I walk my 3 dogs a lot at night (not a morning guy!) and if you know anything about central Pa., people can't drive here. Sorry to offend anyone but it's true here.
I'm putting this up here because I just got back from almost getting nailed by some old lady in the usual Camry until I strobed my TK-45 at her. (daytime)
I don't feel safe walking without some kind of strobe clipped to the front of my nice wackerific reflective vest so I can be seen by oncoming traffic. (Yes, during the day too, and I always walk on the correct side of the road-left.) Right now I use an Inova 24/7 but I feel it is not bright enough to be seen at a distance.
When I saw the 4sevens Lumen Bombs I thought, "gee... what a nice idea for a dedicated clipon strobe." (If you look at the Shotshow video you'll see what I mean.)
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I would love a dedicated, obnoxiously bright, seizure-inducing, blinding Inova 24/7 type format strobe that I could clip to my vest that runs on CR123's or preferably to 18650('s). Maybe with 6 or 8 XPG's with narrow optics, two of them red and the others white. Built on a flat heatsink into some kind of housing that'll clip securely to the vest or a belt, maybe like those belt lights that coon hunters use. Some kind of clip like a headlamp would have so you could aim it down. The battery could be remoted or self-contained.
The main thing is a driver-does anyone know of a driver that will handle that many XPG's, small enough to fit that has a strobe-only function? I figure heat will be less of an issue due to strobing on and off... I do not want a flashlight function in this thing. Please, no DX or KD links!!
I doubt such a driver would be easy to find since you would be switching 9-12A - though it is just an extreme form of PWM you still need rather a lot of current. It wouldn't be all that hard to build such a circuit though you'd need someone who could design it.
Something like this might be easier - would run off 3 18650s and the current draw is not much. You can probably find them at Home Depot or the like.
A good driven XM-L in a p60 host can be very annoying in strobe. Had to many mean looks at me when switching modes. The pulses could easily be around 900+ lumen mark. KD dropin that is that runs at 3.3+A on high. Portable if anything.
The Manafont XM-L was the highest current one but without storbe. Maybe somenone tried the hi-med-stobe version MF sells. So far all i have from them are very well driven.
I say.. Find a driver that handles the currents your after. single mode driver. Then find the PWM input pin on the MCU and give it some PWM signals from a basic oscillator, or even a LM555, the classic oscillator chip from the DIY days. Building the oscillator should be kinda straightforward (if you have some circuit building experience, have parts and find a suitable circuit lol!), the slightly trickier part is getting the driver you need, and finding the PWM pin, and incorporating it into your circuit.
Relatively doable IMO
This will definitely have no modes. Only PWM. You might even be able to have a variable frequency dial, which you can tune to your liking. Whats a good strobe frequency, 10-15 hz for an agressive strobe?
Perhaps you can even use a red lens in front to add up to the visibility. Red lights tend to be noticed earlier than others. Our minds are all programmed to some extent...
From a psychological point of virew a red flahing light just screams WARNING!
Yellow/orange is better isnt it?, always thought it appeared brighter... Maybe thats from the incan days when any filter except orange/yellow would make a light appear dark
Just use a colour emitter - more efficient use of energy.
I understand what you want to say. The red filter lens will eat some lumens for sure but robbing some lumens out of a 1000lumen rated emitter is preferably to eating none but emittig 100+ lumens.
It can certainly be bigger in circumference than the 24/7-I want it to really get attention from a good 1/4 mile. I can handle all that-I am stopped at the driver.