Looking for a LED DIY ?

Not sure what you mean by "LED system that use the household power supply".

Am I assuming correct that this is for a moonlight?

I got mine at my local advanced auto parts. I bought a 12 inch blue LED strip. It's for a ciggarette lighter, but I actualy cut the wires, and hooked it up to a 12 volt plug. Wired it up, and it works great.

i am not so familiar with the LED itself. I want to set up a light that is use only at night to not disturb the fish. It has many color light red, blue .. I hope you can understand what system i am talking about.

nickboudin said:

I got mine at my local advanced auto parts. I bought a 12 inch blue LED strip. It's for a ciggarette lighter, but I actualy cut the wires, and hooked it up to a 12 volt plug. Wired it up, and it works great.

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Your house runs on 12V? You must have some very dim lighting.

I'm sure they mean a 12v to 120v transformer . Actually, low voltage lighting isn't that uncommon. It's not that it's dim, it just uses more amperage

Stagius: How DIY savvy are you? Could you buy all of the individual parts and solder, wire, and install them yourself. Or are you wanting a pre-made system on the cheap?

I know not that much about LED but still set up a moonlight system for my tank. Got all the parts and assembled them.

See my signature for DIY Moonlighting.

For led, since they run on very low voltage, you can't just plug directly to household sockets, which run on about 120v. You need a transformer/adapter/resistor in between.

Edit: It costs about $10, excluding soldering gun.

@AndrewH: I am not expert DIYer by any means. I prefer to have a simple kit, with all the part so that i can integrate into the hood by myself. However, if you can provide me a full list of part, I think i can get something to work

@dekstr: Great article ! I will definitely give it a try

AndrewH said:

I'm sure they mean a 12v to 120v transformer . Actually, low voltage lighting isn't that uncommon. It's not that it's dim, it just uses more amperage

Stagius: How DIY savvy are you? Could you buy all of the individual parts and solder, wire, and install them yourself. Or are you wanting a pre-made system on the cheap?

Click to expand...

I think you mean 120 volts to 12 volts...
Starting with 12 volts from the mains is a bit... low.

Dear LED expert! is there any kind of LED that are able to be submerge. I would prefer to have them underwater.
Alternatively, I was just thinking about putting a range of LED into a clear tube that completely seal at both end. THe idea come from this link, http://cgi.ebay.com/Wide-15-blue-LE...ryZ46314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem.

I want to make something similar to this, but much cheaper. Is it possible ? Still have no idea how to water-proof sealing though.

http://www.besthongkong.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_71&products_id=178

Just got this link. If i get this right, this product can submerge in water. They don't need a resistance, do they ?

The price is pretty reasonable though. In case I can't do a DIY LED, i gonna buy from this site.

stagius said:

http://www.besthongkong.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_71&products_id=178

Just got this link. If i get this right, this product can submerge in water. They don't need a resistance, do they ?

The price is pretty reasonable though. In case I can't do a DIY LED, i gonna buy from this site.

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hey stagius that's a pretty good idea from the site, waterproof led strip light. It might be a little too powerful for night-time though.

Who's the DIY LED expert?

Yes 120 volts to 12. It's a tansformer plug, I belive. From a charger of some sort.

make sure it has a built in rectifier, otherwise you could blow an led, considering that most cant take 15 volts and a 10:1 xfmr has a 16.9 volt peak on the secondary. Most purchased units will have this, but with diy, often times things like this could be overlooked

rectifier is simply a diode, right ? if so, a resistor would be the same. wouldnt it ?

A resistor will allow current to flow both ways, but a diode limits is one way. so they are not the same. pretty much if you use an already made plug in adapter and it has an output listed on it in DC, it will be pre-rectified. Then you do not need to worry, but if you are like me and have a bin full of old xfmr's outside of packaging and not plug in, then its another matter

dont want to get more complicated. But it is true that DC only allow one flow of electricity current ? AC allows both way ?

stagius said:

rectifier is simply a diode, right ? if so, a resistor would be the same. wouldnt it ?

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Think of electricity as a fluid. A resistor is a restriction in flow. It reduces flow (current), but as it slows the flow down, the pressure drops (voltage).
A resistor can flow in both directions. A diode is like a check valve. It only allows flow in one direction but does not neccessarily pose a restriction. A rectifier is a cirucuit that uses diodes to convert from AC to DC, but a diode by itself is not a rectifier. To use 12 VDC LEDs on a household 120 VAC circuit, you would need a rectifying step-down transformer (AKA power supply) to both reduce the voltage and convert it to DC.

Tommy

stagius said:

dont want to get more complicated. But it is true that DC only allow one flow of electricity current ? AC allows both way ?

Click to expand...

AC stands for alternating current. Basically it measn that the flow of electrons in AC circuits is alternates between the + & - poles of the source. Dc stands for direct current. In DC circuits, the flow of electrons is from the -to the + pole of the source. I could get more in depth, but I think that says enough.

Tommy

Are you talking about moonlight or just regular aquarium lighting? If it's moonlight then there is a thread that shows you how to do it or I can show you how I made whole set