Hog Light

[Aggie]

I have been playing around with making a light to put on a feeder, on at night, off during the day. I figured out a very simple circuit yesterday, put it together with a 2 bulb orange trailer clearance lamp and put it out last night on a 7 aH gel 12V battery, it drained the battery during the night. It was very dim by 4:30 am and was DEAD when I got up. I did not think the trailer light would draw that much!! I charged the battery this morning and hooked it up, it draws almost nothing in the off mode, but is drawing .5 amp when on.....no wonder it drained tha battery!!! Should have checked that yesterday.

Looking for ideas on a low current light to use. I am going to get a LED clearance light today and try that....was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions for a light to use??

The circuit for those that are interested....you need a 12v relay (one that has NC contacts) and a photocell. Hook up the + side of the battery to one side of the coil on the relay, hook up the photo resister between the other side of the coil and the - side of battery. This will latch the relay during the day and unlatch it at night. Use the NC contacts on the relay, hooking up one side to battery +, and hook up the other side to a light and the - side of battery.

I bought the photocells at RS, they sell a package of 5 assorted, there are 2 small, 2 medium, and 1 large in the package. The only ones that will work are the medium sized ones. they read almost 0 in light and 50K ohms in the dark. Make sure you are outside when you test it, you may not have enough light inside, I had almost given up on the circuit working before I took it outside and...presto, it worked!!

Now if I can come up with a light that has a low enough current draw that a solar panel will keep the battery charged, I will be in business.

 

[Calpos]

There are some guys out there souping up flashlights, sometimes to make them brighter, sometimes to make them last longer on a set of batteries, and sometimes both. Good resources at

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthread...hreads.php?Cat=

and at

http://www.ledsupply.com/ledsupply/index.html

and at

http://darkgear.com/mrbulk/lgihome.htm

The first link is a forum where maybe someone can help you find the optimal LEDs or bulbs to use. Good luck!
Brian

 

[Aggie]

Calpos....thanks for the links, I took a quick look at them and am going to have to spend some more looking at them. I think the next thing I am going to do is try the LED clerance light, but I did not make it to Wally World today. Will pick one up tomorrow and see what the current draw is.

 

[shadow]

You will definatly want to go with LED's. I use 5 green 18000 led's on a six volt circiut. The five led's draw about .4 volts from a battery over a 12 - 13 hour period. Here's my wierd setup but it works for me. 5 LED's in a lamp fixture, 1 12 volt battery, a 6 volt regulated circuit with a photocell, a "6 volt" 150 mah solar panel and an outside electrical box. This sounds wierd but it really does work. The panel I use was purchased from american hunter and was supposed to be 6 volts. Well in the shade it charged 5.5 volts but in the direct sunlight it got up to 9.8 volts (the reason for the 12 volt get cell) So instead of using a 6 volt gel cell ( I burned two up from over charging) I use a 12 volt to allow for the over charge on bright days which is often in the Texas sun. The 12 volt battery stays between 5.4 volts to 9 volts. This setup has been working great for me. I can see well enough at 75 yards to look through a scoped rifle and take a hog out on a 1/4 moon night.

I'll try to take some pictures of it later and post them for ya.

 

[shadow]

Sorry to make this so long but I wanted you to see my setup. Maybe you can take a couple of ideas for yours or even improve on mine. This light has worked really well for me. I will try to open up one of my circuits and get some picturesof it as well.

My homemade night light

Nice compact package that can hang on it's own hook. The case is a gutted out outside electrical box sold at Lowes for around $8 or $9.

5 18000 led's mounted at a slight angle in a 3/4" pvc cap inside of a gutted out outside flood light base. Wires are routed through the base to the plate.

Wires come out the bottom of the light base fromt he 6 volt circuit going to the inside of the case to the 12 volt battery.

6 volt 150 mah Solar panel is mounted to the outside as well as the light base. This panel charges 5.5 volts on cloudy days and up to 9.5 volts on Texas sunny days.

Photocell is mounted in a pvc male plug then screwed into the light base and wired into the 6 volt circuit.

only thing inside is the wires from the solar panel and the light base going to the 12 volt, 7.5 mah battery. The case is the perfect size for the battery.

 

[Aggie]

Shadow.....Thanks for the pics, was wondering about an enclosure, had thought about a small ammo box, but I like the electrical box idea. Also like using the light socket to put the LED's in, easier to point where you want it. Am definately going to use that.

I have not worked much with LED's, I know the basics, but did not know what kind to get. What does the "18000" mean? Have looked at a couple electronic supply sites and did not see a reference to a # like that.

 

[shadow]

18000 refers to the "MCD's"

Here's a link to one place, these are the exact leds that I am using and this is the place I ordered mine from LED's

 

[shadow]

Here's a good place to look at for calculating what size resistor to use with the LED's

LED Calculator

 

[BigSwad]

Shadow looks like a great light. I am going to attempt to build one myself. A couple of quick questions:

1) Can the same setup run 10 LEDs of the same you mentioned?

2) I dont know alot about electrical stuff unless explained to me. How are the lights, resistor and photocell connected together? A rough diagram would be great.

I appreciate any help in advance!

 

[1BowHunter]

I would like more info on it shadow if you dont mind! I have been toying the thought of a motion sensor and solar panel

 

[Charliebee]

I don't think you can beat this deal...
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=93661

 

[WARDEN243]

Could i get more info on your circuit also. shadow if you dont mind! Thank you

 

[SCREWLOOSE]

How about a pic of the set upin operation? I would like to see what this looks like in the field?

 

[wfontjr]

im in the process of building a hog light, i used the following dark activated circuit
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/actrelay.htm

the following site will build your circuit for the led, calculates amp draw, i used 9 led's, 3 sets of serial with 3 parallel, pulls about 84 ma

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

i got my leds from all electronics, CAT# LED-115

i am wiring up the battery, solar panel and circuits tomorrow, hopefully field testing shortly

 

[wfontjr]

i could not adjust the previous circuit to come on and off correctly, i found this circuit (figure 12) last nite, seems to be working better, used a 2n222 instead of the nte128

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/gadgets/741/741.html