www.iFourWinns.com

Still waiting on the big thaw, so the boat's still in storage but I found I could start my modest LED project at home by beginning with cup holders.

My existing cupholders are white plastic, so it wasn't a big deal to grab some extras to experiment with LED lighting.

I want my cupholders illuminated in red in the hopes that this will help protect night vision. Ordered up both 5mm and Superbright LEDs from http://www.oznium.com.

I found that the 5mm LEDs would install right into the existing cup holder's drain hole.



I knew that this type of mount would work well for lighting up bottles,



but didn't expect that it would spread enough to illuminate the cupholder as well.



In fact, only two things pevented me from going this relatively inexpensive route.
1) Blockage of existing drain hole.
2) The waterproof 5mm LEDs are too focused, like a flashlight the LED projected this 2' diameter light on the ceiling 4' above my workbench.



Not wanting to randomly highlight the areas above the cupholders, my experiments continued.

Here's the waterproof superbright LED in a side mount.



I originally thought I'd have one of these to light up the cupholder, and the 5mm LED to light up the bottle, but amazingly this config does both well. Too well for my camera unfortunately, the pics look far lighter in the image - to the naked eye they look even more red than the 5mm pics above.





That's water in the Corona bottle, BTW.

Anyway, the superbrights do spread the light much better so that only a light glow appears on the workshop ceiling. This is the route I'm going, hope it helps others.

I will be illuminating a few other areas, I'll resurrect this thread after the big thaw.

_________________
2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP

I love the look of this and may have to go this route myself. Glade someone else tried it first though as I have stainless cupholders and don't want to ruin any of them. Thanks for the pics.

_________________
1998 Baja Boss 252 7.4L MPI Bravo 1 (SOLD)
2007 FW H200SS 5.0GXI (Sold)
2004 Chevy Silverado 2500 Crew 6.0L (tow vehicle)
1991 FW 170 Freedom 4.3L (SOLD)

Pfffffft, yeah, right.

Another possibility is the WLED units from http://www.superbrighleds.com. They have a conical diffuser in the lens that directs most of the light out sideways. You'd have to rig up a socket intended to accept a 168 or 194 automotive bulb, but I bet it could be done. Here's a 194 with a WLED-B (blue).

_________________


Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Hey JIm do you have a picture of inside the cupholder witht the light off? Want to see how far the LED sticks out if at all?

_________________
1998 Baja Boss 252 7.4L MPI Bravo 1 (SOLD)
2007 FW H200SS 5.0GXI (Sold)
2004 Chevy Silverado 2500 Crew 6.0L (tow vehicle)
1991 FW 170 Freedom 4.3L (SOLD)

These one look pretty cool. They change colors as well. Do not seem to be way too pricey either

These one look pretty cool. They change colors as well. Do not seem to be way too pricey either.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/7-color- ... ccessories

Those look nice, but to bad they won't just stay one color. Wish I could find something like this that would stay red.

_________________
1998 Baja Boss 252 7.4L MPI Bravo 1 (SOLD)
2007 FW H200SS 5.0GXI (Sold)
2004 Chevy Silverado 2500 Crew 6.0L (tow vehicle)
1991 FW 170 Freedom 4.3L (SOLD)

Nice job Jim. I can't wait to get my boat out of storage and start tinkering! Unfortunately the list is already long so this may have to wait a little while but maybe sometime this summer!

_________________
Marc, Kathlin & Nathalie


'89 Chaparral Laser 32

'93 Vista 245, 5.8L w/ King Cobra

Former Boats
'01 H260, 7.4 VP Duoprop
'98 H200, 5.0 GL w/VP SX drive

Thanks guys. These posts have been very illuminating.

_________________
Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Par rum pum!

_________________

H210SS 6.2
F150 Platinum

The way I did it, the led sticks out a bit, not much - I'd say less than 1/16". They'd work fine if mounted flush.

_________________
2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP

They do look pretty nice. Shame I don't have any recessed cupholders.

_________________
-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

First phase done!

Preliminaries - FW only provided 6 cup holders in my 200H, almost adequate, but the person sitting in the middle of the bench was left out. My solution was to add additional cup holders on either side of the bench. The hole saw just didn't cut it, so I had to finish up with a knife.



End result.



On to LEDs, per my experimenting above, I went with side mounted red Superbright LEDs in the 8 cup holders. Initially I tried gluing them in place with white silicone caulk, but that didn't hold up, so I went with 5 minute epoxy. As with all of these night time no flash pics, the lights appear brighter, and the dark areas 'blacker' in the photos than in person. It's a nice balance to my eye, and I find I do not have to switch them off to navigate in even the darkest areas.

The Bow.



Port Cockpit.



Starboard Cockpit.

_________________
2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP

Could I stop there?, nope.

The glove box.



The glove box cooler.



The full size under the bench cooler.



I went with blue superbrights in the coolers - I'm hoping it will make ice glow in a frosty blue. I chose red LEDs in the cup holders and areas visable from the helm to minimize impact on my night vision - I cruise some very dark areas with many shallows. I wanted to illumnate the bow storage areas, and figured that as they are out of line of sight from the helm, I could go with white.






(Those are my bow filler cushions, btw.)


Kinda blurry - that's my black bow cover to the left.

Phase II will be to augment the courtesy lights with three more strategically placed white superbright LEDs. I've almost shed all of the fiberglass from my arms, even so I'm not sure I'll get to phase II this week.

_________________
2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP

This has inspired me a bit. I never use the courtesy light on the boat. I might just add a few lights inside the compartments (under the bow seats, and the backrests) for as needed light at night as it could prove useful for searching at night.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4