SeaSide Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 those LED is usaully run at 3.7V. when you put 5V, it will get hot and won't last. I guess they have register in car plug. Link to comment
Kingpin Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 Mine are all different brightness from the IN to the OUT. mine are running at 4.5v has this happened to any one else? Link to comment
tonym Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 What you guys need to do is leave the car adapter on. Just take the front off to exspose the two wires and hook your AC adapter to the wires. This way you utilize the resistor in the car adaptor. Link to comment
FISHHEAD Posted February 21, 2004 Author Share Posted February 21, 2004 Sorry to here about the bad news but look and read my post about the power rating on the (AC/DC UNIVERSAL POWER ADAPTER , DC CURRANT AT 1000 Ma (max) (SWITCHABLE PLUG) This plug has a RESISTOR built in it. Do not go over 4.5 volts or they will burn out !!!!! and the plug should say 1000Ma (no more higher or they will burn out !!!!) ......TONYM is right about the resistor in the plug but i have not hooked it up that way ??? it just might work but I'm not going to try., look my plug at my power rating has been working fine with no problems for about 2 months now they stay on for about 10 hours i have them on a standard timer also from target the lights go on at 7 pm and go off at 5 am the 50/50's go on at 7am ... sorry about the burn outs just put them back in the box and take them back you should get you money back????? make sure you place items back the same way you bought them and hide the wires you cut, target is really good in taking things back >>>>>>>> Link to comment
Phinhead54 Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 For $19.99 you can go to Best Buy and get an adaptor that you can plug the lighter plug directly into and not have to splice wires at all. It near the cell phones as it is for people who want to use their car cell phone adaptors at home. Link to comment
FISHHEAD Posted February 21, 2004 Author Share Posted February 21, 2004 just like phinhead54 said for those of you who dont like to cut and splice, or buY the right ac/dc power plug, just go buy the plug from best buys ???????? it will just be plug in play but it will bring your total cost to about $30 bucks $10 bucks for lights and $20 bucks for the plug converter total $30 and some change ????? or if you just buy the (RIGHT) ac/dc switchable plug like on my post you will not have a problem !!!! i have been using mine for about 2 months now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment
Gerard the fish Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 Or you can just buy the proper resistor and the thing will last forever... Link to comment
robram27 Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 All LED's must have a current choke on them, that is achived with a resistor usually around 470 Ohms, otherwise they overheat and the semiconductor junction in the LED breaks down and fuses together. As far as the pulsing light goes you want to make sure you have the polarity of the DC voltage hooked up correctly(eg. positive and negative), unfortunatly LED's only work one way, the opposite polarity of the voltage will cause them to fail quite rapidly. Link to comment
tonym Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 Phinhead has a good idea, but if have the soldering skills and the equipment you can save a whole lot-o-money by doing it the way I suggested. I went and bought one today at Target to show you how easy and clean it is. The cool thing is you can keep the on/off switch so it's just that much easier. 1 Link to comment
Phinhead54 Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 Originally posted by tonym Phinhead has a good idea, but if have the soldering skills and the equipment you can save a whole lot-o-money by doing it the way I suggested. I went and bought one today at Target to show you how easy and clean it is. The cool thing is you can keep the on/off switch so it's just that much easier. 1 They didn't have the 3 LED mood light at my Target, so I had to use a 2 LED fixture and I couldn't find any cheap adaptors there either (employees asked around too). When I went to Best Buy, the 120V to 12V adaptors were all $19.99 so it didn't make sense to buy one that needed splicing work . . . but that was just my situation. Link to comment
budahsacman Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 Hey guys after reading this thread and a few others I decided to try my hand at LED monlighting. I am currently waiting for some bulbs to come in for a ligthing upgrade and I needed to satisfiy my DIY itch. I went to Target and had no luck with LEDs they were out of this style. I then moved on to wal-mart and found some LEDs that are used for windsheild washer replacements. There are 2 sets of blue leds, each housed in a plastic chrome skull. 2 perpackage and they were on clearance for 4.99. I soldered one up to a nokia style charger and it seems to be working great. Im going to use just 1 skull for testing purposes until my other lighting upgrades come in. Below are some pics. Frontal Shot LED package Blurry Pic of LEDs LED mounted inside HOOD Link to comment
jtsam Posted March 1, 2004 Share Posted March 1, 2004 could it be getting the wrong voltage? Link to comment
dogfish Posted March 2, 2004 Share Posted March 2, 2004 that was the best idea i've heard yet. I can't wait to get it hooked up Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 2, 2004 Share Posted March 2, 2004 One thing you guys may want to try is mounting the LED's facing up towards the hood instead of down on the tank. This reflects the light all over the tank and prevents the spotlight effect. HTH. Link to comment
ifynanceu Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 check out ebay for some varad hyper led's. they are lower profile and have built in resistors...you can get them in a 4pk for $12 or so and they are the simplest lights out there...you can mount them with double sided sticky tape and run them off of an old cell phone charger or any 12v power supply...they only draw 30ma each..so not much juice required... Link to comment
TexFish Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 I went to Target and couldn't find the 3 LED fixture, only the 2 LED. However, I found some LEDs housed in acrylic tubes that come in 6" and 9" lengths with two to a set. They are in the auto section and are 12v just like the other LED items they have. The ends of the tubes come with mounting brackets (the blue caps) that can be easily taken off so you can rotate the stick to your liking. The resisters are on the sticks and not the plug if you wish to splice them to an adapter. Here are the picts for the 6" model. I'm taking them back for the 9" ones. 1 pair 6" (8 LEDs per tube) reg $19.99 on sale for $9.98 I'm not sure about the number of LEDs in the 9" sticks but the sale price was around $12. I will know for sure in the morning. Link to comment
TexFish Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 Lights on, sorry for the horrible photos. Link to comment
TexFish Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 I tested them on the tank. As always it looks much better in person but what the hell, take a look. Link to comment
TexFish Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 One more just for good measure. THANKS for keying me in on looking at Target. I would have never of thought of it. No wiring, easy mounting and not to much $$$ what else can lazy DIY folks like myself ask for? P.S. Does anyone think moonlights might be bad for the tank? If so please explain. Link to comment
NewbieReefer Posted March 11, 2004 Share Posted March 11, 2004 Here is my DIY Moonlights. They are 5mm 470nm Blue LED's wired to 1/4 150 ohm resistors then to a 6v magnavox power supply that I had lying around then wiring to a blue backlit switch. I'm pleased with my work, looks awesome in the dark. Link to comment
RandomLetters Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Originally posted by tonym Phinhead has a good idea, but if have the soldering skills and the equipment you can save a whole lot-o-money by doing it the way I suggested. I went and bought one today at Target to show you how easy and clean it is. The cool thing is you can keep the on/off switch so it's just that much easier. 1 Hey I bought the LED fixture and took apart the switch now i see 1 wire thats attached to the spring but where is the other one? Link to comment
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