DIY Moonlight

[caferacermike]

Is wire wire? I have some old speaker wire laying around...can i use that? And does anyone have a link to a 12v power supply? I dont think i know exactly what to look for

Yes and no. Wire is wire. However the insulation is different. Typical electrical wiring has a much stronger insulator than speaker wire. Also speaker wire comes in many sizes. Is this 20g or 12g? There are some differences as many speaker wires have on copper and one aluminum wire. The main difference is that speaker wire is made of several strands. When I did a huge Rockford system in one of my cars my Rockford 8 gauge speaker wire had jillions of micro strands in it. Why? Ok don't quote me exact as I could have this backwards but as I recall, DC rides on the outside of the strand and DC is carried inside the strand. So having thousands of strands creates a lot of surface area for DC to travel on. Get it? So using heavily stranded wire could actually choke AC power and cause it to melt the wire like a fuse.

Would it work? Probably. But for $2 is it worth finding out? It would be safer to use it as your transformer to LED linkage than from the wall socket to the transformer.

[LoneStar]

Is wire wire? I have some old speaker wire laying around...can i use that? And does anyone have a link to a 12v power supply? I dont think i know exactly what to look for

I wouldn't use speaker wire. Use some 18 gauge stranded wire. Don't use solid strand. To hard to bend/move and could break. Plus its not necessary for this application. I used some old alarm grade wire. You can get some at Altex or possibly Home Depot or Lowes. The power adapter is from Altex. Not sure how much it was because it was 1.5 years ago since I bought one last. But I do know it was cheap.

The whole setup. The wire isn't coiled so it looks like a mess :roll I used the whole length of the power adapter and then just added wire to it by soldering on the 18 gauge orange wire. The wire I added is actually larger than the original on the adapter. To connect the LED box to the adapter, I just used Anderson brand connectors. I can't really say where I got those :innocent


What is printed on the wire jacket.


The adapter I used.


I would highly recommend going to Altex to get everything. They have the wire, adapter, and heat shrink. They even have solder if you need some too. Altex seems to be the cheapest place in town for heat shrink. Don't ever buy any at Radio Shack. They really stick it to you on their price. ;)