corrado007
Active Member
I wanted some moon lights for my 60gal so I decided to try to make a set. It’s a VERY basic project if you are a DIY sort of person. Simply put, it’s just 2 LEDs (light emitting diodes) powered by an old cell phone charger. If you’re a DIY type of person like me you don’t throw any old electronics away. Since almost all of us get new cell phones every year or two when the newest gadgets are added to them we’re left with a box full of old cell phones or at least the extra chargers if you sold the phone on eBay. Assuming you’re this type of person, you also most likely have all of the necessary materials sitting around perhaps with the exception of a few ultra bright LEDs which should cost less than a buck. Since the project was a success I decided to do a write-up and therefore went back and recreated some steps for pictures so please excuse any steps I didn’t take photos of as I didn’t want to do the entire project twice.
Requirements for this project:
1) Basic knowledge on how to solder.
2) Being a pack-rat so you happen to have an old cell phone charger lying around.
Tools/materials needed:
1) Wire cutters/strippers
2) Soldering iron with solder
3) Heat shrink tubing & a lighter (or electrical tape)
4) Rubber grommets
5) Drill and bits
6) 2 ultra bright LEDs (rated at ~ 2.5 - 3 volts)(white, blue, or which ever color you want, I used white)
7) An old AC (wall plug) cell phone charger with an approximate 5 volt DC output.
8) Extra wire, depending on how long you need the cord to be.
9) Ridged wire or coat hanger (just a few inches)
You can see that this one has a 4.6 volt output.
Procedure:
1) Read each step in it’s entirety before doing the step to ensure that you understand it so you don’t break something (light bulbs) or have to undo something.
2) Gather all your materials and tools
3) The first step is the only step where it’s up to you to be a little creative because most aquarium light fixtures are designed slightly differently. Unplug your light fixture and put it on a stable surface. Locate a safe place to drill into your fixture from the outside into the reflector/bulb “chamber” (if your bulbs have a clear plastic shield over them you’ll want to remove it for this). You will most likely want to drill from the back since this hole is where your moon light power cord will be coming out. While ensuring that you don’t drill through any wires/ballasts in the fixture, drill a hole large enough to pass the wire and a coat hanger through. (you should remove your bulb(s) at this point because they’re expensive). Also be sure that the place you’re drilling will allow enough room for the LEDs to not bump into/interfere with the bulbs when they are reinstalled.
Here's where I drilled my hole. You can refer back to this pic for later steps too.
4) Now remove any sharp burs from the metal/plastic casing of your light fixture and insert the grommets in the newly drilled hole, one for each layer of material you had to drill through (this depends on your light fixture, I needed 2)
5) While heating the soldering iron, cut off the plug from the cell phone charger at the end that plugs into the phone so you’re left with the wall charger with a few feet of wire still attached to it.
6) Slide the wire from the AC adapter through the new hole(s) which should now have insulating rubber grommets installed in them. You will be passing the cut end of the wire from the outside to the inside (where the LEDs will be).
7) Split and strip the two wires and slide heat shrink tubing over them before soldering the LEDs.
8) Solder the LEDs to each other attaching the anode of one to the cathode of the other (negative to positive); this is called wiring in series. When done you have two LEDs soldered together with one free anode and one free cathode (negative & positive). Put heat shrink tubing on the leads that you just soldered between the two LEDs and shrink it with the lighter or neatly wrap the exposed joint with electrical tape.
Here are the two LEDs in series.
9) Now solder the two wires from the charger (which you already stripped and slipped heat shrink tubing over them past the bare/stripped portion) to the two remaining leads of the LEDs making sure to attach the positive output of the charger to the anode (positive) side of the LEDs and the negative wire from the charger to the cathode (negative) side of the LEDs.
Here are the LEDs with heat shrink tubing and being soldered to the charger wires.
10) Before shrinking the heat shrink tubing, plug in the adapter to see that the LEDs light up.
11) Assuming they light up, unplug the adapter, slide the heat shrink tubing over the exposed soldered joints, and use the lighter to heat and shrink the tubing in order to insulate the wires.
12) At this point you should have NO bear wires or LED leads showing. They should have all been insulated with either heat shrink tubing or electrical tape.
13) Next, slide a length of coat hanger or stiff wire through the same hole as the wires to add support for them so the LEDs don’t just flop around in the reflector/bulb area. I put some heat shrink tubing over my coat hanger before I slid it through the hole in order to insulate it and give it a nicer appearance.
14) You can tape or zip tie the LEDs to the coat hanger and position them in the middle of the fixture so they point at the reflector.
Here are the LEDs positioned in the fixture and attached to the coat hanger.
15) You will want to take the end of the coat hanger which is sticking out of the back/outside of the fixture and bend it to a right angle, trimming off excess more than an inch long (here's where you can look back at that earlier pic of the back of the fixture). This can now be used as a handle to swivel the LEDs inside to achieve the desired lighting effect (depending on how they are aimed at the reflector they will illuminate the tank differently). I also put heat shrink on the “handle” to give it a better appearance.
16) Now you can put back together any part of the fixture you took apart and reinstall your bulbs.
Here are the bulbs installed and the LEDs on.
17) You’re done! Just plug your new moon lights in and enjoy. I chose to put mine on a timer opposite my tank light photo period so there’s always some light on.
New moon lights plugged into a timer.
Notes: LEDs draw very little power and therefore are no strain at all on the charger. I keep mine plugged in all the time and the moon lights run for 12 hours a day (when ever the main lights are off) and the charger never even gets warm. Seems to be totally safe and just those two little LEDs give a fairly dramatic lunar effect when it’s dark in the room. The picture I have posted doesn’t do them justice since light was coming in through the blinds and I couldn’t choose the perfect setting on my camera to capture the effect.
Requirements for this project:
1) Basic knowledge on how to solder.
2) Being a pack-rat so you happen to have an old cell phone charger lying around.
Tools/materials needed:
1) Wire cutters/strippers
2) Soldering iron with solder
3) Heat shrink tubing & a lighter (or electrical tape)
4) Rubber grommets
5) Drill and bits
6) 2 ultra bright LEDs (rated at ~ 2.5 - 3 volts)(white, blue, or which ever color you want, I used white)
7) An old AC (wall plug) cell phone charger with an approximate 5 volt DC output.
8) Extra wire, depending on how long you need the cord to be.
9) Ridged wire or coat hanger (just a few inches)
You can see that this one has a 4.6 volt output.
Procedure:
1) Read each step in it’s entirety before doing the step to ensure that you understand it so you don’t break something (light bulbs) or have to undo something.
2) Gather all your materials and tools
3) The first step is the only step where it’s up to you to be a little creative because most aquarium light fixtures are designed slightly differently. Unplug your light fixture and put it on a stable surface. Locate a safe place to drill into your fixture from the outside into the reflector/bulb “chamber” (if your bulbs have a clear plastic shield over them you’ll want to remove it for this). You will most likely want to drill from the back since this hole is where your moon light power cord will be coming out. While ensuring that you don’t drill through any wires/ballasts in the fixture, drill a hole large enough to pass the wire and a coat hanger through. (you should remove your bulb(s) at this point because they’re expensive). Also be sure that the place you’re drilling will allow enough room for the LEDs to not bump into/interfere with the bulbs when they are reinstalled.
Here's where I drilled my hole. You can refer back to this pic for later steps too.
4) Now remove any sharp burs from the metal/plastic casing of your light fixture and insert the grommets in the newly drilled hole, one for each layer of material you had to drill through (this depends on your light fixture, I needed 2)
5) While heating the soldering iron, cut off the plug from the cell phone charger at the end that plugs into the phone so you’re left with the wall charger with a few feet of wire still attached to it.
6) Slide the wire from the AC adapter through the new hole(s) which should now have insulating rubber grommets installed in them. You will be passing the cut end of the wire from the outside to the inside (where the LEDs will be).
7) Split and strip the two wires and slide heat shrink tubing over them before soldering the LEDs.
8) Solder the LEDs to each other attaching the anode of one to the cathode of the other (negative to positive); this is called wiring in series. When done you have two LEDs soldered together with one free anode and one free cathode (negative & positive). Put heat shrink tubing on the leads that you just soldered between the two LEDs and shrink it with the lighter or neatly wrap the exposed joint with electrical tape.
Here are the two LEDs in series.
9) Now solder the two wires from the charger (which you already stripped and slipped heat shrink tubing over them past the bare/stripped portion) to the two remaining leads of the LEDs making sure to attach the positive output of the charger to the anode (positive) side of the LEDs and the negative wire from the charger to the cathode (negative) side of the LEDs.
Here are the LEDs with heat shrink tubing and being soldered to the charger wires.
10) Before shrinking the heat shrink tubing, plug in the adapter to see that the LEDs light up.
11) Assuming they light up, unplug the adapter, slide the heat shrink tubing over the exposed soldered joints, and use the lighter to heat and shrink the tubing in order to insulate the wires.
12) At this point you should have NO bear wires or LED leads showing. They should have all been insulated with either heat shrink tubing or electrical tape.
13) Next, slide a length of coat hanger or stiff wire through the same hole as the wires to add support for them so the LEDs don’t just flop around in the reflector/bulb area. I put some heat shrink tubing over my coat hanger before I slid it through the hole in order to insulate it and give it a nicer appearance.
14) You can tape or zip tie the LEDs to the coat hanger and position them in the middle of the fixture so they point at the reflector.
Here are the LEDs positioned in the fixture and attached to the coat hanger.
15) You will want to take the end of the coat hanger which is sticking out of the back/outside of the fixture and bend it to a right angle, trimming off excess more than an inch long (here's where you can look back at that earlier pic of the back of the fixture). This can now be used as a handle to swivel the LEDs inside to achieve the desired lighting effect (depending on how they are aimed at the reflector they will illuminate the tank differently). I also put heat shrink on the “handle” to give it a better appearance.
16) Now you can put back together any part of the fixture you took apart and reinstall your bulbs.
Here are the bulbs installed and the LEDs on.
17) You’re done! Just plug your new moon lights in and enjoy. I chose to put mine on a timer opposite my tank light photo period so there’s always some light on.
New moon lights plugged into a timer.
Notes: LEDs draw very little power and therefore are no strain at all on the charger. I keep mine plugged in all the time and the moon lights run for 12 hours a day (when ever the main lights are off) and the charger never even gets warm. Seems to be totally safe and just those two little LEDs give a fairly dramatic lunar effect when it’s dark in the room. The picture I have posted doesn’t do them justice since light was coming in through the blinds and I couldn’t choose the perfect setting on my camera to capture the effect.