DIY LED Moonlights

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tomm10

Prodigal Son
Oct 15, 2003
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Oxford, MA
www.tomwalkerportraits.com
Someone PMed me about step by step instructions for my homemade moonlights. I tried to make it as simple as possible and violated the word limit on the message so I thought I would post it here for prosperity.

*DISCLAIMER* I am not and do not pretend to be an electrician. I am a putterer who is mechanically inclined and curious. I did build these lights as explained and they work great. However, I will not guarantee their safe operation or pay for your house when it burns down. I welcome anyone with any real electrical knowledge to add any advice to this.



I started off by finding blue LEDs at my local auto parts store. This may be the most difficult part since different stores carry different LEDs. I found some at one store that were cheap but I also found other sets that were more expensive at other stores.


The set of LEDs I settled on was only about $7. In the package I found 3 LEDs with wire leads coming from them. Now, in my case they were attached to a switch and a battery pack but in most cases they won't be attached to anything.

Next you need a transformer. Because these lights are intended to be hooked up to a car's electrical system they run of DC or direct current. This is the type of electricity generated from batteries. The wall outlets in your house generate AC or alternating current. The transformer (aka AC/DC adapter) will take the house's AC power and transfer it to DC power your LEDs can use. You can find this do-dad at any Radio shack for a couple of bucks. You want an AC/DC adapter to adapt the current to 12v. The guys in Radio Shack (or any consumer electronic store) should be able to help you find the right one, particularly if you bring the led package in.

Next comes the wiring. The transformer will come with a little connector that you would normally plug into a radio or some other device. Your LEDs will have no receiver for this though. With a pair of wire cutters, cut the little plug off the transformer as close as you can to the plug to leave you with the maximum amount of wire. If the LEDs have anything connected to the other ends of their wires, cut it off.

Now what you should have is a transformer with an open ended wire and you LEDs with open ended wires. You next step is to marry them.

You have some choices here for connection methods.

1. Wire crimp connectors. While you are at Radio Shack you can explain that you want to splice the wires from the transformer with the wires from the LEDs. Ask for some crimp connectors that are the right size for the gauges (diameter) of wire you're dealing with. The connectors look like little plastic tubes, usually colored, with little metal sleeves inside. To connect the wires you strip about 1/4" of the insulation off the end of the wires you want to connect. Then you slide the connector over one of the wires and connect the bare wires by twisting them together. Once the wires are twisted together you slide the connector over the splice so it’s covering the bare wires. Grab pliers and crimp the connector so it stays in place. This is a good connection method and will last. You can wrap it with electrical tape after for an extra measure of protection.

2. Soldering. If you have a soldering iron you can solder the to ends of the stripped wires together then electrical tape them. Unless you have the gun and have soldered before, forget this idea.

3. Poor Man's Method. This is what I did and it works fine. Strip the wires as mentioned in option 1. Twist the bare wires together and tape the living hell out of them with electrical tape. With the tape you just want to ensure there are no bare wires exposed and little chance of water getting into the connection.

As far as which wire to connect to what, you'll need a little luck and some trial an error. LEDs are solid state so you can't blow them out. Some LEDs are picky about polarity meaning the positive wire from the adapter needs to connect to the positive wire from the led and the negative to the negative. If you don't they won't work. Only problem is, most times the led wires aren't labeled. The best solution is to strip the wires and plug in the adapter. Make sure the wires are on a non-conductive surface like metal or plastic and that they are not touching each other. (Remember the transformer is only putting out 12v, which, if you screw up, will only give you enough juice to not make that mistake again. It won't kill you). Now simply touch one of the led wires to one of the transformer wires and the other led wire to the other transformer wire. If the light goes on, make your connections. If not, switch wires and try again. It should work.

Now you should have a working moonlight. I placed my lights on top of my canopy (over the clear part naturally) but under my light hood. You have a lot of options as to where to place them so it's up to you. The can go inside the reflector of the light hood too. Because of the DIY wire connections, I play it safe and try to expose the lights to as little moisture as I can, hence placing them on top of the canopy.

You can tape the lights in place or you can mount them more permanently. What I did was to take a piece of 1/16" thick clear acrylic about the same length as the clear window in my canopy and drill three equally spaced holes (just large enough for the LEDs). My LEDs came with little housings that clipped into the holes. If yours don't you can use silicone to hold them in place. This mounting method just makes it s little easier to remove the lights when I take the canopy off and to make sure they're always spaced correctly.

You could add a switch but since the moonlight uses so little electricity, I just plug mine in and leave it one. You can't see it when the lights come on and I don't need a second light timer or to remember to turn them on.

Good Luck.

Tom
 

blitzen25bm

AC Members
Jan 28, 2003
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sounds simple. do you have pictures of the lights mounted? i see the pictures of them on in your tank but i was wondering how they are setup on top.
 

daveedka

Purple is the color of Royalty
Jan 30, 2004
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Columbus, ohio
Tomm10,
Thanks for posting this just a few things to add,
If you want variable lights get a Rheostat, this is in laymans terms a device that increases or decreases resitance to your LED's and therefore changes the brightness. If you look for a Rheastat at Radio shack, look in the Potentiometer drawer, there will be mutliple types of Pots. but at least one of them will be a wire wound rheostat.
I just got my LED's from www.us.digikey.com They have all the parts you will need, but can be a little rough to search if you aren't highly versed in DC electronics (I do DC electronics for a living, and was a little lost on their site). The part number for the white led's I used is 441-1008-nd, and they are $1.33 each. I am starting with 10 but will probably end up with 15 or 20 on my 115g tank.


Some LEDs are picky about polarity meaning the positive wire from the adapter needs to connect to the positive wire from the led and the negative to the negative.
This is true, LED (Light Emitting Diode) only work one way. A diode is essentially an electrical check valve, without getting into deep detail, the very design of a diode is to stop current in one direction and allow it in the other.
 
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