DIY Moonlights

[Harry Muscle]

Re: DIY Moonlights

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6826856#post6826856 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigJPDC
OK, today was DIY Moonlight day. I followed a basic design - 4 LED's in a piece of 36" 3/4" PVC, and they don't look that bright at all to me. I was hoping for some critique. I expected these things to really pop after seeing some pictures on eBay. This is the first time I've done anything like this.

LED's - Radio Shack Blue. 3.7volt, 20mA, 2600mcd, 468wave.
Resistors - Radio Shack. 1kohm, 1/4watt, 5% resistance
Power Supply - Radio Shack. 300mA 12v.

I wired the LED's each with their own resistor following some stuff on some websites - be nice.

Let me know how you've wired your own LED's and how I could have made these brighter - at least I found out the soldering skills I learned in 7th grade didn't disappear.

jp

Not exactly answering anything with this post, but actually asking a question ... what do you mean you put the LED's in a piece of 3 foot 3/4" PVC? Actually inside it? Was the PVC clear (if so that makes sense), or was it the normal whiteish stuff? I'm just a little confused and curious.

Thanks,
Harry

 

[BigJPDC]

Mr. Muscle -

Here is a pic of the channel I routed out of one side of the PVC, for reference. I installed the router bit backwards because I was cutting plastic (inside joke from another thread).

Just plain 'ol white PVC. Not noted in any of this was that I also did the trick where you scuff up a plastic gumball-machine toy case to act as a light diffuser because the LED's give off such a pinpoint light.

I just ordered 'NEW SUPER WIDE ANGLE ULTRA BRIGHT BLUE 10MM LEDS' that are supposed to have a near-180 degrees of light output, so I have high hopes for this project. I am going to wind up with almost every 1/4 watt resistor by the time I'm done too.

jp

 

[Fish'InMN]

Awesome trick with the PVC. I use a thin piece of wood, say .5"x.25"x48" and drill my holes in that for mounting. After you've wired it all up, slide it into a flourescent bulb cover, which is just a clear plastic tube, and seal up the ends. Since the wood is so skinny it will tend to bow in the middle, that can be prevented by using wood chunks glued to the board itself before you finish. I don't have any over open-top tanks, but I'm sure they're water proof if you seal the ends well.

I just finished one exactly like this, with an LED every 5" for a total of 8 LEDs. I usually sand the tips with 320 grit sandpaper, but I left them alone this time and you can definetly see the spots if you aim it at a wall. Unfortunately, no tanks for this to go over, so I'll be using it for some nice mood lighting.

Cheers,
Marty

 

[stugray]

BigJPDC -

"I installed the router bit backwards"

DONT do that it's very dangerous....... wink wink.

But if you run your router backwards it would cut MUCH more smoothly & slower.

Sorry, couldnt resist.

Stu

 

[BigJPDC]

LOL stugray!!

 

[BigJPDC]

OK, completed. Just think what this will look like if it's ever full of saltwater! Almost the whole basement is flooded in blue light.

The 10mm LED's are amazing. Using 68ohm resistors as diagrammed above to crank out about 80mA. I actually blew one of them by reading my own chart wrong and pushing 560mA through one LED. Wow was it bright at first. =)

jp

 

[Siapin]

Okay, I've been tagging along in this thread since the beginning, thinking that I would begin to understand what language you guys are talking.

Point is that I want moonlighting for my new 29g, and I love DIY. But I'm a spoof when it comes to electronics, resistors, ohms, volts, and all that stuff.

BigJPDC, that is very impressive. I'd love to have something similar. I'm actually kinda jealous, but I know that I can figure out how to do the same thing, but I need help.

WHERE DO I START?

 

[BigJPDC]

Siapin - simple, you start where I started:

http://jwshelton.home.mchsi.com/salt.html

I bought a soldering iron and started posting on RC the next weekend. Thanks to folks like Kgolem, and a little trial and error (alligator clips are a must!) it almost seems simple now. Feel free to post out here and you'll get your answers.

jp

 

[BigJPDC]

. . . and I see we listed our most important interests last in our sigs. I am pretty sure I got the bigger SeaSwirl because she walked by one time and saw what mine said.

jp

 

[Siapin]

And that's the same reason I got my new 29g. haha...women.

 

[Siapin]

JP and Others

Okay, I read that entire website. That guy has a cool setup. I have access to soldering iron and pretty much any tools I need to do this project.

Where do I go from here?

Do I buy some LED's and resistors at Radio Shack? What?

 

[BigJPDC]

Saipin - yes, pretty much. You'll need some 22 guage wire and a power supply as well. I started at Radio Shack but then quickly found out three things:

1. Radio Shack sucks.
2. Radio Shack LED's are low end and very expensive.
3. Radio Shack has a very small and poorly maintained supply of resistors. It is pure luck that my final design could be done, and only because the LED's I got were rated at a slightly different voltage than the webpage I ordered from..

All that being said, you can get everything you need to get your feet wet and learn while building something small immediately.

Here's what I would do, because it's what I wound up doing:

Figure out what you think you are going to mount your LED's in, and how many you want. Remember that each LED series will only have two or three LED's, so if you want 20 LED's your wiring might get busy.

Once you know your LED configuration, you need some LED's. I found out late that the ones I was buying had a viewing angle of 15-30 degrees, which meant they had the spotlight effect. By searching eBay I found some awesome 10mm super bright 180 degree LED's.

When you have your LED's picked out, you use their specs and the calculators listed in this and other threads to determine your resistor needs. Here's where the fun really starts because like I said, RS doesn't have every resistor. If you can't make theirs work for you, then you go back to the Internet and do some ordering.

Then you get into the build - use alligator clips to test before soldering. Post your bulb stats here and we can do ohm's law for you.

that's plenty to get going - keep us informed on your progress.

jp

 

[Siapin]

Wow, that's alot to think about.

1. I did a search of 5000mcd LEDS, like the ones that you posted early on in the thread. Then I did a search of 10mm LED blue super on ebay, and it came up with some that were more expensive, but, assumingly better, with 40,000mcd+. Are those the ones I should be looking to buy?

2. How many do I get? My tank is 29g, with top dimensions of 30" x 12". I have a 10" canopy that I can mount my LED's to.

3. I like your design of puting everything inside pvc pipe. I do irrigation, so I have plenty access to pipe and fittings, so that's not a problem for me, but rather a good idea that you have that I'm going to implement, which brings me to my 4th question...

4. I have access to hundreds of feet of scrap 14g copper wire. You said that I need 22g, but I do know a little about resistance that the bigger the wire the less resistance. So, can I further implement that into my project?

One last thing: if there are others that want to get in on this project, I can buy a grip of LED's, and mail them to you probably dirt cheap, and we can divide the cost of the LED's. Also, if you want extra, LMK, and I'll order a bag of 100, rather than a bag of 20.

Also, I'll keep away from RS; I know they suck.

Thanks for the help.

Here's a picture of my tank without the canopy.

 

[labragg1]

nice!!!

 

[kgolem]

One thing you guys should consider purchasing is a prototyping board. Sometimes called a breadboard. It allows you to build small circuits and power them for testing. Substituting components into the circuit to try different things is very easy with this.

a couple links...

http://www.surplussales.com/Equipment/TestEquip-12.html

http://www.iguanalabs.com/breadboard.htm

Siapin;

14 gauge wire is much too large for this type of project, that is what is used for wiring houses. You need much smaller gauge wire, 20 - 22 gauge which nice and small and flexible, and you can solder to the component leads nicely.

 

[kgolem]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6924319#post6924319 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigJPDC
OK, completed. Just think what this will look like if it's ever full of saltwater! Almost the whole basement is flooded in blue light.

The 10mm LED's are amazing. Using 68ohm resistors as diagrammed above to crank out about 80mA. I actually blew one of them by reading my own chart wrong and pushing 560mA through one LED. Wow was it bright at first. =)

jp

Thats some nice work, It will look great when the tank is running.

Pushing 500 + mA will let the smoke out of an LED for sure:rollface:

One thing to consider, you could put a small value potentiometer in series with the the current limiting resistor. Something about 500 ohms or less. Then you could adjust the brightness of the Moonlights for the desired effect.

 

[BigJPDC]

Could not have done it without you Kg.

whoa! potentiometer huh? The delay on my T5 retro may have come at an opportune time here . . .

jp

 

[Siapin]

1. JP do you recommend I do a search of 180 degree LED's (like you had described) on eBay, and buy some?

2. How many LED's should I incorporate with top dimensions of 30" x 12". I don't want to get too much, but I don't want to get too little light. And so I don't really know what I'm doing? 2? 5?10?

3. Wire - where do I get my 20-22 ga wire?

 

[kgolem]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6927695#post6927695 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigJPDC
Could not have done it without you Kg.

whoa! potentiometer huh? The delay on my T5 retro may have come at an opportune time here . . .

jp

Thanks for the kind words.

A potentiometer is a variable resistor, like a volume control on a radio. The trouble is, you might have a little trouble finding one that is the correct value, that is also a nice small size. Maybe something that you could look for whenever you are out looking for DIY parts. It could be added to the moonlights at any time.

 

[BigJPDC]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6926711#post6926711 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kgolem
Pushing 500 + mA will let the smoke out of an LED for sure:rollface:

You should have seen it.

I had my chart in front of me and used the 15ohm resistor on one LED for testing, when that was actually for the THREE LED series.

It looked like somebody shot a blue BFG2000 off in my kitchen. I thought I had hit the jackpot until I started smelling something funny about a minute later.