12vman
10-07-2010, 06:19 PM
I was outside tonite, pokin' around in the yard while it was getting dark, and my outdoor light came on. I gazed at it for a couple of minutes and realized that this will be the third year this thing has worked every nite without a glitch! I built it, stuck it up and never had to touch it. I moved it earlier this spring but I didn't do anything to the fixture itself..
It's a set of those cold cathode fluorescents that I'm always messin' with and it's still as bright as the day I built it. They're awesome!
The fixture isn't much either. I used a 4"x8" weatherproof outdoor work box, two 3/4" threaded plastic conduit street ells with seals, two 14" sections of clear 3/4" I.D. vinyl hose and two end plugs for 3/4" PVC pipe. The ballast is inside the work box and the fluorescent tubes are just hanging inside of the clear vinyl hose by the wires.
I power it with a 48 watt panel, using a C-12 charge controller and a small marine battery. The C-12 controller has a day/nite function built in using the panel for the photo sensor.
I have it mounted on one of those telescoping wash wands like you would use to wash a bus with. I took the brush off and connected the light fixture. This made it easy to take down and put up if I needed to work on it.
It was all an experiment. I didn't figure it would last very long at all. It's nice coming home at nite to a lit up yard in the middle of nowhere.. ;)
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/4071/20101006chickens0010.jpg
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/6582/20101006chickens0008.jpg
It's a set of those cold cathode fluorescents that I'm always messin' with and it's still as bright as the day I built it. They're awesome!
The fixture isn't much either. I used a 4"x8" weatherproof outdoor work box, two 3/4" threaded plastic conduit street ells with seals, two 14" sections of clear 3/4" I.D. vinyl hose and two end plugs for 3/4" PVC pipe. The ballast is inside the work box and the fluorescent tubes are just hanging inside of the clear vinyl hose by the wires.
I power it with a 48 watt panel, using a C-12 charge controller and a small marine battery. The C-12 controller has a day/nite function built in using the panel for the photo sensor.
I have it mounted on one of those telescoping wash wands like you would use to wash a bus with. I took the brush off and connected the light fixture. This made it easy to take down and put up if I needed to work on it.
It was all an experiment. I didn't figure it would last very long at all. It's nice coming home at nite to a lit up yard in the middle of nowhere.. ;)
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/4071/20101006chickens0010.jpg
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/6582/20101006chickens0008.jpg