Inexpensive Portable Lighting Solution - LED Lights

[DTro]

There are hundreds of different ways to bring light into your portable house. One popular way lately has been LED lights. You can go very basic, or really deck it out. Mostly depending on how much you want to spend. When it comes to LED lighting, and you are willing to spend some $, you can do just about anything.

I'm kind of a minimalist and a bit frugal, so here's what I did.

You can find a small set of battery powered LED lights at OPS.

(credit to Aanderud for diagram)

and then stealing another idea I came across here at FM (thanks BoxMN), I zip tied both sets of LED lights to a piece of 12-2 elec cable and then velcroed that assembly to the overhead cross member. The cable gives the strings rigidity and portability if I want to move it to the boat for the summer or wherever.

Next I soldered and shrinkwrapped all connections and then spliced in a long lead of speaker wire to run to the battery.

It is plenty bright enough now, but I may add a couple more sets to the front cross member as well. Probably not, as I prefer not to be blinded.

[tweedlap]

Dtro,

Great suggestions. Thanks to Andruud for the diagram.

tweed

[harvey lee]

Or, one could go to the Outdoor Pro Store right here on Fishing Minnesota and check out the High Quality LED lights that are heavy duty and already made to fit ones portable and are ready to go out of the bag for only $9.17 or $12.83.

[deadeye]

But this way it looks like your about to have a party break out at any given second...All we need to do is wire in a smoke machine and some subwoofers and your set. j/k

Pretty good idea really. I would bet at the end of the christmas season that 13 bucks would be more like 5 with the close out deals on lights. Kinda nice too because you can just pop in a new light if one breaks or burns out. Cant really do that with the ready made stuff out there right now.

[FISHINGURU]

nice set up....where's the disco ball?

[Fred_Bear]

Or, one could go to the Outdoor Pro Store right here on Fishing Minnesota and check out the High Quality LED lights that are heavy duty and already made to fit ones portable and are ready to go out of the bag for only $9.17 or $12.83

Yup, and most people, including myself, have done that. LED lighting isn't exactly news to the ice fishing world. dtro is just giving everyone a cheaper alternative for a little under $14.00 to get the same amount of light in a portable.

Thanks dtro and Aanderud for the drawing! Great idea, I might just have to steal it.

[BoxMN]

Hey dtro, that 12-2 romex works slick, huh? Would work with the lights Harvey mentioned as well.

[Ishnala]

I picked up a couple of 12 volt led lights that you mount under your car for ground effects. I think they cost about 12.00 eash and wired them in to a spare vex battery and used heavy gauge speaker wire. they are plenty bright and cheap.

[wbliceman]

i like the ufo style lights they are really bright

[Northlander]

Or, one could go to the Outdoor Pro Store right here on Fishing Minnesota and check out the High Quality LED lights that are heavy duty and already made to fit ones portable and are ready to go out of the bag for only $9.17 or $12.83.

I got 2 sets of the OPS Ultra bright LED lights and Im very happy with them. With one set I'll plug into my Marcum battery and the other has the battery pack. That will be used as a extra when I need more light. These lights are nice and bright and are very well built. I set the one set up in my mag lodge and it was enough light for me to tie jigs etc. If you like a lot of light I would get a set for the main upper bar and 1 set for over the door to help light up your holes.

I'm very satisfied with my purchase of the OPS Ultra bright LEDs.

[magicstix]

I went from the strip lights to the Ufo's 24 LED.

After I got tried of putting in AA's. I bought a converter and a 2 wire pigtail disconnect and attached it to the vex batt. Couple removable "S" hooks on the tubes and then quick disconnects at the light too so I can take them off for transport. Little inconvince but Lots of light. the Ufos aren't very durable, Still working on the durabilty factor but the light output is great. Hope this makes sense.

Might want to go with the OPS ultra bright lights at outdoorprostore

[DTro]

Like I said, TONS of options and most have been discussed. This was easy and cheap.

[magicstix]

I agree dtro, I like cheap too. I just kept wanting more light each year. At one time several years ago there was a cluster type led[30 or 40] I'd like to try but I don't see them anymore. those ufo's might even be 48 led. The other option is just going back to headlamps.

I did look at the LEDs at the OutdoorProStore, they do look nice and they are inexpensive too. I'm just like everyone else, looking for the best but don't want to spend a ton.

[fishermatt]

FYI, the Outdoor Pro store has another New light available. If you click on the Lights link, then scroll to the bottom, you will see "The Luminator" lights. They were just added to the site within the last couple weeks.

[Rick]

Or, one could go to the Outdoor Pro Store right here on Fishing Minnesota and check out the High Quality LED lights that are heavy duty and already made to fit ones portable and are ready to go out of the bag for only $9.17 or $12.83

Originally Posted By: Fred_Bear

Yup, and most people, including myself, have done that. LED lighting isn't exactly news to the ice fishing world. dtro is just giving everyone a cheaper alternative for a little under $14.00 to get the same amount of light in a portable.

Just an FYI Fred, You have not purchased the OPS LED lights nor have most people. I do like dtro's idea and the drawing is nice Brian. Anything that helps us out while ice fishing is a bonus. Thanks guys.

The OPS LED lights were specifically manufactured for ice fishing unlike the ones you and most folks have already purchased or the re-worked christmas tree lights talked about here by dtro. The OPS LED lights just came out in August or September of 2009.

They are also priced right at only $9.17 or $12.83, so everyone can try them out.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Looks pretty slick Rick.. may have to pick some up for myself.

[blackdog1101]

Is it possible to pick up the OPS lights locally in the Mpls area rather than have them shipped?

[harvey lee]

They are all shipped out US mail.

[fishermatt]

Besides the OPS Luminator, are any of these other lights fully encased in Rubber? From a durability standpoint, I would think the Christmas type lights are going to need replacement pretty often, so then your investment is $6.99 every year or 2 instead of the $25.00 or so one time for the Luminator. Going cheap often times means spending the same money for the same thing more often.

[pembertonian]

If I really want to pack light I have a hard time beating candles. they're small, waterproof when stored and they throw a nice amount of light. plus it sets the mood if you have your better half with- haha.

[andrew chadwick]

as soon as I can find a lighting system that works better that my coleman lantern I will but it. Until then, I will stick with what i use now.

[Chode2235]

Agreed, there are so many options out there now for lighting a portable. So much better than even a couple years ago. OPS LED lights, I love you.

[fishermatt]

Since I started using the Luminator style lights last winter I will never use a lantern again. In fact I sold it in my wife's rummage sale last summer. I'm adding about 20-30 feet of wire onto one of those lights for my Tip Ups, and use one in the Portable. It's really easy to add different connectors or splice in more wire to this light.

You can use the same battery as your Vexilar is on, but I carry a spare battery just for the lights.

Works slicker 'n snot on a hot door knob.

[ozzie]

nice mod dtro......regarding the fan/light combo....coleman has a tent fan/light combo that I picked up 2-3 years ago and used for a season or 2 but the downfalls were that I didn't get enough light for my liking and the darn thing went through batteries like crazy..... I also have had a dome light wired into my portable with wire running to alligator clips to attach to spare vex battery and that has worked slick for 5 years now.....the new thing that I really like though is the flexible led light to attach to the vexilar. that way you can point it down the hole to watch a bobber or rod tip or point it in any direction and it can light up a good area...plus when you are setting up or taking down in the dark you always have light without having to wait for a lantern to cool off when all you want to do is head off the lake!!

[DTro]

Great idea. I bet one of those LED book lights would work awesome. Just clip it to the flasher or whatever for a little more direct lighting when needed.

These Christmas lights basically give you enough light to see well enough to tie a knot or remove hooks from a fish. Probably not bright enough to read a book, but maybe. What is nice is that the light is spread evenly across the entire house.