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-   -   RGB Underwater Transom Lights? (http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=797719)

nitrousbird 04-18-2013 5:47 PM

RGB Underwater Transom Lights?
 
Does anyone sell a decent underwater RGB transom light? There are a lot of single color options to choose from but I'm not seeing much of anything in the RGB variety.

I just ordered a 3 channel (6 amp/each) app enabled RGB controller for my interior LED project; I figured I could have transom lighting running off of one of these channels. Current draw isn't much of a concern. Light output is a concern, since the majority of our boating is in muddy water.

davidggriffith 04-18-2013 5:56 PM

There expensive but shadow caster has them

david_e_m 04-18-2013 6:15 PM

Both Shadowcaster and Abyss have them. Both are excellent products. Keep in mind that an RGB light will not be as bright as a single color light if you are in murky water.

David
Earmark Marine

volzalum 04-18-2013 8:13 PM

The Shadow Casters are supposed to be as bright as their standard single color. They have the controller built in to the light, but you may can use a relay to make he colors change with the rgb controller you have.

nitrousbird 04-19-2013 6:27 AM

Ouch. Looks like the going rate for the Shadow-Caster SCM10 is $899. Since I planned on doing two lights (one on each side of my wedge), $1800 is not worth it for a couple of underwater lights.

The Abyss 1560 seems to go for $769, but again $1500 is a lot of scratch for a couple of lights. I could possibly justify it if I boated a lot at night and/or lived on the water. Neither are the case.

Looks like a single color LED is what I will be going with. I was in the $200-400 per light budget, with $400 needing to be justified as much better than the lower priced alternatives. I can handle $400-800 for a pair of underwater lights.

grant_west 04-19-2013 7:55 AM

The CC's color casters (shadow casters rgb's) are supposed to be pretty cool. I don't have my hands on a pair dirt hand but I can tell you what I have been told.
One of the problems with RGB is trying to get all the colors to have somewhat the same brightness. I have found that Red is not as bright as let's say Blue, because Red light gets absorbed by water. To over come this shadow caster had to find or program the Red light to have the same effect as the Blue or other colors. I have some underwater RGBs and when it cycles threw some of the different colors it seems like the Light is so dull it's like the lights shut off. I thought that was a pretty cool attribute of the CC's

PS if you have a chance to do some testing when installing your lights TRY to angle them down to the point where you don't notice the light falling off or getting duller from the surface. This will angle the light down and give you more penetration. In places where it's clear or shallow the light will BOUNCE off the bottom and be brighter up top. It's a weird effect but it works

jonyb 04-19-2013 8:18 AM

I installed 3 of the CC's for a customer last year. Never got any underwater pics and I'll have to look back to see if I have any shop pics, but they looked awesome. They come with a switch that matches OEM switches to change colors with. The customer was looking for red, so he took this option. Those 3 were installed above 3 more that were blue, that were installed a year prior to that. So - this Centurion has a total of 6 Shadow Casters on the transom.

I'll post pics later when I can find them.

volzalum 04-19-2013 8:43 AM

Wow, that's an expensive tail. I run 2 blue SCs on my Centurion. They didn't have the CCs when I put mine on.

jonyb 04-19-2013 12:26 PM

Hard to really tell what they are, but you can clearly see there are 6 lights here.

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...63032100_n.jpg

jonyb 04-19-2013 12:27 PM

3 of the CC's on red.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...26698384_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...19084665_n.jpg

fman 04-19-2013 11:29 PM

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AQUA LEDs are definitely worth a look, imo, for the money you cant beat them. CREE II ultra bright lumens putting out 1700 per light, tested on a lumen meter. They are solid brass and extremely well designed. $129/each...just installed them on my vlx.... they have multiple colors available, these pictured are white (clear).... its also nice supporting a product completely produced in the USA.

www.aqualeds.com

nitrousbird 04-20-2013 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fman (Post 1817745)
AQUA LEDs are definitely worth a look, imo, for the money you cant beat them. CREE II ultra bright lumens putting out 1700 per light, tested on a lumen meter. They are solid brass and extremely well designed. $129/each...just installed them on my vlx.... they have multiple colors available, these pictured are white (clear).... its also nice supporting a product completely produced in the USA.

www.aqualeds.com

Travis, I've been highly considering these since seeing you post this.

I wish they sold a stainless version (I just ordered the stainless turn-downs like you boat is optioned with and I have the stainless floating wedge bracket ready to install. It doesn't look bad on your boat though so perhaps I should accept it and move on. Nothing else I've seen comes even sort of close to price vs. output.

Do you suggest just doing two or would 3-4 be more appropriate? Any picture of them turned on?

fman 04-20-2013 1:39 PM

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No pics in the water yet, personally I would just start with two of them and see how like the output. You can always add more later. 1700 Lumens is pretty bright, my last vlx had the 700 lumen oem Malibu lights and they gave off good light in the water. They make them out of brass because they are used in saltwater applications and the barnacles do not like to grow on brass/copper. You might even try calling him, they might be able to make you a stainless version, they machine everything in there shop.

Here is a pic of two Aqua 18's, blue color, on a vlx...

you_da_man 04-20-2013 2:05 PM

Just an observation with Aqua LEDs but they seem to be narrow beam and not wide beam. You won't get that halo effect around the back of the boat with narrow beam lights. I run Abyss 800's and it's pretty close to a full 180 coverage behind the boat. Don't worry about stainless vs brass/bronze look...who's going to be under your boat to say "too bad his LEDs don't match his wedge".

fman 04-20-2013 4:39 PM

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The Abyss 800's are only rated at 450 lumens for $325+.... in the picture above, it looks like the Aqua 18s are putting out some pretty good light across the back of the transom area. I don't think Aqua 18s are the best light on the market, but for the price they are definitely hard to beat. The Shadowcaster 10s are super nice, but a pair of them is between $800-$1000k and they don't even list the light lumen output on there website which seems strange to me. I would assume the SC 10s are way above 1700 lumens each for there price point.

Picture below is of an Aqua 18 underwater light under salt water for 5 years, it looks like they hold up quite well, especially considering it was in Salt water which is brutal on anything.

Here is a video on a light test of the Aqua 18s compared to some other cheaper brands. Not the greatest video production, but it confirms the Aqua 18 light output.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSDL1xzfsBE

you_da_man 04-20-2013 5:18 PM

Travis...no doubt those Aqua LEDs look to put out some great light, price is right as well. SC-10 are reportedly just over 2000 lumen. I'm very satisfied with the light output of the Abyss 800's but then again the visibility on my home lake was not going to be an issue since it's pretty clear most of the year. Original poster of this thread definitely will need some light output if he's on a muddy lake/river with almost no visibility. I've seen a single SC-10 barely make any light on a muddy lake in North Texas. It had good light around 2-3 ft then it faded fast. Stay away from red if you have a muddy lake...it's the weakest of the colors.

david_e_m 04-21-2013 9:01 AM

Many manufacturers do not use lumens as a rating standard because it is a totally unqualified specification that the consumer does not understand and is often abused by light manufacturers.
A meter is reading the direct light energy only. Notice the sides of the box are either open or painted black. So if one light is directional and the other light has widely dispersed energy, the meter will read much higher on the directional light even though that is far from an accurate measurement of the total light being generated. I would have thought that is obvious to everyone who watches the video.
Any manufacturer that is specifying the same lumens for various colors is doing some serious spec bending.
The base efficiency of the LEDs used by any of the underwater light manufacturers are going to be very similar. So if you want an idea of the comparative and total light output, measure the amperage draw.

David
Earmark Marine

Xtreme_Aviator 04-23-2013 4:55 AM

Check out the Seablaze line of underwater LEDs. They do have multicolor, but not RGB, it will reduce overall output, because it is less LEDs per color. Red is worthless in anything but clear water anyway. And it attracts sharks.

$220 for a 2.5A light(750 lumen)
$450 for the equivalent light, but with 3.6A(no specs, but read somewhere close to 4500lumen??). Light output is also based off of efficiency of the LED and how well they can cool it.

Seablaze can be run out of the water, no issues. I currently have 2 years of use on the Seablaze 3 lights.

I have just been very happy with them and the price is very competitive.

iShredSAN 04-23-2013 7:24 AM

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I have (2) Lumitec SeaBlaze 3s in all blue. About $200 each and work great in and out of water.

Xtreme_Aviator 04-23-2013 3:08 PM

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I have three Seablaze 3's for the muddy waters of Texas. They work great, just prepare to have your nipple bitten by a catfish if you are swimming at night. The only camera I carry around is the one on the phone, so it looks way better in person.

Attachment 29275


Attachment 29274

gpd005 06-17-2013 9:00 AM

I'm a total novice to this underwater lighting thing so please don't bash me for the question i just want to be sure there isn't anything special needed other than the light. can these just be wired into the normal light switch for other lights? I see someone talking about running it thru an Amp and i just want some green light under my swim platform without adding any amps or anything like that if possible.

Thanks for the advice in advance!

you_da_man 06-17-2013 9:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpd005 (Post 1828306)
I'm a total novice to this underwater lighting thing so please don't bash me for the question i just want to be sure there isn't anything special needed other than the light. can these just be wired into the normal light switch for other lights? I see someone talking about running it thru an Amp and i just want some green light under my swim platform without adding any amps or anything like that if possible.

Thanks for the advice in advance!

It's a straight forward wire job to an empty accessory switch. Never heard of wiring it to an amp. Personally green is the last color I would get, next to red. There is a reason fisherman use green lamps above water and green led's below...it attracts fish. Be prepared to swim with a lot of bait fish if you go with green.

NotSure123 06-17-2013 11:06 PM

X2 on AquaLed's...I put a pair of their new "wide angle" lights on my boat...I'm very happy with the output as well the the price... :) These things are solid and nicely made. I'll get some pics up soon...

nitrousbird 06-18-2013 3:49 AM

Here are a few of my AquaLED's I ended up going with. Our water is very muddy/murky so that impacts the light output a lot:

http://imageshack.us/a/img404/2918/photojun08215236.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img33/1608/photojun08222639.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img259/8158/photojun08222615.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img827/1918/photomay21194312.jpg


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