Seen These???

[Sobedrummer007]

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12761&Bc=1&N=2006+2035

[ericdrob67]

or if you have some basic electrical knowledge you could go to radio shack and make your own....

LED lights
switch
DC power adapter
wire

one thing to remember with LED.... they will not work if hooked up reverse polarity. for the power adapter simply figure out how many LED you will be using and what voltage they operate and figure out parallel/series wiring.

Parallel = same voltage to each LED
Series = voltage divided by number of LED in the "chain"

If your like me you have that old DC power adapter from an old cordless phone, answering machine, other household item... just look at the back to see what voltage it is... say you find a 9 vold adapter, you could then use 3 LED that opperate on 3volts wired in series(9volts divided by 3LED =3volts/LED), then simply put a switch inline on the Positive or Negative. doesnt need to be anything fancy.... hell even a standard house light switch will work(although kinda bulky and ugly, i would use a micro switch)

Some LED run very cool, and some run pretty warm.... best to test them before mounting somewhere your gecko might come in contact with.

LED are very cheap, wire is cheap, switch might cost $3-4, DC adapter would be most expensive item, but if your like me you prolly have one laying around you can use.

I would imagine you could put the above style LED setup together your self for less than half the cost listed... and it would be your own creation :)

[(v)@tt]

lol well eric my only comment to you is congradulations, its great that you know so much about electronics and stuff, but i dunno how many people would take all that effort to build their own led light thing as opposed to just buying one for 16 bucks lol but its great that your so electronically inclined.

[ericdrob67]

It really is much easier than you think... and if you have an adapter already im guessing a cost of under $5 for a 4-6 LED set up, compared to $16 for 2 LED setup + $11 for each additional 2 LED's.

I could go buy the LED's, switch and wire and post a how-to a walk through if anyone is interested in it. Or walk you through if youd like to try it your self.

[gcxbrian]

wait.. LED lights are same as moonglo or nightglo lightbulbs?

[Matthew Parks]

no i think they produce alot of light and very little heat but correct me if I'm wrong!

[gcxbrian]

well LED lights have different intesntiies.. or mabe not but i have some LEDS in my comp fans. which are coolmaster 80mm for any of you computer geeks out there who knwo swha tim talkign about. LED fans aren't ALL bad.. some r very nci with good cfm and low dba. but anyway.. so these LED lights are for viewing? i think id kinda need a heatsource of some kidn during the winter though.. possibly not but probalby would on rare occasions

[ericdrob67]

LED = Light Emitting Diode

Essentially the same as a normal house lightbulb, just different materials.

LED are akin to Florescent lights, in that "generally" they emit high abount of light for the amount of energy used, and "generally" they very efficent(High light output, low heat output)


Ive decided to build a "night time" viewing LED setup and post the walk through for those that might want to give this a try.

I searched my basement, boy was i surprised at all the junk, err i mean usefull items i have down there. I found 6 different DC power adapters laying around. The DC power adapter would make up the bulk of the expense for this project, but i will still check prices for a new one.

[ericdrob67]

ok, please remember this is how i did things... that doesnt mean it meets any electrical codes, is safe, is unsafe, will upset your wife, will cause you to burn your house down, or cause any other positive/negative consequences.


here are some of the things youll need
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/Vasner/P8140001.jpg

For my version of the "night time viewing LED" set up i used my existing Florescent light.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/Vasner/P8140003.jpg

probally the most dificult part of this project will be matching up number/size of LED to proper voltage DC powersuply.

In my case, LED options/availbility proved to be my biggest determining factor. The store i went to, did not have a very good selection of LED's.

Among the pile of adapters i had scrounged up in my basement, i found 1.5, 4.8 ,5.8, 9.6, 11, 11.6 , and 12 volt adapters. So i decided to use this LED. this LED operates at +/- 1.7 volts, uses 20 miliamps of power, and 3000 mcd is how much light it produces.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/Vasner/led.jpg

I chose to run 3 of these in parallel off the 1.5 volt adapter.
There are a ton of combination you could choose from depending on what LED you find and what adapter(s) you have available.
Pretty simple... look at the back of LED package to see what the min/max operating voltage is and then for series you devide the voltage by number of LED... for parallel is the same voltage for each LED. If you are not familiar with series or parallel wiring, ask a friend or do some searching on google before you go any further.

next i took my florescent light apart(4 phillip head screws), drilled a hole for my switch, ran the wires from the adapter in the same hole that AC wires were ran through.

I got abit ahead of myself and forgot to take pictures before i buttoned things back up. but heres the end result.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/Vasner/P81400013.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/Vasner/P8140008.jpg

heres a pic with normal lights still on
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/Vasner/P8140006.jpg

heres a pic with only the "night time viewing" turned on
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/Vasner/P8140010.jpg


Picture doesnt seem to look all that good, but the light given off by the 3 LED is more than sufficent for night time viewing.

AGAIN this is how I did my project, you can be as elaborate or as simple as you want. I decided to "hide" all my wiring and recess the LED inside the florescent light. You could just as easily use electrical/duct tape to put LED in the corners of the "hood". you could even eliminate the switch if you needed.

Price breakdown for the parts i used.
LED 1.99 x3
switch 2.99
power adapter already had (prices in store were $10-20)
wire already had(prices in store were $3-5)


Final conclusions of "project" versus store bought....

If you have the adapter and have a little know how... then project is the way to go.

If you dont have an adapter or arent comfortable taking stuff apart, soldering, etc.... then Store bought is the way to go.

[gcxbrian]

do the LED lightings effect the geckos at all during night time? those are pretty cool but i want to find this out before i go ahead and do it mys elf

[ericdrob67]

as far as what spectrum of light Crested's can see... I dont know

"red" and "black" lights have always been sold as "night" lights at every pet store ive ever been in....

[ericdrob67]

ohh... yes the plant is nearly dead...this was an unused enclosure, i sorta forgot to water it :(

[gcxbrian]

ohh... yes the plant is nearly dead...this was an unused enclosure, i sorta forgot to water it :(


LOL

[Hurley]

Fantastic thread!

I was going to have to experiment with some LED's (I saw those same exact ones at Radio Shack during an LED scouting expedition) to see if they would light up enough...looks great!

Thank you for the info. I am definitely going to have to work on this project.

[geckoguyatl]

AWESOME! Is there a way to maintain the fluoresent (sp?) bulb since the LEDs have a separate switch? It would be great to use the floursent bulb during the day, and LEDs at night.

You did not use the "blue"/"black" lights? Do black lights highlight flames, etc. on cresteds?

What size tank to you have? Is that expanding foam on the back or cork bark? Do you house adults in your tank? If so, how many?

AWESOME! I dug out my 20 long fluoresent (sp?) hood light Friday night and it still works! You have truly inspired me to modify my hood.

[ericdrob67]

The set up i made is independent from the flo bulb. I have the flo on a timer and then turn on the LED when ever i want to view at night.

"red" and "black" lights do not disturb the geckos habits/activities. Im not sure about the "blue" lights. If your making your own LED set up you can use what ever color lights you want, but red LED are the least expensive.

The tank in these pictures is a 15H, it has cork bark on the back. The 15H is an extra enclosure at the moment. I house 3 adults in my 40H right now. The 15H is going to be for the two babies i have, when the get a little bigger.

[geckoguyatl]

Would you mind posting pictures of how you connected our LEDs? I noticed you used heat-shrink wire. Can I use the cone shaped wire connectors taht twist? I plan to convert my 20 long light using 4 bulbs.

[Way2Crafty2]

Very nice thread thanks for the ideas.

[midgetwaiter]

I can think of a couple of things that would improve this.

First, an LED that runs hot is an LED that is getting too much current, the 20ma on the package indicates how many amps your circut should be running. You should hook up whatever power supply you have to a resistor and then to the LED. The value of the resistor you should use is determined by the current and voltage provided by the power supply. You can use whatever DC pwer supply you have, just get the right resistor(s).

This page describes it well:
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/led.htm

The second thing is something that I have been thinking about building for my coral tank. I was going to use blue LEDs to provide moonlight at night but I also wanted to be able to adjust the intensity to simulate lunar cycles. I decided that building an electronic controller would be too much hassle and was just going to put a potentiometer (variable resistor, like a volume control knob on a stereo) in the circut. I don't know if lunar cycles have anything to do with crestie behavior but it would be interesting to mess with.

[geckoguyatl]

Thanks for the info! I went to "led.linear1.org/led.wiz" and they also suggested using a resistor. I guess resistors serve as fuses in they regulate the "juice" an item receives.

Can resistors be connected using the twisty cone-shaped wire connectors?

The site you shared helps.

[geckoguyatl]

Almost there...

When calculating the LED resistor value, should the LED current (I) be based on the total current for each light, or for one light (if one light has a 20mA will I need to plug in 80mA for four LEDs, or use 4 in the numerator and 0.020 in the denominator [4/0.020]? I want to use 4 red LEDs. I have 7V, 9V, and 12V DC adaptors.

[midgetwaiter]

I'm not sure which connector you are talking about but it's probably fine, this is not a very touchy setup.

As for your other question, it depends how you wire them. If they are in series then yes, you need to push 80ma. If they are wired in parallel you only need 20ma but you want to make sure that you use a resistor for every led so that just one doesn't get all the current.

I found another site right now that has some cool stuff:

http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/TechBase/litlpo_PoweringLEDs.html

Especially cool is the led/resistor calculator!!!
http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/TechBase/litlec_LEDCalc.html

Good luck.

[ericdrob67]

Almost there...

When calculating the LED resistor value, should the LED current (I) be based on the total current for each light, or for one light (if one light has a 20mA will I need to plug in 80mA for four LEDs, or use 4 in the numerator and 0.020 in the denominator [4/0.020]? I want to use 4 red LEDs. I have 7V, 9V, and 12V DC adaptors.

your confusing voltage with current draw..... every LED you add to the chain(reguardless of wiring setup(series or parrallel)) will draw that much more current. if you have 4 LED that are 20ma each, you have a total current draw of 80ma.....

Resistors can be used lower voltage(and they also consume some current as well)

The 7 volt DC adapter sounds like your best option...... 7 volt divided by 4 LED(wired in series) = 1.75 volts each, which falls into the typical operating voltage range of many LED's. Here is the LED i used in my project, which would also work perfectly for you, if you plan on using 4 of them running off the 7 volt adapter.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/Vasner/led.jpg

The best thing to do is go to your local store that sells LED, and see what they have available.... take a calculator with you to make things easy.

For Series wiring just devide the Voltage by number of LED's. Its Very unlikely you will need to worry about the current draw(unless you plan on hooking up engough LED's to light your house :P )

[ericdrob67]

oh... and for LED that run hot... it is most often due to overvoltage.