Trial and error - moonlights
- Thread starter OCELLARIS
- Start date
the white leds are more dominant in brightness compared to the blue, the 5mm
leds project the light at a 60 degree angle as above image demanstrates
I think 60 degree is too tight, normally 120 is suggested as good
Cool, thanks.
Yip, that's the nice thing about LED's, you can dim them
yes its nice that they support the dimmable feature, the use of a normal12v ac adapter is best as you can switch between the voltages and its safe as
the resistor cuts the 12v to your 3.6v of your led and the more you drop the power supply voltage the less the voltage across your resistors become and the dimmer the
led gets
true that warr but remember that a single led penerates the light at a 60 degree angle but with multiple leds being use and with the use of a reflector you and cover more than a 60 degree angle, its a matter of subjecting your leds to an angle
viper357
Admin
- Joined
- 4 May 2007
- Posts
- 30,383
- Reaction score
- 1,633
I have a cigarette lighter with a single blue LED in the bottom of it (don't laugh) and when I shine that at an angle across the surface of my 2m tank I get an awesome effect right throughout the tank, it quite comfortably reaches the other end of the tank and I get a really, really nice shimmer effect on the rocks.
hi viper
the cigarette lighter should have a 12volt rating but the led itself would have a resistor on it, is the led a 3mm or 5 mm size? those blue leds are quiet bright,
i payed R1.95 for a single blue led and R0.15 for the resistor, viper even if you have an ac adapter of a single voltage you can have a resistor to match the voltage drop
and use the led / leds
what i will have to do is fill my tank up and have the leds light up and check the water penertration,but i have tested the water peneration of about 20cm at a voltage drop to 1.5v and its bright and has penertrated to the bottom so with an increase up to 12v it would penertrate my tank depth. the only real conclusion can be made by practical testing
hi thalion, the led's would light up but not for long as the anode and cathode does tend to heat up and could fry within minutes, but remember without a resistor your leds can be subjected to burn out due to voltage spikes as leds have fixed voltage drops and this random spike can spell disaster, not only burn out but could cause a fire,would we want to take that chance. so why not be safe than sorry and put a resistor, its only R0.15 per a resistor, and resistors are made for this
precise use , not only to drop voltage but acts like a fuse and should there be a power surge that could cause your curciut to fry then its only your resistors that would and your leds are safe
precise use , not only to drop voltage but acts like a fuse and should there be a power surge that could cause your curciut to fry then its only your resistors that would and your leds are safe
thalion, buy yourself the 5mm white or blue led @30mA, connect them in series across a power supply constant to the accumalative voltage drop and see for yourself, ive fried couple leds already with the same setup due to voltage spikes so i had to get A1 to advise me on correct setup
are these leds the clear ones? 5mm 3.6v 30mA ?
Unfortunately red ones that we used to repair signs.
Too dangerous for the average person to play with. Can't remember off hand will have to open my switch box to see. I run then so I can see if any pumps are switch off.
by saying too dangerous for the average person do you mean attemps to diy
this could be dangerous...
if so then by all means im sticking to my 12v
but specs would be great, will await when you do open up the switch box