rguysailing

Some where I saw a link to a strobe light that could be pined on something and came with several lens. I think it used a D cell bat and mostly used for man overboard strobe light. I thought I saw the link here but it could have been on another board.
Anyone have a idea what I'm talking about and where you can find them.

Thanks

balto charlie

maybe here
https://www.strobesnmore.com/

rguysailing

Thanks balto charlie
I look their and that wasn't the place. This strobe I'm thinking about pins to a life jacket and two would pin to my back trunk bag really nice.

dalmore

Maybe this will have what you seek.

I googled life jacket strobe if you need to refine it some.

rguysailing

THANKS dalmore

It did have something close to what I wanted. It was this.

https://www.greatoutdoorsdepot.com/emergency-strobe.html

thanks for you help. Now if I could find one with color lens.

ItsJustMe

I don't think it's what you're thinking of, but here's something similar.
https://www.lightmanstrobes.com/
Used by safety personnel, and mentioned here from time to time.

tsl

OMG! Four hours and mechbgon hasn't jumped in with his strobes? Dang! Where is that man?

Vt-hills

I will give a thumbs down on the lightman strobe, had one and it would not stay clipped to anything and then it also went through batteries way too fast. My solution was a Velman Strobe (https://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...=store)mounted on the rack powered by the 7AH SLA that runs my dual 14W lights up front ( Malibu lights). Strobe is plent bright, but I use 2 other cateyes in back as well to help people figure out where I am between strobes. Got this setup idea from online... can't remember where.

Eli_Damon

I strongly advise against using a strobe light on your bike. It could blind other travellers and cause them to lose control of their vehicles. And that's the last thing you want going on right behind you. I am told that even a red blinky can have this effect if its duty cycle is to small. Most have a duty cycle of about 1/2 which is fine but short pulses of light are bad.

mechBgon

Hey, I resemble that remark! Actually I don't have any strobes in the pure sense, like Xenon ones. Yet. If those Lightman ones would go for a reasonable length of time on one set of batteries, I'd consider an amber one to clip to my CamelBak, though.

ItsJustMe

I also use the All Electronics strobe. I don't buy that they'll blind drivers, they're just not that bright. The switch that turns on my strobe is like a switch that forces drivers over another 8 feet. It's honestly just like a driver control switch. Off, they pass with 4 feet to spare (still OK, but...) On, they change completely into the other lane.

I've actually begun to not use the strobe in all situations. At night on back roads, and when I'm at lights, I tend to shut it off, since I realize it's not really necessary and can be irritating.

When I really want it is in adverse conditions. NOTHING punches through fog and rain like a strobe, PERIOD.

ryanparrish

Is that why they have them on school bus?

I was thinking about clipping this on a pannier

Vt-hills

Same here on the strobe use in fog, I got mine just for the foggy days and it doesn't seem to bother cars, they just see me much better. One note that I picked up researching strobes was to have another non-blinking light as well to help the drivers figure out where you are since the blinking strobe tends to confuse the ability to determine distance to the target. I set the cateyes to non-blink when running the strobe. It can get annoying sometimes so I turn mine off and let the pair of cateyes handle the rear lighting. This is usually on clear mornings.

I also have a pair of "Flash Flags" (https://www.flashback.ca/products/accessories.html) on my bike that are amazing in that drivers automatically give me another couple of feet clearance to avoid hitting them. I actually think these are even better than rear lights sometimes cause they work in daylight just as well as nighttime.

I also wear bright yellow pants and jacket from FoxWear ( very highly recommend ).

As everyone can see by now my motto is "be seen". I will have to post a picture of me on the bike with everything that makes me so visible that no one can claim they didn't see me.

Chris in Vt, gearing up for some winter fun...

ryanparrish

So visible that ray charles could see you?

ItsJustMe

Ditto on constant lights; do NOT have just a strobe or just a blinkie as your only active light. Blinkies are great for getting attention, but it's hard to tell distance to a blinking light. There's also a belief of unknown veracity that drunk drivers fixate on blinking lights; having a constant light might snap them out of it.

ken cummings

Thank you for educating me about the dangers of what I have been doing wrong for so many years. I have been using all sorts of blinkies and strobes at many different powers and rates for almost a third of a century. I must have been killed five times over by now by your reckonning. I HAVE had people pull up next to me and compliment me on the tail-lights including the driver of a city bus.

RonH

I have a couple of Vistalite strobes that I bought in 2002. They have a clear and an amber lens. They look like the Vistalite Nebula 5 blinkie and can clip onto a backpack or mount to the seatpost.
I haven't seen them in stores or online since 2003. I guess Vistalite quit making them.

2manybikes

Eli_Damon

Before you posted this response, did you spend time thinking of the meanest possible way to express your disagreement? Or did the meanness just roll off your fingertips? Either way, I think it was unreasonable for you to speak with such hostility toward a total stranger.

Hobartlemagne 

A lifejacket strobe is not the same as a "strobe light" like you see at the dance clubs. Its much more slow- one flash every couple of seconds. A guy in my bike club uses one on our night rides. Its a great additional light to add to the rest. It probably wouldnt be as good by itself. He calls it a 'coast guard' light. It runs on one D-cell battery and is a white light.

coprolite

I've used 3 of the sort of strobes originally referred to, the Coast Guard approved RC relaxation type that fire a real strobe tube, but I've given up on them. Maybe I just have bad luck, but after buying 2 Fultons and one chinese imitation Fulton I've found that they work fine in my warm, dry kitchen, but invariably punk out when it gets either COLD or WET; can't imagine why the manufacturer thinks they shouldn't work under those conditions, nobody who falls off a boat would ever face THAT environment. LED types are better than nothing, but the light output isn't even close. If anybody knows a brand that will hold up to the real world, including the vibration on a bike (I doubt the marine versions are really designed for that), please share your sucesses!

mechBgon

I know it's still an LED, but there's always the small LED police strobes like the Nova BULL and the Whelen TIR3.

Unlike a Xenon emergency-vehicle strobe, they don't need an external flasher/power supply. And the intensity is quite good. Right-click this link and save target, to download a 2MB Windows Media video, the last 1/3 shows a Nova in action: https://freepages.thesecretlabs.com/~...SuperFlash.wmv

It has more firing modes, too, that's just one of them. Below: a frame from the video.

2manybikes

Wow! That thing is bright!

ItsJustMe

It's been mentioned a hundred times and more on many many threads here. Amber strobe from All Electronics:
https://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...5/Strobes.html
They also have white, green blue and red. Don't use the blue, that's a reserved color and the cops will not like it.

I used my first one for a year before it died, riding in driving rain, snow, and about 2000 of the 6000 miles it took was washboarded gravel road. Then I bought another. When I did the postmortem, it turned out that the strobe itself hadn't died, just my wiring leading to it. So I don't know how long it would have lasted. However, it's a completely sealed unit; in fact I had to destroy the case to get to the electronics to figure out the problem. But they're $8 so who cares.

It also runs overvolted on my 14.4v pack which puts out 16.8v at first, and that doesn't seem to bother it either.

Here it is mounted on my bike:

Lurker1999

I found a couple of these MPI Emergency Strobes on clearance at REI. The actual strobe itself is very light and the weight is nearly entirely from the D cell battery. It's maybe an inch taller and wider than a D cell battery as well for a size comparison. I think you could probably clip it to a bag or seatpost with some velcro. I'm going to toy with that idea this winter I think.