided to tap into the courtesy lights since there only 2 on the boat and they are about worthless anyway. I will use a flashlight for anything i would have used them for. My question now is since that switch is already fused shoud I still connect another from where I tap in or should the fuse that line is on be sufficient?

 

[tdonoughue]

One fuse on a circuit is generally sufficient. Two won't hurt you, but it will make it more difficult to find out what is wrong if a fuse blows. First you have to figure out which one... That sounds trivial until you are on the water trying to figure out why the horn (or lights or...) won't work, and you check the main bank of fuses and none of them are blown, only to later figure out it was the one you added inline that you had forgotten about because it is under that seat over there...

 

[Bruce]

Is it a fuse or a breaker? I would use the existing breaker. I would not add any fuse. I believe you will find that the positive runs through the breaker and the switch is on the negative side.

 

[robert843]

Well everything soldered and butt ended up also tested to work. Heading down to the boat now trying to see if I can get this done in three hours of daylight left probably being a little over ambitious .

 

[txav8r]

@robert843 that is a very nice job of soldering the leads and heat shrinking. I would test each of when with a 9V battery before installing.

 

[robert843]

Well I ran out of light. I did get all the led's in place drilled and siliconed. Replaced the factory speakers with kicker km led speakers. Everything is wired and set to go but I ran out of light right at the part I was going to tap into power so will have to finishing a few weeks when I get a chance again. I knew 1 or 2 of my factory speakers were blow but damn the all were blown ripped and cracking.

 

[tdonoughue]

And some of them even have screws in the cones! D@mn, that is bad.

You are going to hear some difference when you get those Kickers in... Don't worry about not finishing due to light. That happens. Better to come back another day than to mess something up because you couldn't see the color of the wires... Ask me how I know.

 

[robert843]

And some of them even have screws in the cones! D@mn, that is bad.

You are going to hear some difference when you get those Kickers in... Don't worry about not finishing due to light. That happens. Better to come back another day than to mess something up because you couldn't see the color of the wires... Ask me how I know.

Lol sorry the screws are the screws I pulled out when removing the speakers they were not there when the speakers were in. The Kickers are installed but I had the battery disconnected and in a rush to get stuff done I never turned the radio on but I do expect there to be a big difference as bad as these speakers were.

 

[robert843]

Well back to the drawing board I'm assuming I had to much on one line as one of the wires got extremely hot not sure if i had to much load on it or what. I was trying to tap into both of the courtesy lights and that attempt failed as well as the lights on the drivers side the wires were to short. So I'm probably going to have to go back and do it through a bus box ugh. I will have to take multi meter back down there and see if I can if confirm you are correct on the positive and negative at the switch @Bruce as I stiil plan to use the courtesy light switch and put the bus box under the helm and I guess run all the wire into there.