12V Flexible LED's Marine/Boat installation questions

I recently purchased (2)-6'ft., (5)-9.5", and (1)-4.7" Flexible LED's to install into my boat for accent lighting along the sides and under the dash and small compartments.

I have a few concerns which has lead me to more questions than answers after reading some posts about installation:

Do I have to have resistors? Or is that only if I want to dim the lights? I do not want to dim lights and would like to keep them as is.

What would be the recommended wiring installation for this amount of lights? Series, parallel?

I have two extra toggle switches for accesaries on the dash but would prefer to turn them on with one switch, will this be a problem?

I want to be safe since an electrical fire on a boat is never a good thing since we do have children onboard, thank you for your help in advance.

Rich

you do not need to add any resistors "since you do not want to dim them"

wire the led strips all in parallel for them to be as bright as possible

and you can easily just use one switch for this install just tap off of a fuse or the battery make sure it is fused connect that to the switch and the other side of the switch connects to the led strips in parallel

* Like was stated, these are designed for 12V so just hook them up to boat power. No resistor is needed.

* Since these are designed for 12V, wiring them in series will result in very little output. You should wire them in parallel so they receive 12V.

* Ensure that your toggle switch is rated for enough current as the LED strips require. If the LEDs require more current then the switch is rated, use a relay. Either way, everything CAN properly be hooked up to one switch.

Thanks for you help, I had a hunch I was doing the right thing, just wanted to make sure.

I found a parallel circuit schematic somewhere here on the boards, trying to find it again.

A parallel circuit just means to connect the positive of each strip to the positive of the battery (or 12V) and the negative of each strip to ground.

The lights will not be here until tuesday, I went ahead and ran a +pos and -neg lead around the perimeter of the boat all tucked away with some slack in it, once they get here all I will need to do is tap into each lead and secure the lights out of sight. Tested the circuit and reading 12.5V, so I got power.

The switch/circuit has a 7.5A fuse, will that be enough? I would think that many lights would not draw more than that.

What gauge wire did you run? That will determine if the fuse is the correct size.

I used a new 4 pin flat trailer light harness I had laying around, I cut the plugs off and connected the two leads to make one long lead. I believe its a 16ga wire.

I added all the tech info and together I will have 3,280ma, or 3.2amps will it work?

Bayoubeach wrote:

I used a new 4 pin flat trailer light harness I had laying around, I cut the plugs off and connected the two leads to make one long lead. I believe its a 16ga wire. I added all the tech info and together I will have 3,280ma, or 3.2amps will it work?

Yes, you will be fine if you have a 7.5A fuse.

But, the correct way would be to use a 15A fuse so you never have to change it in the future.

PwrRngr wrote:

Bayoubeach wrote: I used a new 4 pin flat trailer light harness I had laying around, I cut the plugs off and connected the two leads to make one long lead. I believe its a 16ga wire. I added all the tech info and together I will have 3,280ma, or 3.2amps will it work? Yes, you will be fine if you have a 7.5A fuse. But, the correct way would be to use a 15A fuse so you never have to change it in the future.

Easy enough, I have plenty of those around. Thanks again for your help.

I got them installed and they are awesome. Thought I would share with you the finished project.

^^Bad Ass.
Nice job!

wow that turned out nice. very bright

Looking great!

Amazing. Feel free to send shots to kris[@]oznium.com so we can add them to the Marine use section of our website. Again, great install!