Custom Transom Lights

[mtnsmith]

So my friends and I were all interested in putting some transom lights on our boats strictly for the look factor, not to light up the wake to attract the little fish that attract the big fish that attract the sharks and gators! So looking at what was available we quickly decided they were all way too expensive and most did not spread the light out very well to illuminate the entire back of the boat. I am friends with a bunch of engineers and this is what our one friend has built so far with some input. He is thinking of actually putting them into production if they work well. He designed them completely. They have ten cluster led's and are much brighter than any halogen or xenon light we had found drawing way less power. The first pic is how the light looks finished, just with no led's yet, then there are the lights functioning and in the pool, very bright. I threw some pics of the boards in there too incase any super nerds are interested. The nice thing is they are surface mount and will only require a very small hole for the wire to pass through the transom. Hopefully there will be some installed on a boat next weekend for testing and more pics.

[Guest]

When you have a set mounted let me know, I would like to see the pics and if you friend does a production run. If they look as good as what I see in this post I would be very interested. I like the look of the enclosure and the fact that he is putting the leds on a circuit board vs discrete wiring.
Great Job!

[chadster2]

That's sharp! what type of amps, volts?

[samw]

I have also been wanting to put transom lights. I can't afford 3-400 $ per led cluster. So if it works out and you can you get your buddy's to give us a price I would think there would be a lot a guy on here that would buy..

Thanks for sharing.

[mtnsmith]

Thanks for the compliments. I think he also changed to screws to a hex head screw instead of phillips. I'll ask him to send me a run down of specs, but I think he said they were pulling about 3 amps, they were operating at about 130 degrees, and they were putting out about 40 watts...I could be wrong on all this though, as I am not the engineer, I make maps. He is also trying to find small enough of a thermal cutoff to wire in incase you leave them on out of the water for too long. I know last night he was going to run them out of the water to see if they destroyed themselves. On these first two I know he put a temp probe in the case with leads to come out to a multi-meter to monitor, the entire back is stainless and acts as a heat sink and he said it seemed to be dissipating the heat well. Guess we'll see after he finishes testing them in a couple weeks.

[Razzman]

He makes those with different colored lights at a good price point and he'll sell a load of 'em.!

[chadster2]

But with the boat moving they will be out of the water? yes?

[Razzman]

Yea and it's unavoidable on any tournament boat unless your not on plane.

[mtnsmith]

This is true, which is why we are going to do some testing before trying to sell them at all, plus our water here in florida will get up to the mid 90's by mid july. We are thinking there is probably some spray that would make it up to the light even when moving, but we'll have to see. I know I've touched some of the abyss lights at the boat show that were in an aquarium and they were pretty darn hot to the touch. I asked the guy if they had a thermal cut-out and he did not know, but doubted it. He did say that he had not replaced any due to overheating when I talked to him in February at the Miami boat show. Like I said, my friends are engineers, mechanical and electrical, so you know they will be overdesigning this thing I'm sure. We figure spread out in a bar versus in a circle the heat will be spread out over a larger area. The boards are rated at I think 150 celsius...~300 fahrenheit, so we should be safe.

[chadster2]

water water every where but a drop to cool. There has to be a way to get spray. or have a water void behind.

[da.bell]

Those like very nice. Might be interested myself if the price is right. No, not free.

[talltigeguy]

I am interested as well. I can even do some beta testing in fresh water if you would like and we can get it dialed in if you want me to be your guinea pig. Drilling holes in my boat kind of gives me a thrill nowadays.

[signguy22]

I would be interested in them too, if the price is right!! They are sweet looking!

[Greg Mallek]

I'm in for a set as well...

[Tanner]

In for a set as well if the price is right!