Lighting Question

[MtnDewMan]

I am in the process of wiring my MH and VHO lighting into my new canopy and have a question for those who have run into this already. As you know, with a canopy that is hinged and the whole unit can be opened from the top (hinged on the back) with the lighting mounted onto this top piece, there is always concern about the icecap solid wiring and MH wiring getting either kinked, broken, or when closing get dumped into the water after you have used up any slack from opening the lid.

Any ideas how to make the slack wire that you need there when you open the canopy to be manageable? Any means to hook it up to some sort of retractable connecting device so that when the hood is open, it pulls on some wire in this device and when the hood closes, the wire retracts back in?

Am I making sense?

Any thoughts?
_________________
lost theories

 

[deepreeftank]

go to the electrical section at lowes or home depot tey make a corogated plastic hose that is slit down the middle comes in i belive 4-6 foot lengths.. or you can go to a car audio shop and they have the same stuff... prob in rools too...thats what i used on mine...

brandon

 

[mtellin]

thats what I use on mine too, then I also got some electrical conduit pipe holders that were a little bigger than the wires and screwed them into the top of my canopy so that the wires wouldnt hang down possibly getting into the water

Mike

 

[Techy-Mechy]

Hey Dew Man,

Generally, the best method for having wires connected to a hinged door is to have them so that they aren't subjected to a bending stress, rather, set your wiring harness so that the wires twist in torsion. I have done this on my tank and it has been just fine for about 5 years. A way to do this is have a length of wire run parallel to the hinged joint very close to the joint. I generally make a "S" shaped loop in my wiring harness that allows for mimimal bending flexure and provides ample wire for mimimal torsional theta displacement.

I hope that this is understandable. If not, write to me and I'll try to further explain it offline.

Dave