Skip to main content

New small electronics for my boat (home work)

Small electronics design

#1 Indicators brightness control


 When I made my breaker/switch i added LEDs to indicate active circuits for better visibility. 

But after two passages I found a problem, indicator LEDs are ok in day time, but WAY TOO BRIGHT at night. so I made small electronic board fixing the issue. 

It supposed to dim indication in 1:2000 ratio buy controlling negative side (common) of the LEDs by PWM. I used small microelectronic to be able to set what ever ratio without necessity to change components on the board if I need to change.

Board has 4 wires connected. 

  • 1- common wire (negative side, cathode) for LEDS
  • 2- 12V power (about 0.01mA power consumption)
  • 3- Nav lights power (signal to switch LEDs to low brightness mode)
  • 4- Negative 12V (ground) 



#2 Mast top Tri-color/Anchor light control

This project fixes two problems 

  1. Is using 2 wires to mast top to control combined Light instead of 3 when you upgrade just anchor light with combined 3-color/anchor light to use existing wires instead of replacing cable it mast top.
  2. Control switching  between deck level side lights and tri-color when you motoring without adding additional switch to your breaker/switch panel. 

NOTE: BE SURE YOU NEVER SHOW tri-color on mast top and steaming light together it is prohibited by rules, you may confuse other boars showing just Red or Green on top of white. (it is what others will see in this case from bow side)

 How lights controlled after control board added.

 



Board has 3 inputs and 3 outputs 

Inputs

  1. Mast top switch  +12V
  2. Nav lights switch +12V
  3. -12V  (Ground)

 Outputs

  1. Mast top "B" wire
  2. Mast top "A" wire 
  3. Deck level nav lights OUT

 




How to connect board
 


Comments