Blue Sea Systems 7507 12V DC 12A Deckhand Dimmer

I am in the process of a helm re-design and upgrade on my2002 25' express cruiser. My OEM dash panel dimmer stopped working a few years ago. After some research, I found this Blue Sea System Deckhand Dimmer. These are used on commercial vessels and large yachts because they are built to last with a proper heat sink and sealed electronics. A clear wiring schematic is provided but the operating logic was unclear to me. They are controlled by a center OFF momentary rocker (up for bright, down for dim) but I didn't know if they default to ON or OFF requiring a momentary push up or down to initiate last dimmed intensity (pulse width modulation controller). If they default to ON then I would add an additional ON/OFF switch if they default to OFF then the momentary switch could act as the ON/OFF switch as well as the dimming control. I built a temporary circuit to test this and found that the dimming control was not working as intended. I called tech support and they promptly sent a replacement with no issues. The replacement works and the logic is default to ON and to the last dimmed position. In my case I added an additional SPST ON/OFF switch. I am buying another one to control my Cockpit lights. These are great quality and are backed by great Tech support. Well worth the money!

I replaced my 19ft sea ray runabout's blue tinted incandescent Faria gauge instrument lights with blue LED's last year, and while they looked great in port, the new LED bulbs were annoyingly bright while underway on a dark night. I bought this Blue Sea Systems dimmer to put a brightness control on them.While I was at it, I also installed some LED courtesy lights on the boat, and added a switch to select "Instrument / OFF / Instrument+Courtesy" to the panel. The switch I installed along with the dimmer switch is a DPDT type that powers the dimmer and routes the dimmed output to the appropriate lights.I am VERY happy with how it turned out! This dimmer is a PWM type, so it can control LEDs. It has a no-power memory, so if you install it with a hard power switch like I did, the lights will come on at the previously selected brightness when you turn it back on. You can skip the hard switch and use the dimmer switch to turn the lights on and off, as the package claims to have a very low standby current- about the same as a marine stereo. However, it does take a few presses to get to zero light, and the hard switch is very nice with the memory anyway.The dimmer also has a "walking away now" function- if you turn the lights to max and keep holding the bright button down, the lights will flash once, then you have one minute before they will turn off. Kind of cool when docking at a restaurant at night.I do wish the package had an option to ship with a black switch instead of a grey one, or came with a black switch cover, since my panel is all black switches. Or maybe even a "no switch included" option, since I had to buy my own matching switch anyway. It would be nice if it could dim down just a little bit further too- but it is sufficiently dim to chill out my instrument lights-- night blindness solved! (The difference between full bright and lowest bright shown in the pictures is actually much more significant than it appears, due to the camera's auto exposure.)It seems like a great product, was easy to install, and was well worth the money.

I'm using it for the LED courtesy lights on my boat, they're too bright when underway, so problem solved. The wiring diagram is straightforward; everything worked out fine. I'm assuming that, like all other Blue Sea products, this will last. Their quality is remarkable.

Quality

Expensive for what it is. But that’s the way of the boat/RV life.If you’re lookin to do the job right, this is probably what you need. Most any switch with the dimmer built in isn’t going to last long.