DIY Moonlight

Before I start, I need to mention that this idea is not mine, but I have used the idea from AidenEeel, and have just utilized the idea to make a DIY LED globe moonlight globe!

Moonlight globes can cost anything from R300 up to thousands. You can get such fancy ones that they actually simulate the phases of the moon in a 28 day cycle. I decided that a simple, inexpensive DIY was required, as all I wanted was the "effect" of moonlight in the tank after lights out.

Here is the pic and list of what is needed:




1) a few meters of rip cord
2) a 240v downlight lamp holder
3) a 50mm pipe 1/8th bend
4) a 50mm to 40mm reducer
5) a 50mm stop end
6) a LED down light globe. (240v, 1.5w)
7) Crimping ferrules
8) Heat shrink
9) a plug top
10) Marine silicon
11) Terry clip (40mm to fit the pipe)

From the list above you can assume pretty much 90% of the work. Connect the lamp holder to the rip cord using the crimping ferrules, slip the heat chrink over the ferrules, and using a lighter, heat the heat shrink. This will shrink and insulate your join rather nicely.



I used the crimping ferrules rather than the chocolate block conenctors because I personally find this way of joining cables to be more effective, and secondly, the casing I made does not really allow space for the block connectors. If done correctly it also makes a waterproof connection, but this should not be relied upon. For a proper waterproof connection, use the proper splicing kits.

Before connecting the other end to the plug, drill a hole in the middle of the 50mm stop end, feed the wire through the plumbing fittings as shown below, and test your connections.



You will find that the LED down light globe fits in rather snugly into the fitting, and by using a little bit of glue (I used a product called Q-bond) you can glue the globe into the fitting. If you have a short piece of 50mm pipe, you can join the bend and the stop end using this, but because I bought my material from Builder's, the shortest length of pipe I could buy was 2m. As you can see in the next picture... that would be a waste. Basically glue the 3 fittings together, and seal the joint with silicon.



I then siliconed the globe. (Due to the bend, you will find that the globe sits at a funny angle. So I basically siliconed the entire unit together so that the unit is THEORETICALLY waterproof. (Although I am not meaning to make it as such.) The only down side to this is you cannot just cimply change a globe, you would need to completely strip the unit down to change the globe. Altho the LED globe should give me years of use.

I then simply pop-riveted the terry clip to the hood, attached the unit to this clip and voila...





The globe is only 1.5w... so minimal on the electrical bill. You can fiddle around with other types of fittings to get the angle of light you want, but the idea is there.

This entire unit cost me R 245.00 to make, and about an hour to assemble. I'd like to put a dimmer onto it, but without knowing if these globes are dimmable or not, I don't really want to go through th expense of buying a dimmer module, only to find it doesn't work.

Needless to day, this is the effect I have...

 

Absolutely fantastic! This is exactly what I've been looking for Wonder if its to bright for night time... Love the spotlight effect

Bit pricey tho Looking for a cheaper way to connect LED lighting to mains...

 

Thanks for the reference, much appreciated. I like the improvements that you've made. It looks really good, I love that I can see & enjoy my fish after hours, the folks with eels and other nocturnals will also enjoy it.

 

Dane, the light isn't really as bright as the pic shows. The camera obviously compensates and the shutter stays on longer to give you a better picture. I'm not a photo wizard, and the "normal-mik-'n-drik" function gave me pretty much pitch blackness as the photo.

Pleasure Aidan. Wasn't going to take glory for your work! Was purely showing my interpretation of your work, and my results. Works pretty well. Do you leave your's on all night?

 

I do actually leave them on 24/7, as its only part of the tank that is affected by the moonlight. I might at a later stage decide to start switching the LED's off during the night if i see the fish aren't happy, but they use so little power i reckon they may as well stay on with the normal lights and "help out" during the day.

 

Looks good Zoom.
Thanks for sharing.

 

Looks awesome

 

Zoom I love the way how you present your post...really makes it easy to understand and see how everything fits together. Thanx and it looks awesome by the way.

 

+1 awesome stuff

 

well done guys
from concept to creation
builders will be seeing a lot of tasa guys this week me thinks

 

Thanks dudes.

I'm in the process of testing to see if I leave it on all night if it in fact doesn't melt the casing. I believe the LED's don't get hot at all. But the last thing I need is for it to overheat, melt the casing, and fall into the tank... i.e shocked fish. Heehee.

But all seems good. I have also turned the light up a little so that it isn't shining directly into the water... so I don't get that spot light effect, but more of a haze effect. Looks good!

 

The LED's shouldn't heat up, part of their energy saving design more energy is converted to light than heat, meaning more light for you buck. but i've learned when dealing with physics things don't always do what the say on the box... so rather safe than sorry, lol

 

nice design! dont think you have to worry about 1.5w led from overheating. I like that its nice and neat!!! R245 is steep but i reckon worth it! Can prob buy and led light that clips onto tank for similar price but wouldnt look nearly as neat as yours does under the hood!

A cheap way for Dane, would be to get an cpu power supply, R50 second hand, and components R8 and then a few R5, good quality leds...

Think the component part is daunting for guys/girls who havent played around too much....hmmm maybe i should put together a how-to with exact details, or package as a kit and post...

 

I know that has been spoken about here on TASA... but there hasn't been much step-by-step how to in that department. I wanted to try make something simple, easy, and that can be bade by anyone. I'm no electrical engineer, so I'm not going to start fiddling under the hood of a PC power supply to try get parts. I did that one, and a capacator taught me a lesson.

I agree that R245 sound a bit excessive... but you need to bear in mind that the globe was R129.00 of the expense! If you shop around you more than likely will get it cheaper... and I bought 5m of cable instead of the required 2m. I probably could have bought everything cheaper had I gone to (1) a plumbing shop and (2) electrical wholesaler. But Builder's riphouse was the closest and most conventience.

 

I agree, the globe is the bulk of the cost, there are LED globes available for R100 which does cut the price down a bit, and the other parts can be sources a lot cheaper than at builders.

The problem with the PSU from a PC is that you have another box sitting next your tank, its more fans with more noise, and it will use a lot more power unnecessarily than the 1.5W globes. Although the DIY of fiddling with the 4.5mm LED's and getting your hands dirty with a soldering iron is kinda fun, but in this case pointless.

For the effort that you are saving in terms of DIY R245 isn't too bad, and shopping around will bring that down quite a bit. Also remember that the globe is meant to last you quite a few years, so it might seem pricey now, but taking into account how long it "should" R245 is a bargain.

 

I should take pic of my tanks with the cpu power, looks like a bomb went off in a pile of wires..can be hidden....but more effort. The best moonlight I made was from a cell phone charger, really easy to make, im pretty sure everyone has a cell phone charger or any DC charger for that matter. I think those globes price at R100 and above is justified because they have a built in transformer....

 

this is a awesome design and the price is really not that bad considering how long it would last and how much power you can save. I think I am going to try this out soon

 

I can't see the pics.... anybody saved them perhaps please....