Custom LED advise/help.

I need to get some LED advise from everyone. I know there are already alot of topics on this subject but i couldnt find exactly the answers to my questions.

This is the boat I have: 24' chaparral sunesta 244
I have the 2013, but i dont believe they changed anything for 2014
http://chaparralboats.com/2014/chapa...hp?boat_id=113

Questions

1) Do I need LED strips and were should I have them installed (I will have a professional do everything here in houston)
Notes: I have 4 wetsounds xs-650 in boat speakers, 1 10" sub, and 2 rev 8's. I have already purchased speaker rings for all the speakers from wetsounds in blue. So I will have all those installed. Since I will have these installed will that be enough blue led light or should i have blue led strips installed as well? I dont want to have the strips installed if its not going to make it any brighter. I am sure there will be some dark spots so I am just trying to figure out were to have them installed so my boat looks like a dang blue star, haha.

2) Should I run two different sets of blue led strips? 1 being the blue to light up my boat, then a seperate white strips next to the blue on a seperate switch so I can light up the boat in white at night and find something if need be? If so, were should i put these? Should they also go inside the storage spaces? --> this light wont be kept on long, just to find things and sometimes see what im doing

3) Should I do cupholder LED lights? If so, were can I find cupholder led lights that have the same look as the wetsounds speaker light rings so they match?

4) How many switches should i have everything run to? Should i have the tower led rings lights run to the same switch as the in boat led rings lights? should i have everything run to the same? except for the white "courtesy lights"

5) Should I swap out the gauge cluster lights for blue led lights?

6) Any other advise to trick out the boat and make it bling with blue.

I have the strips and I think it adds alot. Blue shining down over the cupholder and then little blue LED's around the bottom of the seat bases. My cupholders have LED's around them and speakers do as well. Those are what put out the most light.

If you like LED's check out G's red nautique on here it's wild! Factory kitted has an amazing wakesetter too.

do you have a link to his boat? i found his profile but i cant find the thread with his leds

Also, I have another question.

Should I really do all blue over rgb's?

The entire reason for going all blue is because I love the blue. So even if i had rgb's i would keep it on blue most of the time. I called a local shop and he said if i really like blue to not do rgb and do blue over the hole boat because blue would be brighter than a rgb blue since the rgb blue would be sharing space with all the other colors.

Any truth to this? even if i had rgb i would keep it on blue most of the time. but rgb would be neat every once in a while to flip through the colors.
If rgb is def the way to go i could always send back the led speaker rings and swap them out for the rgbs

also are there any other advantages of rgb's? disadvantages? can you have it auto circulate through all the colors making a cool light show? --> this could be a neat option over entire blue leds

i just didnt like what he said about the rgb's not being as bright as entire blue would be

Yes, he is correct. With RGB's you will have 1 LED to every 3 on an all blue strip.

^^^ This is not correct with all waterproof RGB LED strips. The RGB strips we use have a 5mm x 5mm LED pod. Each RBG pod is made up of a RED GREEN and BLUE LED. So a 300 LED p/5M RGB would still have 300 blue LEDs and a 600 LED p/5M RGB will still have 600 blue LEDs, same as a 300 and 600 p/5M single color blue strip. The difference is the size and intensity of each, which makes the single color in an RGB strip less bright then the single color blue. The 3 single colors in an RGB are smaller. They can all be cut every 3 LEDs or pods, so each section of an RGB contains 3 LEDs of each color.

I would not trust any installer to do this for me if they can't answer most of your questions better than we can.

I have a cheap controller from Ebay that cost 25 bucks and gives me various options to scroll through the colors. It also has a sound sensor in it and the colors can change with the beat. It is worth every penny. I can also set it to just show blue if I want.

Go RGB, it is a little more, but will help with resale. What if the next guy hates blue and loves red? Then you are already set.

Yea but from what everyone is saying the rgb's aren't nearly as bright vs all blues. I def don't want to get something and feel like it is not bright enough, you know what I mean.

Here is an RGB 5050 300 p/5M speaker ring with just the blue lite up and the lights on in the garage. Next is a single color 3528 300 p/5M blue with lights off in the garage





I would not let the intensity difference between the 2 drive my decision. With in-boat speaker rings, tower speaker rings, sub and other accent strips to fill in combing pockets and maybe cup holder LEDs, you are going to have a lot of light

IMO, I would not do white LEDs just as a courtesy light. I would consider swapping the OEM courtesy lights for blue or RGB maybe. You will not have any problem seeing anything in side the boat with blue. If you go RGB, then problem solved, you will have white.

Has the pro down the street done LEDs in boats? What do they suggest in RE to switches and matching the cup holders?

I guess I stand corrected by Tigemike, all the standard rhn strips I've seen had less of one color led per foot. The ones his shop use have the same amount but they are smaller. Regardless, they will be less bright. I did all blue in my boat and did all white in all if the storage compartments. The reason I used all blue is because MC installs all blue from the factory and I figured I'd just match it up. In retrospect I do kind of wish I had used RGBs even though I would normally just leave them on blue as well.

I initially had blue in my boat and ditched them the next spring and installed RGB. I

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

Grant and Factorykitted I hope you guys don't mind me posting. The video link is of G's RGB's. the pic is Factorykitted's Wakesetter. The red LED's on the wakesetter are so tough!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IB0ZibJck2Y