First post.
Hope some one can help me here. I had a feeder light from Wildgame Innovations that failed again after being exchanged so I decided to rebuilt it myself. Here is the basic setup I scrapped all their electronics:
12V battery like what would go on a game feeder wired to on-off switch then wired to a dusk/dark photo switch then to resistors then to the LED's. The LED's are in pods of 6 wired together- there were 3 pods of 18 led's but I shorted one out so now there are two pods or 12 LED's. So far I have used a 10W 50 ohm resistor coming from the battery them a 25 ohm resistor between that the the LED pod. The 50 ohm resistor gets a little hot to the touch.
Did my first test last night and the lights came on at dusk and went off at daylight- stayed on all night as desired. Eventually I will add a solar charger to the battery. I am thinking the battery should ideally last 3 nights of about 10 hours by itself in case of a few cloudy days without out great solar recharging. I plan to see if it will last another night without recharging tonight but the lights are pretty bright and I am thinking I may need to throttle back the juice some more.
Based on some educated guesses can anyone answer these questions:
1. Am I close to having the voltage/resistance correct to last the desired amount of time. If not what would you recommend.
2. What LED's would you recommend to replace the 3rd pod if desired. Tried a few from radio shack and they are really dim. Needs to be able to light something dimmly from about 3 yards away. I have the holder and reflector already.
I'll try to post pictures later. Let me know if you need additional info.
Thx
Hope some one can help me here. I had a feeder light from Wildgame Innovations that failed again after being exchanged so I decided to rebuilt it myself. Here is the basic setup I scrapped all their electronics:
12V battery like what would go on a game feeder wired to on-off switch then wired to a dusk/dark photo switch then to resistors then to the LED's. The LED's are in pods of 6 wired together- there were 3 pods of 18 led's but I shorted one out so now there are two pods or 12 LED's. So far I have used a 10W 50 ohm resistor coming from the battery them a 25 ohm resistor between that the the LED pod. The 50 ohm resistor gets a little hot to the touch.
Did my first test last night and the lights came on at dusk and went off at daylight- stayed on all night as desired. Eventually I will add a solar charger to the battery. I am thinking the battery should ideally last 3 nights of about 10 hours by itself in case of a few cloudy days without out great solar recharging. I plan to see if it will last another night without recharging tonight but the lights are pretty bright and I am thinking I may need to throttle back the juice some more.
Based on some educated guesses can anyone answer these questions:
1. Am I close to having the voltage/resistance correct to last the desired amount of time. If not what would you recommend.
2. What LED's would you recommend to replace the 3rd pod if desired. Tried a few from radio shack and they are really dim. Needs to be able to light something dimmly from about 3 yards away. I have the holder and reflector already.
I'll try to post pictures later. Let me know if you need additional info.
Thx
