Recommendations?: Flashing LED Dog Collar

[TOB9595]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

Oh Heck, It's too important to us dog afficionados. Here are
the Links JohnN originally posted
an ideal dog walking
SeriousLighted Dog Collars for Search and Rescue Dogs (and your pet too!)
Dog Light. (help, I need advice)
doggie blinker needed
Need help chosing Safety Collar for my dog
and another one
Need Flashing Light/LED for Dog Walks at Night
Regards
Tom /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

Hi Dave,

Dunno if you are still hanging around here, but I was looking at your (Auroralites) tracking harness and was wondering what the "stealth reflective" and the "3M silver reflective" chest and side panels look like and was wondering what were the advantages and disadvantages of each. Looks like they come in 2x4 and 4x6.

It would be great if you could post some well illuminated photos of this product so we can check out all the features.

Thanks!

-john


Auroralites Image Gallery

(Pics changed to links due to size.
B@rt)

[Edit: Thanks, they were a bit big. I added some smaller ones. -john]

 

[cy]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

dave Y, thanks for the info. I'm very interested in your collar for my 90lb german shepard.

we do working off leads runs at night with cars all around. I've been wanting a highly visible collar for awhile now.

I've got a rigged up system to get full coverage with an ARC AAA RGB providing light.

I don't like the idea of purchasing $11 9v lithium calls for the collar. I do understand why you recommend it. will it run on nmh 9V?

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

I found these Energizer 9V lithiums for $5.02.

Duracell Procell 9V lithiums for $7.99.

And the Ultralife 9V lithiums for as low as $4.52 at Audio-discounters.

Parts Express also has this graph:

There are probably some batter prices out there as well.

Now all we need is a Silverfox shootout!

-john

 

[cy]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

Thanks for the neat graphs and sources. but I've already got 6 new 9V nmh batt sitting right here.

will this collar work with nimh? if so I'm ordering right away

 

[Neg2LED]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

its a special 9v coin cell, not a 'brick' 9v

neg

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

Follow the "tracking harness" link and scroll down most of the page. You'll see the brick style 9V battery pictured with text that indicates it is for the collar.

-john

 

[DaveYoungman]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

Hey, all. I'm baaaack. I have to hang out here more often.

To answer your question. The collars take ANY 9V battery. They are indeed the "brick" too. I don't know of any 9V in a "watch battery" format. There just isn't enough juice to run anything on a watch battery. That's why the competition make their collars strobe. The collar is only on for a third of a second every other second. THAT flashing can provoke epileptic seizures in dogs and people. Trying to walk off a headache even would be a damn nightmare with my collars FLASHINg beside you on your dog. Something to avoid.

As far as the pricing on the batteries. That will come down soon but I'm in Canada and not buying mega-trillions of them so the big distributors in the states can under price me by a ton. I'm moving to the Phoenix area soon, bringing Auroralites with me and at that time I'll be able to buy bulk direct from the manufacturer (I have to go thru a Canuck distributor now) and the cost per battery will drop down to around $5. They're on my web site just as a convenience.

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

Thanks for clearing up the battery issue Dave.

BTW, Dave sent me a picture in email of a dog wearing a harness with the "stealth reflective" material. It appears this material is similar to (or is) Illuminite. Looks black, but reflects when shined upon.

The chest plate is a flap of material that extends over the chest (suprise). Basically like a "D" turned on it's side, or maybe a large "tongue" hanging down.

-john

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

I have found some items that run off 9v batteries CAN run off larger sets of batteries equalling 6v because many 9v based items run all the way down to 6v because the 9v cells sag under load.

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

Could probably make a 6 x AA or 6 x AAA battery pack for the harness. 6 x AA wouldn't really be an issue for my ~80lb girls.

-john

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

try 4AA first and see if it works.... good chance it will work fine since it wont sag like a 9v battery will.

 

[DaveYoungman]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

The power pocket which contains the inverter and switch are designed for the 9V. The pocket would have to be elongated by a good inch to accomadate a series of AA.

There IS a design variation on the collars in the works that will take advantage of the 9V Lithium Ion rechargeables that are made for those mini racing cars. Some of them hold 1800m/amp so the avg. draw on the collars is 40m/amp/hr so we're into 50 hrs on solid and capable of recharging about 600 times. It will only be available on the Tracking Harness and the two biggest sizes of collars because the pocket would be too long and rigid for the smaller collars. I sell the vast majority of my collars to pro working dogs and 95% of them are the larger sized breeds. I mean when was the last time you saw a pic of a chihuahua in an avalanche rescue?

http://www.batterybus.com/items.asp?cat_id=57


There are some good 9V NiCads out now. They hold 260m/amp/hrs so they're only good for 6 - 8 hrs.

http://www.batterybus.com/items.asp?cat_id=64

There's lots of variations and possibilities and there's a TON of R&D going on with batteries so the future looks great for much longer working times and more economical too.

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Rescue Dogs (and your pet too!)

FWIW, I just ordered one of these collars. I'll post my impressions when I get it.

Also, if anyone can find any of the other dog related posts, I'd love to update the links.

Thanks,

-john

 

[hquan]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Rescue Dogs (and your pet too!)

This may not apply as much to SAR dogs - but I've seen a variety of different light collars at our local dog park. Most of them bought from the local pet store. Given the rough play at the dog park, ALL of the lights failed after 1 month of consistant use.

Personally, we have a brightly colored reflective safety vest for our dog that works great for walking at night. Of course, this is not good if you want the ability to hide your position...

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Rescue Dogs (and your pet too!)

Yah, part of the reason I am trying the Auroralites collar is deficiencies in the ones that are generally available.

In general, most of these collars don't have good coverage (doesn't wrap around enough). They also aren't rugged, waterproof and don't use long-lasting power sources.

Way back when, I posted pictures of one of these collars. This collar had all of the problems I describe (although it was cleaver): dog collar photos

I'm hoping the Auroralites collar overcomes these issues. Certainly the 9V battery is much better than two little coin cells.

Also note that Auroralites also has a SAR harness that has optional reflective components on both the sides (up to 4x6") and the front. You can get them in both 3M reflective material, or what they call "stealth" reflective, which I assume is like (or is) the illumiNITE material.

4x6" is a pretty serious reflector. Much better than the strip of reflective material I've seen on dog safety vests.

I wish I could dig up these other dog collar/blinker posts because we discussed the options quite a bit.

-john


[Edit: Oops. I see I've reapeated some of what I said in this thread already. I guess I should read before I post..]

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

There IS a design variation on the collars in the works that will take advantage of the 9V Lithium Ion rechargeables that are made for those mini racing cars. Some of them hold 1800m/amp so the avg. draw on the collars is 40m/amp/hr so we're into 50 hrs on solid

Given you are looking at a lithium-ion pack, I'm assuming a 3x123A battery pack would be safe? I finally dug up a source for 123A battery holders..

Seems like there should be a lot more power in 3x123A cells vs those little 9V cells..

Thanks,

-john

 

[AlanH]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

I sell the vast majority of my collars to pro working dogs and 95% of them are the larger sized breeds.

Hi,
Dave, I would like to open discussions about carrying your collars for sale to my clients in the UK.

PM Sent.

Regards

Alan

 

[John N]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Rescue Dogs (and your pet too!)

I just got my collar. I thought I'd start with a few pictures. I'll try to post more later.

-john

[COMPLETE GALLERY]

Notes:

Auroralites Pro Safety Collar pictured with LED dog collar purchased from Petco (yellow, glows red), Krill Extreme 180 and two green Glo-Toob FXes, one in blink mode and one constant on.

Exposure adjusted in photos of product on Chelsea adjusted to match perceived brightness as closely as possible.

Exposure for indoor, lights on / lights off pictures adjusted so that the brightest portion of the image did not totally saturate or just barely saturate the exposure and then the exposure was maintained in both photos.

ISO forced to 400 (max) for "dark" pictures (hence grain) and to 50 for detail pictures.

State of batteries in Petco collar unknown. Auroralites collar using alkaline battery shipped with it. Krill Extreme using lithium batteries.

Exposure was not long enough to ensure an averaging effect for the blinking Glo-Toob. In fact, I think it is "on" in of of the pics and "off" in the other.

 

[paulr]

Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Rescue Dogs (and your pet too!)

All those auroralite.com links are dead. What now?