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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Better by Design

Shadow-Caster® products are all designed in-house using a multi-disciplinary approach. We incorporate our expertise in electrical, optical, military level mechanics and software engineering to make a superior product. All Shadow-Caster® products are designed to exceed customer demands for the harsh environment that they will be exposed to.

Vertical integration

Shadow-Caster® manufactures their products in house. These operations include precision machining of the housings and placing electronic components with their own electronic production equipment all the way to final assembly and precise quality control steps. This investment in infrastructure allows us to control every aspect of the quality and assure the best products for our customers

Technical leadership

Shadow-Caster® is a leader in creating marine lighting standards. Our lighting control helped create the standards for the NMEA2000. This allows all of the industry to benefit in the use of a common light control language. Shadow-Caster’s combination of passion to make great products for the marine industry and the technical know-how to do it make Shadow-Caster® a clear choice for your marine lighting needs.

Continuous improvement of product and process

Shadow-Caster’s production team’s mission statement is “Build a Better Product Every Day”. The combination of drive and dedication to make the best marine lighting products on the market lead us to keep going.

12 volt RGB (red, green, blue) lighting has a common 12 volt input which in most cases is the black wire. The red, green and blue wires connect to ground for corresponding color channels. RGB lighting is practically universal and is perfect for lighting accent areas. RGB lighting falls short in reproducing white. It recreates a white color, but due to the gaps in the visible spectrum it does not produce a “true white”. This means the color of objects viewed under this light look different than they would under day light or an actual white LED.  In technical terms: RGB reproduced white light has a “low CRI”, (Color Rendering Index). This is the reason that all Shadow-Caster® lights used for general illumination have a true white channel. Also, all Shadow-Caster® lighting controllers will support both RGB and RGBW. Where this “W” indicates support for a “white” LED channel.
Shadow-Caster® underwater lights do get warm and rely on water immersion to stay cool. However, if your lights come out of the water when running on plane, the small amount of splash they receive is enough to keep them cool. Shadow-Caster® underwater lights utilize a thermal protection circuit and will reduce their output so that they never get hotter than a hot cup of coffee. This feature makes Shadow-Caster® underwater lights worry-free and prevents about them hurting you or damaging your boat.
A typical group D battery stores approximately 120amp hours of power. Two SCM-10 underwater lights will draw about 7 amps. This equates to at least 17 hours of continuous use. It is not recommended to deplete marine batteries to less than 20% of their available capacity.
The appropriate number of lights to use is a personal choice and depends on desired brightness and budget. There are no hard and fast rules to apply here. Shadow-Caster® underwater LED lights have a very low profile and produce a wide beam pattern. Generally, Shadow-Caster® recommends 2 lights mounted on opposite sides of the transom for boats up to 21 ft in length. As the size of the boat and beam increase, it is recommended that more lights be installed for continuous coverage. Usually lights are added 1 for every additional 1meter/3ft of transom width over 3meters/9ft. They can also be installed on the sides of boats for users that want the extra light coverage.
Shadow-Caster’s full color lights such as the SCR-24-CC or the SCM-10-EXT-CC have become the most popular choice for boaters that don’t want to choose just one color. However, users can choose one of 5 single color options. The condition of the water where the lights will be used is a big factor in this decision. Often the decision on color is made to compliment the color theme of the boat. We typically do not recommend white lights for areas where the color of the water is dark or murky, as the white light will tend to filter through as the color of the water.

Shadow-Caster® offers the following 5 different single-color options.

  • Great White – Is best where the water is clear and where a good view of underwater life is wanted.
  • Bimini Blue – This is our most popular color and is very popular with the offshore fishing crowd. It is an intense and vivid blue and offers a pleasant tropical island color.
  • Ultra-Blue – This shade of blue falls more towards the violet end of the spectrum than bimini-blue. It is a great choice to compliment purple hulls where customers want to really stand out from the crowd. Note that your eye is not as sensitive to this color, and the ultra-blue will appear less bright than the comparable bimini-blue.
  • Aqua Green – This color is very popular with the inshore fishing crowd. And generally accepted as a great color for attracting bait fish.
  • Cool Red – Is very intense and most popular with the “Go Fast” boating crowd. It provides an eerie and ominous red color under the water.
Shadow-NET® is a proprietary technology that is integrated into Shadow-Caster® lighting products. It is based on a CAN bus. CAN (Control Area Network) is very robust and has been used extensively in the automotive industry for digital communications. In the marine industry it is the basis for NMEA2000 networks that are used to communicate RPM, GPS, fuel gauge and other critical information between marine helms and motors, and other marine devices. Shadow-Caster’s Shadow-NET® allows us to individually address and control the color and intensity of each Shadow-Caster® light. Physically, this connection is the orange and yellow wires found in our Shadow-NET® enabled lighting products. Through Shadow-Net® enabled devices it is possible to integrate with other communication protocols, such as, ethernet and WiFi. Please contact a Shadow-Caster® representative for more details.
Shadow-Caster® underwater lights are designed to live under the water. Anyone that owns a boat, especially boats that live full time in saltwater, understand what a harsh environment this is. Combine corrosion with the fact that barnacles quickly grow on anything left in the water, and it is easy to appreciate the challenges involved with designing products to live in this environment.

We recommend that lights be cleaned regularly to provide the optimum performance. When lights are cleaned by simple brushing the marine growth will be minimal. In the event that staining occurs, we recommend Naval Jelly which is commonly available at your local hardware store. Simply follow the manufactures’ recommendation. This typically just involves applying it to affected areas and rinsing it off.