DIY Moonlights

[ChuKronos]

I got some 3 LED moonLights from Autolumination.com. (The same ones from the Group buy last year. You can still look at the thread in the group buy forum)

How do I wire them? Do I just cut and strip the wires from a 12v power supply then connect the two wires together(Bare wire from lights and bare wire from supply)? I tried doing this from a 4.7 v 500 mA power supply from a cd player and nothing happened. I assume it was because I don't have enough power going to the light. ANy help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
-Chuck

 

[ChuKronos]

I was a little scared of dealing with electricity, but I wanted to get these lights on my tank. So, I tried to follow a plan that Kieth laid out. But, for people like me, not to electrically savvy, I wasn't sure what to do. So, I finally decided to start cutting and see what would happen. I took these pictures of the process, so anybody else, like me, would know what to do if they want to put these lights on their tank. Below is what I did.

First, the parts list:
4 3 LED lights (2 blue-2 Red)

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The Power Source:

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Misc. Other Items:
Heat Shrink Tubing

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22 Guage Wire

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The switch:

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I also had some 3/4" PVC and some electical tape.

 

[ChuKronos]

Next, the cuts:

I cut the end of the power adapter off and seperated and stripped the wires.

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I tested to make sure which wire was the ground by twisting one red wire from an LED light to one of the split wires on the power adapter, and put the black wire from the light on the remaining wire from the power adapter. When I plugged in the power adapter, the light didn't come on. So, I switched them and plugged the adapter back in and the light came on. I then marked which wire was the ground wire on the power adapter.

 

[ChuKronos]

I then marked all the red wires from the lights. 1 dot=blue, 2-red. That way I could tell which ones were which when I was attaching the wires to the switch.

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Side note: this is how I mounted them in my canopy:
I drilled 2 holes to fit the heads of screws through

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Then 2 hole on each PVC pipe for each light - 1 red, 1 blue (In this pic, you only see 1 light hole in each pipe)

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I then threaded the wires from one of each color light through the pvc and drilled it into place in my canopy.

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[ChuKronos]

Now, back to the wiring!
I connected the 2 black(ground) wires from each set of lights.

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I then connected both of those (4 black wires in all) to a single 22 guage wire. I then used Heat-Shrink tubing to cover the bare wire.

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You have to use a lighter to make the tubing shrink and cover the bare wires.

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I then used Heat-Shrink Tubing, again, to cover the connection of the 22 guage wire (for all 4 gound wires to the lights) to the ground wire on the power adapter. In this pic you see the size difference of the Heat-Shrink tubing before and after using the lighter.

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I then proceeded to combine the red wires from the blue lights, to a 22 guage wire by following the same proceedure as above. NOTE: only pair the red wires from the blue lights together and likewise with the red wires from the red lights. That way you will be able to switch between the 2 colors of lights.

The wire from the power adapter that connects to the red wires(not the ground) was connected to the center post of the switch.

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I then connected the 22 guage wire extention of the blue lights to one post and the extention from the red lights to the opposite post.

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I tested it and they worked brilliantly!

For cleanliness and extra safety, I wrapped all the wires from the lights in electrical tape.

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[ChuKronos]

And now the result. In true retard form, I didn't take a pic of the red lights on, only the blue. You can't see it in these pics, but the greens really fluoresce! Even some reds come out. I am very happy with these lights. I will take more pics tomorrow and post them in the next day or so. I am going to have to find out how to get my camera to take crisp shots in the dark. All of them come out somewhat blurry. And they are brighter than the pics show.

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Here's a pic from a guy on RC using these same lights. It is a much better pic than I can get right now:

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Well, there you have it. I hope it was easy to understand. If not, let me know and I will help where I can.

-Chuck

 

[melev]

Very nice documentation. For future reference, if you want you can wrap all wiring with longer pieces of heat shrink tubing. That way if you have to access the wiring again in the future, it won't be all sticky from electrical tape.

How did you secure the switch, or is it just tied up somewhere handy?

To take LED moonlight pictures, you need to use a tripod and then set the camera to leave the lens open for a few seconds. That way there is enough time to let the light flow into the open aperature and capture the image. You'll have to play with that setting until you get it perfect.

 

[GraviT]

I had the same setup for a while (even the same model of transformer!) that lasted about 8 months then the LED fixtures stopped working one by one. Most of the people, however, who run these things do so for a long time without issues.

These days, I use a spiffy Jebo moonlight bar that I picked up from a LFS for $25. Here's one on eBay.

 

[ChuKronos]

@Marc wrote:

Right now I just have it tied up somewhere handy. I am going to place it in an electrical outlet box and create a light switch.

@Marc wrote:

I will try that tonight.

Hey! That's cheating isn't it? :lol:
-Chuck

 

[melev]

@ChuKronos wrote:

It is in this particular forum! :wink: