Dog Light. (help, I need advice)

Thanks for the info Brock. Maybe I should clarify. My thoughts were for two sets of lights for the dogs. Something bright when I am out walking them and something very long lasting in the on position when they are in the Yard. I might have to look into the bicycle lights you mentioned though they sound a bit larger that what I was thinking of. I thought the raves flashed, hmmm. I wonder if a wide beem photonIII set to flash in one of the more visible colors might work when I am walking them. Any other ideas out there? Would love to here all of the opinions that I can get.

What about a Princeton Tec sport flare or eco flare?

I haven't tried these products, but they may be worth a look.
http://www.princetontec.com/entry.html

The Eco Flare looks like it has both constant on incandescent and flashing LED modes so that it might give you the bright/dim option you were looking for.

DP

Where to position the lights? I guess it has to be with the dog collar. If your dog is the hairy type, collar can be easily covered by dog's hair and not be visible, and other dog might chew the lights to pieces to satisfy playfull curiosity.

My idea is a aluminum or stainless dog collar housing with many protruding bright LEDs around it, sensors for auto-light 'on' and 'off' can also be included, and the 3AAA, 3AA, or 9-volt batteries for power. Initial cost might be high but the long run savings on durability and easy cleaning/maintenance offsets the cost.

I can already imagine your dogs looking like glowing canine fighters from grrrrr galaxy.

- verge -

The Krill light, an electroluminescent "glow stick" powered by two AA batteries, might be a good option for when you're taking the dog for a walk. You haven't said how big or furry the dogs are, but for fairly big ones, you should be able to hang a krill from their collars without it getting in their way too much. It's very visible, especially if swinging around. Search on "krill" in this forum to find past comments by me and others.

For smaller dogs, you could perhaps attach a krill to the leash, so that it would bounce around under or behind the dog if it pulled loose from your grasp.

Most LED flashers seem to be fairly directional, so might not work too well if dangled from a collar.

For while the dogs are in the yard: reflective collars would be a good precaution to take. I can't think of any active lights that seem right for attaching to a dog 24/7.

I like 2d_edge's idea for a collar ringed
with LED's - another approach to that problem
would be electroluminescent wire, such as found at www.coollight.com. EL wire is very cool stuff, though I don't know anything about its durability.

[editted to add the following]
This could be the ticket: an electroluminescent dog leash! http://www.thatscoolwire.com/store/item.asp?Category=83&SubCategoryID=&GroupID=&SKU=FWSLL%2D316B

I was thinking like a collar with LEDs on it...something like this:

http://farmpetsupply.sureshopping.com/searching.asp?cat=Collars&cR=categories

Or you could hang a photon from their collar...

Something bright when I am out walking them and something very long lasting in the on position when they are in the Yard.

2 words- Photon Three.

Many more words....
Get a red, orange or yellow Photon 3, they have a claimed 120 hour burn time on full power, from one 2025 (is that right? numbers confuse me!) lithium coin cell. Get the Crystal version and a set of Rávn crystals for a wider angle light- or the regular one for the lowest cost option which should still be good. You can set it on full power mode for "bright" out walking (or fast strobe- which is very eye catching), and set to the slow blink mode or medium/low power constant mode in your yard- my guess from what I`ve read so far (havn`t done a burn time test on my white one yet cos the damn batteries cost so much over here) is that it should extend the battery life by 5-10 times. Plenty enough to leave them on all night. Fairly well waterproof too, so a sudden downpour or dunk in the water-bowl won`t hurt them- plus they`re small and light so your beloved pets won`t get all uncomfortable lugging a heavy weight about.

Actually, the burn time of the PIII white, blue, or turquoise is only about 12-14 hours.

If you put it on the lower power setting, this is extended by about a power of 10, and the lowest constant-on setting extends it another power of 10.

Putting it on flash does extend the life of the batteries, but I have seen no data on exactly how much.

Walt

Maybe-- http://www.safetyled.com/safetyled/ds/emergency_electronic_strobe/39.htm

Several colored lenses...<72hr on one D cell.

I have some dogs that I want to be highly visible at night without weighing the dogs down by turning them into a christmas tree. I have long thought about a way to put a light on a dog collor but thought that everything I have seen is not that practical. Things may be starting to change. I live in the country but there is some traffic out where I live. I think if my dogs were easy to spot or hard to not notice, they may be in slightly less danger of being a road hazzard. My dogs do not run loose but are fenced and get walked on a lead regularly and the dogs have managed to excape my grasp once in a while. When walking my dogs on a lead, I think that perhaps a Photon Rave might make them easy to see, is there something better? Now comes the though question, is there a light that I can keep on the dogs collars while they are in the yard in case of escape? It would have to have a long life, maybe a week between battery changes since of course I would have no way of knowing when an excape opportuning might occur. Any opinions or advice would be most welcome.

Well the Photon Rave with the crystal on it would light up quite a bit, but you would have to turn them on and off by hand. It would probably be cheaper to get some of those red LED bike/running lights. They were the first real LED light I owned. I used them running. They run on 2 AA's and I have never changed the batteries in the last two years.

I have no idea what you could use that would light up automatically. Maybe some car jacking alarm type thing?

Check out REI www.REI.com I think ). they sell a LED light made by Pelican I believe, that is made to clip onto a dogs collar.

I use the Eco Flare - clips to the dogs colour and the red LED burns for ever - over 100 hours (they list 70 or something) I should say that it is not incredilbly bright

It comes with an incandescent bulb so that you can switch it to make an area light. Don't use it much that way though.

JSB,
Check out www.neontrim.com for some useful EL collar ideas...
They show "flexalight" (look like collars) in the 12-$15 range and run on Li coin cells.
-For lightfanatics they've also got some really nifty looking other stuff.....
Edit:
I just noticed that they sell lighted leash/collars for dogs.

as the other person suggested reflective dog collars, no battery to replace or anything extra for them to tote around. i got mine at petsmart. I've never ordered but someone suggested www.glowdog.com
we have 2 little chihuahuas and they look really cool with their shiny collars. we take ours with camping and the collars would really help if they were to get away or if they were in the road cars can spot them easier.

Wal-Mart is currently selling some LED flashing lights in various colors that flash in about 4 modes. They are about $2.50 each and are about the size of a zippo lighter but abit thicker.

You might also want to consider a Krill Lamp which is a 2 AA cell battery operated electroluminescent light about the size of a chemical light stick. But I know I paid about $24 for mine.

For illumination, you might consider a Pelican MityLight which is a 2 AA light with a battery compartment about the zize of a zippo lighter and then it has a very bright little halogen bulb on a little swivel arm. ABout $12 I think. It has a clip on it that you can attach to a cap, belt (or dog collar), pocket, etc.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JonSidneyB:
I have some dogs that I want to be highly visible at night without weighing the dogs down by turning them into a christmas tree. I have long thought about a way to put a light on a dog collor but thought that everything I have seen is not that practical. Things may be starting to change. I live in the country but there is some traffic out where I live. I think if my dogs were easy to spot or hard to not notice, they may be in slightly less danger of being a road hazzard. My dogs do not run loose but are fenced and get walked on a lead regularly and the dogs have managed to excape my grasp once in a while. When walking my dogs on a lead, I think that perhaps a Photon Rave might make them easy to see, is there something better? Now comes the though question, is there a light that I can keep on the dogs collars while they are in the yard in case of escape? It would have to have a long life, maybe a week between battery changes since of course I would have no way of knowing when an excape opportuning might occur. Any opinions or advice would be most welcome.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

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]

This might work for you. It's about the size of a small pager. 1 1/4 wide and 2 1/4 long. It can clip onto the collar just like a pager. They get about 45 hours on two AAA batteries. It has 5 LEDS with 6 options of how they can be displayed.
Steady on, strobe, flash, ect. They cost about 6 bucks each. If you think you might want to try them let me know and I can pick a few up for you.
http://users.erols.com/holtz58/safetylight.jpg

Here's yer dog light right here!

bump

'Nuther *BUMP*

Thanks to JohnN and his dog light links I figure I'll might as well show ya'll the best.

Here's the URL / links

http://www.auroralites.com

http://www.auroralites.com/users/users.html (partial list of clients)

http://www.auroralites.com/pictures_of_collars_and_vests.asp (Pics)

http://www.auroralites.com/satisfied.asp (Testimonials)