Ouch! A red light on the weight shaft of a GEM?

The weight arm on my GEM is fairly high and one can easily bump into it in the dark. So far no big
collisions, but I plan to have a lot of people over for a star party. I figure putting a red LED on
the end would work; however, how does one do this within a modest cost. There seem to be two ways:
1. use a battery, resistor and LED. 2. use a resistor, LED, and an ac/dc converter. The second
choice is appealing but costs about $14.00 if one buys an ac/dc converter from Radio Shack. The
first method probably runs through batteries at a fairly good rate. I actually have a red LED
flasher ($3.00) I bought from the h/w store. It's fairly bright and flashes about every second.
Maybe it would work out by beefing up the resistor to reduce the light output. At a reasonable blink
rate and dimmer, it might work. Comments? Other choices?

--
Wayne T. Watson (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N, 2,701 feet, Nevada City, CA)
-- GMT-8 hr std. time, RJ Rcvr 39° 8' 0" N, 121° 1' 0" W

Remember to drink an adequate amount of dihydrogen oxide each day.

Web Page: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews
Imaginarium Museum: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:59:50 GMT, Wayne Watson
wrote:

The weight arm on my GEM is fairly high and one can easily bump into it in the dark. So far no big
collisions, but I plan to have a lot of people over for a star party. I figure putting a red LED on
the end would work; however, how does one do this within a modest cost. There seem to be two ways:
1. use a battery, resistor and LED. 2. use a resistor, LED, and an ac/dc converter. The second
choice is appealing but costs about $14.00 if one buys an ac/dc converter from Radio Shack. The
first method probably runs through batteries at a fairly good rate. I actually have a red LED
flasher ($3.00) I bought from the h/w store. It's fairly bright and flashes about every second.
Maybe it would work out by beefing up the resistor to reduce the light output. At a reasonable blink
rate and dimmer, it might work. Comments? Other choices?

I've got a flashing red LED (the circuit is in the part, cost a couple of
dollars) that has been sitting on a 9V battery blinking at 1Hz continuously now
for a year and a half. It's not showing any sign of giving out anytime soon.
Done right, you don't need to worry about battery life, and you don't need to
worry about running more wires around your mount.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Yes, but the trick is to reduce the brightness of the flashing light; otherwise, it's a distraction.
Maybe just putting tape over the plastic lens.

Chris L Peterson wrote:

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:59:50 GMT, Wayne Watson
wrote:

The weight arm on my GEM is fairly high and one can easily bump into it in the dark. So far no big
collisions, but I plan to have a lot of people over for a star party. I figure putting a red LED on
the end would work; however, how does one do this within a modest cost. There seem to be two ways:
1. use a battery, resistor and LED. 2. use a resistor, LED, and an ac/dc converter. The second
choice is appealing but costs about $14.00 if one buys an ac/dc converter from Radio Shack. The
first method probably runs through batteries at a fairly good rate. I actually have a red LED
flasher ($3.00) I bought from the h/w store. It's fairly bright and flashes about every second.
Maybe it would work out by beefing up the resistor to reduce the light output. At a reasonable blink
rate and dimmer, it might work. Comments? Other choices?

I've got a flashing red LED (the circuit is in the part, cost a couple of
dollars) that has been sitting on a 9V battery blinking at 1Hz continuously now
for a year and a half. It's not showing any sign of giving out anytime soon.
Done right, you don't need to worry about battery life, and you don't need to
worry about running more wires around your mount.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

--
Wayne T. Watson (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N, 2,701 feet, Nevada City, CA)
-- GMT-8 hr std. time, RJ Rcvr 39° 8' 0" N, 121° 1' 0" W

Remember to drink an adequate amount of dihydrogen oxide each day.

Web Page: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews
Imaginarium Museum: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html

I've got a flashing red LED (the circuit is in the part, cost a couple =
of
dollars) that has been sitting on a 9V battery blinking at 1Hz =
continuously now
for a year and a half.


Chris, do you have a source for these lights? I'd love to get a few.

-Florian

Don;t know if they still carry them but Radio Shack did have them

Dave


On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 02:09:18 GMT, "Florian"
wrote:

I've got a flashing red LED (the circuit is in the part, cost a couple of
dollars) that has been sitting on a 9V battery blinking at 1Hz continuously now
for a year and a half.


Chris, do you have a source for these lights? I'd love to get a few.

-Florian

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 02:09:18 GMT, "Florian"
wrote:

I've got a flashing red LED (the circuit is in the part, cost a couple of
dollars) that has been sitting on a 9V battery blinking at 1Hz continuously now
for a year and a half.


Chris, do you have a source for these lights? I'd love to get a few.

-Florian


Check these out

http://www.chml.com/electric/display...-1_3/4Flashing


http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?hand...D=flashing&N=0

Hah... I did some searching too. These look pretty neat!

http://www.4-glow-sticks-and-glow-ne...nmagbodli.html

I may order a dozen. ;-)

-Florian

Wayne Watson wrote:

The weight arm on my GEM is fairly high and one can easily bump into it in the dark. So far no big
collisions, but I plan to have a lot of people over for a star party. I figure putting a red LED on
the end would work; however, how does one do this within a modest cost. There seem to be two ways:
1. use a battery, resistor and LED. 2. use a resistor, LED, and an ac/dc converter. The second
choice is appealing but costs about $14.00 if one buys an ac/dc converter from Radio Shack. The
first method probably runs through batteries at a fairly good rate. I actually have a red LED
flasher ($3.00) I bought from the h/w store. It's fairly bright and flashes about every second.
Maybe it would work out by beefing up the resistor to reduce the light output. At a reasonable blink
rate and dimmer, it might work. Comments? Other choices?

We've had some of the blinking red LED's in use for a few months and
they work well to avoid minor disasters. They're way too bright,
though. Stick it on the shaft with a battery and cover the LED with
something to cut the light down and I think you'll be happy with it.
You might also shield it so it doesn't shine towards the eyepiece. I
find the light annoying when observing even when it's dimmed
considerably.

Mike Simmons

"Florian" Florian REMOVE TO wrote in message .. .
I've got a flashing red LED (the circuit is in the part, cost a couple
of
dollars) that has been sitting on a 9V battery blinking at 1Hz
continuously now
for a year and a half.


Chris, do you have a source for these lights? I'd love to get a few.

-Florian

Blinking LED bicycle lights? There are loads available here with
varying numbers of LEDs for very little money. Run them off
rechargable batteries? Gut them for parts? You could make the Dec
shaft end/counterweights light up like a Christmas tree with half an
hour's work and a bit of extra wiring. Add one to each setting circle
pointer? Spreading the LEDs further apart might reduce the light
pollution and help dark adaptation.

Chris.B

Okay guy check this on out
really cheap


http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...200&type=store

or goto http://www.allelectronics.com

click the led and then flashing led
There are several different falshing led that you can built into a AAA
battery holder and velcro to the end of weight arm.
also if you don't want any trouble on building them check this out
CAT# FSH-10

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...340200&item=FS
H-10&type=store


Hope this help
SOFJAN MUSTOPOH