First off I am not much at design in the circuit world. I have done some minor stuff over the years, but this one is beyond me so please excuse the ignorance.

I have a waterproof light kit that runs on 12v ac. It comes with a 12v ac transformer and all works great under normal circumstances.

What I want to do is run this light in a boat to help illuminate the water at night. The boat of course runs on 12v DC. I guess I could take the simple path of getting s 12v dc to 110 v ac converter and plug the 12 ac transformer that comes with the light, into that. However I want this to take up a minimum of space and most importantly be hard wired on both input and output to best survive the abuse a boat ride can inflict on components.

I have googled for such a product but am having little luck finding it. Does anyone know if they are available close at hand (Canada) and if not how do I build something to suit my needs?

Thanks
Doug

 

Do you have a link to the light?
It may be that it will work happily on 12V DC.

 

Do you have a link to the light?
It may be that it will work happily on 12V DC.

No link to the light as of yet. It is new to the market. It has been tested with DC and it simply will not run. It pulses once when hooked up and then goes out.

 

Sounds like a cfl light or fluorescent ...

 

How much power or current does the light require?
Any markings on the transformer?
Can you post some photos of the light and the transformer?
Any idea what the actual light emitting device is?
What is the manufacturer's intended purpose for the light?

 

One of those
They come in DC ones too just toggle the 12 Volt at 60 hz I bet it works