2004 270 LED cabin

J3ff

Might as well throw this in here: 

Finished the lights around the table today... ultimately I'd like to put some above the sink/microwave that would illuminate the ceiling and some on the top self of the bed area.. but for now this is where I'm done with lighting for the winter.

They do all the same thing, flash, strobe, whatever..just needed some better light down there!

Two of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IHDYYFS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Some connectors and some wires.

I ran each side on its own power source because when I ran both side off the same power, there was a noticeable cut in brightness. 



 

Trashman

Nice.  Im next!   Where are the light strips attached.   Are the above and below that top padded shelf behind the lip?   And how did you attach, (screwed,3m tape, etc). 

J3ff

Trashman said:

Nice.  Im next!   Where are the light strips attached.   Are the above and below that top padded shelf behind the lip?   And how did you attach, (screwed,3m tape, etc). 

Yeah above and below... if I end up super bored one day during a rainy weekend I might throw another row on the lower part of the back rest.

I just used the regular backing that it came with... I'm expecting it to fall off, but the right side is weeks old... might have to use some kind of glue, this would only be for the bottom one, the top is good to go! 

Trashman

Yeah, I used two face tape on a few things and the heat tuts it gummy and the item slides.  I had luck with using lock tite adhesive caulk.  The small tube from r Home Depot.   They look awesome and taking a good pic of lighting is difficult. 

J3ff

Forgot to include they are fully dimable, both the white and color led's.. the main reason I got that was because I'm always looking for a little mood lighting...it has transformed the below deck from being a cave looking thing into a nice kind of living space!  

Thanks for the tip on the lock tite, I'll pick some up for sure! 

cassiola

Looks great. Thinking of something very similar!
On the port side where did you tap into a power source? 
And if you have 2 kits, I assume you control each side with a separate remote?

J3ff

- I grabbed power from behind the radio (I've got two 12 volt cig power plugs) ran a thin insulated wire down the right hand side of the boat, behind the speakers and hid all the stuff behind the left forward speaker..

- bought the same kit so one remote control does them both... before I set them up I tested the location for the ir sensor to make sure that there were multiple locations I could point the remote and they'd both light up at the same exact time/color... so far works great   

J3ff

ps. the port side lights fell off within a week... I used some sealer/silicone to put it back up (making sure the cabin was 60+ degrees) and no problems so far. 

Dream_Inn

I stuck mine around the hardtop using a hot glue gun.  Works very well and does not mark up the fiberglass at all.  I put it up right on the inside of the upper isinglass attach area and you don't see it but see the lighting from it at night very well.

J3ff

The only thing about those is it's not the RGB WW  (warm white)  which means it doesn't have the extra WHITE led that can be independently controlled. 

Stodge

I put the warm white strips like that down below in place of the rope light (mood lighting).  Don't need funk-a-della down below.  Does that make me old?

Dream_Inn

Stodge said:

I put the warm white strips like that down below in place of the rope light (mood lighting).  Don't need funk-a-della down below.  Does that make me old?

Yes   But I don't have them below either, just the mood lighting.  But I do have the LED strips up top.  (so, I'm only halfway there! )

J3ff

Here's the difference.. 

https://youtu.be/v8cNMAFmriI?t=9

J3ff

actually he didn't do that great explaining it... the reason to go with RGBWW is because you get that extra white LED...which can be dimmed, so you can just have plain old white and no color...which is what I was going for... but it is kind of neat having multiple colors too. 

will32426

love the lights, we're looking at doing that to our 280

cassiola

J3ff, what were the connectors you used to connect the cut strip to the 4-way? 

J3ff

there's a bunch of different connectors... can you link to the led strips you bought so I can make sure you get the right ones? 

cassiola

Same as the one's you posted. I also bought the 1to4 splitters as I liked how your photos looked with over and under the shelf!

2 of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IHDYYFS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pair of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G7YHYTW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I just had a thought that I can just cut from each end of the LED strip and use the female-to-female adapter for the 2nd strip. But would be good to know what connector I should get if I want to add a 3rd strip (like below the seatback cushion)

Basically, I'm copying what you did as I really liked your photos! 

J3ff

Ah.. great!! So there's a little hitch with the connectors. 

There's a difference between RGB and RGBWW strips, as we've discussed.

There's also a difference between RGBWW and RGBWW WATERPROOF strips..



Guess which one I couldn't find connectors for? Yup, the RGBWW WATERPROOF ones that I bought.. but to be honest, I really wanted them water proof because of humidity reasons and such.. see the picture above? see how one is covered and the other isn't.. 

What I did was I bought RGBWW non-waterproof connectors (5 wires, or pins) which are easy to find on amazon ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019MTK554/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) 

Then I would cut where needed... and take a sharp razor blade and carefully get the rubberized waterproof part off of the strip...put some shrink wrap around it..connect it up and then seal it off (be careful, don't want to get things too hot!) 

If you can find a "RGBWW Waterproof quick connectors" that would make things much easier.. at the time I searched for a bit, but had already bought everything, so I just powered through getting it done! Good luck and post pictures! 

edit: there are LOTS of RGB waterproof connectors, just couldn't find RGBWW

cassiola

@J3ff Thanks for the detailed info! Hopefully I can get to the boat soon and start this project... and I may have more questions when I do haha