wrote in news:1138931351.904927.206070
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

After trying to build my own LED anchor light, and finding the
so-called superbright LEDs I bought were too dim, I decided to just buy
a commercial one in spite of the high cost. So, I bought the Orca
Green Marine light (yeah, expensive) with solar cell to turn it off in
day. I plan to hook it up to my batteries via a long wire and pull it
up into the foretriangle. I'll ley y'all know how it works.



When Cap'n Geoffrey bought Lionheart, an Amel Sharki Ketch, from a guy in
Florida, we found HIS homemade anchor light atop the mizzenmast.....a Home
Depot, solar-recharged, LED walkway light, the kind you put up a sidewalk
in front of your house. It has a LEGAL anchor light on it, now. The guts
of the walkway light are lit as I type this. I put it in the front window
of my work stepvan and pointed the two yellow LEDs into the step well to
light it up when you crawl aboard at night. Still works great unless you
park the truck in the shade all day or it rains....

Speaking of homemade lights,

There was some discussion here last spring about my el cheapo homemade
spreader light. It's a 12 bucks for the pair fog light from VIP
although I had to pay another five bucks to have a hole drilled in the
lens (I learned in the process that I easily could have done it myself
but the drill bit would have cost six bucks). It works great, is
brighter than I need, and smaller and more compact than anything else
I could find.

The discussion was about the fact that it's ground is connected to the
case and thus the mast. I hooked up the old return wire to it so that
the mast and rigging aren't actually carrying any of the light's load,
only any slight differential. For something that is only on
infrequently and briefly, this seems acceptable.

If I was racing or doing a lot of night sailing where the light was
critical and going to be on for long periods, I would have paid for a
marine spreader light but this has worked out very well. It will be
starting to rust by the end of this season but I have the other one
from the pair in the basement.

I paid 40 bucks for a masthead light that isn't nearly as well made or
complex except that the little tube stanchion is stainless.

--

Roger Long

On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 21:56:26 -0500, Larry wrote:

homemade anchor light atop the mizzenmast.....a Home
Depot, solar-recharged, LED walkway light, the kind you put up a sidewalk
in front of your house.

That's creative. Was the brightness insufficient?

I bought a Home Depot (OK, Wal Mart) solar powered walkway light and
thought it was waaaay too dim.

The LED in this Orca light is unusual in that the dome of the LED seems
to have been machined to throw the light radially. The housing of the
whole light is very well made.

wrote in message
ps.com...
I bought a Home Depot (OK, Wal Mart) solar powered walkway light and
thought it was waaaay too dim.

The LED in this Orca light is unusual in that the dome of the LED seems
to have been machined to throw the light radially. The housing of the
whole light is very well made.


The ones I saw that pass the USCG requirements (visible at night for 2
miles) had only three LEDs, but they were mounted in a Fresnel lens cover.

RCE

Anybody tried the Bebi elctronics anchor lights?
Gordon

"RCE" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
ps.com...
I bought a Home Depot (OK, Wal Mart) solar powered walkway light and
thought it was waaaay too dim.

The LED in this Orca light is unusual in that the dome of the LED seems
to have been machined to throw the light radially. The housing of the
whole light is very well made.


The ones I saw that pass the USCG requirements (visible at night for 2
miles) had only three LEDs, but they were mounted in a Fresnel lens cover.

RCE

Gordon;

I bought a Bebi anchor light and will install it in the spring. Really
quick shipment, good email support on questions I had. Drop me a note
in 90 days and I'll let you know how hard it was to install. The mast
is up so it will be done working from a chair.

Ed

Being There
Pearson 33-2 36
out of Marion, MA

Gordon wrote:
Anybody tried the Bebi elctronics anchor lights?
Gordon

"RCE" wrote in message
...

wrote in news:1138982706.810715.9140
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

The LED in this Orca light is unusual in that the dome of the LED seems
to have been machined to throw the light radially. The housing of the
whole light is very well made.



This walk light has two bright LEDs pointing into a cone-shaped "radiator".
The leds actually point down, but the reflective cone radiates their light
out horizontally in all directions.

Wayne.B wrote in
:

That's creative. Was the brightness insufficient?




It was bright enough.....well, until the battery ran dead around midnight.
After that, it was DEAD....not good.

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 22:05:03 -0500, Larry wrote:

It was bright enough.....well, until the battery ran dead around midnight.
After that, it was DEAD....not good.

It is an absolute requirement that they must stay lit until 1/2 hour
after the last pub closes. :-)

There should also be an owner sensor that will cause it to start
blinking if you get to within 400 yards of it in your dinghy.