DIY LED Light Build in Shrimping Equipment Forum

0 Points

DIY LED Light Build

Angler	Comment
Brian	DIY LED Light Build		Lead	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:01 AM	Tags : shrimp, shrimping, ponce, volusia, oak hill, fishing, mosquito lagoon, capt lee noga, edgewater, titusville, brevard, shrimplight, led, greenie, oakhill, haulover, florida, shrimp light, lights, recreational shrimping, dipping shrimp, shrimp trap, cast net shrimp, frame net, box net, shrimplights, callops Hello all. I am new into shrimping but my other hobby is tinkering. This seems to go with Shrimping nicely. In this post, I will share with you my build of an LED light fashioned in the same style as the LED Greenie. NiteOwl has made a great light and I wanted to see if I could build one. Let me start by saying that I don't see how anyone could build it for what he charges unless you had a lot of the parts laying around. In addition, NiteOwl has already figured out the difficulties in constructing this design and will be hard pressed to get as nice a light the first time as just buying it from NiteOwl. So, unless you have a thick skull like me and money burning a hole in your pocket or you just want to do it yourself, go ahead and buy a finished product from NiteOwl. These are the basic parts I started with. 1ea 2.5" PVC White End Cap Sch40 (Florida Irrigation $3) 1ea 12" x 2.5" PVC Clear Pipe (Ryan Herco $90/10ft, $9 per ft) 2ea 2"to1.5" PVC Bushing (Ace Hardware $2ea) 1ea 2.5"to1"NPT PVC Bushing (Ryan Herco $3) 1ea 1"to 1/2" NPT PVC Bushing (Ryan Herco $1) 1ea 12"x1.5" PVC White Sch40 Pipe (Ace Hardware $1) 1ea 2.5" PVC Coupling (Florida Irrigation $3) 1ea Cable Grip with 1/2 NPT threaded end (Southern Electric $5) 40lf SJOW 2W 16/2 Bulk Cable (Ace Hardware $28) 1ea LED Green light strip 60 led's, middle brightness (Superbrightleds.com $32) Misc 3m 5200 3oz (West Marine $12) Pipe glue and cleaner (Ace Hardware $12) Heat Shrink (Ace Hardware $3) Total $195 (having to buy 10ft clear pipe and other bulk items) Potential Cost $90 (calculated per unit cost without having a bulk buy discount like NiteOwl) So you can see, this is not a cheap enterprise.....but oh was it fun. I will now continue with the build. Last Edited By: CaptLeeNoga 10/10/10 07:20 PM. Edited 1 time.
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Brian		#1	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:04 AM	Here I began to put the pcs together. First I glued on the end cap. Than I constructed my center light support. I did this by grinding down the angular corners on the outside of the bushings to make the outside round. The Ryan Herco clear pvc has a slight blue hue to it, but in my very unscientific testing I did not see much impact on the final brightness. If anything it spread the light out and made it less harsh....maybe a good thing. By doing this, the outside diameter of the 2"x1.5" bushing was just about a perfect fit for the inside of the 2.5" clear pvc pipe. I glued one on each end. Last Edited By: Brian 10/09/10 08:37 AM. Edited 2 times.
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Brian		#2	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:12 AM	Here are a couple of shots showing how the smaller pipe fits within the larger clear pipe. Showing an end view inside through the coupler.
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Brian		#3	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:17 AM	Here I add the LED strip light to the inner pipe. I put some tape to mark the visible area on the inner pipe. Here is a shot of the LED light strip. The LED light strip comes backed with a peel and stick backing. Here is a shot with the LED light strip installed and attached to a 12v source.
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Brian		#4	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:19 AM	Here I drilled a hole for the wire to pass through. Although I don't show it here, I did use 3M 5200 marine sealant through this penetration to seal it water tight. Here the inside 1.5" pipe is reinstalled in the clear pipe for a test fit. This next shot shows that I sealed the inner pipe to the outer pipe. Not shown here is the sealant on the other end. This creates a water tight chamber where the lights are in the event of a breech at the wire entry point at the cable grip. Last Edited By: Brian 10/09/10 08:22 AM. Edited 1 time.
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Brian		#5	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:26 AM	Here I assemble the end where the power cable will enter. A cable grip basically constricts around the cable and creates a water tight seal when the crown is screwed down....supposedly to 300ft. I sealed it with 5200 anyway. Both inside and out.
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Brian		#6	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:30 AM	Soldered the wires together and used heat shrink. This may seem out of order with a previous picture showing me sealing the interior pipe to the outer pipe. You would be right......mistakes happen the first go around. Than I glued the end to the main housing. All done!
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Brian		#7	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:32 AM	Here are a couple of action shots With the garage lights turned out.
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Brian		#8	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 13 10/09/10 08:35 AM	This build was a ton of fun for me. I will be building more and already see room for improvement in my building skills. My next one will use the higher power LED lights that I think NiteOwl uses based on the wattage, although I would love see how this one compares to the brighter LED's in actual use. We shall see. I hope you all enjoyed this and I welcome any comments or suggestions you might have that will help me improve. And again....thank you to NiteOwl for the original design and no I have no interest in selling these, that is NiteOwl's gig. See you on the water! Last Edited By: Brian 10/09/10 12:35 PM. Edited 1 time.
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
cdivrmike		#9	[url]	[-]
Sea Worthy Posts: 81 10/09/10 09:45 AM	Nice job!
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
shvrmetmbr		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 249 10/09/10 02:34 PM - 2 Limits 2011	Hey Brian this post is very detailed kudos to you! I just ordered some led lights that are in themselves waterproof but plan on building an enclosure for them as well, I got the idea after looking at a friends fish tank who had the leds submurged in his salt water tank (they come 12v but he converted them to run off the electricity in his house). I got 2 12" strips for $9.98 including s/h, so at least they didn't cost that much incase they don't work, lol...again nice post "Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it."-Bubba, Forest Gump
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
jtichinel1		#11	[url]	[-]
Greenhorn Posts: 7 11/07/11 01:44 PM	This project looks well put together. You will be glad to here I was chatting online with a LED specialist from http://www.superbrightleds.com and when I mentioned I was working on a submersible light he referred this page :) I have some follow up questions. It has been over a year since you made this light, how durable has it been, how has it compared to others, and has it proven as efficient as you had hoped? Would you do anything different if you did a second one? And do you by any chance have some pictures of it in the water? I get carried away with my projects and was thinking about doing exactly what you did here, but with a 196" LED strip and making the tube six feet long. It would be almost 2000 lumens, do you think this is overkill and perhaps less efficient? Or is more really better in this area? Would it be blindingly bright and to harsh, or just awesome? :) I could use the advice, thanx again for the great post! A+++
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
wishiniwasfishin		#12	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2258 11/07/11 05:55 PM - 3 Limits 2012 - 9 Limits 2011	Remember, pink and brown shrimp are NOT attracted to light. You want to dip in the darkest field that allows you to spot the shrimp. Make sure to come to the seminar this weekend, you will learn alot. Lee will teach about light fields, and how to use them to corral shrimp towards the "kill zone"
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
Wigeon.beirutveteranso...		#13	[url]	[-]
Greenhorn Posts: 1 01/21/12 02:50 PM	Nice detail
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote
rknorr	clear pvc	#14	[url]	[-]
Greenhorn Posts: 2 02/26/12 10:29 PM	you can buy 2.5 in clear pvc at Grainger.com 12.95 for 3ft or 18.95 for 6ft
Interact My Recent Posts	Reply Quote

blogspot hit counter

HTML Counter

Free Hit Counter