Glowies, Blinkies, UVies & Other Illuminations

kleer001 · Post by **kleer001** » Tue May 04, 2004 8:33 pm

Has anyone lit a weather baloon with an led from the inside, like a six footer? There's these multi light pens that change color slowly between a red and blue and a green and I figure I can chop it up and stick it in a weather balloon for a nice effect.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Thu May 06, 2004 6:11 am

I've noticed that most diodes are lensed to provide more direct forward light, unlike a filimented bulb that radiates more evenly. If the surface you're illuminating (the inside of the balloon) is too far away, you get a spot of light instead of a nice even wash of color. Best to experiment off-Playa. See Balloons Thread, noting Bob's opinion of them.....
A low-voltage neon tube or diode cluster should light up a balloon, but the challenge is to get the source centered in the balloon!

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Thu May 06, 2004 6:16 am

BLINKY UPDATE:

I finally finished moving the studio, and have busted out the blinkies. New Project: Project Pro-ject, testing projected light onto walls, surfaces, insides of things....

DancingTofu · Post by **DancingTofu** » Fri May 07, 2004 6:08 am

You rock, robotland, even if you do talk to yourself. I envy your gadgetry skills, but fear I am too blond to attempt electrical projects. I do learn things in my own way, such as: don't trim off parts of a deer skull with a dremel, because it will get very hot and it smells horrible. You're better off with a handsaw. Such strange and amusing lessons my Burning Man projects teach me....

Sorry. I'm very tired.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Fri May 07, 2004 7:58 am

That is one nasty stank, to be sure.....I discovered horn and antler tips for sale at a local gun shop some years back, and drilled/carved them into necklaces and knobs and such.....horn is basically overgrown hair follicles, and produces a superstank version of the everpopular burning hair smell.....(for those of us raised on Bugs Bunny- "Me smell Mohican burning!")

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Fri May 07, 2004 4:17 pm

I'm all over the map.

Solar lanterns — 12 of 'em. Decorated 'em up with Scribbles. They pretty much go all over my camp: hanging, sitting, strapped to the back and handlebars of my bike, in the cabin, carried into the privvy hut, sitting on the roof — you name it.

Krill lights: battery-powered glowsticks, essentially EL tape in a tube with a power source. I hang a red one and a green one on my handlebars, port and starboard. Good folks from Texas, Burner-friendly, pays for itself in about 2 years.

Glowsticks: used 'em, rather thought it was a waste of money especially after investing in Krill lights.

EL wire: not as much as I'd like to, I did line the lapels of my Kristi Smart frock coat with ten feet of green wire. Want more for this year.

Bicycle lights: Triangular three-pattern flash. Perennial favourite, throw down a few dollars, been using it out there (nightly) the past four years and hasn't crapped out on me yet. The only downside is that I can't pocket it because it tends to turn itself on.

Little magnetic blinkylight: Yeah, the kind with a magnet that flashes like a bloody rave rig that you can adorn your top or bottom lip, lapel, foreskin, earlobe or nostril with. Too bad I'm too chickenshit to get the magnet implanted under the skin then I'd have a blinkenlight bindhi. Get a dozen for ten from the wholesalers, cheap enough to gift out and so so cool. Love it love it love it.

Faerie lights: De rigeur. String 'em everywhere, light your shelter with 'em, instant decoration. A hundred will run thirty hours or more on a 300-watt inverter and a deep cell.

Luminex: Still wishin'

Ohhhhh, what I wouldn't do for a yard or three of that stuff! Kite, camp banner, coat lining, dancing ribbon, sarong, cape...I'd stop and think about going into white slavery for a minute or two if I knew an entire bolt of Luminex was on the other side.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Fri May 07, 2004 4:17 pm

I'm all over the map.

Solar lanterns — 12 of 'em. Decorated 'em up with Scribbles. They pretty much go all over my camp: hanging, sitting, strapped to the back and handlebars of my bike, in the cabin, carried into the privvy hut, sitting on the roof — you name it.

Krill lights: battery-powered glowsticks, essentially EL tape in a tube with a power source. I hang a red one and a green one on my handlebars, port and starboard. Good folks from Texas, Burner-friendly, pays for itself in about 2 years.

Glowsticks: used 'em, rather thought it was a waste of money especially after investing in Krill lights.

EL wire: not as much as I'd like to, I did line the lapels of my Kristi Smart frock coat with ten feet of green wire. Want more for this year.

Bicycle lights: Triangular three-pattern flash. Perennial favourite, throw down a few dollars, been using it out there (nightly) the past four years and hasn't crapped out on me yet. The only downside is that I can't pocket it because it tends to turn itself on.

Little magnetic blinkylight: Yeah, the kind with a magnet that flashes like a bloody rave rig that you can adorn your top or bottom lip, lapel, foreskin, earlobe or nostril with. Too bad I'm too chickenshit to get the magnet implanted under the skin then I'd have a blinkenlight bindhi. Get a dozen for ten from the wholesalers, cheap enough to gift out and so so cool. Love it love it love it.

Faerie lights: De rigeur. String 'em everywhere, light your shelter with 'em, instant decoration. A hundred will run thirty hours or more on a 300-watt inverter and a deep cell.

Luminex: Still wishin'

Ohhhhh, what I wouldn't do for a yard or three of that stuff! Kite, camp banner, coat lining, dancing ribbon, sarong, cape...I'd stop and think about going into white slavery for a minute or two if I knew an entire bolt of Luminex was on the other side.

XS · Post by XS » Fri May 07, 2004 4:28 pm

Check out LIGHTGOD.COM They've got a great inventory of all things blinking, including some prefab EL wire shirts, and 'ravers' supplies. Word.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Fri May 07, 2004 4:40 pm

Wow, cool site, exciting, too bad none of the links work.

Is there some sort of protocol to see what they have to offer or order from them?

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Mon May 10, 2004 6:52 am

http://www.elwirecheap.com/index.html

Ordered some simple 5' ELwire-and-a-3v-driver rigs from them. OK and cheap. Sometimes at auto parts places they have closeouts on EL car trim kits, which can be adapted to a driver or simply run from a 12v battery pack.

Lightgod has a good selection of stuff, but their site is a little clumsy.

D.o'T.- I second the Krill lights- Pleasing glow, good intensity. I wore them for deep-playa anti-collision beacons last year.....

Spent some time playing with auto LED tail-light clusters. I've only found RED so far, (WalMart, 7 bucks) but one 6-diode cluster will light the crap outa stuff! Runs fine from a 9v battery.

PurplMyst · Post by **PurplMyst** » Mon May 17, 2004 6:13 pm

What I found wonderfully handy around camp last year were good ole tap lights (yes, as seen on TV). These days you can get the 6 pack relatively cheap & it's easy to take em apart & color the white face to you little heart's desire. Only downside is that the large ones take 4AA batteries.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue May 18, 2004 5:47 am

Somebody's missing the boat by not making LED tap lights that don't suck batteries by the handful! I think it's me. (Scurries to workshop.)

BurningShaman · Post by **BurningShaman** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 10:35 am

Check out this site great deals and NO MORE SOLDERING!

http://www.sirshopsalot.com

Mister Jellyfish Mister · Post by **Mister Jellyfish Mister** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 1:57 pm

I've received a couple of closeout items from www.elwirecheap.com and they were good about informing me when they ran out of stock and refunding the remainder of my money. I got away with 3 items before they ran out so you may want to watch their "specials" page for stuff like that. I don't think the regular prices can beat other vendors with a Burner discount.

Last Real Burner · Post by **Last Real Burner** » Wed Jun 02, 2004 12:11 am

http://lightgod.com/

"A penny saved is ridiculous."
fondly,
mr smith

BurningShaman · Post by **BurningShaman** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 12:16 pm

Greetings folks!

I just did a price comparison of what is currently listed on these referred websites for the same product and here is the info.

I compared prices for an IF4 inverter with 6 to 6.6 feet of wire.

SirShopsAlot.com
$13.00
CooLight
$13.00+
CooLight West
$12.95+
CoolNeon
$15.00*
Lightgod
$25.00

Notes: + 3.3 ft (1m) only
*Red, Orange, Yellow only

Peace and Grace!
BurningShaman

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 12:28 pm

ELwire car kits can be had from Target and such, often on closeout, but they usually stock only blue or white. Pep Boys stock all of their Blinky Toys by COLOR, a great idea.

SHARPER · Post by **SHARPER** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 12:35 pm

call Mike at coolightwest.com rather than go online and order. 208-861-2187 let him know you are a fellow burner - why call? can't let them know online you want the burner discount - can only get it if you call.
I recently purchased 2.3mm for $0.99 per foot with no quantity limits - don't know the current discount but they are really great people. (they are fellow burners!!!)
Susie

mamasaid · Post by **mamasaid** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 8:16 pm

Is there some sort of power adapter for say, christmas lights that you'd like to have on a bicycle or your outfit? I am wondering how in the hell people get all lit at night?!!!

Some sort of box you plug into that has batteries?

Any suggestions?

Maldita

manowar · Post by **manowar** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:53 pm

As far as bikes go, check out your local auto parts shop or isle at (insert chain store saling cheap, import goods here). Just about any lighting system for a car is usable on a bike with 12 V battery. It's a lot easier to just find something that runs off 9 or 12 volts than it is to power an inverter to run something that takes line voltage (110-120 Volts AC). Also they've yet to invent a glowy/blinky object that cant be adapted for playa use with a little creativity and the right amount of duct tape.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 7:15 am

Check the BLINKY THINGS thread in the 2003 archive for many, many ideas.
My current passion is LED clusters, which will light up on a trickle for a long, long time...I bought a little 12V trolling motor battery and hooked up two LED undercarraige tubes, two multicolored "blinky effects tubes", a 16" neon tube and two strobes to it, and ran everything overnight. It's been too overcast to test solar recharge, but from a wall charger I was back in the saddle after 8 hours. Next: a trolling cell array.......

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 12:38 pm

the simplest solution is to buy a 50 pack of glow neckalces. Wrap em round yer neck, wrap em round yer bike.

Chai Guy · Post by **Chai Guy** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 2:02 pm

the simplest solution is to buy a 50 pack of glow neckalces. Wrap em round yer neck, wrap em round yer bike.

Simple yes, but I'd like to see people get away from the glow stuff because it seems to cause more moop (at least I tend to pick up a lot of dead glow sticks and necklaces) and they end up in the landfill anyway.

There are tons of simple lights you can use that don't require any wiring. I would look at stuff that uses LEDs , I've used battery powered Christmas lights but they aren't very bright and they tend to suck up a lot of juice very quickly.

If you go to someplace like target or wally world they sell these red leds that you can put on your spokes of your bike and they look pretty cool and cost just a few bucks. They also have the traditional red LEDs that you can clip on to the back of your bike and will blink and what not.

For a front white light I suggest using a head lamp because it will also be useful when you aren't riding your bike as well.

Here is a link of some cool stuff for you bike:
http://www.lightgod.com/store/default.asp?catid=510

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 5:43 am

You can purchase red LED clusters (to replace your car's brakelights) for 5 or 6 bucks at most automotive suppliers- they will run for a LONG time off of a single 9V battery even though they are designed for 12V, and they are BRIGHT. Good as beacons for deep-playa exploration, although they are directional so they're better within 20 degrees of straight ahead.....Ditto the tubes with four or five LEDs in each, for undercarraige illumination. I ran a test with two from a single 9V, and FOUR DAYS LATER they're still lit....(As the battery fails, the diodes go dark one by one but the "surviving" ones remain bright. Currently, (pun intended) two of the five on each stick are still going.

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 6:10 am

EL Wire is always cool, and very "burner".

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 7:58 am

Sul mare luccica l'astro d'argento
Placida è l'onda, prospero è il vento.
Venite all'agile barchetta mia!
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

Con questo zeffiro così soave,
oh! com'è bello star sulla nave!
Su passeggeri, venite via!
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

O dolce Napoli, o suol beato,
ove sorridere volle il creato!
Tu sei l'impero dell'armonia!
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

Or che tardate? Bella è la sera
Spira un'auretta fresca e leggera.
Venite all'agile barchetta mia,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 8:02 am

Beating Napoleon? Limp Ammonia? Placed by a Prosperous Vent? I don't get it. (My Italian's a little rusty, maybe....)

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 8:22 am

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:10 am

A hothead, waxing eloquent.

Captain Goddammit · Post by **Captain Goddammit** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 7:08 pm

I'm becoming a Bob fan.

I mean that in a hetero way...

Glowies, Blinkies, UVies & Other Illuminations

lighting baloons

Winkin' Blinkin' and Nod

Survey Says!!!...

best price that I have found

Lights at night, I need help with how ya do it...