12g nano moon light seperation

[thedeanorama]

I know its been covered to a degree in the past but this was my approach which I think was different enough to be postable:


The I wanted to retain the lights that were in there, but power them with an old 12v laptop adapter I had kicking around that was retired due to a flaky end. I originally figured I would just get an adapter thats available on the net, but being in Canada and knowing shipping I thought it would be something I'd tackle myself rather than waiting (I'm an impatient person when it comes to things like this).

I picked up some high intensity 5mm blues and 360ohm resistors from my local electronics store as well as a couple of feet of lighter guage wire and a bit of heat shrink. Total price at this point was about $7.50.

My plan was to go with each light running in parallel (each light independently wired to the hot and ground). I decided to take this route as it`s simpler to add more lights later as desired without reworking the loading for the resistors. The setup by default is running the lights in a series (loop).

My 1st mistake:
I decided to use the wafers the lights were connected to, just desoldering the stock resistor and wires and LED, then inserting my own LED since I wasn`t 100% sure what the forward voltage was in the stock. After getting it all apart, I realized that the LED actually is sitting in a socket DOH!. Soldered the socket back in.

My 2nd mistake:
While testing to see if my resistor setup would work on the stock lights I let the magic smoke out of one by forgetting to include the resistor (thankfully I had back ups ... more on this later).

Since the adapter female end I chose snapped perfectly into place with the hole I drilled, I chose not to bother with the threaded casing and used heatshrink instead.
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I also added a little hot glue into the second hole to be sure things were fully secure and sealed:
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continued ....

[thedeanorama]

I spliced the incoming positive lead into the switch directly (I would normally save all the stock wiring but all my crimping supplies are with my motorcycle as its getting work done as well ... apparently I can't leave things well enough alone).

On the backside of the switch is where I ran a single hot out, then soldered the 2 parallel hots directly to it. The hot side is also where I chose to run the resistors (everything gets heat shrink after the soldering ... remember to slide the heatshrink on before you make your joins):
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The negatives are gathered together and soldered directly to the negative coming from adapter.

This is what the LED wafers look like after removing the old wiring and resistor then resoldering on your own wires. It's a bit messy (side effect of being to lazy to buy a new tip for your iron) but its functional. I also added a couple of drops of hotglue under the wires as I dont want things shifting around there and shorting out against the nut: [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

And finally the shot showing how it appears directly from the back of the hood: [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Beginning to end, it took me about 2hrs (this includes a lot of inefficient time of running up and down stairs for tools and parts since my workshop didn't allow enough clear space for me to work on the hood properly ... this is what kitchen tables were invented for).

My only issue with this whole project goes back to when I let the smoke out of the stock LED. Side by side, the high intensity replacement I used is way more directional. The stock may not be as bright straight on, but it sends out a wider angled beam covering more area. Alternately the after market, though more intense is also a narrower beam so I get a brighter but spot like effect out of the other side. I will now be hunting for a direct OEM replacement bulb sadly.

[thedeanorama]

A quick and dirty diagram of what I did. Just to mention again the reason I went parallel is its the easiest way to add as lights as you want later (you will probably never exceed your mah rating of your power supply with moon lights).

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[thedeanorama]

One last note (came to me in the car this morning). My positives and negative points on my diagram may not be in the same position as yours, its all in how I put the wafers back in orientation wise. To test which side is positive and negative, just touch them with a resistor loaded set of hot wires.
Since LEDs will not work if you have them reversed (does not harm them, they just don't light up) you will want to be sure which side is positive vs negative.

Before you trim the ends of the LED, the long arm is positive, but once you trim them its hard to tell them apart.

Alternately another visual cue would the flat spot on the base of the LED, you have to look carefully as its hard to miss. This is the negative side. One the upside, the way the receptacle is designed on the hood, once you have it determined its keyed to that flat spot so you can replace your bulbs and not worry about guessing which side is which

[thedeanorama]

After doing some electronics store hopping today gathering different 5mm LEDs to try in the tank I finally hit the jackpot.

Just about every blue LED I tried had the same effect as the 1st one I tried, very focused and coming off in the water like a spotlight.

There is one I found that was physically frosted a blue colour and this one was indiscernible from the stock when put side by side.

The one that I ended up choosing was something called a Jewel LED. Its still 5mm but doesn't have the keyed base at the bottom instead maintaining it's diameter through out. It stands a little taller but is moderatly faceted. This one made such a big difference for me on the one side that I decided to change both.

Because these are not keyed you can potentially put them in backwards, but never fear, this just means they wont power up, flip them around and all will be good (no damage done).

This is an upgrade that anyone using a 5mm LED moonlite setup can do since you wont have to play around with voltage, its a straight swap (either by plugging like mine, or soldering it in).

Note: I found these in a package of 5 for $3.50 - I have 3 left over for anyone that wants them (PM me and I'll send you 2 of the left overs - free of course as I don't have a need for the leftovers).

If you look close, internally there are two metal elements, the larger one goes to the keyed flatside, the only prep work you have to do is trim down the leads to size:
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It only stands a bit taller, but does not hinder anything going on with the fluorescents, its always tough to tell by these shots whats really going on, but the light is being thrown fairly evenly throughout and does a better job in overall coverage of the entire tank than the stock or the higher intensity focused versions:
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