Tech Article: Wiring LED Speaker Lights
Today you’re seeing more multicolor lights on boats than ever before. They're useful attachments because they are festive, fun to watch and provide solid light out to sea. Wiring up your LED lights isn’t that difficult and should take you no less than 15 minutes to have them set up. Below are steps we recommend you take to properly hookup your LED lights.
1. Separate your LED wires. LED wires usually have two sets of wires: one for the right speaker and the other for the left. They will each have L or R labeled on the wire so you can differentiate the two groups.
2. Turn off your amplifier and disconnect its power cord. Doing this is a safe step to avoid your amplifier from getting a power failure.
3. Unlock the terminals for your left and right speakers to pull out your positive and negative wires and twist them with your LED wires to plug back into your left and right speaker terminals. Make sure you have your LED wires and speaker wires properly tied together so they don’t untangle; the LED’s will not function properly if the wiring is tangled.
4. Once you have those wires reconnected to their proper terminals, plug your amplifier’s power cord back in. Your LED lights are now all set up.
Tech Tips:
1. Separate your LED wires. LED wires usually have two sets of wires: one for the right speaker and the other for the left. They will each have L or R labeled on the wire so you can differentiate the two groups.
2. Turn off your amplifier and disconnect its power cord. Doing this is a safe step to avoid your amplifier from getting a power failure.
3. Unlock the terminals for your left and right speakers to pull out your positive and negative wires and twist them with your LED wires to plug back into your left and right speaker terminals. Make sure you have your LED wires and speaker wires properly tied together so they don’t untangle; the LED’s will not function properly if the wiring is tangled.
4. Once you have those wires reconnected to their proper terminals, plug your amplifier’s power cord back in. Your LED lights are now all set up.
Tech Tips:
- If you want to have complete control over your lights make sure you connect them to some a power controller. Simply plug your LED wires into that box and connect that box to a power source. We recommended a 12-volt power source; LEDs work at optimum levels when plugged to a 12v source.
- Make sure that all of your wires are stranded wire. Stranded wire gets more contact with your power source and will reduce the chances of a voltage drop or power outage. Using solid wire can cause overheating and power loss.
- Using parallel connections works better for LED installations because LEDs have a lot of wiring that runs to multiple locations in your speakers. It’s essential to have a parallel connection to keep the power from your controller or other designated power source from a potential voltage drop.