Recommendations?: Flashing LED Dog Collar

BuddTX

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

Check out these dog collars:

http://www.auroralites.com/cgi-bin/store

These are not just for walking fido down to the corner store. I saw one in person, and they put out a nice light. I have a friend who does search and rescue dog training, and saw one of these in person.

They were suprisingly very thin and flexable, and they use lithium 9 volt batteries, something I have not seen before.
 

Darell

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

They look pretty slick, but I sure wish it mentioned something about how the light is produced, and if the light is produced all 360 degrees. Any clue?
 

BuddTX

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

I don't know. I will see my friend tomorrow, and ask her then.

I currently have one that is NOT from this company, and it has a big thick plastic band, and can not overlap.

This collar, did appear to be thin, and I would think, be thin enough, to wrap and illuminate completely around the dog's neck.

It actually gave out enough light, so that, in complete darkness, would illuminate the area just around the dog, giving the dog needed close range light, but not ruining the dog's night vision.
 

Darell

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

It sounds really slick.

I have one of the two-LED with fiber-optic band. The problem is that the light (and reflector) on only go 1/2 way around the neck. It is quite easy to make the dog invisible, if the thing slips around to the far side. I've still found the best thing to be a bouncing Photon or Arc. But I'd sure like to hear more about these collars. Thanks for the info!
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

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

looks like the same technology as the Krill, using an dc/ac inverter .. I don't know how many amp hours are in a 9 volt lithium, they say one and a half amp hours, at 9 volts? can that be right? -- ? -- and they claim up to 60 hours use..that would be 25 ma an hour - - ?
maybe there's a little bit of hyperbole in there that keeps it going, and going....
 

BuddTX

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

I had the same problem, and I attached two of these Pelican LED blinkers to each end:

mini_flasher.jpg


It still did not go around 100 % but it was better than just one light.
 

tygger

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

something that worked for me on my husky was a harness with a flat military stobe taped to the top. very durable and bright but batteries were expensive. people saw it and didn't know what to think, it was so bright. just a thought.
 

Blackbeagle

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

Most likely EL wire. Check out http://www.neontrim.com/ for their selection of dog collar type products. There are a few other sites that sell similar stuff, but they've all been electroluminescent materials of one type or another.
 

BuddTX

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

The collar that I currently have, (along with the two Pelican LED flashers) is this one (two sites, but I think the same product):

http://www.polybrite.com/
the specific link for pets is:
http://www.polybrite.com/pets.html

and the second link is:
http://www.uflash.com/

The nice thing about this product is that it blinks or is steady on red, but if a light source (like a headlight) hits it, it is reflective neon yellow. The brighter the headlight, the brighter the neon yellow.

they are pretty nice, but as Darrell noted, they do not go 360 degrees around the dog's neck:

Col_Ani.gif


As far as the "amp hours" in a 9 volt lithium, here is a direct quote from their FAQ:

SOME MANUFACTURERS CLAIM THEIR COLLARS WILL RUN FOR UP TO 600 HOURS ON A WATCH BATTERY. AURORALITES ARE CLAIMING BETWEEN 14 AND 35 HOURS DEPENDING ON THE TYPE OF BATTERY AND SIZE OF COLLAR. WHY SUCH A DIFFERENCE?

Battery life depends on area or size of lamp and how long it is ON. There are collars that use a tiny red flashing LED and they work great - providing the dog is standing on your chest. There are collars where the EL (lamp) is the width of a PIN and for a tenth of a second, every other second, it flashes. Of course the battery is going to last longer... there's almost no lamp area being driven and it's hardly ever on. Battery technology is consistent. Take a look at the picture and let common sense guide you. Which one looks like it holds more "juice"? A 30m/A/hr 3Volt watch battery or a 1500m/A/hr 9Volt?

Here is another quote that may answer the 360 degree question:

When a dog is wearing an AURORALITES SAFETY COLLAR they can be seen from all angles - from above, through thick underbrush, woods, fog, rain and rubble.

Here is what their collar looks like:
major.jpg
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

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

BuddTx, as far as the "amp hours" in a 9 volt lithium goes, if you click on the "click here for more info" you will also see this; quoting from site:

"...***RECOMMENDED FOR PROFESSIONAL WORKING DOGS ***
The Auroralites Pro Safety Collar is designed specifically for work in weather extremes. A single Lithium 9Volt battery can provide 60 hours of LIGHT in ANY weather conditions - down to minus 50F.
We recommend a lithium 9-volt for a back-up. They have a 7-year shelf life and are the only battery that will continue to function at minus 50F. ..."
 

John N

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

Originally posted by Blackbeagle:
Most likely EL wire. Check out http://www.neontrim.com/ for their selection of dog collar type products. There are a few other sites that sell similar stuff, but they've all been electroluminescent materials of one type or another.
Minor detail - I don't think it's electroluminescent *wire*, but a flat strip of EL, ala the Krill lamps.

-john
 
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John N

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

I've got the same collar that BuddTX has. While I like it I agree about the problem of coverage.

Interestingly, I added a Photon 3 Crystal (red) with a crystal and have it on medium blink. It turns out this works much better than the collar itself. Not only is it very bright in a direct view situation, but it puts out enough light that you see the reflected light as well.

Currently I have the lighted collar w/ the Photon 3 which covers all the bases.

I've seen the EL collars around (on the web and in magazines) but haven't seen any in person. I think the main thing is I assume them to be about as bright (at best) as my Krill Extreme 180 which isn't very bright, plus you lose the reflective properties.

At some point I mean to try to make a really good collar - the collar I have isn't waterproof and in the woods it would be better to get something with better runtime.

I'd be very interested in a review of the EL collar if someone gets one.

-john

Collar pics:
http://www.navitsky.org/photos/collar/

Photon 3 Crystal pics (warning! very large):
http://www.navitsky.org/photos/lights/p3/
 

BuddTX

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

This was sent to me, so I will post the entire message. Some good information here!:

BTY, my friend who showed me this collar is JoAnn Tierney, Treasurer of the Greater Houston Search Dogs (www.ghsd.org)
-----------------
Hi Darell

Pardon the intrusion. I have been watching the discussion but haven't been able to log on for some reason. Still trying.

The Auroralites collars are made with flat electroluminescent material. It is sealed against water and re-enforced for durability. They are pumped up fairly bright and have been seen in some conditions from as far as 12,000FT away.

I didn't include an in depth explanation of E.L. material because I was finding most people don't bother reading the stuff I have put up now let alone anything technical. Typical question: What happens if the light material MELTS through the collar and burns my dog?

I attempted to use the ELAM string format for the collars but after some testing I realized the format could not stand up to what I needed.

All my components, fabrication and assembly are either local or North American. The competition is all imported from you-know-where. As far as safety goes ANYTHING is better than nothing however the competition have sacrificed visibility and durability for profit margins and the reflective materials only work when the dog is in the kill zone of a set of headlights. In law enforcement apps the K9 officer doesn't really want to give away his position by shining a light at his dog either.

The collars come in 4 sizes with 3/4 in wide lamps in lengths of 9, 11, 13 and 16 inches so with almost any size dog the lamp is for all intents 360º coverage of the neck. There is a small power pack (9V and switch) that sits right at the throat and doesn't light up and again for obvious reasons the K9 officers out there are happy with that feature. If the dog is running right at a bad guy he doesn't see the lamp - just the teeth.

To get an idea about uses and who's using the collars take a look at :

http://www.auroralites.com/cgi-bin/store?page=satisfied.html&cart_id=1159512_24259

and at the bottom of that page is a list of agencies that have bought and are using our collars. As Budd says. A bit more collar than you need to walk around the block with PheePhee the Lhaso. We are proud of the record and stand by our aim of providing the best professional safety collar available today.

If I still can't post I'll Email this to a couple of the participants who seem unsure of what these are.

Be safe.

Dave Youngman
President - Auroralites Safety Systems Inc
Ont. , Canada
905-820-2980
Cell# 416-230-2396
www.auroralites.com
 

Dave Youngman

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

I think I'm finally on....I've Emailed a few of you to clarify some points because I couldn't log-on. DaveW just sent a new password so I think I'm in. The only issue that hasn't been addressed so far is a few differences between collar lights and users.

Our collars do NOT flash, blink or strobe for two main reasons. Primary is the number of epileptic dogs - and people - out there and blinking lights can trigger seizures. Not something you want to deal with if your dog is tracking a lost little kid who is going to die of hypothermia in a short while if he isn't found. The second is that a flash, blink or strobe does NOT provide the brain of an oncoming driver enough info to determine speed, direction or distance of the *flash* . Many police K9 do use strobes but they are mounted in the middle of their backs and for the very same reasons a driver can't visually range on them, the same goes for a bad guy trying to shoot a dog. So if you don't want your dog shot that's a good thing but for safety around cars a flashing light is next to useless.The retro-reflective materials ONLY work when the dog is in the kill zone of the headlights. We do not incorprate any reflectives in our collars because many professional working dog handlers, when they turn the collar OFF there is a damn good reason to do so. A car coming around a corner at the wrong time could give their positions away - nuff said.

During the R&D phase of the collar production I did try the ELAM STRING format E.L. lamp but it simply could not stand up to the rigors of a professional working dog. I tried LEDs and although they are very bright they are also very directional and I needed a penetrating steady and large surface area lamp to supply max safety for the dogs. Flat panel display E.L. was the only thing that met all the criteria.

To validate our claims of making a professional dog collar (as well as many other items- we sell Photon P3s too) take a look at our Satisfied Customers pages. At the bottom of that page is a partial list of user agencies to date.

http://www.auroralites.com/cgi-bin/store?page=satisfied.html&cart_id=1159512_24259

Thanks and be safe

Dave
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

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

Thanks for the information Dave. I emailed you back asking if you'd like your email posted, but I see BuddTx beat me to it..
Seems like a very fine product, probably more robust than the somewhat fragile Krill.. I don't suppose you would want to make a collar for my cat, he doesn't go out at night, but he might enjoy wearing an Auroralite while he's watching Cops on TV...
 

Dave Youngman

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

Krills are a great sub for a chem-stik. I wanted to do something similar 6 years ago.

With a few fairly minor design/engineering changes, the Krill wands could survive anything. So far that hasn't happened and feedback I get from SAR teams is that a Krill just doesn't survive very long on a working SAR K9.
 

John N

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Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

I'm trying to tie the dog walking threads together. Here are all the dog walking threads I know of:

Summary of Dog Walking Threads on the CPF Wiki

[Keywords: dog, doggie, doggy, blinker, reflective, night, walking, safety]
 
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TOB9595

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

John N Thanks much this info is welcomed
Tom
 

TOB9595

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Re: Serious Lighted Dog Collars for Search and Res

Hey all, the links don't work with the new forum. Need to be relinked, It'll be quite some time till I can get to this. Anyone else care to?
Tom
 
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