Hi,
Could you guys give me some advice on the setup for LED strip lighting on my boat? Please bear in mind that I know a little but not a lot ...
I'm installing an engine on my boat, and so for the first time will have electricity pretty much on tap (hurray!). (For those who are interested the boat is an Essex smack, built 1892, 37' on deck: https://www.dropbox.com/s/thpmlw5pxy8oxey/Wivenhoe finish.jpg?dl=0). It's going to be a 12V installation, probably around 200Ah of lithium battery for domestic use. I've got around 12 circuits planned using LED strip, each circuit is 10W or less, and I wanted to be able to dim them. I reckoned I needed a load of PWM dimmers, and web research showed stuff available at every price point from £2-£100+. Starting at the cheap end I bought some of the £2 dimmers (12v or 24v, 8A, rotary control, loads on eBay), and actually it seems to work fine on my test setup, connected directly to a 12v battery, so I'm not necessarily in a rush to upgrade (unless you guys disagree).
But one thing I did find was that if I started charging the battery with a mains battery charger I got a lot of LED flicker. This is actually quite a realistic scenario as it will be commonplace to be charging the domestic battery either from shore power or from the engine alternator while the lights are in use. This set me thinking that it's probably not a great idea in any case to power my LED circuits direct from the domestic battery---I seem to remember being told that voltage variation kills LED strips. So my question is what sort of voltage controller to use (eg, LM2596, other DC-DC converter, regulator)? should I expect any problems of compatibility with the PWM dimmer? and should the voltage controller be upstream or downstream of the PWM device?
I'm planning to take the innards of the PWM device out and put it into a nicer box (along with an on-off switch), so that box could incorporate also a voltage controller. The rotary control on the PWM seems to be a 0-800ohm pot, and I might take the opportunity to upgrade that as it seems already unimpressive and likely to deteriorate in the marine environment.
Many thanks!
Josh
Could you guys give me some advice on the setup for LED strip lighting on my boat? Please bear in mind that I know a little but not a lot ...
I'm installing an engine on my boat, and so for the first time will have electricity pretty much on tap (hurray!). (For those who are interested the boat is an Essex smack, built 1892, 37' on deck: https://www.dropbox.com/s/thpmlw5pxy8oxey/Wivenhoe finish.jpg?dl=0). It's going to be a 12V installation, probably around 200Ah of lithium battery for domestic use. I've got around 12 circuits planned using LED strip, each circuit is 10W or less, and I wanted to be able to dim them. I reckoned I needed a load of PWM dimmers, and web research showed stuff available at every price point from £2-£100+. Starting at the cheap end I bought some of the £2 dimmers (12v or 24v, 8A, rotary control, loads on eBay), and actually it seems to work fine on my test setup, connected directly to a 12v battery, so I'm not necessarily in a rush to upgrade (unless you guys disagree).
But one thing I did find was that if I started charging the battery with a mains battery charger I got a lot of LED flicker. This is actually quite a realistic scenario as it will be commonplace to be charging the domestic battery either from shore power or from the engine alternator while the lights are in use. This set me thinking that it's probably not a great idea in any case to power my LED circuits direct from the domestic battery---I seem to remember being told that voltage variation kills LED strips. So my question is what sort of voltage controller to use (eg, LM2596, other DC-DC converter, regulator)? should I expect any problems of compatibility with the PWM dimmer? and should the voltage controller be upstream or downstream of the PWM device?
I'm planning to take the innards of the PWM device out and put it into a nicer box (along with an on-off switch), so that box could incorporate also a voltage controller. The rotary control on the PWM seems to be a 0-800ohm pot, and I might take the opportunity to upgrade that as it seems already unimpressive and likely to deteriorate in the marine environment.
Many thanks!
Josh