Whole Boat LED install

[haknslash]

So I did my boat today in blue LED and decided to take some pics and make some edited images to help others should they do this lighting mod. If it weren't for the heat today I would have worn long sleeves because I got some nice fiberglass rash now

Here is the wiring diagram of how I wired up my 192...



I used the courtesy rocker switch at the helm to feed power and ground to the LED's...







I made little "pig tails" for my power and ground wires. There will basically be one strand of power/ground ran to the bow area of the boat and one strand of power/ground ran to the stern and around to the port side as the diagram above showed...



I used an old trick from my car stereo installer days to braid/twist 18 GA. red and black wire. Braiding the wires makes running them much easier and cleaner....





I then began running the braided wires to the starboard bow from the helm cutout. I used my sectional fiberglass rods to make this easy. I'm too big of a guy to get inside these compartments so using the rods are a life saver for most of the runs...













I put down painters tape and drilled small holes under where I wanted to hide the cockpit LED's....





Clean the surface where you want to stick your LED's with rubbing alcohol. Here you can see I tucked a good bit of the LED's up under the cushion. I didn't want to tuck all of it up in there because I wanted some of the light to flood the surrounding areas. Since the cockpit is white it will light up easily. You can go for a different more low key look but this is what I was looking for after playing around test fitting and lighting up the LED's. If you're sitting in the seat you can't even see the LED's as I wanted a hidden look. It's only unless you look underneath will you see the strips...









Then begin to wire things up...




Pics of installed LED strips...




When it came time to do the swim deck the only side that was a pain in the ass was the side with the blower. Careful of the freakin screws in there because I about ripped my fingernail off when I felt under the swim deck back cushion!! after determining where it was safe to drill on the engine compartment firewall/swim deck wall I then drilled a hole just to the low right corner of the blower next to one of the sharp ass screws...





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Ok so that is my write-up on the LED install and I hope it helps someone in the future. Here's how mine turned out...

 

[Eric Ballard]

Great write up! That looks amazing.

 

[2kwik4u]

@haknslash What brand LED's did you go with?

I've been boating for many years. Was out after dark maybe twice my whole life. I've been out after dark 4 times already this season, and the wife has requested some better lighting in the boat.

 

[haknslash]

@haknslash What brand LED's did you go with?

I've been boating for many years. Was out after dark maybe twice my whole life. I've been out after dark 4 times already this season, and the wife has requested some better lighting in the boat.

I bought some pre made 12" LED strip packs made by Alpena at Walmart.



You can do this MUCH cheaper by buying a roll of LEDs from Amazon and soldering the sections you want but I didn't want to deal with soldering in the summer heat in my garage so I splurged and bought the pre made strips. I bought 6 (3 packs of two) for the cockpit (still have one left to use somewhere) and then I bought 2 packs of LEDs that are twice the brightness (they are 5050 LEDs) for the swim deck. I used those on the swim deck because they were way too bright for my taste inside the cockpit.

 

[2kwik4u]

@haknslash Thank you sir.

I put the strip LED's in the kitchen under the cabinets. Super easy installation, but the adhesive was junk at best and they are currently held in place with packing tape. I'm hoping to find something with better adhesive for the boat.

I think that I want to put a strip in the storage compartment, under the passenger seat, and in the drivers footwell. I'm also trying to figure out how to put some on the "underside" of the tower on a separate switch to really through the light into the cockpit when we really need to see.

 

[haknslash]

This stuff had 3M backing. I prepped the surfaces with rubbing alcohol and made sure to press them firmly. They feel solid!

 

[2kwik4u]

@haknslash I've got another question. Are these all in series or parallel. I'm not 100% clear on how you made the pigtails.

My thought was to make the red/black lines in your diagram "buses" so that each strip would pull from the bus as needed, and if one dropped out, the rest would remain on.

 

[haknslash]

I wired them in parallel. Basically the twisted positive and ground strand I run around the boat becomes a "source" for each LED strip to connect or "tap" into. Where I had two LED strips close together I connected those together on one side of the butt connectors so that there is one connection point to the twisted positive and ground wires. Hope that makes sense. Exactly as you imagined with your "buses" .

 

[ken4motion]

I bought some pre made 12" LED strip packs made by Alpena at Walmart.

View attachment 77962

You can do this MUCH cheaper by buying a roll of LEDs from Amazon and soldering the sections you want but I didn't want to deal with soldering in the summer heat in my garage so I splurged and bought the pre made strips. I bought 6 (3 packs of two) for the cockpit (still have one left to use somewhere) and then I bought 2 packs of LEDs that are twice the brightness (they are 5050 LEDs) for the swim deck. I used those on the swim deck because they were way too bright for my taste inside the cockpit.

Hey, I totally love the write up and your results look amazing! Would you be able to post the part number of the brighter 5050 LED strips?

 

[haknslash]

Hey, I totally love the write up and your results look amazing! Would you be able to post the part number of the brighter 5050 LED strips?

Actually looking at the product details, the brighter ones I used on the swim deck are 5053 SMD LED's https://www.walmart.com/ip/Alpena-Max-LED-24-Blue/49963967
The ones I used for the cockpit are these https://www.walmart.com/ip/Alpena-Flex-LED-24-Blue/49963990

If you want to do this mod much cheaper you will need to buy a big roll of the LED's from Amazon, cut the length of LED strips you need and then solder on leads for the power and ground for each LED strip. It allows for much more customizing as you can cut the strips to various lengths but it also involves more time with making all those soldered connections. I just had the money to splurge on the expensive strips while I was at Walmart so I went that route.

Glad you liked the write-up and hope it helps you!

 

[2kwik4u]

If you want to do this mod much cheaper you will need to buy a big roll of the LED's from Amazon......

This is what I bought to put in my kitchen. You definitely want to solder them in place, and NOT use the little connectors that are available. The cabinet doors create enough vibration to shake them loose from time to time, the boat would definitely break them in short order. Also, the adhesive on the back was junk. Granted I was sticking them to wood and not clean smooth fiberglass, however it was bad enough I'm seriously considering NOT getting those again for my boat lighting.

Now the dimmer module I bought with those as a control has worked extremely well, and I'm considering wiring that in for the boat. Here is a link to the dimmer. Will need a couple of these style adapters to make the connections on either side though.

 

[Bennie]

That was a GREAT write up @haknslash!

Very informative and detailed... thank you. Please let us know how they hold up for you during your next few outings.
(I may have to try my hand at that mod)

 

[haknslash]

Will do @Bennie. I don't expect any issues but I will let y'all know if anything starts to crap out.

 

[Bennie]

Will do @Bennie. I don't expect any issues but I will let y'all know if anything starts to crap out.

Your connections/install looks top notch. And that braided trick of yours is .

I'm mostly interested in how well the 3M tape will hold out. Thanks again for all the info!

 

[bobbie]

@haknslash . Didn't you say you want to surf our boat?! I'll trade you led install for surfing the famous "Liquid Inheritance" plus a tour of the great pacific northwest!

 

[haknslash]

Your connections/install looks top notch. And that braided trick of yours is .

I'm mostly interested in how well the 3M tape will hold out. Thanks again for all the info!

Took the boat out today and it was rough as hell in some areas of the lake due to all the boats out. Like a washing machine at time and a few slammers from wake boats. Happy to report the LEDs all held in fine and worked perfectly. I even got to use them when a storm rolled through and it got dark . It's 3M foam tape so I just made sure the surface was well prepped using rubbing alcohol and then rubbed down the LED strips firmly. I poked around at them today and even with all the heat they don't budge and feel real secure.

 

[ken4motion]

Hey @haknslash You most definitely inspired me to go forward with an LED project on my '14 SX190. I began with the swim platform lights. I connected them to the stern light. Kept them white.

 

[ken4motion]

For the interior, I went with the Opti7 Boat kit. I like the connectors as the system is pre wired and expandable. I have only rough installed so far. My concern is with having to drill a large hole for each connector. Have to mull this over. I was able to add extra lights and used them in the engine bay and side locker.View attachment 78713 View attachment 78713

 

[Bennie]

I was able to add extra lights and used them in the engine bay and side locker.

I REALLY like those extra lights!!
I've been thinking how to do this mod with additional lighting in each storage area, activated via a pressure switch that will turn on each respective light once that seat/lid is opened.

We already have some "courtesy" lights on our 2015 242LS for the seats but I can't find my bumpers, lines (and most importantly my beer) in those dark storage areas.

@haknslash - any ideas? You're much better at this than I will ever be.

 

[haknslash]

I REALLY like those extra lights!!
I've been thinking how to do this mod with additional lighting in each storage area, activated via a pressure switch that will turn on each respective light once that seat/lid is opened.

We already have some "courtesy" lights on our 2015 242LS for the seats but I can't find my bumpers, lines (and most importantly my beer) in those dark storage areas.

@haknslash - any ideas? You're much better at this than I will ever be.

I played around with the extra LED strip I have in different locations in the storage compartments. I think I'll definitely be adding one to the helm storage. Even the blue gave out plenty of light to find things in there but I think I'll do an RGB in there just so I can change it to white or other colors. I'm also thinking of doing some RGB in my cup holders. That would create quite the effect with blue LED color as my "base color" and RGB cup holders to create "highlight effects" with music, strobe, pulse, etc. That way not everything is RGB all at once and has a different look. I'll guess that will be phase 2 of my LED project .

I personally wouldn't bother with switches under each cushion to activate the storage LED. That would just be another thing to need adjustment or fail over time. Cool effect for sure but not worth drilling the extra holes around the storage compartment opening to detect when the cushion sits on it. Kind of how the cleanout tray safety switch works. I would rather just add another rocker switch so I could power them on separately from the cockpit LED's whenever I needed to use them. That being said I would like to add one to the helm storage door!