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Author Topic: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights  (Read 5681 times)

IKB

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Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« on: October 18, 2015, 11:41:32 pm »

After a recent night sail at the club lake I noticed that several of my superstructure flood lights had burnt out, this is a pain, but a great excuse to finish off a project I started a few months back and ran out of enthusiasm to finish, namely, replacing all of the cast white metal deck lights on my Smit with working replicas.
I originally started this conversion by turning 8mm diameter Acrylic rod on the lathe to replicate the light body of the originals, cross drilling a hole for the GOW to live in and then adding a brass tube for the stem, progress was good and all the replicas were painted, so a final lighting test was done before installation, only to find, to my horror, that GOW bulbs get much hotter than I had appreciated and the heat was blistering the paint straight off the Acrylic, so one useless batch ended up in the bin and I started again.
This time, 3mm LEDs were used, a couple of test units completed and they passed the paint blister test with flying colours, one quick wiring job later and they were ready for the next night sail, along with the upgraded navigation lights to LED, with spot and mast lights to follow.
 
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Brian60

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2015, 08:09:51 am »

Well done on making up the lights, you have found the problem with grain of wheat or indeed grain of rice bulbs - they get hot! Led's are the way to go but don't forget to include the ballast resistors.

Can I show you this photo from a build I am on at the moment. Its self explanatory, just showing the different sizes of led's available. At the ends are two floodlight housings with the led embedded, these are made with waterclear casting resin, using plasticene as the mould. Just make up one master floodlight. press it into the plasticene for however many lamps are required, insert the led - the legs on mine are bent to 90degrees so the led faces out the front for maximum light. Then pour in the resin and allow to harden!

mrturbo553

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2015, 08:29:39 am »

Brian , do you use any specific type of resin for casting your lights ?
Cheers Aid
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2015, 08:59:35 am »


You can almost hear the diesels thrummimg away in your photos!


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Capt Podge

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2015, 10:18:03 am »

That looks impressive. O0
 
I'd like to incorporate a few lights on my Smit Nederland but - How do you go about setting up so many lights and so far apart ?
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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Brian60

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2015, 11:41:31 am »

Brian , do you use any specific type of resin for casting your lights ?
Cheers Aid

I use water clear polyester resin Aide, available from most grp retailers- east coast fibreglass, easy composites etc.

Sorry to hijack the original thread the questions should have warranted their own topic.

That looks impressive. O0
 
I'd like to incorporate a few lights on my Smit Nederland but - How do you go about setting up so many lights and so far apart ?
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
Ray lights are simple to add, the hardest part is deciding to operate via a mechanical (normal type) switch or an electronic one plugged into your servo for tx switching. Lighting can be grain of wheat bulbs which come in 12v variety, search ebay or a local model railway shop, they come with wire tails a few inches long which facilitates wiring + and - as is everything. The more difficult way is with leds because they need a ballast resistor to drop the voltage from 12v or 6v whichever is your model power source, down to their operating voltage which can be from 2 to 3.5v depending on type used some even make it easy and come with a ballast resistor already attached so a direct connection to 12v is easy.

However the best way is to daisy chain them, for 12v you can get away with 3 in a chain with a small resistor. I prefer to do mine in 2's with a larger resistor. Just a short explanation but I hope it helps. If you decide on leds there are plenty of online calculators to work out the resistors you need and tutorials on youtube.

Again apologies to the OP for using his topic.

Capt Podge

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2015, 11:49:08 am »

Thank you for the info Brian - I'll be running on 6v. So, now I'm off to do a bit of research and see if I can produce some sort of diagram to aid fitting.
It's a long way off yet, so plenty of time.
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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IKB

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2015, 09:37:00 pm »

Thankyou everyone for your positive comments about my latest pet project.

At the moment I am using pre-wired LEDs from an eBay supplier, (Bright Components) as well as the leads, each LED has a resistor soldered in line allowing me to just connect all the new lights up to the main 12v supply that powers the model, this simplifies the wiring process no end.
In the post today, I received the cool white LEDs I will be using for the searchlights, more photos to come in the following days. 

The photo is of a deck light prior to painting, showing the turned Acrylic head.
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essex2visuvesi

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2015, 10:03:32 pm »

Thankyou everyone for your positive comments about my latest pet project.

At the moment I am using pre-wired LEDs from an eBay supplier, (Bright Components) as well as the leads, each LED has a resistor soldered in line allowing me to just connect all the new lights up to the main 12v supply that powers the model, this simplifies the wiring process no end.
In the post today, I received the cool white LEDs I will be using for the searchlights, more photos to come in the following days. 

The photo is of a deck light prior to painting, showing the turned Acrylic head.


What are the measurements on the searchlight ones?
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IKB

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2015, 11:58:09 pm »


What are the measurements on the searchlight ones?

Hi essex2visuvesi,

All of the LEDs I am using are 3mm, if that is what you are asking
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IKB

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2015, 05:20:11 pm »

Hi Everyone,

I have now finished installing the lights on my tug, including a rebuild of the mast and am very pleased with the result, below a few photos from the lake last night.

Enjoy,

Alex
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Capt Podge

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2015, 06:32:20 pm »

Brilliant work there Alex - pun intended.  ok2
 
If mine turns out half as good I'll be chuffed to bits.
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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essex2visuvesi

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2015, 08:14:30 pm »

And a very illuminating post :)
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Brian60

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2015, 11:11:15 am »

 :-)) :-)) :-))

PeachyPM

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Re: Smit Nederland Working Deck Lights
« Reply #14 on: December 01, 2015, 07:03:32 pm »

Great Shots Alex,
The  BMBS lake certainly looked like a mill pond that night!
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