Moonlights

[dakar]

Some of the recent talk of moonlighting must have sparked something in me this afternoon, really this has been on the to-do list for over a year now.

Amazing what you can create with stuff thats been collected in all of my treasure boxes (aka junk bins)

DIY Moonlights:
old cell phone charger - 6VDC @700mA
some CAT5 wire - actually just one pair (any wire 24 gauge or lerger will do)
10 LED's - 3.3V 30mA @ 3000mcd
10 - 100 ohm resisitors

The wall wart should be able to drive 20+ before it's stressed.

A bit of soldering and voila.

The hardest part was waiting until dark to see how they worked.... I finished soldering them and had them installed in the canopy around 2pm or so... waiting the 6+ hours almost caused physical pain!

Pics are really sorry, they don't do the effect any justice, I really need to work on on figuring out how to get better exposure in low light with our digi. In person the effect looks fantastic. Need to get some more resistors to add another half a dozen or so to the string, I really can't believe I actually ran out of them, most likely I put some away so they wouldn't be lost....hence I couldn't find them.

[Guido]

I like that second picture. Makes you wonder whats going to creep out of the shadows into the light and scare the bahjesus out of ya!

[zoo-a-holic]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#LOL. Very true. Dakar do i leave these moon lights on all night???#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#

[dakar]

LOL. Very true. Dakar do i leave these moon lights on all night???

Dunno...... That was a question I was going to post today to see what other folks are doing. Not that i'm likely to get nuts trying to sort out the lunar calendar to figure out what time the moon should rise and set and all that jazz..

But I left them run all night last night. Just left the wall wart plugged into a non-switched outlet so they'll run 24x7 for now.

Not that Angel and I were setting in front of the tank at 3am in total amazement of the activity we often miss out on. :roll:

[graphixx]

I wouldnt see any harm in leaving them on allnight?!! I dont think they would pose any sort of distraction to the inhabitant at night. But this is just me talking

[graphixx]

dakar,

I called a company here that does electronic stuff and asked him what it would cost to buld me one of those. I told him I wanted to be able to plug it into the wall and run 15 led's I gave him the specs on the led's he said he does not like to do that off of 120 cause it runs the risk or shorting or something to the fact that there is a chance it would burn my house down. What is your take on this???? I am not an electronics building whiz like you (which is sad because I was an area sales trainer for Radio Shack for 3 years) help a fella out would ya

[dakar]

That he's full of _______. In this case the actual voltage from the wall wart to the LED's is only about six volts. If the wires I stapled to the canopy were to fall into the water the wallwart would likely pop. A fella could easily install a small fuse inline outside of the tank if really worried about it.

[Fishez]

I leave mine on 24/7 and have for a year. The guy you talked to must be retarted to think a 9 or 12 volt power supply would burn down your house, It would be 1000x's more likely for a desk lamp to burn down your house.... Its just not very likely.

[graphixx]

awesome, thank you guys like I said this is not my area of expertise, well I might have to look at geeting some of these then. fishez you still selling those?????

[Fishez]

Yeah, I still have some for sale.

[dakar]

THink about this realiistically. Worrying over a few volts max 12V DC @ maybe 1amp max (before the transformer smokes)..... okay but you have halides hanging a foot off the water with 250VAC and plenty of current waiting to wreak total havoc on things....

Just doesn't make a lot of sense. LED's are the last thing you should worry about.

[zoo-a-holic]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Very true. Im very excited to get my light today or monday!!!!#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#