Light lift

[DonW]

As part of remodeling I'm putting in a lighting lift. The canopy is going to be tank top to the ceiling with two large doors and be attatched to the wall and ceiling instead of resting on the tank.
When the doors are opened the light will rise and when closed they will park. They will lift slowly for a dusk dawn effect without adding lower wattage lights. The lights should be able to move a total 24" upward.

New toy.

 

[Krish]

Sounds like a great plan Don! I love the idea! If I'm understanding it correctly, it will allow you to work in the tank without being burned by a bulb, but still have light to see what you are doing. Very cool...Good luck with it, but I know a person with your skills, luck isn't needed so best wishes

 

[brianblack]

Definitely cool. I was thinking along those lines for the 210 - nothing as extravagant as the dusk and dawn idea though. Post pics and parts used for the build. I would really like to do something like this. Maybe list it in the DIY section.

 

[DonW]

Lets start this off with the actuator. They come in variouse sizes measured by stroke. Mine is 24" and is a total length 32" from clevis to clevis. This model can lift or pull 150lbs dead weight so if you wanted to lift an entire canopy thats easily done. I'm only going to be lifting lights, that about 5 lbs so about 4.5% of it rated capacity. They run on 12vdc and draw from 350ma to 4a depending on the load. After a simple test I came up with 380 ma draw at 10 lbs. This makes it easy and can be powered by a 1000 ma radio shack wall wart with no proplems. They have built in limit switches at either end of the stroke so no need to wire up any.
I did a little measuring and found out that I only have 23 1/4 of lift area. This is only a problem for the upper limit switch. It will shove the light through my ceiling. The company sells limit switches but after a little disecting I found out that they are NOT needed. If you unscrew the end caps on the actuator it easy to just lower the internal limit switch. Simply snip the red wire in the motor end and remove the limit switch holer. The holder is a plastic rail that sits in a groove. By cutting a inch out of the rail and putting it all back together the max travel would be 23". Doing that mod will eliminate the need for any extra wiring and diodes.
If you really want to be cool you can get a inexpensive remote kit that has little key fob remotes to lift your lights or canopy. I'm not that cool so this unit will be controlled by the automation system.

Don

 

[Krish]

Ssssounds great!! Keep the pics coming

 

[DonW]

The next part is making it all work and mounting the actuator. On a retrofit like this it can be a bit nerve racking since this project was not planned in advance. My closed loop plumbing is 3/4" away from the wall so no space to just drop the actuator behind the tank. The return line is right in the center so no place to attatch the lower clevis. Here is a picture of the back of my tank so you can see what I'm working with.

 

[DonW]

My first thought when making this was that there would be nice stainless arms to hold the lights and some stainless giudes. Since I set the budget at $150 there is no room for stainless. So I needed guides so that the lights could remain in place if the actuator ever failed. These are just heavy duty ball bearing drawer slides that will be hidden in oak hardwood. They have a load capacity of 200lbs when side loaded so they should be fine when loaded at their face.

 

[brianblack]

Ok maybe I missed something about the actuator where ya got it - model make ect.

 

[DonW]

Ok maybe I missed something about the actuator where ya got it - model make ect.

Oop's sorry http://www.firgelliauto.com/

Don

 

[DonW]

These are going to be the arms to hold up the 3 halides. Just 1" oak that I turned threads into.

Don

 

[Boomer]

Great Job Donny

 

[brianblack]

This group comes up with some SUPER ideas and suppliers for sure. Glad to be here - Thanks Don

 

[DonW]

Here is the actuator attatched to the stand. Pictures are not very good but you can get the idea. Next I'll do the light mount and take down the existing acrylic hanger.

 

[brianblack]

So you would just attach to the ceiling and the light fixture and the actuator 'compresses' to rise and extends to lower kind of working like a hydraulic ram

 

[DonW]

So you would just attach to the ceiling and the light fixture and the actuator 'compresses' to rise and extends to lower kind of working like a hydraulic ram

Nope thats just the actuator mounted the lights in the pics are the current lights. The light fixture will be pushed up by the actuator and pulled down by the actuator. No cables they will be giuded by tracks on the wall. Try to picture a shelf being pushed up and down.

Don

 

[brianblack]

Got it! It just sounds so sweet! Is that gonna run off your controller box? or just a sensing switch on the door?

 

[Scooterman]

That is wicked nice Don, wonder If I had room in my 17" canopy to mod something like that. Ever see the retractable steps on a camper or on these fancy trucks where the brush bar slides in & out? all I would need is 6" of travel, & when I open the front cover it automatically retracts up like those steps. Regardless having it slowly move up & down throughout the day is slick.

 

[DonW]

That is wicked nice Don, wonder If I had room in my 17" canopy to mod something like that. Ever see the retractable steps on a camper or on these fancy trucks where the brush bar slides in & out? all I would need is 6" of travel, & when I open the front cover it automatically retracts up like those steps. Regardless having it slowly move up & down throughout the day is slick.

I'm pretty sure you could get them to go up 6". Mine will be connected to the doors and go all the way up. I may do somthing like open one door and they go up 10" and open both doors and they go up all the way. I'll just have to play around and see what works best for daily life.

I also need to decide wether or not the fans need to go up and down with the light. Any opinion on this?

Don

 

[DonW]

Got it! It just sounds so sweet! Is that gonna run off your controller box? or just a sensing switch on the door?

Its going to be run by the controler, so that I can integrate temp control and a little logic to the doors. Most of this can just be done with a timer and contact switches, which is really what the controler does anyways.

Don

 

[Scooterman]

That wold be a nice feature to open the door to help cooling & air circulation. The fans placement would probably help determine if you need to have them go up & down also, I'd probably want them on always but with the temp. control like on the Ice-cap fans, I liked the way it worked for me.