Sector lights are getting the edge
The Vega VSL-73 LED Sector Light is engineered to provide a sharp boundary between colours.
Hydrosphere’s new Vega VSL-73 LED Sector Light uses advances in LED technology and lens design that have only taken place over the last two years.
The VSL-73 can be configured to have a range up to 10NM and caters for sector angles from 2° to 360°. The engineering gives an angle of uncertainty which is better than 0.5° colour-to-colour and 1° at sector edge.
Hydrosphere’s general manager John Caskey told MJ that prior to recent developments, a cluster of LEDs were used together, “so there was no single point of light to mask, which made it virtually impossible to get a sharp cut off”. However, advances in optics technology now allow just one LED to be used. This means the angles can be set very precisely and the light can be masked off very precisely to get a very fine, sharp ‘edge’, engineered to provide a sharp boundary between colours.
A typical shadow casting sector light has a larger range for white than for the green or red sectors, but this can now be optimised for particular applications. For example, the same power that would produce 5NM of white visibility, would only produce 3NM of red, due to the lower transmission properties of the colour filters.
So, separate LEDs provide the option to modify colour output. The coloured lights can be changed to increase their range to match the white sector, and likewise the length white range can be decreased, bringing it down to the same level as the other colours, an option that provides most cost effective solution. Each VSL-73 is customised for individual applications with regards to range, colours and sectors.
With the rise in solar powered buoys, power draw has become more central to the specifications. Since the VSL-73 light is very low power and can be configured further to maximise output, it makes it even more suitable for this kind of application.
Another new Hydrosphere product, which received a lot of attention at the Seawork exhibition this summer, particularly from the renewables sector, was the DB2000 Data Buoy.
John Caskey told MJ that the data buoys were fitted with an AtoN AIS system linked to a weather station so the buoy can transmit meteorological data to the AIS system. “It also has an Iridium satellite tracking system which monitors the position of the buoy, providing real time numerical data”, he said.
Several buoys can be linked up to the system, with the data shown on the company’s secure website. The system gathers data and, usefully, sends SMS text alarms on the health of the buoy to the responsible parties. It is an adaptable arrangement in that the system can be fitted to any navigation buoy, giving flexibility to the different applications.
The DB 2000 itself is a medium size buoy, suitable for use in near shore locations where a unit that can support a reasonable payload is required. Its 1.9m diameter hull provides 2,000kg of buoyancy.
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