Looking for advice on a personal strobe

[chmsam]

OK, here's a weird one...

Part of my hobby here also goes into my volunteering for a performance road rally (can you say "Travis Pastrana" or "Ken Block?"). I am looking for a personal strobe to use at two signs that are posted on the roadside at the end of the stage.

Background info:

This is a motor sport where cars are driven at high speed on closed, "real" roads (usually unpaved) and no guardrails. The signs I need to mark are the warning of the upcoming end of the timed stage and the actual "flying finish" sign where the cars are timed. The teams know where the signs should be but I need to mark the precise location even if the signs are not visible.

The signs have come down in the past although they are on stakes driven in the ground. Not only are we out in the woods but there is a good reason they call it the "flying finish" since the cars go past at very high speed. Cars have hit the signs (the signs are only made of lightweight plastic) and in rough weather they get knocked down.

So here are the requirements and in their priority:

1. Has to be visible in daylight and from a distance. Conditions can be bright & sunny but also in snow, rain, mud, dust, etc. The strobe must be bright and water/weatherproof.

2. A strobe pulse that is too slow won't do the job but in addition the strobes need to function for a few hours. I want reasonable pulse rate and run time.

2. The signs are in a dangerous location. The lights have to be durable and dependable. Standing next to a sign or going to fix a strobe during the running of the stage could be fatal. Reliability really is a life saver.

3. I want strobes to match the sign color, one yellow and the other red. They are set up in that order so using a yellow lens or a filter on the first one won't block as much of the light as for the red one but both need to be colored.

4. I'm broke and cheap. I want to keep the budget for the two strobes, the lenses/filters, and anything I use to attach them to a tree or post has to total only about $100.

I already have some very good ideas however I value the input of this forum and while guesses and "how abouts" are welcome what I really want is some "been there, done that" or "how I use my strobe" info.

Thank you all immensely in advance.

 

[cistallus]

Sorry I don't have specific ideas or experience here. However, it seems from your requirements that you don't really need the portability of a flashlight; also, the combination of your requirements seem unsuited to most LED or incandescent lights. Perhaps the solution is a real xenon gas strobe with color filters; there may be other more suitable forums here for things like that; maybe look at safety, emergency, construction, or other industry suppliers for this kind of thing?

 

[jhc37013]

No yellow or red I don't think but I thought of this light.

http://www.4sevens.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=1898

 

[baterija]

Well not a been there done that story but the Glo-toob sounds like a good fit. Multiple blinky modes including ones where the light pulse but is never completely off. They are available in the colors you want and fit your budget.

Brightness in daylight conditions would be my biggest question/concern. The runtimes on 100% show they aren't exactly pushing the emitters hard and it's a 360 radiation pattern so it's not even directed towards the drivers.

 

[derangboy]

Building a blinking light is actually quite easy. I did a few for our club a few years back with a kit from a local electronics supplier and some knock off Pelican cases.

Similar to this, but higher power
http://www.canakit.com/electronic-kits?src=AdWords&gclid=CL-FtKGJxaACFQVaagodt07WaQ&cat=4

A good yellow might be hard to find, but red is quite easy. Adding more LEDs to the kit is also pretty easy, I'd start here
http://ledcalc.com/

Hope that helps!

 

[chmsam]

Thanks for the suggestions. I need these to function in daylight and be durable. Among other things I was thinking along the lines of these especially since the filters are available accessories.

 

[mfm]

Thanks for the suggestions. I need these to function in daylight and be durable. Among other things I was thinking along the lines of these especially since the filters are available accessories.

I would look at 12V Xenon strobes for vehicles and use a 12V SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery.

 

[csa]

I agree. 12v SLA + xenon strobe is probably your best bet. Wire something up and hide all but the strobe head behind a tree where it's out of harm's way (hopefully!).

Use theater gels to get your red/yellow color filters, since they won't melt over time and heat with the strobe.

 

[chmsam]

Good advice with the car strobes and SLA's. I'd thought of that before. It would be a durable and bright solution. I need to work out how to lighten the whole package up and weatherproof the connections for the conditions. And to make the whole thing work on the really cheap side. I've been thinking about the best way to do that for quite awhile and still am.

Unfortunately I'll need to lug these things around sometimes so the weight is a concern. One is enough extra weight and two would be bulky and heavy. I'm looking to put the whole deal in a backpack that also will hold a timing device, radio, water supply, food, etc. Doing the job sometimes requires hauling all that stuff a half mile or more on foot.

I do not want to sound like I am just shooting down the ideas here but I've done this stuff for years and have thought through too many limitations to list on this forum. Not being nit-picky but I have a lot of been there, done that experience and I'm trying to keep it K.I.S.S. not only for me but for people who might have to deal with it after I stop doing this.

This is one of those "but it sounded like such a simple idea at first" things and I've been working on this for well over a year. I don't need the lights to be seen from outer space but the teams need to see them in (sometimes very bright) daylight from at least 30 yards away while they drive by at a very fast speed. I need a bright and easy to use set up that is light weight, compact, durable, and weather proof. Unfortunately it is not an option to pick some of those and leave out other needs.

Add in that it has to be low budget and you can see why I am bouncing ideas off people that do this stuff too as well as asking for suggestions here.

Thanks again for your suggestions. Looks like I'm going back to the drawing board.

 

[mfm]

I need a bright and easy to use set up that is light weight, compact, durable, and weather proof.

Maybe a car- (or alarm system) strobe with a home-built 3x18650 Li-ion pack or some R/C LiPo pack. It will be cheap and much smaller and lighter than using an SLA. The relative success depends on the characteristics of the particular strobe of course.

 

[Bogie]

I have a few of these I use to keep in the cars for breakdowns, they work very well.

Lightman strobes

 

[csa]

Have you considered some kind of rig that is activated by an approaching car? That could cut down considerably on battery weight, at the expense of KISS.

I think the real problem is that you want a fairly directional strobe, but most xenon strobes are designed in "banks".

What about strobes designed for bikes?

 

[Flying Turtle]

You might have or be able to get some old Eternalights. A Derringer will flash on red or white, maybe bright enough. One of the larger models had red, too. Old tech, but it still works.

Geoff

 

[chmsam]

The conditions pretty much dictate a Xenon strobe and constant on for the strobe would the only reliable way to go.

I'm still leaning toward a USGC type strobe because they are dead-reliable and within the price range but the Lightman strobes look interesting. I'll see if I can find them locally to see how bright they are.