Somebody school me on those pretty new lanterns being placed atop ye ole buoys out there.

I just read an article in the latest Professional Mariner talking about them with some cool pics of the Juniper and a couple crew.

If these things work as good as I suspect they will; it will be a HUGE leap (or actually maybe leap is a bad word) improvement in servicing outages if they occur, and a 10 year life span? oustanding! I am just picturing all the new room in the Bosn Hanger!(yes i said hanger cause there aint nothin but room on those new ships!)

Thanks for any input info.

later

cliff

The LEDs are made by several companies. One I know of is made by Carmanah, a Canadian Company and an internet search will give you more info.

1st District Department of Prevention-Waterways (formerly OAN,) has helped pay for some, because the initial start-up cost is pricey (about $1K per buoy,) but the savings will be great in terms of manpower, maintenance, replacements, etc. I imagine other districts are beginning to use them as well.

One thing for sure, it's easier to jump a buoy with an LED and just bolt a new one on. No troubleshooting, no load test, just set-up the flash characteristics with a remote control!

An interesting article about the new LEDs.
http://www.stormheroes.com/aton/led_deckforces.htm

If you check the CG LNMs you will see that many buoys have been or are planned to be converted, but with a reduction in visible range of the light.

i only know of two types, that we use at least. carmanah and we just started using BWT as well. very eay to use. it only takes 2 min. to jump battery level check and flash check. rather than taking 15 to 20 mins to jump the 155mm and thats if everything go good. i get all excited when they tell me to jump a buoy w/ a carmanah

http://cgi.ebay.com/UNITED-STATES-COAST-GUARD-LIGHTHOUS...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Wray

The LED's are great...so far. Along with what has already been said, you can also push the service dates to 3 years if practical.

We have about 100 LED's scattered throughout our AOR on the OSAGE.

LED's are sweeet- beats the hell out of the 155 hassle- the only draw back is the nominal range-only out to 3nm. wish I could put them on all my aids- hopefully will be able in the near future. I did talk with a spokes person from carmanah and there are plans for LED's with greater nominal ranges coming out soon. we'll see.

We have those prototypes; I believe. They are blinding, and I would treat them like lasers. Keep em out for your eyes, unfortunately servicing them on a table puts them at eye level.

Carmana's and BWT's have a difference, I forget it though. I'll post it tomorrow, I think it has to do with color clarity.

Battery service life is 3 years, disposal is the same, and can be stored with your lead acids that are awaiting disposal. I doubt anyone will complain about the shortened service life; since they weigh(mispelled) almost nothing.

Sad thing is they are easy to steal and people think they make cool paperwieghts. Plus, it really does kill the "EM" need.

As a retired guy who used to just bild the structures. Are they cost effective for fixed aids with a high knokdown rate like most of the D8 ICW aids? I sure liked them on the TRLBs, no battery acid dripping out LOL.

Mike

The smaller ones are waterproof. It would just be a matter of recovering them. But I don't know if the stronger ones are; they are at least weather resistant. Someone should dunk one and test that theory.

I hate to say it that is the problem. You don't always recover the wreckage.
Mike

Well if you think like than, than you can say the same thing about every settup that gets dunked. Besides, a shot in the dark is better than nothing.

The actual name of the lantern escapes me now but it was known as the "UFO" LED lantern, one of the very first LED lantern's that came out during the initial LED lantern test phase. The first we put in the field was in the channel that was only a few hundred yards away from the boat ramp on base.

Long story short the aid we set it up on was knocked down and sat under for a few weeks until the local construction tender got back in town after a run down south. Once they recovered the wreckage and rebuilt the aid we received the wreckage back (battery, lantern, etc). I hooked the "UFO" up to power in the shop, covered the integrated DLC and Viola!

It lit up like a champ, survived the 24 hour bench test and once it was cleaned up we put it back in service.

One installed down in the southern AOR was vandalized and was slammed six ways from Sunday with a hammer. The thing still worked like a champ, it just wasn't as pretty as it was the day it came out of the box.

I don't know if any of those are still around but I thought they were great. Tapping a touch pad to set the flash characteristic and great nominal range with far less drain on a battery than a .55a lamp. Every ATON Tech's dream, a lantern that got it's arse kicked, drowned and still shined on.

Wow, if that isn't testimony; than I don't know what is. Funny to hear that someone had such a tantrum as to vent on a harmless led. We should be allowed to shoot on sight.

I don't know what it was. If that was a tantrum I would have hated to see what a full fledged spas-attack was. At least the guy driving the boat didn't knock them damn light over.

I suspect it was some liquored up co-eds as it was spring break during the time of the discrepancy. More than likely some fraternity member attempting to prove to the local ladies he picked up at the dock what a man he was by destroying an inatimate object that went blinkity-blink during the night.

But I agree....on target...tracking...on the .50BMG....batteries release....

Then again smacking them over the head a few times with a 3SG and/or hooking them up to a megger might prove far more entertaining. I tended to follow the "Pulp Fiction Approach"..."I would have loved to caught the motha' f#%@er when he was doin it"....

You just don't mess with a guy's ATON....

Make that two meggars in parallel and we have deal.

A rep from carmanah came out to our ANT when i was there and gave us a sledge hammer and a light was like "go to town" we beat the piss out of that light and then put it in water. it was still blinking. So we got a bigger sledge, we never did kill it. And she told us we could - so if that gives you any idea of what they can take. FUN!

We had a few different types of LED lanterns in the great lakes. One was for an LIB (Lighted Ice Buoy) and it was made of brass. It weighed about 50 pounds and used a regular CG 181 Flasher, but it had a huge 100+ lb battery that was comprised of about 75 D batteries. They were a pain in the butt to change out but as far as nominal distance it was up to 6 nm. I regularly use Carmanahs and the new VEGA now and they are both water proof. The 601 carmanahs even float. The 701 and 702 are a little heavier so, floating is not an option for them.

Hey, if anyone is really interested I have a powerpoint with alot of CG used LED in them. Just email me.
Also, I was fortunate enough to have had the pleasure of completely ripping a Carmanah 701 apart. I took alot of cool pictures of the insides and if anyone would like that just ask. D1 has had alot of LED testing in the last couple of years. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.
~ Kevin

hehe D1 here.

We have just about all of our lights replaced with Carmanah. They work good and are very tough. We actually found one that did break but it took a screw from a tugboat to do it.

lol you ripped a 701 apart. You must be referring to the 601. The 701 is a hi-powered version with increased range and is screwed together. They are also the ones that will have a replaceable, rechargeable battery. The 601 is a one piece with everything in some type of polyplastic mold.

There really is no downside to these. Bird qwano is your biggest frustration, but all you have to do is swap and put some elbow grease into the cleaning. A green scouring pad and some spray-nine will do the job.

My unit did a pretty clever thing in order to track them as we did swaps. When a 155 was relieved we would use the Carmanah serial number and put it in place of the battery number in the battery log. That way we knew which was Carmanah and which was not.

The only problem we have now is with the 701; since you can replace the battery. But that's easy enough; start a new battery log that has only 701 batteries.

There is a particular way you have to mount them. There has to be sufficient space between the carmanah and the bouy. The vent cooling hole is underneath. Carmanah suggests one or two washers, but we go with about 4 thick washers. The 701 is bigger and we did have an issue with those going out for a short time. Probably not a problem in Alaska but summers or southern areas would have that issue.

Also, with the 601 do not torque more than lightly snug or you will create micro fractures in the case. That will void the exchange policy and also cause moisture to enter the carmanah. Carmanah has the exact torgue spec and it is very low. We just use nylocks so no worries there.

Carmanah still has their first prototype up and running at their central location doing the life test.

So how do you guys like the new VEGAS for fixed aides? Extremely bright LED it will cause spots and give you a headache after only 2 shots. I still remember it and it made me want to puke If you guys haven't seem them yet, I'll see about getting pics up.