# Marineland Double Bright L.E.D w/timer function DIY



## notreel (Mar 21, 2010)

I'll start by letting it be known that while I am fairly new to the forum, I have been an aquatic hobbyist for the latter part of my life. That said, I apologize if the delivery of my post is not by the "forum books".

Alright, enough of the disclaimer mumbojumbo! I, along with quite a few others have employed Marineland's Double Bright L.E.D setup for my Malawi tank. While the lighting is great, both day and moonlight settings, I wasn't very impressed with the fact that you had to manually switch between settings. Now obviously if you can afford to do so, there are a plentiful amount of products that allow customizable lighting, dimming and spectrum setting. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I am not able to afford such luxuries. Which is why I set out to incorporate my idea's into Marineland's Double Bright L.E.D, which are INDIVIDUAL POWER SOURCES, for both the white and blue L.E.D's which allows one to place each function on its own TIMER. Thus resulting in NO MORE ON'Y OFF'Y

I know most people would be skeptical in doing this project, mostly because of the upfront cost of the light itself. Now luckily for me I was able to get my ML D B L.E.D (marineland double bright L.E.D) for about 90% below cost from a LFS that sadly went out of business in my area. So, if you are willing to embark, you may find this DIY helpful.

Supplies List from Radio Shack
-Size K coaxial DC power jack (p# 274-1565 $2.99 2pk)
-Enercell Universal 1000mA AC adapter (p#273-316 $19.99)
-Enercell size K adapt-a-plug (p# 273-342 is free w/ purchase of adaptor)
-Roughly 12" of 14-16 gauge wire.
-Soldering set ($20.00 tops at Lowe's/ home depot)

Step 1:

1a: Remove clear L.E.D beam guides from bottom of housing, as cover will not clear L.E.D's when slid off, unless removed (pry gently with very small flat head screw driver).

1b: Open the L.E.D housing, via 2 screws at each end (when removing end caps, be careful not to lose little white plastic casters, used for arms of fixture to slide through).

1c: Now that you have exposed the board itself, take a minute to figure out how the IC board is laid out (pretty simple, if you don't over-think it like I did at first). **Do not wipe off white Di-electric grease from between IC board and light housing, as it insulates the L.E.D's from contacting the metal of the housing**

1d: Remove all 18 insulated screws holding L.E.D's in place (this will be necessary to route ground wire for added power input jack to the backside of the IC board).

Step 2: (REFERNCE THE ILLUSTRATION FOR CLARITY OF INSTRUCTIONS)










2a: At this stage you should have easy access to the inner portion of the toggle switch and power supply input.

2b: At this point you are no longer going to need the 3 function toggle switch. The factory installed power supply input jack is going to operate the white L.E.D's, while the power supply input jack that you add will operate the blue L.E.D's. So, you will do the following:

- Remove the red 12v wire that supplies power to the switch from the power supply input jack (reference illustration).

- Remove red 12v wire attached to toggle switch and solder this end on to 12v tab of power supply jack (reference illustration).

-Nothing needs to be done to the black -/ground wire as it was the ground for the entire circuit, but will now function only as ground for white L.E.D's.

2c: Choose your mounting point for the additional power supply jack that you are about to install (I chose to use the case from the toggle switch, along with a couple of very small metal brackets, to hold it in place). Whatever method you choose, make sure that it is secure, as you do not want the power supply jack pulling free 6 months down the road.

2d: Now that you have your additional power supply jack mounted, you can take the green 12v wire, for the blue L.E.D's and while the one end is still soldered to the IC board, the loose end can be soldered to the 12v tab of the power supply input jack that you just mounted. (reference illustration)

2e: This is the step where you will use that 12" 14-16 gauge wire. Take and solder one end to the -/ground tab of the power supply input jack and with the other end, run it along the backside of the IC board to the unused -/ground eyelet on the opposite side of the board.

2f: Tada you're done, well that is if you don't mind the blue L.E.D's being on all of the time. I on the other hand wanted to get a bit longer life from the blue L.E.D's and attaining that goal was very easy.

- Right were the 12v/power and -/ground wires are closest to the first blue L.E.D, you will see a very small translucent orange-ish bridge connector, that when power is supplied to the white L.E.D's will also result in power being sent to the blue L.E.D's.

- In order to stop that from happening, all that you need to do is A.) Remove the bridge connector, or simply un-solder one (1) end of the connector to break the circuit and viola white's come on without blue's.

2g: At this point you are ready to connect your Ennercell 12v 1000mA adapter to the blue L.E.D's (making sure to align the size K adapt-a-plug to positive tip polarity, which is very important, but the box for the adapter explains this plainly).

2h: Now the ENTIRE reason I wanted to complete this project was to be able to have the lights set to a timer. This part is easy, go to your nearest home improvement store and by 1 very expensive multi-capability timer ($49-$59) or buy 2 fairly inexpensive digital timers ($14.99 from Lowe's).

-Now what I did, which kind of comes without saying is, for the white L.E.D's, depending on when the sun rises and sets in your area, set them to come on at 8:45am and then set them to go off at 8:45pm.

-Now for the blue L.E.D's, since dimming a diode that only runs on about 3 to 4 max volts each is another project in itself, I decided to just stagger the time's in which the white and blue L.E.D's come on and go off. So, abrupt as it may be when the lights come and go, at least there will be consistency when that happens. For instance, your white's are set to come on at 8:30am and go off at 8:30pm, then set your blue's to to come on at 8:29pm and go off at 8:31am.

So, for those of you that stuck with me through all of the above and were able to complete the task without destroying one of the most expensive features on your tank, Congrats. I think you'll enjoy the ease of operation your L.E.D's now have, I know I did.

Again this was my first DIY post, so I apologize if it is crude in any way, shape or form, but my intention was to post a how-to in order to help all who were frustrated with the primitive functionality of such a modern device.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

*able to complete the task without destroying one of the most expensive features on your tank, Congrats*
:lol: 
:lol: 
*Again this was my first DIY post, so I apologize if it is crude in any way, shape or form, but my intention was to post a how-to in order to help all who were frustrated with the primitive functionality of such a modern device.*
Well done
=D> 
Will look forward to any other projects you might care to share.
Thanks.


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## notreel (Mar 21, 2010)

Compliment appreciated!

I just hope that I am able to help one individual muster up the courage, wipe away the beads of nerve induced sweat and void their Marineland factory warranty 

I must say I've had this up and running for about 3 days now and without the constant hassle of having to turn the L.E.D on and off each day  I am at a loss for what to do with the extra 6 seconds I saved myself :-? I guess I could take 3 steps or maybe read a sentence from a book :lol:

Joking aside, as long as the DIY looked (and read I'm sure), the project itself took less than an hour and a half. I just wanted to be as descriptive as I could while explaining.

Thanks again for the kind words!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Very well written article. I printed it out for the future possiblity of doing this project.


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## Comic Sans (Apr 21, 2009)

You know, I had just decided to get one of these and was griping to myself about this very problem. Now I'll know what to do about it! Thanks!


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## notreel (Mar 21, 2010)

My pleasure!

I knew how peeved I was about it so I thought I'd at least pass along the know how.

The only thing that it doesn't have is dimming capability, but as mentioned above, dimming a 3v max diode is another story. (will work on that and post if successful)

I'll get some shots of the completed project, maybe it'll help alongside the illustration.


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## Comic Sans (Apr 21, 2009)

notreel said:


> I'll get some shots of the completed project, maybe it'll help alongside the illustration.


Much appreciated! How did you end up routing the second power cable out of the housing?


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## notreel (Mar 21, 2010)

[/quote]Much appreciated! How did you end up routing the second power cable out of the housing?


> Basically since I no longer had a need for the toggle switch that it came with, I popped "said" switch out very carefully cut the back portion of the toggle switch housing off. The power jack, that I purchased, fit right into the existing hole that was left from cutting the back out of the toggle switch. Obviously I didn't want the jack pushing into the L.E.D housing every time I had to plug it in, so I took a very small piece of aluminum drilled a hole in one end and was able to screw one end of that "bracket" on to the existing power jack and the other end pressed firm to the newly installed power jack, giving me resistance when plugging and unplugging.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

notreel said:


> I just hope that I am able to help one individual muster up the courage, wipe away the beads of nerve induced sweat and void their Marineland factory warranty


Mission accomplished! I just got done doing the mod on my 36-48Ã¢â‚¬Â


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## Swamplander (Feb 9, 2011)

jrf said:


> The only difference I saw was that the longer model has two of the LED circuit boards wired together on the Ã¢â‚¬Å"AÃ¢â‚¬Â


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

What I'm calling an "eyelet" is the spot where the wires from the power supply input are soldered on to the circuit board.

Just follow the black wire from the factory installed power supply input to where it terminates on the board. YouÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll see that itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s soldered to the closest ground eyelet on the first board (See step 2 in notreelÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s diagram). If you look at the other side of the first circuit board, youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll see more of these eyelets. This time they are used to connect board one to board two. But, if you go all the way to the end of the second board, youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll see they are unused.


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## iwade4fish (Jan 5, 2009)

notreel said:


> Compliment appreciated!
> I must say I've had this up and running for about 3 days now and without the constant hassle of having to turn the L.E.D on and off each day  I am at a loss for what to do with the extra 6 seconds I saved myself :-? I guess I could take 3 steps or maybe read a sentence from a book :lol:
> Thanks again for the kind words!


Extra 6 seconds to enjoy the fruits of your labor, AWESOME DIY thread!! How 'bout one for turning Flourescents into HO models?!?!?!


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## Rick_Lindsey (Aug 26, 2002)

iwade4fish said:


> Extra 6 seconds to enjoy the fruits of your labor, AWESOME DIY thread!! How 'bout one for turning Flourescents into HO models?!?!?!


I agree .

Have you searched for the fluorescent->HO conversion? It's around here somewhere... I forget exactly how the wiring goes, but by taking 2 "standard" (electric ballast) shoplights, pulling the ballast from one, and doubling up the wires (each ballast driving a single bulb, with both sets of drive wires)... still used N.O. bulbs, but waaay brighter. It's actually more efficient light-per-watt, but you burn through bulbs alot quicker!

-Rick (the armchair aquarist, who may go track down that article, since it sounds like a good idea!)


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## hiddenhighways (Jan 8, 2012)

i ordered my 36/48 off of ebay. Should arrive tomorrow. Is the inability to have the 2 on timers that big of a deal?


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## Sub-Mariner (Dec 7, 2011)

Its not a big deal if you dont mind turning the moonlights on and off everyday. My T5HO fixture has the LEDs on a separate switch so im good to go but if I had this LED fixture Id definitely wire them up to a separate switch so I dont forget to turn them off at night because I dont leave the LEDs on all night anyway and my tanks on the 1st floor and my bedroom is upstairs.


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

The mod isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t that difficult, but itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s even easier to just add a couple of independent moon lights if you really want them on a separate timer. Really, the biggest benefit of this mod is itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s an overall cleaner installation to have the moon and the day lights all in one, self-contained assembly. If youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re hiding all of your light fixtures and power cords under a canopy, thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s probably not a lot of benefit from doing this.


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## forest109 (Sep 7, 2010)

Well, I've held out for over a year hoping that someone would introduce a lower light (i.e.non-reef/planted) LED fixture with an integrated timer, but it doesn't appear that this will happen any time soon. So, I'm looking at purchasing a Marineland Double-Bright unit and making the modifications described. I just wanted to ask, is the unit described in the article a 36-inch (48-inch max expandable) unit or a 48-inch (60-inch max expandable) unit, and is there any difference between the two as far as the circuit layout goes? Thanks.


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## forest109 (Sep 7, 2010)

First, let me say this is an excellent article, well written and illustrated. After first reading it a couple of years ago, I waited to see if Marineland would start including timers on their Single and Double Bright model LED units. Needless to say, they have not. So, I purchased a 48-inch Double Bright unit in November and gave it a month or so to make sure it had no problems out of the box. In the meantime, a friend of mine who is an electrical engineer & ham radio operator offered to help and scrounged his parts bins for everything I would need, with the exception of a second 12V transformer that he ordered from an online electronics parts supply site ($10 including shipping). He has a nice shop setup with soldering equipment, so I took the light over to his place.

Anyway, we immediately ran into one unforeseen problem after we had removed the LED lenses and end caps. I don't know about older models, but my LED unit also has five plastic "stakes" (three on one side of the row of blue LED's and two on the other side, staggered from each other) installed through the cover plate to secure it to the mother board or main body of the unit. These are anchored into the mother board, possibly into slots but it's impossible to see how by looking through the open ends of the unit. They have small rounded heads that would be very difficult to remove without destroying them, if they can be removed at all. I thought about drilling the heads out, but decided not to. In any case my friend said we could make most of the desired modifications without sliding the cover plate off in order to access the motherboard and rectifier. With the cover plate in place, we simply removed the toggle switch from the end cap (we actually used an identical spare that he had in case we screwed up), popped the toggle switch from the housing and installed a female plug to match the male plug from the new transformer in the housing. We cut out the superfluous plastic from the interior and back side of the housing, notched a slot in both of the "long" sides of the housing just below the top (using a Dremel tool and hobby knife), and simply popped the female plug (with wires already soldered to the hot and ground tabs) into the housing so that the lock washer on the plug engaged the slots and restrains the plug from being pulled in or out. Then he simply made the ground and hot connections to the existing wiring behind the end cap.

This modification greatly simplified the work, since there is no need to remove anything except the one end cap containing the toggle switch and power supply plug. While I do not have the ability to run the white and blue lights completely independent of each other, that does not present any problem at all. The unit operates pretty much as before (either blue+white or blue-only LED's on), except both options are controlled by digital timers. I just set the blue+white LED's to come on in the morning and go off in the evening, at which time the blue-only LED's come on for awhile. Having the blue LED's on slightly longer than the whites should not shorten the overall life expectancy of the unit. The digital timers are single-program only (i.e. only one "on" and one "off" setting per 24 hours, but that was all I needed. The modification looks clean and works like a charm, and it was a pleasure voiding the warranty since I was already annoyed that Marineland does not offer this as a standard feature on these lights. It would cost them literally nothing to do so. Thanks again for a great DIY article!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Thanks for the update on this mod, it should be helpful to anyone else doing this project.

You didn't happen to take pics of your new modification process did you?


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## forest109 (Sep 7, 2010)

I didn't take any photos, but the modification looks pretty much the same as the photo of the end cap posted by notreel on June 16, 2010, except that the new transformer I purchased is black instead of white. In any case, you can't see how the plug is mounted in the toggle switch housing. We thought about setting it in epoxy or hot-melt glue, but in the end just popping it into the slots I cut in the housing worked fine.


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## bjcichlids (Jan 10, 2014)

What power supply did you buy? I have scoured the internet and can't find exactly which one to buy. That universal one sounds fine but it is ~$20. The one that came with mine says 15V 1500ma.


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## forest109 (Sep 7, 2010)

Sorry for the delay - I just now saw your post. Here's a link to the transformer I purchased, and one for the female single-pin jack as well. Shipping will add a few bucks, but still cheaper than Radio Shack. Let me know if you have any other questions.

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-st ... SED/1.html 
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-st ... UNT/1.html


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## cb101 (Mar 20, 2014)

Great writeup. I realize this is a pretty old thread, but still applicable today. If you do not remove the bridge connector is it safe to power each side of the switch independently? Ie: one power supply powers white and blue together and one powers just blue. If the timers overlap and both are on at once it would seem like the blue LED's are powered by both power supplies at the same time.


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