Make your own moon lights for less than $1
- Thread starter corrado007
- Start date
extexan
New Member
That's awesome! I am going to expound upon your creativity. We have a lot of solar lights around the pool, and this weekend I am going to try to rig one so that the solar pickups are remote from the on/off sensor and the ni-cads. I think this will work provided I can find some decent ni-cads. I'll keep you updated. Great idea!
ReefSparky
Member
Thanks anyway, but I think I'll just stick with a store bought LED moonlight system commercially manufactured for about $99.
NOT!!
Great thread. Thanks for sharing your creativity with the rest of us!
NOT!!
Great thread. Thanks for sharing your creativity with the rest of us!
corrado007
Active Member
I guess this is an old question, sorry I missed it. Yes, I have 4x65w PCs but I really don't recommend them if you're keeping corals. I would at least do T-5s or if you're planning on keeping clams, an anemone, or a lot of SPS I'd personally go with metal halides. I'm actually planning on picking up two 250w halides for my tank. BTW, when this thread was done the lights were on a 60gal but now I have a 90 and even with the 60 I still should have got halides. I see so little growth with my PCs and can't really keep SPS or other animals that require higher PAR.
Hope that helps,
Justin
ReefSparky, I'm glad you like the idea, thanks. You had me going for a second there.
dustin0479
Member
Easy!
Before connecting the power cord to the LED's run it through some 1/4" tubing, connect the LED's, drop them in a 6" test tube, slide the 1/4" tubing about 1/2" into the test tube and fill the end 1/2" full of Marine Epoxy.
Bam, waterproof LED lightbulb!
dacooley
Member
I actually did something similar for my Harley, looks almost like the undercar neon...
Just wire them up, put bunches of 2 like the original article, and connect the bunches in parallel... slide them into a piece of clear acrylic or vinyl tubing, and use aquarium silicone to seal the ends and make it water proof.
D3monic
Member
that would would be cool...could have a glowing cave or if your one of the people that use pvc under your sand for your tunnelers put the led in one end the pipe halfway so you got a cool blue glow coming out of the cave. (assuming it's inhabitant doesnt mind) I got alot of big tunnels trough my rockwork it would be kinda neet to have a glow coming out of all the holes in my rock.
l3fty999
Member
I went to my radio shack and they were going out of buisness so I got a good deal on them. I picked up 4 LEDs like you have but they are 3volt for .25 each, then I picked up 4 screw in LED's which are 12 violt for 1.00 each. I installed 3 of the screw in ones in my canopy and and hooked them up to a old power wheels charger and they work great. I have some pics and I'll get take some more at night to see them in action. The only bad thing is they didnt have blue just red and green so I got the red ones. BTW thanks again for the info on this. Heres a pic of the screw in one I got.[/IMG]
And here is a pic of them installed.
[/IMG]
they also have "wall warts" in whatever voltage you need, too, just incase you don't have an old cell phone charger.
l3fty999
Member
I went to my radio shack and they were going out of buisness so I got a good deal on them. I picked up 4 LEDs like you have but they are 3volt for .25 each, then I picked up 4 screw in LED's which are 12 violt for 1.00 each. I installed 3 of the screw in ones in my canopy and and hooked them up to a old power wheels charger and they work great. I have some pics and I'll get take some more at night to see them in action. The only bad thing is they didnt have blue just red and green so I got the red ones. BTW thanks again for the info on this. Heres a pic of the screw in one I got.[/IMG]
And here is a pic of them installed.
[/IMG]
By the way, many of your critters cannot see red light, so you can use this to your advantage... let's say you have an unidentified predator in your tank, you see?
Aaron
1ofManyNguyens
Member
Just ordered 100 Pcs 5mm Red Blue Green Yellow White Amber LED Light - eBay (item 110383173587 end time Jun-27-09 08:35:58 PDT) to give this a try.
i saw this tread last night, so i dug around and found an old 3.7V phone charger, ran to Radio Shack at lunch and build one in about 10 minutes. got it home, put it on the tank and it didn't look quite right. so i made a reflector to scatter the light and now it looks great! they give a really nice natural looking shimmer also. very pleased. thanks for the write-up!
carmexx
Active Member
I was at radio shack looking at LED's.
I found some with these specs.....
Let there be light.
This high-brightness blue LED is ideal for hobbies and electronics projects or as a replacement.
* Ideal for hobbies and electronics projects
* High visibility
* Intensity: 8000mcd (typical), wavelength: 465nm (minimum), 467.5nm (maximum)
* Viewing angle: 16°
* FW current: 20mA, FW supply: 3.2V (typical), 3.8V (maximum)
Question is i found the power supply but do the mA need to match the LED? I wanna do four LED's on a 12 volt supply....I think the smallest mA they had was 300mA.
I found some with these specs.....
Let there be light.
This high-brightness blue LED is ideal for hobbies and electronics projects or as a replacement.
* Ideal for hobbies and electronics projects
* High visibility
* Intensity: 8000mcd (typical), wavelength: 465nm (minimum), 467.5nm (maximum)
* Viewing angle: 16°
* FW current: 20mA, FW supply: 3.2V (typical), 3.8V (maximum)
Question is i found the power supply but do the mA need to match the LED? I wanna do four LED's on a 12 volt supply....I think the smallest mA they had was 300mA.
KodiakBear
Active Member
the mA rating on a power supply is the MAX rating. i.e.: you do not need to match the mA rating with the LED's, just make sure that the LED's, and support electronics do not exceed the rated value.
I would recommend putting the series resistor in. LED's by their nature reduce their resistance as they warm up, which can over-drive them and greatly reduce their effective lifespan. a simple little resistor is only a couple extra pennies, but will take care of the thermal effects of having the LED's on. You just have to be sure to account for the voltage drop across the resistor when you select your power supply.
Here is a decent article which describes how to select your resistor: LED Circuit Tutorial
I would recommend putting the series resistor in. LED's by their nature reduce their resistance as they warm up, which can over-drive them and greatly reduce their effective lifespan. a simple little resistor is only a couple extra pennies, but will take care of the thermal effects of having the LED's on. You just have to be sure to account for the voltage drop across the resistor when you select your power supply.
Here is a decent article which describes how to select your resistor: LED Circuit Tutorial
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