Cold Cathode Moon Light

[bow1]

Two 4" cathodes. Think slow shutter speed makes it look a little lighter than it realy is. Sorry about reflection of the door.

 

[Chris_R]

Whoa!

Excellent information, this site is paying off in just one short evening as I was almost going to splurge £20 - £30 on one of those lights with air pump things.
Just got the cold cathodes off ebay for a fiver and have an adjustable power adapter just sat here on the side.

 

[Kombat]

I added 4 blue LEDs as moon lights. It took me about 10 minutes with a soldering iron, lighter, speaker cable, heat shrink tubing and a sharp knife (I misplaced my wire cutters).

The heat shrink was glue lined, so made the finished item water proof.

The LEDs illuminate the bubbles from the air curtain at the back of the tank during the daytime.

I tried some 'ocean green' LEDs on the goldfish tank, but soon removed them

I had a bad experience with the cold cathodes. The inverters output a high voltage, when one cable was pulled out accidentally the pins arched and smoke bellowed out. I still use some cold cathodes, but I never leave them on if I'm going out.

that look really good.
and these inverters run a 630v so your warning is more than a little valid!

Voltage isn't the concern, it's amperage. Most stun guns output 20,000 volts, but only about 3 mA so there is almost always no real damage done. The question is how much current would be coming out of those inverters.

10 mA is enough to kill if it goes through the heart. GFI circuits are set to trip at 5 mA I believe, so a GFI can literally save a person's life. 100 mA is lethal. The walls of your heart flutter and you die. At 200 mA the current is so strong that the heart doesn't flutter, it just clamps up, giving you a better chance of survival.

 

[Ace Of Spades]

Bit of a ressurection, my Voltage adapter came today just waiting on the cold cathodes now, will update tmorrow


Finally came...

Got my cathodes from ebay and adapter from Maplin, took about 10minutes to figure out then I finally got what I had to do with lots of cracking and cutting ....

tools I used:
Garden Cutter
Plyers
Clamps
Scizzors
BRUTE STRENGTH

 

[Cantbesaved]

this may help some others with different hoods get an idea

 

[huckFIN]

What method did you use to fix/secure the tubes to the hood Cantbesaved?

 

[Nick16]

use some aryldite or silicone sealent. then put the hood back on and leave to dry. (while drying get some electrical tape to secure it so the neon doesnt come away from the glue) then when dry remove the tape. bingo.

 

[huckFIN]

I've

 

[dcarmor927]

so i got my CCFLs but i cant find an adapter for it...? can someone point me in the right direction...

 

[nitro7]

yep - it is bright - its bright with just one tube too

I'm going to insert grease proof paper into the plastic tubes round the neons to dim them a lot.

the only other thing you need to do it wire the 12v converter to the yellow and black wires... you might want to get a connector to put on the neon kit so you can plug the converter into it.

got mine set a 7and a half volts its just a nice dim light/try youp pc shop got mine for £4.99

 

[smithrc]

so i got my CCFLs but i cant find an adapter for it...? can someone point me in the right direction...

Something like this...
[URL="http/www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2552560"]http/www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2552560[/URL]

 

[smithrc]

yep - it is bright - its bright with just one tube too

I'm going to insert grease proof paper into the plastic tubes round the neons to dim them a lot.

the only other thing you need to do it wire the 12v converter to the yellow and black wires... you might want to get a connector to put on the neon kit so you can plug the converter into it.

got mine set a 7and a half volts its just a nice dim light/try youp pc shop got mine for £4.99

3 hours after the post you've quoted - we discussed changing the voltage

just dropped it to 6v and the light level is a lot better - i'll post a pic when my camera battery is charged.

 

[dcarmor927]

so i got my CCFLs but i cant find an adapter for it...? can someone point me in the right direction...

Something like this...
<a href="http/www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2552560" target="_blank">http/www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2552560</a>

This is a dead link...also how do you connect it?

sorry now it works...still tho where/how do i connect it?

 

[nitro7]

so i got my CCFLs but i cant find an adapter for it...? can someone point me in the right direction...

Something like this...
<a href="http/www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2552560" target="_blank">http/www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2552560</a>

This is a dead link...also how do you connect it?

sorry now it works...still tho where/how do i connect it?

this is how i did mine

 

[dcarmor927]

so i got my CCFLs but i cant find an adapter for it...? can someone point me in the right direction...

Something like this...
<a href="http/www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2552560" target="_blank">http/www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2552560</a>

This is a dead link...also how do you connect it?

sorry now it works...still tho where/how do i connect it?

this is how i did mine

Thanks! this actually did work after a few wiring difficulties. thanks again!