# Underwater LED's



## aslon (Jul 1, 2008)

I don't personally gig, or have agigging setup, so I don't know if this will be helpful in any way, but it looks light a neat idea or alternative lighting source.

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## Midnight Rider (Sep 30, 2007)

If it aint broke dont fix it.


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## Flounderpounder (Oct 3, 2007)

Aslon,

I've looked at LED's a bit. From what I've read they would be ideal (*IF *they work as advertised?), but I'd want to do more research. I haven't heard on ANYONE yet trying them for gigging. It sure would be cool to have an array of thru-hull LED's set up with <U>nothing</U> in the way, always ready at the flick of a switch! Not to mention the low power requirements. But they are so damn expensive! At least the ones I've seen are. Maybe I should do a post looking for sponsors (HAHA)!

Thanks for trying to be helpful!!!!!!


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## Coastal Outfitter (Sep 1, 2008)

I have to comment on the LED underwater lights you find on internet searches.

I've been building flounder equipment for a few years now commercially and I have a bunch of people ask me about LEDs for flounder lights all the time. Last year I order every LED light on the market to see what they were about and this is what I found.



First, I'm from TX and our water is very salty and corrosive... All the lights I bought leaked water into the LEDs and in a short time the leads to the LEDs were rusted and the lights didn't work,, all of them took AA batteries and only lasted about an hour or two,, yea these were rechargeable batteries too.



Second, Light Power, LEDs are great because they use so little power, but once the LED is submerged in water the light is diffused very badly and you couldn't see very far like the light from a conventional bulb,.



third, Cheap construction,, all of them were cheaply made,, I accidentally dropped one in the water,, guess what,, it didn't work anymore.



I set out to design my own LED light with longevity and function as top priority, 

These are the problems I found with other lights,

Not water prof,

Not enough light,

Bad battery and power design,

Cheaply made,



I first set out to design a bulb,, I found that you need at least 50 5mm or 10mm bright white LEDs. Using this many will be equivalent to a 100watt spot bulb.



Second, the light it's self needed to be totally water prof so after many tries I found that clear acrylic resin works best, I build a LED light bank and cast it in the resin,, on the rear of the build I place two small screw prongs to later hook up the wire.



Third, The construction of the light pole is the same as what's on my site, http://www.coastaloutfitter.com/Texas Gigger Prices.html  These are very rugged and parts are replaceable.



Fourth,, the most important part is the power supply. I used every battery source I could find,, car batty, motorcycle battery, dear feeder battery, AA batteries, Power tool Batteries.

What I found is a Dewalt 18volt battery pack have the smoothest longest lasting power of any of these. Since the 18 volt battery is a high current design you must find a way to decrease the voltage,, I designed and made my own DC to DC inverter which knocks the voltage to around 9 volts and wattage around 30 watts. In this configuration the light would stay powered for 8 hours and stay bright.

The batteries are sealed inside the light pole and a charging plug is added.



These are the draw backs of my system,, the LED lights is are not replaceable,, since their cast in clear resin they become perminate. Some lights will burn out in time.

It must be taken care of really good,, that means you can't throw it in your truck. I've noticed that the LEDS will burn out if the light is bumped hard.


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## tagen (Sep 4, 2008)

Someone posted this site on our Texas site and I came across this thread.

I recently built an underwater setup and after all that work I'm going back to what I had before. As teh post above me said, once in the water here in Texas your brightness gets pretty defused. I think it would be better once the algae burns out of the water here but until then I do not think LEDS are the option.

This is the quick setup I tested: http://www.transportationcommittee.com/light.htm

Each light is rated to the 38W so this should equal 228W. We figured that if I got 100W to 150W that would be great. I used a 12V 18A battery as can be seen in the pictures. Testing of the longivity of the battery lasted 36 hours. Yes, this setup was bulky but it was meant to be a first pass to see how the lights worked under water.


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## Death From Above (Sep 28, 2007)

Birthday candles would provide better visibility than LEDs and are more reliable.


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## Coastal Outfitter (Sep 1, 2008)

The LEDs I use has a lot to do with it. I use 10mm 140,000mcd bright white LEDs. Then I smooth out the power with a custom made DC to DC converter. I also include a dimmer.



"tagen" I looked at your lights,, your lights them self does not have enough lights and you didn't include a reflector.. once my lights are cast I use a mirror type paint to make a reflector,, Also you have to make the LED bank kinda concaved,, the LEDs can't be in a straight line like you have them,, My LEDs are touching each other too,, the clear resin also helps to bring out and focus more of the light...



I understand what you guys are saying cause I already went through the R&D Phases. LEDs do work if done right. 

Oh as far as my site being from TX,, Think about it,, coastaloutfitter.com if you live by the coast then your part of my target places. Also I used to live in Pensacola,,,, I wish I could come back.... I'll soon be hosting shops like my own pages for 

people to sell hand build fishing gear.. I'll have pics up by the end of the weekend of the LED lights and more gigs shapes...


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## seacapt (Oct 1, 2007)

If you check out this link, don't stop at the first few pages. This guy started messing with the lights in his garage and posted a few pics. From there it was on. You will see how his lights improved over the last year or so to quite a nice (ad fairly affordable compared to most). 

http://www.thehulltruth.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=180596&start=1

He also now has a website,,, reading through the thread you see many unhappy customers

http://www.coastalnightlights.com/

I've got three of his first generation lights that I still plan to try on the flounder rig but I wish I had waited for one of his newer ones. Very good quality.


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## Tooletime (Oct 3, 2007)

www.aqualights.org sells underwater LEDS we are in the process of installing 6 LED's 4 whites and 2 blues on our boat and will do the testby the 19th...I will let ya'll know how they worked. I know these aren't for flounder gigging but they will test brightness and durability since we use our lights so ofter when tuna fishing.


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