cheap LED lamp into aquarium hood lighting hack

Hi.

Here we are going to turn 3 cheap ($4 each at fry's marketplace) LED screw-in lights into a fishtank light/hood combo.

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Step 1: Break lamps

Break lamps carefully. Wrap lamp in towel, make note where glass is (don't hurt the leds when breaking) break using pliers, not a hammer. You don't want to damage leds.

ironsmiter says: Sep 7, 2011. 4:59 AM

Ahh, the nostalgia.

Those were my very first foray into led light bulbs.

Stupid, mismatched led batches, with no surge protection in the circuit.

If you are VERY careful, it's just a bit of caulking, holding the glass overbulb in place. Wearing heavy gloves, and eye protection, give the glass a gently twisty motion, while rocking back and forth. I only broke 1 out of 4 that i tried this with, but when they break they REALLY break. little shards flying everywhere.
Now, the two piece plastic base can EASILY be pried apart with a flat blade screwdriver. So easily, in fact, that the base pops back together, if/when you finish replacing the single burned out led.

On the other hand, BEAUTIFUL re-use of the product.
The extra space, and the metal mounting should help with heat.
Just make sure to keep a spare set of leds around for when one or two burn out.
One bad led will kill the entire circuit till it is replaced.
(remember when Christmas lights were like that? on bad bulb would kill the string, till it was found and replaced?)

Question.
"THESE LEDS ARE WAY TOO DIM, BUT PROJECT IS A SUCCESS NEVERTHELESS. "
Does that mean they are dimmer than in the original bulb configuration?
Just wondering if the current led batches are bright enough to do the job of ACTUALLY lighting stuff. Like , say, replacing a 4 foot T8 florescent fixture with two of your 3-bulb light hacks?
I know a single bulb was enough for lighting a small stairway at night, and 4 were enough to light up our small bathroom when used in the over-the-sink-tracklighting.

ratcrib (author) in reply to ironsmiterSep 7, 2011. 6:31 AM

Thanks for the info. I plan to re-do this project using regular white leds connected in parallel. Can you help?

ironsmiter in reply to ratcribSep 7, 2011. 9:04 AM

I can try.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me(to minimize the clogging of your comments section). Or you can start a thread in the forums. Either way, the community is here to help :-)

Using virgin led's, the only thing i can think of that would really be different is... you probably want a new driver circuit.
One tuned to meet the needs of the led's you use.

Ranie-K says: Sep 6, 2011. 9:09 AM

I though I'd do the same for video light, but ended up ordering ten of these G4 LED SMD "bulbs" instead. I guess if you connected them to a rectifier, you could connect 8 or 9 (110VAC) of them in a series.

Ranie-K in reply to Ranie-KSep 6, 2009. 8:41 PM

Ebay item no 260820289798

ratcrib (author) in reply to Ranie-KSep 7, 2011. 7:40 AM

Interesting...ly-similar?