Practical Boat Owner – May 2018

84 Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.uk

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Cheap and neat red

and white lighting

A visit to his local Lidl store provided Marcus Hember

with just the lighting he wanted for the cabin of his boat

S

oon after my fi rst

passage in Black

Dog, a 1968 SeaDog

30, which was a delivery

voyage over a couple of

days from Mylor in

Falmouth to Bristol, I

decided that the interior

lighting needed replacing. I

wanted power-saving LED

bulbs and a red lighting

option for night passages.

Self-adhesive strips of LED

lights – both white and red

strips – fi tted nicely into the

original shade and fi ttings in

the saloon, so provided a

simple replacement for the

old fl uorescent tubes. I

installed a new three-way

switch as well.

The galley was a different

matter as the existing fi tting

was a late and ugly

replacement. After a few

I used the tools and expertise

at Bristol Hackspace to get this

job done.

Hackspace is a social

enterprise which aims to make

technology accessible to

anyone, to enable people to

learn how things work, and

mend or adapt them while

sharing the knowledge gained

from doing so. Several

members of the group live on

or own boats, and make use of

the workshop facilities, while

contributing to the wider aims.

I knew about the movement

already so just walked in and

joined. In the absence of a

workshop at home it suits me

really well.

Facilities range from 3D and

A0 printers to a lathe,

bandsaw, well-equipped

woodworking workshop and

an electronics lab.

People undertake all sorts of

projects: one member made

some new shelving for his

boat, and there is a major

PROJECT

OF THE

MONTH

fruitless

searches

online I

was

surprised

by the cost

of very simple

fi ttings and the very

sparse selection available

which provide a good red/

white option for night sailing

and preserving night vision.

In the end it was my local

Lidl supermarket that came

to the rescue with the

LivarnoLux under-cabinet

light fi tting. These neat LED

luminaires with RGB (Red/

LivarnoLux LED under

cabinet lights from Lidl

The luminaires can be

surface mounted and have

four wires which are easily

concealed

Switch with

diode and

resistor. A

resistor large

enough to

dissipate

heat from the

circuit current

is necessary

12V

Blue

Green

Red

Ground

1

2

3

4

5

150

The fi nished galley light fi tting (along with Pablo Neruda quote, right) ready to fi t. The plywood

panel was cut and etched using the laser cutter at Bristol Hackspace

HOW THE CIRCUIT WORKS

Switch (1) up selects Red only (4) through resistor (2).

Diode (3) prevents Green and Blue (5) from turning on.

Switch (1) down selects Red (4) and Green and Blue (5)

to produce white light. For white light note the resistor (2)

is bypassed so all light is at full brilliance.

WHAT IS A HACKSPACE?

Diode in circuit to enable red-only setting; the same could

be achieved with a Double Pole/Double Throw/Centre off

(DPDT-CO) switch.