The Suspicious Red Light Illumination
Nearly Ready Made Red Light
Reach your next hardware store... there is some "garden enlighment
equipment" available. I found one, fed by the sun to charge it's Mignon
AA NiCd accumulator during daylight. At the darkness of the night
(sensored by a LDR), two superbright yellow LEDs are powered by the
AA-cell (lasting for about 8h as the manufacturer claims).
Isn't that perfectly useable for astronomy?! Besides the yellow (bad
for night-vision) LEDs. What about exchanging these by red superbright
LEDs?
Follow the instructions as to replace the AA-cell. This means loosing 6
screws in total at my night illumination device.
In the very middle there is a small PCB carrying the two LEDs. The PCB
is clamped, so no big deal to free it.
It is a beginners exercise to replace the two LEDs...
Total costs for that quiet useful device were less than €10 (not
counting working-hours, erhh minutes).
That's what it looks like...
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charging
during day light
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red
glow
during night time
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Caution
Depending on the district you are living in your neighbours might give
you funny looks or strange men will ring your doorbell .... Remember it
looks like a red lantern, in fact it is one.....
Latest Addition
Three resion for a little cardboard work to form reflecting screens:
- having light all over is not needed usually
- reduction of the danger being misunderstood running a br***el
- redirect the light to the area where needed
The screens are not glued into place, removal is required therefore
is easily done.
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charging
...
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light....
note
the "navigation light" (*)
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Look at the blue stuff in the left windows, that's the outer side of
one of the screens (I guess you might have noticed). The inside of the
housing now is completely coated by highly reflective tape
applied to the cardboard screens (the roof part had it even before).
(*) In ther upper middel part a hole is
punched, purpose is, that nobody
stumbles across the lantern when used "in the field".
Last modified Sept. 21th 2003