Wiring up LED lights?

[Reynolds]

Alright I just received my five strings of LED lights from Best Hong Kong and I am a bit puzzled on how to hook them up First of all, which line is the positive and which one is the negative? How would you go about running a on/off switch in the line? I went to the store tonight and found some switches but I could not find any wire that was anywhere near as small as what is on the strings. I also bought some gator clips but I think I have got that part figured out. As you can tell, I have little or no knowledge of wiring. Any help would be appreciated.

[jwhjr]

I just finished putting mine up in my portable today. I only had 2 strings, but I hooked the 2 together along with speaker wire (18G) with wire nuts. I apologize, I don't remember which color on the strands themselves was the positive and which one was the negative. I wired them to the speaker wire last Monday, but all I did was touch them to my battery to figure out which was which. If I remember correctly it seemed backwards to me. I attached them to the center support using zip ties and I ran the speaker wire down the center support and attached alligator clips to it that I'll use to attach it to my extra Vexilar battery (I got a 5 Ah one from a buddy that's about half the size). I don't know if the way I did it is the best way, but it works great. Here's a picture I took today after I finished (you can't see the wiring, but you get the idea of how bright it is ). Good luck with it!

[blueroof]

The silver line is the positive. Gold negative. Just use some speaker wire, get some male and female spade plugs to hook them to the batteries. I taped 2 together with velcro backed tape, put female spades on the leads with heatshrink and silicone to firm them up. I use a speaker wire extension to run from the batteries on the floor up to light. The extension has one end with female spades, male spades on the other. You could get a simple foot switch and put inline if you wanted to get fancy.

5 strands sounds like lots of light, is this for a shack or a portable? For a shack you could use speaker wire and standard switches if desired.

LB

[Reynolds]

thank you guys for responding so quickly. I'll have to run to the store tomorrow and pick up a couple more things.

I bought five strings to be used in three different portables. Sounds like I should be able to get away with two strands in the bigger portables and one strand in the smaller portable.

[ilovehardwater]

thats exactly how I have mine hooked up good job I knew you would be pleased with them. BT

[jwhjr]

Thanks ilhw, it was even easier than I thought. It sure lights it up, the kids wanted to sit in the garage and play in the "dark" .

[Squirtis]

I bought two strands of the Clam versions of these lights about 2 years ago and used the Male/Female combo bullet connectors (18g) so I don't need to fumble with the alligator clips or two separate connections when it gets dark in the house. I haven't hooked up any switch yet, but don't feel I need one either. The connectors are commonly used for trolling motors (MinnKota sells them as an accesory).

[harvey lee]

It is pretty easy to wire the lights to a toggle switch.

First I secured the battery in the tube to the side nearest the pole that the wires are running down. Then I made a brackett with a steel flat plate and attached it by the battery. Then one can hook wires from the battery to the togglte switch and then your light wires also. Now when your fishing and it starts to get dark, you just flip the switch like the wall switch in your house.

If you have two lights in the house you can also hook them up so the switch can turn on one or both.

This works great and is very inexpensive to rig up.

[Reynolds]

I wired up one set of lights for my smaller portable (Otter Den) tonight and like you guys have said these lights are incredibly bright. I am very happy with the output Just curious if you guys have run some kind of protector over the wires seeing as they are so small they seem like they could be damaged easily? I thought about running them inside the poles, but I am worried that I will end up cutting the wires when you slide poles back down when taking down the house.

[harvey lee]

In one house I ran the wires in the poles and had no problems. Now, I just use a little elec tape every foot or so and wrap a piece around the pole and it seems to work fine.

[so haaad]

I used the wires from an old cell phone car charger. It's nice because there's no hanging wires when you collapse your sled at the end of the day.

[Reynolds]

I wired up the toggle switch tonight and switched out the gator clips in favor of the female and rounded end terminals. Another thing I also did was put heat shrink tubing wherever I have wires running into connections. I have spent approximately $20 dollars including the LED light to now have light at the flip of a switch. Thanks for the input and advice.

[puddleduck]

jwhjr,

Did you get yours from Best Hong Kong? If so, did you get the 48 cm white flexible?

[so haaad]

The 48 cm lights from BestHonLED work fantastic. Here's my set up in a Fish Trap Guide.

Here's how much light two 48cm strips put out at night. It's more than enough light to tie lures, watch your bobber, read, etc.

[jwhjr]

Quote:

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jwhjr,

Did you get yours from Best Hong Kong? If so, did you get the 48 cm white flexible?

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Yes, I got 2 strands.