Ansty to Braunston
a rare sight: John at the bow, relaxing
We got under way at 0730. During the morning Jan cleaned the interior windows. Paused a while above the locks at Hillmorton and had an ice cream from the shop. I cycled into the village to get a rear brake cable for the bike and did some food shopping at Aldi (including, I see from the receipt, a couple of 500ml bottles of Double Drop ale @ £1.19 each (They must use better quality printers/paper/ink at Aldi as the receipt hasn't yet faded). Under way again at 1630ish.
At about 1830 we moored in a thunderstorm at Braunston. It was raining the last time I was here, way back on day 2 of this megacruise. I wanted to do a barbecue - what do you mean, how could I in the rain? I had an umbrella, didn't I? Anyway, it was still August. But I was outvoted. David and I went to the admirable Admiral Nelson pub by the locks, and came back to the boat to have what would have been barbecued indoors. The gas ran out. Changed over to fresh cylinder.
7 comments:
I read in NB Bones's blog that you have found LEDs better than Ultraled. Would you care to give more details. Most of the lights in NB Harnser are LEDs but I am always looking for improvments.
Brian from sunny Suffolk www.harnser.info
Hello Brian - I don't know the Ultraled unit. The lights I bought are from Poundland and can be seen here. The packaging reads: "Outdoor Solutions LED Camping Light". The first one I bought was last year just before a camping trip to the Netherlands. It lit up our large tent a treat. They take 4 AA batteries. Inside there are four curved printed circuit boards, each with six white LEDs connected in parallel; each circuit board connected in parallel. They would be easy to convert to 12V use, just by arranging two pairs of circuit boards in series. I don't know how they would cope with a possible 14.7V when the alternator is charging. But for a quid it's worth trying!
Halfie.
Update.
This morning I did as I suggested and wired one light up in series-parallel. When I connected it across my car battery several of the LEDs immediately burned out. Oh dear. But I think I know why. When I first investigated these lights I was surprised to see all the LEDs connected in //el as the usual voltage across an LED is just 2V, and there is 6V of battery power in the unadulterated unit. The actual voltage across the LEDs while battery powered I found to be only just above 3V. I assumed my batteries were a bit low, but perhaps it's because the LEDs draw so much current (say 20mA each, times 24 gives almost half an amp) that the internal resistance of the batteries limits the current.
So what I will now suggest is connect each ot the four groups of six LEDs in series, so the voltage across each LED is about 3V.
Thanks for your reply and sorry you knackered a couple on my behalf.
I have done the same thing putting 2 12volt units in series and applying 24 volts.
As you say for a quid they are worth playing with.
You will find ultraleds here
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/leds-marine-boats-c-99.html
That anonymous was Brian from NB Harnser
After blowing up the first one I did try with each of the four circuit boards connected in parallel. Works a treat now off 12V. And very simple to modify inside.
A word of warning though - I've found several of the Poundland units with very dodgy soldering. The last one I opened up had the no solder at all joining the links between each AA battery position. And the previous one had some dry joints at the LEDs.
See post on this subject above
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