Dedicated beacon driver for ultralight aviation

I fly paramotor. You should check them out cause they are amazing! But, to fly during certain parts of the day (dawn, dusk), the FAA required a “strobe”. I’ve been into flashlights for a while now and can solder and reflow LEDs, but never got in to flashing drivers and all that good stuff. I used an Emisar D4 on beacon mode with a diffuser zip tied to my cage but it’s not ideal. A point source of light would be better. Basically I just need help finding a “beacon driver”. Just a FET or high CC driver with one mode, BEACON, maybe 1 or 2 Htz. A lot of strobes in the industry are expensive and unimpressive. A few simple small MCPCBs with bare XP-G2s would do the trick. I just don’t know where to find the driver! Thanks, I asked this months ago but no replies, just trying one more time :slight_smile:

Will something like this work?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DIY-Electronic-Kit-2pc-Nano-Signal-Light-beacon-LED-flasher-SMT-Multivibrator-/292132223266?\_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

Ah perhaps I will have to check farther in to that tomorrow. Not much of an eBay guy, didn’t think to check there. I’m on banggood and RMMs site. I was looking more for like a driver for a tube light or something and just wiring it to a few copper board. Thanks for pointing me in another direction!

Wouldn’t 2Hz (or even 1Hz) be hideously annoying? I’d think 0.5Hz-0.3Hz would be better.

You could probably get a FET driver and flash it with bistro or anduril or whatever has a beacon mode.

I wouldn’t use red LEDs with a FET, though. Even pulsed, you could fry the LED really quickly. If using monochromatic LEDs, stick with current-drive (n×7135) instead.

Yeah lightbringer, 1 Hz max would be ideal, but the batt check in bistro would do, I shouldnt see it much when I’m flying. I was worried about how to switch modes to get to beacon but now I’m thinking just use an old FL host with a reverse clicky, put the driver in the head, maybe epoxy it, and now I have a switch and a battery carrier! Boom done. I swear I thought of this before lol. Thanks

Best would be good old style flash tube with a red casing,
I know 15 years back I found 3 in electronic trash that 2 were still working, they simply flashed when the HV cap charged up enough, working with 6-12V the flash cycle was getting 0.5-1.5Hz faster with more voltage