Strobe

[Stewart32]

Hello All,

Can anybody recommend a lightweight strobe for say 24mm impulse. I would like to scratch build something to loft a bright strobe near dusk and plan on D power. I have poked around a little but cant seem to find much in my research. Any thoughts, experience?

Thanks

 

[Stymye]

no experience here,but also want to try it
this site has some diagrams and info

https://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/gadgets/rocket2.html

 

[AlexM]

https://www.autodirectsave.com/WheelLights.asp

 

[shockwaveriderz]

Jack: I purchased a 21 gram 24mm size personal strobe light from a guy out in Utah a year or so ago..... It works with any 1.5 v battery from AAA to D and its speed is dpeendent on the battery used( 1 strobe per second for example).. do a google on personal strobe lights for runners

or:

https://sonictronics.com/mcdaniel/Mcdproducts/155strobes.htm

jack you know u may need a FAA waiver to launch a model rocket at dusk?

 

[Rocketjunkie]

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-QpZvj...=0&cc=01&g=96900&id=detailed_info&i=546ANSLCP

I picked up one of these at Wal-Mart for about $8.00. It's intended for 12V operation but testing indicated it will not work with a 9V battery. 2 9V batteries in series works well and it draws 100 ma at this voltage. Nice and bright.

 

[wwattles]

I've seen those little tiny magnetic flashing LED's (the kind that are small enough to clip to an earlobe) used with moderate success. They work better when it's a little darker than just twilight, but they are very small, very lightweight, and very cheap.

Others have used lighted fishing bobbers from Walmart or your local fishing/sporting goods supply store.

WW

 

[vjp]

Radio shack used to sell a little strobe unit that ran on a
single "C" battery, with a velcro strap for joggers to strap
around their arm.

I made my "strobe-roc" using the guts from this unit,
gluing the strobe base up into an Estes PNC-80A nose
cone. It runs for about 20 minutes on a single nicad
cell, and has a recharge jack / on-off switch on the
side.

I haven't seen this at MY local radio shack in about 2
years, but it might still be available in some stores.

There's a photo of strobe-roc on my website (URL below).

 

[vjp]

er, that's not a PNC-80A after all, but it's close (it's from the "Silver Comet" kit, a PNC-80A with some cockpit outlines).

 

[Stewart32]

Thanks for the leads guys.

 

[dragonshiprider]

I saw a couple of good ol' boys at a Fall Battlepark launch a few years ago use the strobes from a set of those gag sunglasses with the red blinking lights in the lenses.
I may as well tell the story while I'm at it.They flew a LOC Viper 4 with four Vulcan 24 mm G200's.The only special prep they did was to coat the whole rocket with a thick layer of epoxy.
Needless to say that with the equivelent of an I-800 this thing went mach at about 100 or so feet out.POW!!!! Sledgehammer!!! There was a huge fireball at first and then a second later it was just a tiny spec in the night sky.No one saw it again after burnout.

 

[stevecarr]

Check out the candy store. My kids got a bunch of those sucker that you wear like a ring. They had an led in them that runs off of two watch batteries. Now dad has a bunch of watch batteries and flashing leds.

 

[gerbs4me]

I have no experience with strobes, you may wanna check out Radioshack, you may need a FAA waiver

 

[solrules]

I ahve seen a strobe made out of a saftey beacon: it has a half-sphere with mirrors and junk with a bulb inside. It runs off a single 1.5v battery (origonally for a D size, but modified for AAA, works for a long time) and I have seen them for sale in canoeing/kayaking/outdoors stores. If all else fails, there are good old fashioned glow sticks and duct tape

P.S. Night launches are cool. EX night launches are even cooler. I saw a K class silver streak lookalike in pitch black skies. Beautiful.

 

[Micromeister]

VJP has the right idea, the Radio shack or I've seen some recently in K and wal-marts that can also be used in BT-60 to BT-80 size D powered models. one way is to convert whatever battery source the come with to a couple AAA or AA batteries....Remember the flight will not require more than 10 miuntes of power.
Here's some other small easy to build Led and such packages for night flights.

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by Stewart32
Hello All,

Can anybody recommend a lightweight strobe for say 24mm impulse. I would like to scratch build something to loft a bright strobe near dusk and plan on D power. I have poked around a little but cant seem to find much in my research. Any thoughts, experience?

Thanks

I built a solar strobe. I got an ultra-thin solar cell and two flashing LEDs for about $15.00 from Sundance Solar. The LEDs are wired in parallel to the cell. When the light falls on it, they flash.

Now, read that again and figure out how it doesn't solve your problem. Then see if you can figure out how a real live scientist was able to dream this up, buy the stuff and wire it up, and not figure out the problem until I took it out to test it. If you figure that out, tell me, because I can't.

That being said, I've heard of people taking the flash out of spent disposable cameras and using those.

 

[Steward]

It's a small red safety flasher... very thin and about 1 inch in diameter... self contained battery(watch type I guess)
Found it in the electrical isle... couple of bucks...