Interesting \"Hey! Over here!\" Lights
Like a number of folks, I've nearly been picked off a couple of times when walking at night by drivers who couldn't see me, notwithstanding street lights, my use of a flashlight, and so on. It seems that a lot of elderly drivers, who are very common in Florida, don't see very well at night. In addition, I've been looking for some kind of flashing light to pack into a couple of bugout bags as a "Hey! Over here!" device, in addition to the usual whistle or other noisemaker.
I've seen a few different strings where people were discussing various blinking or flashing lights to use as safety devices when walking in dark areas at night. The consensus, to the degree that there was one, seemed to be that they are a good idea, but most of them use unusual batteries, or aren't really bright enough, or didn't have that much of a runtime.
So several days ago I was browsing the County Comm website, and came across these - portable LZ (landing zone) strobes. Since the write-up didn't specify what they used to produce light, I called and asked. They use thrystor tubes - the things used in camera flashes, certain aircraft lights, and so on. So I ordered three, two for bugout bags, and one to potentially use to walk with at night and otherwise play around with. They showed up on my doorstep a couple of days ago.
These suckers are really bright. County Comm claims that they flash about 70 X a minute. I haven't used a stopwatch to check for certain, but that appears to be correct.
In addition to the magnet you can see on the website, they also have something similar to a giant heavyweight safety pin on one side that you can use as an attachment device. The magnet is mounted on the unit with a couple of screws, and is easily removed. This is good, because the magnet is fairly heavy. Empty, but with the magnet, the unit weighs 4 3/4 oz (136 gms); without the magnet it weighs 3 3/8 oz (97 gms). The body is OD plastic (possibly ABS, or something similar), and the various screw-on lenses are very substantial. At about $20 each they are inexpensive for what they are, but they are not cheesy at all.
I had some AA to D adapters that came with a LaCrosse battery charger I bought from JS Burly's lying around. They work well in the unit with AA NiMHs, and really reduce the weight of the unit, for purposes of walking at night. Runtime with the AA NiMHs is dependent upon battery capacity, but appears to range from a few to several hours. I haven't done a formal runtime test with NiMHs, or with a D or AA alky, but have no reason to disbelieve County Comm's claimed runtime with a D.
So, if you're looking for a flashing unit that is hard to miss, and doesn't use coin cells or something else equally as obscure and hard to find, you might check these out.
Like a number of folks, I've nearly been picked off a couple of times when walking at night by drivers who couldn't see me, notwithstanding street lights, my use of a flashlight, and so on. It seems that a lot of elderly drivers, who are very common in Florida, don't see very well at night. In addition, I've been looking for some kind of flashing light to pack into a couple of bugout bags as a "Hey! Over here!" device, in addition to the usual whistle or other noisemaker.
I've seen a few different strings where people were discussing various blinking or flashing lights to use as safety devices when walking in dark areas at night. The consensus, to the degree that there was one, seemed to be that they are a good idea, but most of them use unusual batteries, or aren't really bright enough, or didn't have that much of a runtime.
So several days ago I was browsing the County Comm website, and came across these - portable LZ (landing zone) strobes. Since the write-up didn't specify what they used to produce light, I called and asked. They use thrystor tubes - the things used in camera flashes, certain aircraft lights, and so on. So I ordered three, two for bugout bags, and one to potentially use to walk with at night and otherwise play around with. They showed up on my doorstep a couple of days ago.
These suckers are really bright. County Comm claims that they flash about 70 X a minute. I haven't used a stopwatch to check for certain, but that appears to be correct.
In addition to the magnet you can see on the website, they also have something similar to a giant heavyweight safety pin on one side that you can use as an attachment device. The magnet is mounted on the unit with a couple of screws, and is easily removed. This is good, because the magnet is fairly heavy. Empty, but with the magnet, the unit weighs 4 3/4 oz (136 gms); without the magnet it weighs 3 3/8 oz (97 gms). The body is OD plastic (possibly ABS, or something similar), and the various screw-on lenses are very substantial. At about $20 each they are inexpensive for what they are, but they are not cheesy at all.
I had some AA to D adapters that came with a LaCrosse battery charger I bought from JS Burly's lying around. They work well in the unit with AA NiMHs, and really reduce the weight of the unit, for purposes of walking at night. Runtime with the AA NiMHs is dependent upon battery capacity, but appears to range from a few to several hours. I haven't done a formal runtime test with NiMHs, or with a D or AA alky, but have no reason to disbelieve County Comm's claimed runtime with a D.
So, if you're looking for a flashing unit that is hard to miss, and doesn't use coin cells or something else equally as obscure and hard to find, you might check these out.
