On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:16:25 -0800, Gordon wrote:

A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To
be seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw
white strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon

I have been hunting for a white strobe for some years. The electronics
and such shops sell flashing lights in yellow, blue and red but no
whites.

I found two marine strobes in Singapore at the Sim Lim Centre Near
Bugis Junction a year or so ago. The one I bought is 12 volt, has a 5
inch high fresnel lens and can be run off a torch battery - the
current draw is insignificant. I can't find the documentation that
came with it but a bulk carrier Captain agreed to radio back how far
away he could see it as he steamed past me drifting to my parachute
anchor. He could still see it clearly 8 miles away in dirty Atlantic
weather and it was mounted only about 7 feet above the deck at the
stern. I am about to make a bracket to permanently mount it at the
masthead. I know that it is not legal but then I have seen them on
fishing boats, the buoys at the end of tuna nets and long-lines and as
one Captain said - "Forget the legal niceties - so long as we can see
you - that's what is important".

The only problem I found whilst sleeping on deck whilst leaping up to
check for other boats every 20 minutes was that, with the strobe
mounted low at the stern, even with my eyes closed, the flash
penetrated. I imagine it could drive you daft with its mesmeric
effect. I had to pull my cap over my eyes and eventually rumaged for a
couple of hours to find one of those give away airline sleeping masks
that I knew I had somewhere.

cheers
Peter

A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To
be seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw
white strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon

"Gordon" wrote in message
...
A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To be
seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw white
strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon

I believe you may be mistaken for a submarine or someone in distress -- but
either way, you'll be seen.

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:16:25 -0800, Gordon wrote:

A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To
be seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw
white strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon


Certainly you could build a 555 powered on-off system to blink an
anchor light on and off and you would have a blinking light. Of course
a "Strobe" is a somewhat different beast as it is a flashing BRIGHT
light and much more likely to be noticed at a distance.


Ibid
(k4556ATinetDOTcoDOTth)

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Gordon wrote:
A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To
be seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be
seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw
white strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon

You might be even better off with the CMOS version of the 555, which
will draw next to nothing between pulses. It would be good to locate the
timer at the LED, thus avoiding the pulse-distorting effects of a long
cable run.

Chuck

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K4556 wrote:
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:16:25 -0800, Gordon wrote:

A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To
be seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw
white strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon


Certainly you could build a 555 powered on-off system to blink an
anchor light on and off and you would have a blinking light. Of course
a "Strobe" is a somewhat different beast as it is a flashing BRIGHT
light and much more likely to be noticed at a distance.


Ibid
(k4556ATinetDOTcoDOTth)


I suspect the objectives are to reduce power consumption (which, for an
LED is likely to be small anyway) and to increase noticeability by
blinking.

Whether pulsing will increase the LED's apparent brightness (relative to
the normal, unpulsed anchor light) depends on how the anchor light was
designed, and the type of white LED involved. Many white LEDs produce
their maximum output at something like 20 mA so high-intensity pulsing
may not increase output. If the anchor light uses something like the
Osram Golden Dragon (2 watt) white LED, that would certainly be noticed
if pulsed, say, once per second! Not as bright as a strobe, but a whole
lot better than many anchor lights now in use.

Actually, in fog or mist, yellow anchor lights might penetrate better
(i.e., not be reflected by water droplets) than white ones with a lot of
blue in their spectral output. Like fog lights on cars.


Chuck

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On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:16:25 -0800, Gordon wrote:

A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To
be seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw
white strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon

An anchor light is not bright enough to be easily seen.

Why not a man overboard strobe like this?

http://shop.sailnet.com/product_info...ducts_id/25848

or this

http://www.safetycentral.com/manovxestli.html

I didn't realise this company was back in business. Any dealings with them ,
Wayne or others ?

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:16:25 -0800, Gordon wrote:

A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To
be seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be
seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw
white strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon

An anchor light is not bright enough to be easily seen.

Why not a man overboard strobe like this?

http://shop.sailnet.com/product_info...ducts_id/25848

or this

http://www.safetycentral.com/manovxestli.html

On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:15:20 -0400, "Garland Gray II"
wrote:

I didn't realise this company was back in business. Any dealings with them ,
Wayne or others ?

No but the ACR strobe is widely available from many other sources.

Garland Gray II wrote:
I didn't realise this company was back in business. Any dealings with them ,
Wayne or others ?

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:16:25 -0800, Gordon wrote:

A lot of commercial fishing boats spend the night at sea drifting. To
be seen better, they use a strobe light. Legal or not, they want to be
seen.
I/m thinking an all around white LED anchor light could be wired to a
relaxation oscillator or 555 timer chip to create a low current draw
white strobe. Yes? No?
Gordon
An anchor light is not bright enough to be easily seen.

Why not a man overboard strobe like this?

http://shop.sailnet.com/product_info...ducts_id/25848

or this

http://www.safetycentral.com/manovxestli.html




Search on masthead strobes. Looks like Guest makes a nice bright one.
G