Flashlight Beacon

LaMigraUSA

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
6
Hi all! Well I made a post in the laser forum that seems to be getting touchy. So I will drop the whole laser idea. What I am trying to do is create a beacon beam emitting from the top of my RV at the Glamis Sand Dunes in southern CA. As I explianed in the previos thread there are, at times over 100,000 people camping at the same time out there. When you come over the last dune facing the camping area you encounter a sea of lights. They are flashing, strobing and twisting. One thing they havent done is used a laser or strong beam shooting upwards. My reason for wanting to do this is to have a unique identifier for our camp groung. Others can literally roam around for hours try to find your camp for a meeting place. You may describe you camp to them, but there are probably 20 other people with same light, blow up figurine, ballon or whatever protruding from their camps. So I have one of those 10 million candle power 20lb flashlights from Costco. Can I use the light housing from several of these and wire them together and power them from a 12v power supply and then make it rotate or something cool like that? What do some of you light savvy techies think?
 

HarryN

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
3,976
Location
Pleasanton (Bay Area), CA, USA
I think you should give everyone gps coordinates. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

As far as facing up - it is pretty easy to loose a beam into thin air unless it has something to bounce off of / scatter - such as fog or clouds.

Probably the easiest way to make a rotating light is to put the power supply for the light on the table as well. That makes the rotating connections go away.
 

LaMigraUSA

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
6
Well the reflecting matter would be an endless supply of airborne dust! The power supply on the table is a great idea, but the table would require dual copper tracks with spring loaded contact strips or something to power the power supply. Maybe just mounting the lights on a moving cantilever? Yikes! Getting complicated! That is what makes it fun though!
 

sotto

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 30, 2002
Messages
1,062
Location
Old Bay City, CA
[ QUOTE ]
LaMigraUSA said:
...at times over 100,000 people camping at the same time out there. When you come over the last dune facing the camping area you encounter a sea of lights.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, where can I get in line to get me some of that tranquility? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Seriously, you could give some thought to acquiring a rather reasonable size commercially made beacon light with a unique flashing pattern. You can see a Glo-toob for quite a distance, and one of the fancier versions has about 7 different modes and comes in several LED colors. Also runs a long time. I believe I'd start there. Simple and relatively inexpensive.
 

Blackbeagle

Newly Enlightened
Joined
May 14, 2002
Messages
199
Location
Oahu, HI
Helium balloons - large. Use something like a Peak or a CMG Infinity as a cork facing up into the balloons. Try colored LED's. Get your lights above the crowd. That or try EL wire as the tie-down strings.
 
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