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Thread: Moose

  1. #1
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    Default Moose


    Got a question for ya. I have used a 25w or 50w 12v light bulb on the end of 1/2" emt for light during my night fishing trips for years. It works great and is like fishing under your porch light. Problem is glare at times. I purchased an indoor dimmer switch for a light or fan. I figure this way I can regulate the brightness of the bulb. You don't need that light all the time because the lights in the water are enough to fish by. Well I can't get it to work right. I even swapped it for another one and can't make it work. It is a regular AC light dimmer switch. It has 3 wires to hook up and my bulb only has a pigtail running to the power source. How can I make this work? Will the AC dimmer work for DC?
    thanks
    tightlines to ya
    Smitty

    "If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." ~Doug Larson

  2. #2
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    Not sure if that will work. AC and DC are two different characters. One alternates cycles and the other is a straight flow of electons.


    Try using a 12DC Spot light instead of the flood and see if that does not reduce the glare in your eyes. The spot should concentrate the light away from the light holder and not in your face. Of course you will need to point the spot out into the water ahead of or to the side or back of the boat depending on where you are fishing.

    Cane Pole might be able to answer this question better than I as he is the true electronics wizzard. He teaches electronics the trade school near Paris, TN. Heck Cane Pole might even invent a robot to hold your spot light on the fish automatically. I hear he is really good with robots like R2D2 and 3PO.

    If he is not too tired from hauling in all those big KY Lake slabs that are spawning in his back yard on West Sandy. LOL

    Sideline: Last night well this is already morning so it was the night before last. LOL I am pulling another all nighter maybe. Anyway the State DNR guys had the electro shocking boat out at Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Recreation Area on Blue grass Pit duing their population study. Dan was using 12 volt lights and a battery system. He also used a 110volt AC generator but that was for the shocking equipment. Guess DC does not work well for shocking the fish in the water even when the water's conductivity is over 1300 micro mhos.

    Hope this helps if not Cane Pole will shout in here tomorrow when he gets off work.


    Quote Originally Posted by FalconSmitty
    Got a question for ya. I have used a 25w or 50w 12v light bulb on the end of 1/2" emt for light during my night fishing trips for years. It works great and is like fishing under your porch light. Problem is glare at times. I purchased an indoor dimmer switch for a light or fan. I figure this way I can regulate the brightness of the bulb. You don't need that light all the time because the lights in the water are enough to fish by. Well I can't get it to work right. I even swapped it for another one and can't make it work. It is a regular AC light dimmer switch. It has 3 wires to hook up and my bulb only has a pigtail running to the power source. How can I make this work? Will the AC dimmer work for DC?
    thanks
    tightlines to ya
    Smitty
    Regards,

    Moose1am

  3. #3
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    Cane Pole is offline Crappie.com 2011 Man of the Year * Crappie.com Supporter
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    Default hey FS

    You will need to get a DC light dimmer. You can't get them at wallyworld. Google up dc light dimmer. Probably find one at a RV dealer.

    Tom
    Member BS Pro-Staff and Billbob Pro-Staff
    Proud Member of Team Geezer... authorized by: billbob and "G"

  4. #4
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    Thanks CP and moose. I figured it was the dc ac thing. I knew I hooked it up right. I went thru an electrician program until they shut the doors on the building. I'll pick up the dc dimmer switch.
    Moose it isn't a spotlight. It is a lightbulb just like the one in your house except dc for rv's. Unless I have a mess to untangle or I have to retie a line I don't need much light. Plus I can conserve some power for the allnighter and the following morning trolling motor. I can run the bulb, 2 green 14" green flouresent lights, and a floating white sealed beam on 1 deep cycle battery all night and it holds up well. If I can turn the bulb down to reduce the glare and save some juice it will be great.
    again thanks

    tightlines to ya
    smitty

    "If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." ~Doug Larson

  5. #5
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    I figured that Cane Pole would have the juice on this subject. Glad he got you fixed up. I was just guessing on that question.

    Don't they make light bulbs that are more flood type than spot type? I was thinking of my back porch spot light that I can use different type bulbs on Now these bulbs are all 110V AC and 60Hz but they have different shaped reflective material built into them. I was just thinking that the 12volt DC lights may be built to do the same thing. spot vs flood. the cone shape of the reflector inside the bulb would make the difference. But I am guessing as I am not familar with the 12 Volt spot or flood lights ... yet. I plan on getting some of those and using them in the future to light up the night in my boat.

    I can't see very good in the daylight as I have an astigimatism and at night when my pupils are dialated to let in more light it aggrevates the satigimatism even worse. I see best when it's bright outside and my pupils are the most constricted. That is just a physics thing though. It has to do with lense opening and depth of field. We get better pictures and a deeper depth of field when we stop down the camea shutter opening to it's smallest size. That is why an F22 give a better focused picture than a F1.4 setting all things being equal in bright sunlight with fast film .

    At one time I was thinking about getting a DC to AC power inverter to run AC 110 volt light system but the 12 Volt DC system would be better from a safety point of view and would last longer too. DC is the way to go when around water in a boat.

    I was watching the IN DRN guys conducting some population studies the other night. The were lite up light a christmas tree and I wonder if the fish area scared away from the boat by all those lights before the fish can be shocked and captured? Anyone have any thoughts on this. Maybe the DNR guys and all other fisheries biologists would get better results if they had Night Vision goggles and didn't use those bright lights on their shocking boats. Just a thought. Wonder if there are any fishery biologists that read this forum?
    I know that Dan from IN reads www.fishin.com but that site is a bit over moderated by conservative leaning right wingers for my tastes.




    Quote Originally Posted by FalconSmitty
    Thanks CP and moose. I figured it was the dc ac thing. I knew I hooked it up right. I went thru an electrician program until they shut the doors on the building. I'll pick up the dc dimmer switch.
    Moose it isn't a spotlight. It is a lightbulb just like the one in your house except dc for rv's. Unless I have a mess to untangle or I have to retie a line I don't need much light. Plus I can conserve some power for the allnighter and the following morning trolling motor. I can run the bulb, 2 green 14" green flouresent lights, and a floating white sealed beam on 1 deep cycle battery all night and it holds up well. If I can turn the bulb down to reduce the glare and save some juice it will be great.
    again thanks

    tightlines to ya
    smitty
    Regards,

    Moose1am

  6. #6
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    I don't believe I want AC on the boat with me. Something is always wet and I would be shocked repeatedly.lol I only have one good eye the other is lazy. The good one is getting worse. I wear bifocal glasses and the glare of the light is worse with glasses.

    you say you fish stripper pits. I have 3 small lakes near my home that were formed less than 10 years ago by a brick company mining the clay for bricks. They are full of bream not many big ones but bunches of them. The lakes are on my way home from the lake. I was thinking of dropping several female crappie with eggs and some males into these lakes. Do you think they will spawn? I can keep 30 crappie real healthy in the livewell. If they would spawn I could have a few honeyholes down the road to ride the golf cart to and around fishing the lakes.

    "If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." ~Doug Larson

  7. #7
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    Post Something to think about..

    Quote Originally Posted by FalconSmitty
    Got a question for ya. I have used a 25w or 50w 12v light bulb on the end of 1/2" emt for light during my night fishing trips for years. It works great and is like fishing under your porch light. Problem is glare at times. I purchased an indoor dimmer switch for a light or fan. I figure this way I can regulate the brightness of the bulb. You don't need that light all the time because the lights in the water are enough to fish by. Well I can't get it to work right. I even swapped it for another one and can't make it work. It is a regular AC light dimmer switch. It has 3 wires to hook up and my bulb only has a pigtail running to the power source. How can I make this work? Will the AC dimmer work for DC?
    thanks
    tightlines to ya
    Smitty
    ....you might try using a reflector-type housing to direct light...you can get em at almost any home improvement store or N.tool store...replace plugs with clips and 12v bulbs...works for me..
    Tighten er down till ya strip it--then back off 1/4 turn..
    HEY,,Y'all watch THIS..........

  8. #8
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    Default Stock them up

    Hech Ya !! they will spawn. Put 30 in each one the bigger the Quicker you will have Prime Fishing close to the back door. Good Luck
    Will tinted glass add on's help the glare???

  9. #9
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    Yea those light bulb holders should be shaped to direct the light out away from the boat. That is what I was thinking. If you change the shape of the light bulb it's inside coating and the shape of the light bulbs coating inside the bulb should help direct the light out and away from the boat.

    Glare coming off the water? Yea that can be a problem. I see what you are talking about now. I too wear bifocals (54Year Young here now) and I am also bothered by glare especially while driving at night.

    Remember that at night your pupil in the iris in your eye has to dialate (OPEN UP BIGGER) to let in more light. If you have any eyesight problems (due to imperfect curve of the eyeball - sperical aberation or chromatic aberations- differnet waves of light bending at the wrong angles when they hit the curve of your eyeball) the problems seeing are magnified at night when your pupils are dialated real big. The real image has to be directed to the back of the eye's retina in the right proportions at the right locations or you will see things blurry or double or on on top of another.

    Also dirty eye glasses can cause even more vision problems with glare at night.

    I am with you mate. Stick with the 12 volt DC system around the water. Lower amps. They are much safer than using AC.

    That is why the DNR guys are standing on a 3/4" thick rubber mate while dipping the nets into the water behind the shocking wires. They don't turn the AC off the shocking wires when dipping the stunned fish out of the water. Remember that the shocking boat is moving slowly during the shocking sampling procedure. The fish don't stay stunned very long and quickly recover after they float to the surface. So the net guys have to be quick to recover the fish out of the water with the nets. It's been a long time since I was able to go out and shock up some fish. I did that once back in 1976. But it was a lot of fun. I secretley hoped that I could have gone out with those DNR guys the other night and helped. But they had three guys and a small boat and there is liabilty to think of. So I just watched them from the shore. I could have lauched my boat and followed them at a distance but that would not have been cool. I let them get their work done without me bugging them too much. I was so full of questions though and my interest was really peaked though.

    Now I need to figure out where to go get those 12 volt spots.



    Quote Originally Posted by KARL
    ....you might try using a reflector-type housing to direct light...you can get em at almost any home improvement store or N.tool store...replace plugs with clips and 12v bulbs...works for me..
    Regards,

    Moose1am

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