Safety Strobe Single D Flasher Mod

[milkyspit]

I'm acting as surrogate for Doug Owen here, starting a new thread and posting some photos on his behalf for a mod he's been developing to the "Safety Strobe," a single D-cell flashing light used for various aircraft and personal safety scenarios. I won't say much about the mod -- leave that to the master himself /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif -- other than to explain a little background.

The mod developed with a comment from PeterW over in the Milky Candle pilot run thread. Peter mentioned that the EL 3-to-D battery holders might make a nice format for a future candle mod, which apparently got the wheels spinning in Doug's brain... one thing led to another, and Doug apparently realized that this host would make a fine housing for such a "squat" candle. He took a constant current regulation circuit and retrofitted it into the housing, initially using a Nichia.

A future version may well use a Luxeon instead, which I personally believe would take full advantage of the clear dome lid on the flasher, given the wide angle "omnidirectional" output of a bare high dome emitter. But it's Doug's baby, so I'll leave you to the photos for now, and let him fill in further details...

View through the top, showing the Nichia as well as a cutout to expose the level selection switch. This initial circuit is a rectangular version of the "Milky Candle" board, which Doug designed.

A look at the entire light.

The underside of that top board, showing the positive battery contact... I think. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Another view from the top, but opposite side as before.

A look at the circuit board with clear dome removed.

 

[jtice]

Very nice work.
These lights look like really nice mod host.

Thats a good price also. I should pick up a couple to mod.

Nice work, keep it up. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Rothrandir]

very nice! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

should be useful /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Doug Owen]

[ QUOTE ]
jtice said:
Very nice work.
These lights look like really nice mod host.

Thats a good price also. I should pick up a couple to mod.

Nice work, keep it up. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

As I said on the original thread, I paid about $6 for the light. The best price I can find is twice that:

$12 w/3 lenses

$10 clear only

They range in price up to $30! I've ordered a couple of these to see if they'll work.

Now if only the AA cell adaptors will get here.....

Hopefully, someone will come up with an even cheaper version?

Doug Owen

 

[fred0109]

Try looking for the strobes at scuba diving shops. I used to manage a used sporting goods company and would get them all the time with dive gear. I will take a look and see if I have any left, mabey we can work a trade. I know that I have one that runs on a single C cell and another that is a C cell and has a flashlight on the opposite end of the strobe. I'll post again if I find them.

 

[Bravo25]

Most army navy stores will have this body (without magnet) in a simple incandescent light for farily cheap. The strobes in this body style shouldn't run much more.

 

[Doug Owen]

[ QUOTE ]
Bravo25 said:
Most army navy stores will have this body (without magnet) in a simple incandescent light for farily cheap. The strobes in this body style shouldn't run much more.

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, that's what I recall, too. I spent a couple hours on the web over a couple of days looking for '"one D cell" light' and similar, found a bunch of similar flashers, a bunch of experiments for schools using a D cell and bulb, but not a single mention of the life vest light I too recall.

Not many real military surplus stores left around here, maybe I should try them anyway?

You don't know of a specific case available today, do you?

TIA

Doug Owen

 

[Bravo25]

Might check ebay. Give me a couple of days. I bought a strobe in this body style, and put a magnetic base on it for mounting on the car in emergencies, but I don't recall whom it was made by. I think I paid about ten bucks for it, but it was the strobe, no the incan.

 

[Doug Owen]

In some useful progress, the $11 flasher from:

WJ Enterprises flasher

Is not only exactly like the one I already converted, but got here very quickly. It would still be very nice to find a cheaper source as the $11 is more than the total for all the other parts.

Doug Owen

 

[fred0109]

Anyone seen these yet? Looks like an LED personal warning beacon.
http://www.kliptek.com/
Looks like they have started to market these as "LED based emergency strobes". Only drawback is "A single unit with any head is expected to be priced at $150. Added heads are expected to be $100 each". I found this info on the Equipped to Survive website under the new products introduced at the Shot Show this year.
Just passing along some info.

 

[Steelwolf]

I am curious as to the actual advantage of using a LED in place of a xenon strobe. Is it to increase the run time? If so, how long should a strobe run, or is it "the longer the better"?

But can the brightness of the LED compare to the brightness of the xenon flash, or is that level of brightness not actually necessary?

 

[Bravo25]

Somehow the shadows in a few of those pictures don't look right. It looks like there was some extra light in there somewhere. Who'da thunk.

 

[mrsinbad]

I have this strobe for my PFD when I go out fishing at night. The switch is showing signs of corrosion so this light is not saltwater friendly (or vice versa). Know before you buy.

 

[Blackbeagle]

One of the largest makers of strobes, PFD lights, GPS, PLB and EPIRBs is ACR Electronics. Long the maker of the US Gov issue strobe for pilots. They have some strobes that are meant for divers - relatively waterproof (100ft.)

Meanwhile, I've also got to ask: most of the time you want a VERY bright light since the most likely SAR platform will be a plane and being noticed from altitude is a bit of a problem for a LED light. Noticed that you are using only a 5mm not a Luxeon. Are you more worried about run-time?

 

[milkyspit]

Blackbeagle, Doug's using the safety strobe housing to build a long-running LED light; his intent isn't to reinvent the flasher.

 

[Blackbeagle]

Whoops! Right - candle mode. Sorry.

Curious - if longevity is important, would it be better to underdrive a LED by increasing the resistor value or would the additional resistance result in the energy going up as heat instead of light?

 

[Steelwolf]

We're building candles? Right. Sorry about that.