W7AFM's LED Schematic

[dakar]

Bob asked me to post this image up for him and ya'll to enjoy... wiring LED's for moonlights and such using an LM317 Adjustable Voltage Regulator in place of the usual resisitors..

Sharp thinking! I'm sure he'll explain it and field any questions when he can... Cool idea!

[w7afm]

Originally Posted by dakar

Bob asked me to post this image up for him and ya'll to enjoy... wiring LED's for moonlights and such using an LM317 Adjustable Voltage Regulator in place of the usual resisitors..

Sharp thinking! I'm sure he'll explain it and field any questions when he can... Cool idea!

I have added more information to the schematic diagram that explains the wiring better. So group, I just can't figure out how to post the picture and text of my diagram so once again I have emailed it to Dave for him to post it for me. I have a laptop setup so I can answer questions from my chair that I will be in most of the time for awhile so I can meed up. I might as well tell the group I was hit by a car when I was walking and the car backed up into me a broke my knee in two places plus wrecking my back and neck putting me over the truck of his vehicle. But anyway I will be checking in and out of Captive Reefing now and then. Thank goodness for CAT5 wiring in the house that I did when we first moved in.

Bob

[w7afm]

When Dakar (Dave) first started this post I believe that he said the LED's put a light pattern out to about 8" to 9" inches. Dave if you let use know what the depth of the water was that will give me an idea of how many LED's an individual would want to run in a line so the lights are no overlapping by to much and they don't make up the Moonlight to bright. Remember we are trying to just give enough light to let the corals think it is night time. The Moonlights are not meant to be bright, just a soft light to make to corals and other animals think it is night time so they will come out to feed like in nature.

Bob

[pass1over]

dang w7, sorry to hear about that. Hope you have a speedy recovery

where would one purchase a LM317 voltage regulator? like radio shack or similiar? Also, is this a simpler way to wire them up? Or what im getting at is, what is the major benefit to wiring it this way?

[w7afm]

Thanks for the speedy recovery.......... Yes you can get the Adjustable Voltage Regulator at Radio Shack, I will post the link so you will know the right one to pick up....

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...or&tab=summary

The reason why I came up with a schematic diagram with the Adjustable Voltage Regulator, it is less wiring, saves room and if a LED goes out the rest will still light up for you. The only thing you need to do is adjust the power output of the regulator to 3.3VDC, you will need a multimeter to do this with and when you are adjusting the pot on the regulator make sure you don't touch the regulator or it just might set you on your backside....LOL, but that is electronics for you.

Bob

[pass1over]

Originally Posted by w7afm

The reason why I came up with a schematic diagram with the Adjustable Voltage Regulator, it is less wiring, saves room and if a LED goes out the rest will still light up for you.

Excellent!! I love the fact that if 1 burns out, the rest stay on, definately an excellent feature!!

Originally Posted by w7afm

The only thing you need to do is adjust the power output of the regulator to 3.3VDC, you will need a multimeter to do this with and when you are adjusting the pot on the regulator make sure you don't touch the regulator or it just might set you on your backside....LOL, but that is electronics for you.

yea, electricity is NOT my friend, ,heh

[hummer]

w7afm hope you heal fast

[dakar]

Bob, these LED's have a 25 degree viewing angle, giving me roughtly 8-9" circles of light at the bottom of the tank, mine are about 6" over the water and then it's 24" to the bottom of the 180g tank.

If you find the LED's to be too intense for your tank, try roughing up the lens a bit with sandpaper, that will help diffuse the light.

The problem is .pdf format is not always rendered by folks' browsers, so I converted it to .jpg and attached it. Since I know the conversion makes for a little distortion I've uploaded your original PDF file to our server which can be downloaded through the link.

[w7afm]

Thank you Dave for fixing it for me, plus you got the picture to come out a whole lot better.

Bob

[w7afm]

If there is anyone that would like to add a dimmer control switch to the new LED Moonlighting System let me know and I could do another diagram for you also.

Bob