# DIY Moonlighting



## Ghazanfar Ghori (Jan 27, 2004)

Ok, this one is an easy DIY that I just did on a couple of my tanks.

Moonlights! 

Skills needed: 
Common sense
Basic electrical skills

Difficulty: 
My 2 yr old son could do this.

Cost:
Cheap!

I was at a local computer store buying cooling fans, when something
caught my eye. A twin pack of blue cold-cathode tubelights. 
Normally these are used to light up the insides of PCs to make them 
look cool. First thought to run across my mind - MOONLIGHTS! 
These ones in particular were manufactuered by Memorex, 
blue in color, and use 12V to power them up. They were on sale 
for $7.99 a pair. So I bought a pair.

To power them up, I started digging in my box-o-adaptors - found
everything BUT a 12V. That wasnt' going to stop me.
I decided to use the 9V and underpower the lights a bit. I cut the
jack end off the adaptor wire about 1" from the end - peeled the
insulation back a bit.
The lights came wired with that power socket to allow it to plug into
the power supply of a PC. I cut the yellow wire off the socket, as well
as the black one that was right next to it. Peeled back the insulation.
Yellow wire went to the blackwithwhitestripe adaptor wire and I used
a small wire nut to put that together. Joined the remaining pair together,
added the wire nut and was ready to fire it up!
Plugged the adaptor in, and ....nothing. Hm....maybe the polarity is 
reversed. So I switched the connections so that the yellow wire went
to the solid black from the adaptor and the other to the remaining one.
Twisted on the wire nuts and plugged it in. AND THERE WAS LIGHT!
Blueness!!! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
The tubes came with double sided foam tape - used that to secure
them onto the inside top of my canopy, routed the wire through, securing
that with wire ties to the existing wiring. Thats it! All done.

How does it look? Unreal! Adds an entire new dimension to the tank!
I can now enjoy it even after lights out!

A few disclaimers:
Although it would be difficult to do, if this mod leads to an electrical short
that burns your house down - its not my problem. If your wife divorces
you shortly after. Not my problem. If you loose your job and end up
on the street. Not my problem. In short - if you follow through with this,
any and all consquences are your own problem and I will not be
held responsible in any way. 

Enjoy and be safe!

PS:
This will only look good if your tank has a canopy, otherwise the
light scatter won't make it look as good.

Before you ask - no, I don't have any pictures YET. I may update
this post later with some pictures.


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Great post! I just happen to have a couple blue cold cathodes laying around! I think I will give this a shot!


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