Ideas for DIY emergency strobe?

A friend is absolutely convinced that having a strobe light (similar to the military personal locator beacon/strobe carried by aviators) kept him from a bad wreck while stopped in inclement weather. This made me think ... I have some flashlights with a very noticeable beacon/strobe function, but they're only effective if the light is pointing the right way. Probably not a great idea to aim them directly into the eyes of oncoming drivers if I'm stopped on the side of the road. Any ideas at how to modify something like an EagleTac P20A2, Zebralight H51, heck even an EternaLight, so that the strobe is visible 360 degrees? Or ideas for another light that'd work better? Yep, could put a plastic wand over the end, but the only one I could find in the junk drawer cut WAY down on the amount of light. It may be that the best answer is "buy a military-type FRS2000 or SDU-5/E beacon" .... but I thought I'd try using what I've got first. Thanks for any suggestions.

This may sound funny but if you have Scotch tape with you can make a little "tape cone" and tape it onto the end of your flashlight and it'll work. I did this once with my PAlight long ago when I went camping.

For other lights that have 1" bezels you can use opaque caps that you get from water bottles.

Not ideal solutions but I think they'd work in a pinch.

I think this is the perfect use for a Solarforce L2P with the lantern head. Plenty of strobe modules are available. Simply tailstand it and it sends out the light perfectly 360 degrees without sending the light straight up. Also doubles as a good camping lantern. Plus simply remove the head and reattach the bezel and you've got one of the best flashlight hosts around.

Perfect! A low tech and a high tech approach!
Great info. I've already got Scotch tape , and will order some Solarforce goodness from Lighthound. I really like the idea of that lantern head. In fact, two days ago I asked Wayne at ElektroLumens if he could come up with something like a lantern add-on for one of his upcoming projects.
Thanks, Imon. Thanks, qwertyydude.

Keep in mind that the strobe on most flashlights is more rapid than the flash of locator beacons... they will definitely get your attention faster!

rdf said:

A friend is absolutely convinced that having a strobe light (similar to the military personal locator beacon/strobe carried by aviators) kept him from a bad wreck while stopped in inclement weather. This made me think ... I have some flashlights with a very noticeable beacon/strobe function, but they're only effective if the light is pointing the right way. Probably not a great idea to aim them directly into the eyes of oncoming drivers if I'm stopped on the side of the road. Any ideas at how to modify something like an EagleTac P20A2, Zebralight H51, heck even an EternaLight, so that the strobe is visible 360 degrees? Or ideas for another light that'd work better? Yep, could put a plastic wand over the end, but the only one I could find in the junk drawer cut WAY down on the amount of light. It may be that the best answer is "buy a military-type FRS2000 or SDU-5/E beacon" .... but I thought I'd try using what I've got first. Thanks for any suggestions.

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actually it is proven that a person is more likely to run into a parked car, on the side of the road if it has lights on, we drive where our eyes are looking, if you get stuck on the side of the road, shut all lights off.

unless you are on the road, or partially on the road, than, hazard lights in your car made especially for that purpose. strobe will get ppl to notice you better\faster, not sure if it is a good thing thou.

fresh eddie fresh,
Yes, I've noticed the difference in cycle rate, too .... Makes me wish the strobe cycle rate on my flashlight was adjustable. Haha. Pretty complex stuff to ask of our flashlights. Used to be kind of digital selection devices; you either had light, or you didn't. Now we have adjustable .... everything. Pretty cool, I think.

alpg88,
Good point about people driving into your taillights if you leave them on. I would certainly try the hazard flashers, and have also thought I'll get some of those reflective triangles. The inclement weather situation I mentioned in first post was actually ground fog, and my friend put his strobe on top of his car. Doesn't happen often, but I've seen similar visibility occlusions during heavy rain; it seems like everything from about ground level to four feet high is this amorphous gray haze.

I'll also try to expand on Imon's idea with the plastic bottle caps, and see if I can find some sort of translucent plastic tube or pipe, so I could maybe have a larger light emitting surface. Maybe just walk around WalMart looking at stuff in hardware, auto, craft sections .... The Solarforce lantern head suggested by qwertydude looks great, but it appears a lot of places out of the particular host body I want. I'm still looking on that one. Good to have options.

Thanks for the suggestions, ideas, etc.

Lighthound has the Solarforce stuff and specifically has the lantern head in stock. I do really like the new L2P I recently bought too, it's even better quality than the previous version. He's also a site supporter and very fast shipping.

qwertyydude said:

I think this is the perfect use for a Solarforce L2P with the lantern head. Plenty of strobe modules are available. Simply tailstand it and it sends out the light perfectly 360 degrees without sending the light straight up. Also doubles as a good camping lantern. Plus simply remove the head and reattach the bezel and you've got one of the best flashlight hosts around.

Click to expand...

Yup, you beat me to it.... That lantern head is something else... It's fun to take into the woods.... Use lots of extenders and a high-voltage drop in to make an LED strobe torch... Plus you can take it to your next role playing game outing and call it your Staff of Rapid Strobing... Staff of Confusion... OK I dorked out a little there...

You can get cheap strobe/beacons in dive stores as well. Many headlamps have that feature with red or white leds. My Black Diamond Storm has both kinds of strobe.

A trick I learned is to salvage the nozzles from silicone sealant tubes.



That's a nozzle planted right over my Quark AA Tactical. It turns the light into an awesome lamp/traffic wand.

Neat trick, is it filled with the silicone ?

Unfortunately, no. That would block most of transmission of light within the cone itself.

Haha Shao. What I thought of when I read that was, guy in gray robes and pointy hat, saying " You. Shall Not. Pass !! "

gcbryan. Excellent point. Thanks. I see my PT EOS has a strobe w/ a nice interval (I find most of the flashlight strobes, doubtless intended to visually disorient someone, to cycle too quickly for an ideal locator beacon type of function). Still need to find something to put on there to make it more 360-visible.

Like .... enomosiki's magic glowing sealant tube nozzle. Great idea. Great photo, too. Thanks.

I also see that Lighthound has diffuser kit and traffic wand add-ons for various Fenix lights, for very reasonable prices. I may pick up some of these, though it appears I'll have to do some adjusting to get them to work on flashlights of different diameters.

Thanks for the suggestions.

gcbryan said:

You can get cheap strobe/beacons in dive stores as well. Many headlamps have that feature with red or white leds. My Black Diamond Storm has both kinds of strobe.

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yup.
the glo-toob would work well in this situation.

The translucent white cap from a deodorant aerosol worked for me, it was large enough to cover the head and provide a big blob of light.

I only use this on a cheap torch though as I think it's more useful to place this light a few tens of metres downwind of my car, to warn oncoming traffic that something is ahead. I don't mind losing a cheap torch to a passing truck wheel.

In Europe you are supposed to carry a reflective triangle, but that isn't much use in foggy weather.




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