Light solutions for head

[fred1diver]

Hello again all
We are looking to replace the light in our head, just a wall mounted light, not very bright, my wife would like led stop lights (we have some for under counter in the house)
But U know they don’t stick very well to the fibreglass headliner, so we would like to
Have adequate lighting in the head, what would you all recommend

 

[capta]

LED motion activated lights are what I'd go with today. 3M makes a double sided tape that will keep them on the wall forever, or use Velcro and get the rechargeable ones.

 

[kappykaplan]

I have an LED fixture (like a florescent lamp) in my head that can do red or white light.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Sue places those battery-powered candles everywhere. She programs when they go on and off. A single candle in the head left on all night is all she needs for light. She is in charge of replacing batteries.

 

[jssailem]

The ability to switch from white to red is significant for boats on passage. Nothing ruins the watch's eyesight more than having to use the head with only a white light available to keep your business in the right fixture...

I have a red portable "SUBOOS" rechargeable light in the head at night. Finding something more permanent is on my project list.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

I installed a 1ft strip of 12v LED tape in a channel with a motion activated switch. It's reasonably bright LED tape but since it's only a foot of it, it's a reasonable brightness in there. If you get something too bright, you can put a dimmer on it. They're dirt cheap. Everything is secured with 3M VHB. I've also used a stronger chinese double sided tape. Let me know if you want me to look up any of those products. I can also grab a pic this weekend.

 

[fred1diver]

Sounds good, quick question, what type of channel are you referring to?
The lights strips we have at home do come with a dimmer and a 12 volt Wall wart (which we won’t need to use) at full power it is really bright.
They come in a kit, some extensions, and 5 or 6 strips, so we could install them in a few areas in the head.
The dimmer is the switch, but I would probably install an extra switch for ease of use.
I just don’t want them to come down by their own!

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Sounds good, quick question, what type of channel are you referring to?
The lights strips we have at home do come with a dimmer and a 12 volt Wall wart (which we won’t need to use) at full power it is really bright.
They come in a kit, some extensions, and 5 or 6 strips, so we could install them in a few areas in the head.
The dimmer is the switch, but I would probably install an extra switch for ease of use.
I just don’t want them to come down by their own!

I have the one below but in black. I designed and 3D printed some brackets for them. One or two of them I made a wedge to angle them so they don't blind people. I just finished half of the installation in my cabin and am fairly happy with it. I went with some very bright 24v LED strips because I wanted to light up the whole cabin with what is essentially accent lighting. Not a very efficient method but it looks good. I used one screw to hold the longest 6' LED channel to the textured ceiling. The tape is holding up the rest of them just fine. I did not use any brackets for the head. I just taped it directly to the fiberglass.

I used some LED tape that I pulled off of an old project. The adhesive seems to be holding up but if it happens to fall off inside the channel, I won't think twice.

You can do a switch of some sort and a dimmer. I bought a wireless relay that I liked a lot but it didn't have the current capacity that I wanted for the cabin lights. I can look that up for you if you'd like.

Do note that I soldered all of the LED tape. It took 1-1.5 hours to do the strips for the whole boat. I made a few spares for the engine compartment.

 

[jssailem]

@Project_Mayhem do the light strips you are using have white and red or just white?

 

[Project_Mayhem]

@Project_Mayhem do the light strips you are using have white and red or just white?

My setup is a bit more complex than most (24v & 12v, wireless dimming, motion sensing, etc) so I didn't want to add to it with multiple colors. A simple battery powered light would suffice for the seldom times that I would need red. You'd likely have to get an RGBW strip to get both. Then you'd have to decide how you'd want to wire the two colors. I'm guessing most people would do red at 100% and dim the white.

 

[dLj]

The whole red light at night has been pretty well debunked. It is far better to use low intensity white light.

dj