...they were quite simple to make and used the flash unit from throw away camera's...
Yeah i though about using or making an old-fashioned xenon strobe.
The upside is you can have much brighter flashes, for the same power, but with a much lower duty cycle. For location that's good.
Downsides are:
- those tubes are fragile; i'd be worried about them breaking under typical ejection and landing forces, especially in the case of "incomplete" deployment.
- and they don't last too long- the cheap ones anywhere from 1000 to 50,000 flashes.
- They require more 'lectronics, including relatively large 300-400v capacitor and small transformers (2) which add weight and take up more space - not great for low-mid power rockets.
On the other hand the high power/super bright LED's cost more - right now a 3W is about the same cost of a larger strobe tube that can produce flashes 100x as bright.
But they're virtually unbreakable, they don't wear out, much smaller and lighter too, come in very intense colors, and are easier to drive and can be made to flash any way you like - in pretty patterns if you prefer.
If you count the electronics, i think i can make about 10-15W's worth of LED flash for roughly the same cost to make a small xenon strobe- if that proves to be sufficiently bright, that's what i would do. if not, then its "back to the drawing board"...