How to Mount An Owl & A Masina Malosi ~or~ A Namu
'Lulu'		'Namu'

Mounting Bebi LED Lights into An Aqua-Signal Tri-Color/Anchor Light Combo Fixture

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With the thought that a picture is worth a thousand words, please feel free to use the following photoessay as a suggestion on how to mount Bebi Electronics Owl, Masina, and Namu waterproof masthead LED marine light replacements into a tri-color masthead navigation and anchor light fixture. The fixture shown is without the xenon (strobe) tube, if you have a unit that is similar to this one, but with the tube, it will mount exactly the same without disturbing the strobe portion of the light. However, you will need to take care and wipe the xenon tube afterwards with a tissue moistened with alcohol in case you touched the tube with your fingers.

If you would like to use only a single switch and set of wires to control either the tricolor or the anchor light in the combo fixture, please follow this link to see a wiring diagram.

The original assembly with the lens removed. To orient yourself, the pins that fit into the masthead base are closest to the viewer. Remove the tri-color navigation light socket first by removing the two phillips screws.		Tri-color light leads disconnected from screw clamps. The positive rail, to which the Masina Malosi red wire will attach to, is on the viewers left.

After the tricolor navigation light socket is removed, pull the anchor light socket. The easy way to pull the screws is to insert a long #2 phillips driver thru the centre hole exposed after the tri-color socket is removed.

Anchor light positive wire disconnected from the socket. This is what you will be attaching the red wire from the Owl anchor light to. Note that it leads directly from the molded pins directly to the lamp socket, the negative wire on the socket attaches to the clamp (shown on the viewers left) in these pictures.

If you have the 'combo' model of this tri-color light which has a strobe, you will need to rotate the light socket until the slot in the socket aligns with the xenon tube support.

Using a piece of what is called braising rod (it's really bronze, not brass!), I make a small bail to hang the Owl LED anchor light in the lower chamber of the fixture. I've found that a few pieces of braising rod to be invaluable around the boat for a plentitude of uses.

Insert the eye of the screw eye into the bail and put the bail with the eye screw into the hole on the tricolor .floor'...

...and screw the Owl into the eyescrew from underneath. If you have the strobe version of the light, you can see that the bottom Owl hangs neatly right above the xenon tube after it's assembled. A pair of wire ties from the vent holes around the rails to secure the Owl from swinging and the light is mounted. A bit out of sequence, but you can also see that I lead the wires from the upper Masina Malosi down the supports to reduce the number of electrical connections.

Although you can certainly use a crimp connector, I far prefer to solder the positive wire from the Owl into place, with the adhesive lined, heat shrink tubing. I have seen, far too often, crimp connectors sold with preinstalled heat shrink tubing corrode and fail because the heat shrink has been nicked by the crimping tool.
If you want to crimp your connectors, it is less expensive, and much more reliable, to use uninsulated connectors, then slide a piece of tubing over them and shrink it. (Owl shown removed in case you forgot which wire in the fixture is the positive!)

For the tricolor lens, the 25mm spacer included with our Masina LED running lights is to center the LEDs into the centre of the tricolour lens (if you are curious, yes, it was cut from a length of 32mm (1-1/4") diameter Schedule 40 PVC pipe). The four small holes centered around the perimeter, are to ensure cooling of the current regulator. Until May 2008, we used to recommend bonding it to the bottom of the Masina and to the top of the tricolour platform, until...

...we were given a suggestion from John L aboard S/V 'Active Transport', to add three holes for the wire ties (included with the light) for a 'belt and suspenders' attachment in addition to the adhesive (such as 4200 or an elastomeric sealant) between the Masina and the spacer. We have had no reports of failure with only adhesive, but his idea was such an obvious improvement that we adopted it almost immediately.

Here is John's Masina Malosi mounted on top of the tri-color navigation light platform. You can see that he added a second wire tie thru the cooling holes to hold the light to the base.

The finished product!

Here is the same fixture, but with two Owls. This would meet COLREG if you had a small boat which only required 1nm visibility, like Josh and Heidi aboard S/V 'Tiny Bubbles', an engineless Pacific Seacraft 24, in the Nakama Creek anchorage of Savusavu, with Nawi Island in the background.