DIY LED lighting conversion, Boaphile cages

I have 3 Boaphile cages and love them....except for the lighting. I have had nothing but trouble with the built-in lights (which are just fluorescent under-cabinet light fixtures) and have replaced them a dozen times.
The lighting is especially bad for my high-humidity BRB cage - the moisture shorts that puppy right out in days.

SO, I finally got fed up and did an LED conversion on all 3 stacked cages. LED lights are great because they are moisture-proof and I expect to have no problems from now on.

To do the conversion, I purchased one of these 3-light packages: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i01_details

I took the cords off the built-in lighting and took the fluorescent bulbs out. I then screwed one of the LED strips into each of the three lighting fixtures (1 per cage). The LED strip just barely fits inside the existing light housing, and I just screwed them into the plastic.
I then ran the cords, which isn't perfect the way I did it - the cord exits the light housing on both sides, but you can manage to snap the light cover on even with the cords in the way so that's what I did.

The cords that run between the three LED strips in 3 different cages are short, so I ran them out the front door of the cage and down to the next cage. Some black duct tape keeps the cords nice and neat on the fronts of the cages.
So now I have all three cages, wired in series, running off a single plug on a timer. The lighting is bright enough to see, but not excessively bright. These suckers should last forever and use almost no power. They also produce no heat - the fluorescents that were in there before put out some noticeable heat.

I've been thinking of doing something like this in my AP cages

Do you have any picots that you could post?

I'll work on getting pics

I ran an LED rope light through my animal plastics enclosures. Never could justify paying for fluorescent.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AndrewGeibel

I ran an LED rope light through my animal plastics enclosures. Never could justify paying for fluorescent.

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yep, that works too :)

ok, here are some terrible pictures!

Here's the stack of 3 cages, you can see the series wire connections between them, taped to the front. The power wire goes out the side of the top cage through the hole that the original light used. I did have to open the hole a little bit with a drill to fit the new cord.
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrar...tack.sized.jpg

Here is the old light housing, retrofitted with LEDs. I simply routed the wire out of the housing between the snap-on cover and the housing. It's flexible enough to allow the wire and still snap securely together.
This first pic shows the power cord coming in from the side, secured with the clips that came with the original lighting
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrar...ord2.sized.jpg
And the second pic shows one of the series lights with the wire routed out the front of the cage to go to the next one.
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrar...ord1.sized.jpg

Heres the original light housing with the cover off, showing the LED strip I screwed in place. The LED strips have holes at either end for this purpose, and the screws are included. I just screwed them right into the plastic light housing with no problem.
Once with flash and once without, neither pic is that good sorry!
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrar...lash.sized.jpg
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrariums/Led.sized.jpg

Cords taped to the front where the series cables are routed due to their shortness. I would have preferred to route all the cables out the sides of the cages like the original lighting was, but for now this is it. I may buy longer cables later on if I get sick of the tape.
http://i.ugtz.com/albums/Jens-Terrariums/tape.sized.jpg

hope that helps.

Here's the stack of 3 cages, you can see the series wire connections between them



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