Installing LED Lights Into Brass ABI Dome Cabin Lights

Mounting our lights inside of common brass dome lights is quite easy. Although this essay shows the procedure for mounting our Rinorino 12 LED light into a small brass (138mm, 5-1/2" flange) cabin light fixture, the same process can be followed for our Doe 9 LED lights into the same size fixture. You, of course, can mount the Rinorino into the larger 174mm (6-7/8") cabin lights, or our Kalokalo 15 LED light will fit into the larger brass cabin light fixture (essay coming soon).

Before and After Installation. The dome light to the left is with an unlit Rinorino LED light, the brass dome cabin light to the right is not yet modified.

To remove the socket, first loosen the two grub screws on the bulb socket (the yellow and blue arrows), THEN unscrew the bulb holder from the reflector. I have had a couple of 'stiff' grub screws (from the wasted heat of the incandescent bulb?), and removing the bulb holder first makes it hard to back out the grub screws. In most, but not all, installations the switch wire carries the positive ('hot') wire. Even some very, very expensive boat manufacturers aren't very careful of polarity on lighting circuits, so it might pay to check the polarity of the ship's wiring instead of relying on colours.

Key Tool If you try to drill a hole with a diameter greater than the actual thickness of sheet metal, especially a soft metal like brass, the metal will 'wrap' around the drill bit and distort and bend the metal. By drilling a small pilot, then using a bit like this to enlarge the hole, will give you a nice, clean, round hole, not just for this job, but for many other jobs around the boat.

Given the amount of metal that serves as a heat sink for the fixture, it is likely unnecessary, but I also chose to drill 3 holes around the perimeter of the light fixture to allow for extra cooling air.

S/V Pure Chance The lights shown in this essay are from S/V Pure Chance, (The blue cutter in the foreground). Being thrifty cruisers, Scott and Alisia took advantage of our volume discounts and purchased a total of 16 of our lights. After meeting Scott in Fiji, we realized that we likely knew each other 30 years ago in California. It's what cruising is about; meeting old friends and making new ones.

A dollop of hot melt glue on the underside of the Rinorino (being careful to keep the FET clear!), and the job is finished. In my opinion, it looks quite a bit neater than the original bulb and socket. If you use hot melt glue, you may want to be aware that there is quite a bit of difference between the different glue sticks themselves. Some have a strength equal to epoxy, others have very little strength and melts at a very low temperature. You might want to consider testing the glue you have in the tool box first before you declare job 'done'.

*Rinorino is a Fijian firefly from the East Cakadrove area of the island of Vanua Levu. You will likely never see the word in a Fijian-English dictionary, as the dictionary's usually only cover one dialect of the Fijian languages. On the south shore of Vanua Levu alone, there are four different pronunciation/spellings for the poor little bug, none of which have we seen in print. Rinorino also means 'blink', as the Fijian firefly blinks on and off at night.