LED bulbs not compatible with electronics?

tommays · Sep 6, 2013

The better ones like sense-a-bulb are fine your millage may vary on brand X

Rick D · Sep 6, 2013

I did not replace my anchor light with LED because of a report from Practical Sailor that noted the RF interference. However, all of my interior and nav lights have been LED for years. No problem. Good luck.

kloudie1 · Sep 6, 2013

Those chandeliers are 120 V input.. It takes a lot of electronic stuff to convert the 120 AC to the 3-5 volt DC that the LED uses.. If ya buy a DC input LED, it has to only regulate the input DC to a lower voltage.. a simpler thing to do and not cause (as much) radio interference.. We are about two generations of bulbs past those LED's that PS tested, and many now state that they don't cause radio interference.. All my cabin lights are LED as are the nav lights.. but my anchor light is not, because someone would have to go up the mast to change it. I have not had a problem with interference to date.

Maine Sail · Sep 6, 2013

Hugh Burton said:
With power consumption on a boat being important we were thinking about using LEDs bulbs and LED strips to light the interior of our MAC 26M.
However we just bought some LED Chandeliers bulbs for home. Note on back of pkg says: "Device complies with Part 15 of FCC rules. .... this product may cause interference to radio equipment and should not be installed near maritime safety communications euip. or other critical nav or communication safety equip. operating between 65-130KHz "

I don't have any idea if this is an issue for a sailboat or not but wanted to ask the Collective your thoughts. Are LED bulbs onboard a problem?
Hugh

Good quality LED's such as the Sensibulb cause little to no interference with electronics. Cheap Chinese bulbs limit the proper circuitry to prevent and minimize noise and they also often lack the proper circuitry for long life of the emitter......

Don S/V ILLusion · Sep 6, 2013

Hugh Burton said:
. operating between 65-130KHz "

If that is really the frequency range stated, no need to worry. Marine HF and VHF frequencies are way above that frequency range. Are you sure it says "kHz"?

The Garbone · Sep 6, 2013

I would not worry about RF from 12volt LEDs as they consist of just a resistor and some diodes.

I went the cheap way and bought some On eBay that just replaced the old bulbs in my fixtures. At about a dollar per I bought 2 spares and have not needed them.

For my Nav lights I paid a bit more and got bulbs from superbrightleds.com. better quality.

c_witch · Sep 6, 2013

My anchor light sits about 6'' away from my vhf ant and I have not had any issues with the LED interfering with reception.

c_witch

Don S/V ILLusion · Sep 6, 2013

Hugh Burton said:
yep dble checked it's KHz missed caps on the K
That was my concern in that I have no idea what freq our safety and VHFs operate at.
All my on board lights would be DC and an Anchor light would be as well
I didn't even start to think that AC bulbs and DC bulbs reacted the same
or different.
Hugh

That range is in the U.S. AM broadcast band. Not a problem at HF/VHF frequencies.

Bill Roosa · Sep 6, 2013

While I would agree with Don I would also note that you VHF, GPS, AIS, or HF radios all have what is called an 'IF' section which can be sensative to these frequencies.
Good grounding of the radios will go a long way to eliminating these issues though (even if you are a 160 meter ham man)

wonkodsane · Sep 6, 2013

You can also have issues from resonant frequencies, so even if the stated emission is a different frequency from that which your equipment uses, if it is strong enough it can cause interference because it resonates at a frequency near it.

Don S/V ILLusion · Sep 6, 2013

wonkodsane said:
You can also have issues from resonant frequencies, so even if the stated emission is a different frequency from that which your equipment uses, if it is strong enough it can cause interference because it resonates at a frequency near it.

I won't disagree with the concept but we're not talking about the second or third harmonic and not even the 100th harmonic but in this case the 1000th. The erp of the diode would have to be astronomical.

As to the IF passband, I don't think that any HF radio has one so low and certainly not those that operate in the VHF.

wonkodsane · Sep 6, 2013

Never take anything for granted with regard to Chinese manufacturing! :-D

But yes. The likelihood is that this is the manufacturer practicing a little bit of sensible legal CYA.

JRacer · Sep 6, 2013

Check out www.marinebeam.com some helpful background information there and Jeff is very helpful with questions.

centerline · Sep 7, 2013

my masthead all-around anchor light is a DrLED #GE90 star, and if the fm music radio is playing, when i turn the anchor light on, it will cancel out the station with static.
the antennae for the music radio is in the cabin, about 31ft away from the bulb.

my VHF is handheld and ive never had a problem with it having static, but then ive never used it inside the cabin, only in the cockpit