I experimented with the car lights tonights.
I wasn't smart enough to run the wire thru the pot, so the bulb came
floating to the surface.
It's a nice effect having the light shine down from the top of the water.
The fish were swimming up tp it and around it.
"bk" wrote in message
...
I need some suggestions for underwater lights.
My pond is about 1200 gallons. About 14' curve, so I think I need at least
2
fixtures.
The water is almost 3' deep but the pond is only 27" wide.
I have power and a low voltage transformer nearby.
I want it to glow.

Any suggestions?

Putting the cord through the bottom of the pot is rather critical to be
successful in gettin those bulbs to stay under the water, those little
boogers are airtight and float like a lifejacket......Did the same thing the
first time, put in some rock then the bulb and surrounded it with more rock,
popped it in and woops up she came. Live and learn, sometimes experience is
the best teacher.....Lots a Luck....Claude

I've added photos of the pond lights I've made:

http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/morepond.html

These lights mount just under the waterline and
illuminate the entire contents of the pond.


On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 22:22:23 -0500, "Barry"
wrote:

I experimented with the car lights tonights.
I wasn't smart enough to run the wire thru the pot, so the bulb came
floating to the surface.
It's a nice effect having the light shine down from the top of the water.
The fish were swimming up tp it and around it.
"bk" wrote in message
...
I need some suggestions for underwater lights.
My pond is about 1200 gallons. About 14' curve, so I think I need at least
2
fixtures.
The water is almost 3' deep but the pond is only 27" wide.
I have power and a low voltage transformer nearby.
I want it to glow.

Any suggestions?

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California (zone 10)
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv

Xref: news7 rec.ponds:97785

On Thu, 23 Jan 2003, Claude wrote:

Yes, regular headlights, they have 3 contacts, the middle is normally ground
and the outside 2 are high and low beams. Basically just connect your wire
up to the transformer and hook the other end to the headlight, one wire to
the middle post and the other one to one of the outside posts, you will
quickly figure out which one is bright and which one is dim, use whichever
one you like best, but bright was a little too bright for my taste and I
didn't want to blind my fish.

Another thought, for those who haven't yet soldered up and tried them:
If you really do like a softer, warmer glow, try using the low and high
beams in series. Connect your transformer wires to the two OUTSIDE
terminals, and let the middle one stay open. This puts approximately 6
volts to each filament, and they will run much lower brightness, and much
more yellow color. Also, should last just short of forever! Again, when
you're happy with the look, silicone all three terminals to insulate from
the water, or they will corrode away long before the lamps give out...

Dave

|| ||
to transformer -----|| ||----- to transformer
|| ||

_____
----- no connection

this is awesome, steve! i am bowled over!
mad
--
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is
different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4

From: (Steve J. Noll)
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Newsgroups: rec.ponds
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 14:50:35 GMT
Subject: sugesstions for in water lights

I've added photos of the pond lights I've made:

http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/morepond.html

These lights mount just under the waterline and
illuminate the entire contents of the pond.


On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 22:22:23 -0500, "Barry"
wrote:

I experimented with the car lights tonights.
I wasn't smart enough to run the wire thru the pot, so the bulb came
floating to the surface.
It's a nice effect having the light shine down from the top of the water.
The fish were swimming up tp it and around it.
"bk" wrote in message
...
I need some suggestions for underwater lights.
My pond is about 1200 gallons. About 14' curve, so I think I need at least
2
fixtures.
The water is almost 3' deep but the pond is only 27" wide.
I have power and a low voltage transformer nearby.
I want it to glow.

Any suggestions?

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California (zone 10)
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv



-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----

Any idea what the amp draw is on them? It is important to know so you
don't overload and burn out the transformer.

"Claude" wrote in message ...
Yes, regular headlights, they have 3 contacts, the middle is normally ground
and the outside 2 are high and low beams. Basically just connect your wire
up to the transformer and hook the other end to the headlight, one wire to
the middle post and the other one to one of the outside posts, you will
quickly figure out which one is bright and which one is dim, use whichever
one you like best, but bright was a little too bright for my taste and I
didn't want to blind my fish. Once you got it the way you want it, solder
the wire to the headlamp and put a nice covering of silicone over the
connections, make sure no metal is exposed, don't want to shock the fishies,
let dry. They are airtight, thus they will float, so, I run the wire from
the headlamp thru a flower pot and then fill the pot up with rock, then
place it where you like.......Nothin to it really, my personal opinion is
the round headlights are easier to seat correctly in the rocks and aren't as
bright as the new rectangular style halogens, which was a concern for me and
my fish.... to be honest I don't think it would hurt a thing just felt
better about the softer light...up to you..Goodluck....Claude

What I found out the hard way, you'll need about 20 watts per headlamp
minimum or the transformer will overheat, couldn't find amp draw anywhere, I
know they are setup to handle up to 30 amps dc from a car battery, Just
played with it for about 2 weeks waiting for the stupid thing to overheat,
20 watts per bulb seems to work fine, that is with the round type lamp, the
halogens tend to pull a little more, played with them a little just didn't
like the brightness much. I am running 4 of them on an 80 watt supply for a
little over a year now, so far so good.

On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Claude wrote:

What I found out the hard way, you'll need about 20 watts per headlamp
minimum or the transformer will overheat, couldn't find amp draw anywhere, I
know they are setup to handle up to 30 amps dc from a car battery, Just
played with it for about 2 weeks waiting for the stupid thing to overheat,
20 watts per bulb seems to work fine, that is with the round type lamp, the
halogens tend to pull a little more, played with them a little just didn't
like the brightness much. I am running 4 of them on an 80 watt supply for a
little over a year now, so far so good.

I have to step in here, with a little electrical engineering...

First off, car headlights are rated in Watts, just like lamps in your
house. I believe most of the normal, lower output lamps run between 25 and
35 Watts. Some of the new, high-output, blue halogen lamps run 50 W or
more, but that's not what we want here.

Now, that Watt rating is at a specific Voltage. In the same way, your
ordinary 100 W lamps at home are rated for a nominal 120 Volts AC. Watts =
Volts times Amps, so a 100 W lamp draws a little under 1 Amp, at 120 V.
Similarly, your car headlight is rated for about 14 Volts DC (which is
what the car's electrical system runs at, with the engine running - not
the 12.6 V of a bare lead/acid battery.)

If you run a lamp at more or less than it's rated voltage, it will consume
more or less current, and more or less power (Watts), respectively.
Putting four lamps on an 80 W transformer will not necessarily have each
of them running 20 W. If the transformer's output is 12 Volts, a nominal
25 W headlight will run a little less than 25 W, possibly as low as 20 W,
but it's NOT because you put four of them on the 80 W tranformer. If that
were the case, putting a single lamp on the tranformer would force it to
draw 80 W, and it would die in a blaze of blue light, in a matter of
seconds!

You DO need to watch out for overloading the transformer, as Claude said.
You cannot put five or six 25 W lamps on an 80 W transformer, and expect
it to run for long.

Dave

Steve,
I'd like to make those underwater lights used at the perimeter of your pond.
Can you explain their construction?

That pond is certainly dramatic.
"Steve J. Noll" wrote in message
...
I've added photos of the pond lights I've made:

http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/morepond.html

These lights mount just under the waterline and
illuminate the entire contents of the pond.


On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 22:22:23 -0500, "Barry"
wrote:

I experimented with the car lights tonights.
I wasn't smart enough to run the wire thru the pot, so the bulb came
floating to the surface.
It's a nice effect having the light shine down from the top of the water.
The fish were swimming up tp it and around it.
"bk" wrote in message
...
I need some suggestions for underwater lights.
My pond is about 1200 gallons. About 14' curve, so I think I need at
least
2
fixtures.
The water is almost 3' deep but the pond is only 27" wide.
I have power and a low voltage transformer nearby.
I want it to glow.

Any suggestions?

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California (zone 10)
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv

I thought those were kinda cool too, instructions pleeeeaassseee

On Mon, 27 Jan 2003 21:25:07 -0500, "Claude" wrote:

I thought those were kinda cool too, instructions pleeeeaassseee

Okay, here goes...

First, I use a real transformer for power - not a switching power
supply. I _think_ that for 12V Malibu lights they are selling
switching power supplies as "transformers", but the former are less
reliable and don't provide the electrical isolation from the power
line that real copper & iron transformers do. Of couse, the
transformer is powered from a GFI outlet.. That out of the way...

I run my underwater lamps from half-wave rectified 12VAC.
That is, between the 12VAC transformer and the bulb I place a diode.
This cuts the power to the bulb in half. The result is that the bulbs
run much cooler and should last just short of forever. The downside
is that it might cause the tungsten to prematurely coat the inside of
the bulb resulting in the bulb lasting a lot shorter than forever.
Time will tell. I do think it important to underpower the bulb to
keep it cooler as the quartz bulbs used normally run very hot and in
air, but I'll be running them underwater - essentially an infinite
heatsink. I'm trying to reduce the temperature difference as much
as practical. I'm using a bridge rectifier for the diode, 35A 1KV.
Two legs of the bridge are used to balance the load between two
circuits of lamps. The bridge is bolted to a small heatsink. I can
explain this more clearly later if needed.

For cord I use type SOOW, which is supposed to be rated for
underwater, or at least really really wet use.

For bulbs I use quartz bulbs from Home Depot. I tested 10W, 20W, 35W
and 50W bulbs. In my pond 35W and 50W were too bright. 10W and 17.5W
(35W with diode) were too dim. 20W and 25W (50W with diode) were just
right. So, 50W quartz bulbs run at 25W (half-wave rectified 12V) were
used. By the way - these are the 7 lights used around the perimeter
of the pond. The light inside of the center fountain is built exactly
the same way but with a 100W bulb run at 50W.
See http://www.kissingfrogs.tv - download time is long as there are
lots of photos - sorry about that!

The lamp pins are soldered to the cord. Use solder with a good active
flux and a hot iron as the lamp pins weren't intended to be soldered,
but I had no problems. For my installation I made assemblies of lamps
with 3-foot cords. The cords drape over the liner and pass through a
groove in the bottom of the lightweight concrete 'bench-tops' that
circle the pond. (See web site.) The seven cords tap into a main
cord circling the pond.

The soldered pins and the short length of stripped cord are coated
with underwater sealant. This is built up in a few layers (it cures
slowly) before a 6-inch length of Teflon flooding heatshrink is placed
over the lamp and cord. This is shrunk with a very hot heat gun as
Teflon heatshrink takes quite a bit of heat to shrink. While
shrinking, crimp closed the half-inch of heatshrink that sticks out
past the bulb. This seals off that end of the assembly. By the way -
flooding heatshrink has an inner coating that liquifies when shrinking
to provide a watertight seal. I used p/n 7960K38 from McMaster-Carr.
It's expensive - $10 per 6-inch length, but does the job. (This ain't
no cheap hobby!) Yes - McMaster-Carr will sell to individuals. I got
the cord there too - p/n 7081K14 and the underwater sealant - p/n
7475A67.

For 'fixtures' I used 9-inch lengths of 1"x1" angle aluminum. I
cable-clamped the lamp assembly into the corner. These fixtures
fastened to thinner broad aluminum strips that were bent to hook over
the liner. The visible portions are painted black. Hardware is
stainless steel, including the cable clamps.

At night the lights look really really cool. They are fashioned and
positioned so that they don't shine in your eyes, but light up the
entire pond. Their beamwidth is 180-degrees. I think the pond looks
even better at night than it does during the day. All the fish are
clearly visible everywhere in the pond.

I'm sure I forgot something!


Steve J. Noll | Ventura California (zone 10)
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv