crazymanme2 said:
I just used the one 3 light strip shown & it gives off plenty of light.I'm trying to figure out what I could use for the green &
red bow light lens.The bow will only need 1 three light LED strip also.My stern gives off more light than the battery powered ones that you buy that are Coast guard approved.
I guarantee you have a blind spot if those LED's are all pointing the same direction, LED's are directional and there is no way to get around the physical structure of an LED to get change that, at least not with the current technology. A good reference on LED's
https://www.theledlight.com/technical1.html
Navigation lights are not for you to see, they are so others can see you, what appears to be plenty of light up close might not be enough for far away and that's one of the differences between conventional filament bulbs and LED's, filament light sources can more easily throw light a longer distance than LED's. US Coast Guard regulations for navigation lights says your stern light must be 360 degrees visible at 2 nautical miles. I have a couple of 3 white LED spotlights and you can't see them 2 miles away, you can barely see them a mile away and that's using a reflector to concentrate the light (which also narrows the viewing angle even more)
If I'm fishing the tip of a wingdam on the edge of the navigation channel and some clown is coming toward me at 40 MPH I want him to see me at least 2 miles away because if he is going 40 MPH and is 2 miles away he's going to be on top of me in about 3 minutes, if he's a mile away he'll be on me in 90 seconds and I can't pull anchors and move in 90 seconds.
Now granted if you are fishing a small lake with 9.9 HP or electric only restrictions you'd probably be OK but you play like that on the Mississippi River with the Big Boys you are taking an unnecessary risk and if you do get run over and your lights aren't up to regulations you are at fault both criminally and financially for all parties involved in the accident. Like I said I have a couple of close friends go through this, by the time Tim realized they didn't see him he barely had time to pull my paraplegic friend overboard and out of the way of the hull running him over. First thing the rich kid's lawyer tried to pull is claiming Tim's light's weren't regulation but that didn't fly because they recovered Tim's lights along with the boat and they were USCG approved.
For the front lights why not just use red and green LED's? The front is easy because you only need to cover 112.5 degrees on each side. Since red and green LED's have a lower voltage drop across the junction you can string 5 in series with 12 V and get more light at the same current draw so there is no good reason to use less. My only concern is would 5 LED's be enough to be seen 2 miles away ....