GLOW, Glo, glo

alt12 · Post by **alt12** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:09 am

I'm in charge of "glow" for my camp this year and am trying to figure the best glowy staff for adorning to our bikes and camp. We've used shitloads of glowsticks in past years, but I'm trying to incorporate glow paint, glow tape and any other glow stuff but there seems to be varying opinions on usefulness and quality of the stuff.

Can anyone recommend a good brand of glow paint or is it all basically useless at night? Also, have people used glow tape on bikes on the playa? How well does that stuff hold-up over night? Any other glow recommendations?

Is EL-Wire worth it? How often do you have to change the batteries? Any thoughts.

Thanks ALL!

phil · Post by **phil** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:13 am

Hi, alt12,

I've used glow stuff in the past -- sorry, I can't remember what all: ropes that were supposed to glow in the dark so people didn't trip, frisbees, and such. None of it worked. Not even at all. Other people may have different experiences, but I threw it all out and went with LEDs and EL wire.

Battery life depends. I just bought a couple of pairs of LED accent lights (no longer available, it seems) at tireflys.com. Each accent light has 9 LEDs, and they're supposed to run off your car battery. I hooked up a pair of the accent lights (one for front of bike, one for rear) to a 3.3Ah, 9.6V battery pack and the pair ran for over 24 hours before dimming out.

I'm sorry to say that EL wire is expensive, as are EL panels. An LED in a plastic bottle or jar of various colors glows nicely. For EL wire, check out prices at
http://www.neontrim.com/
http://www.elwire.com/
http://www.coolight.com/
http://www.playafish.com/coolneon/
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/glowingstuff/index.html
(the previous site also sells cold cathode tubes for your bikes)

For EL panels, drop by
http://www.allelectronics.com/
http://beingseentechnologies.goemerchan ... chnologies
(watch that last one -- it may be wrapped and broken)

For general glowingness, see
http://www.enlighted.com/
http://www.theblinkyguy.com/BM2005.html
(note this link is for 2005 only; he hand delivers to the playa)
http://www.pgilighting.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc
(which sells general lighting with some battery-operated light strings)

Have fun glowing!

haptotrope · Post by **haptotrope** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:50 am

I've ordered blinkies in large quantity from windycitynovelty.com

Also, If you get some flourecent paint, and some blacklite LEDs you can use the glow factor to a very high advantage. (same with glow in the dark paint -- though I have no idea how thissl hold up) and this option will require a littl electrical engineering.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:30 am

The great advantage to incorporating LEDs into your blinkyplan is that a well-positioned diode will project light over a great distance but within a narrow field- (20%, for many) That's why they're used in commercially available bike safety lights. Buy a handful for cheap, and put 'em all over your bike! Wire 'em into your clothes! No need to get fancy...LEDs, wire and batteries are all you NEED, although from there you can explore clever blinking/switching options, soldering, proper resistors, etc.....There are MANY sites eager to inform, a mere Google away.

MrMullen · Post by **MrMullen** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:25 am

phil wrote:http://www.enlighted.com/

I know her, she is great and you should be ordering her stuff!!