Wiring LEDs in with the exisiting system 1993 SNOB

[johnjmurray]

Happy Spring - Time to cleanup the boats and last minute projects... I've been wanting to add some LED's to my 93 for several years and just haven't gotten around to it. I want to try and hook the LEDs up to the existing accessories switch(s) in the dash. Does anyone know how to accomplish this while still allowing the proper power to the LED's.

My initial goal is to replace the current white courtesy lights with red LEDs under the gunnel and add lights under the driver seat and glove box. Can I just just splice into the old gunnel lights wiring and accessory switch??

Any help or direction would be much appreciated.

JohnM

[ZANDERSANTE]

I JUST finished this project yesterday on my boat. My boat is an 06' Sante so I'm not sure on power outputs of your courtesy lights, but that's what I tapped into for my interior speaker led's. Get a volt meter and check to see what's running to those lights. Mine was like 12.58v or something.. My led's will operate from 9-14.8 so around 12's were perfect for me so I didn't burn them out too fast. (check what your led's operating range is).. I wanted to put my tower led's on a seperate switch so I could have the option of having both the interior and tower on or one at a time, so I tapped into the power wires for my docking lights (boat didn't come with docking lights, but it had the wires there and were already hot). So my whole led system is operated by the factory buttons on my dash, no extra switches, fuses, hot wires to the battery, etc. Everything looks factory installed :-)

[Lewy2001]

Depending on the LED's used it can vary a little. High Intensity red and a standard green operate on 2.2V to make them work with 12V you will need a 560 ohm resistor in series on the positive leg of the LED. I replaced all the indicator lights in my dash panel with green LEDs.

[johnjmurray]

ZanderSANTE - Where did you get your LEDs?? any pics of your finished product?

[ZANDERSANTE]

I went to superbrightleds.com
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...pecs%2FFLS.htm
I bought the weatherproof strips for afew dollars more since Mikeski said he's had to replace afew each year from moisture issues.

[nautiques4life]

Zander- set up looks really good.

John- as Lewy said, the type of LED determines what voltage you need. As for me, I shopped for LEDs knowing they were going in a 12v system, that way I wouldn't have to worry about resistors in line etc. As for me my nautique had every acc already used except for the shower; so my choices were...
1. Separate wiring altogether for LEDs and secret switch on dash
2. Splice into existing courtesy lights wiring and use its switch on dash.
3. Use already installed shower wiring and shower dash switch.

I went with option #3 for a couple of reasons. First the boat is in havasu where its usually 100+ and my old boats shower was used exclusively as a squirtgun. Second I wanted to be able to use stock courtesy independently of the LEDs. And Third after reviewing the wiring schematics provided on this site I found the shower's already hot and ground wiring in the rear of the boat and didn't even have to touch the wiring at the control panel which made the project super easy. I started with just the speakers and have since added cupholders and storage areas too, sometimes I wish I had even more control and could use cup holders LEDs independently from speaker LEDs but that would have required adding a switch. However you do it, good luck, have fun, I'm sure u'll be happy with the results.

[Rock Toy]

I went to superbrightleds.com
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...pecs%2FFLS.htm
I bought the weatherproof strips for afew dollars more since Mikeski said he's had to replace afew each year from moisture issues.

ZANDERSANTE, Did you already have back_lit speakers or did you do that from scratch? If you did, how did you do it? Plexi rings? And does that man that you ran additional wiring up the tower?

[ZANDERSANTE]

BOY!! Sorry i've been away for a LONG time! Thought I would have gotten an email notice on that. No. I built everything from scratch. I used acrylic sheets and cut and milled them myself. I ran new wires through the tower as well.

[Sac Surfer]

Zander,

Install looks great. I'm going to be adding speaker rings as well, and prolly try to go independent of the courtesy lights, tower speaker rings and docking lights. What are the ring sizes for the Polk Mono in boat speakers?

Thanks,

Mike

[Must58GT]

I'm at the lake reading all this stuff on my iPhone which is a pita. I'd look for those schematics you're talking about but it would like take an hour or more and I'd need a few more Tera-bytes on my cell plan. I knew I had a button on the dash marked shower but I've had this SV211 for 4 years and never seen anything that looks like a shower.

If you don't mind me asking, where is the "connector for the shower in the rear of the boat"?