Strobe light

[Goliath17]

Does anyone know of a good Strobe Light with a pressure switch and an attachment ring for under $60? I can't find one anywhere. Thanks

[code789]

http://www.amazon.com/CoiTAC-Tactical-S ... B000WQHRRG

http://combatoptical.com/catalog/3W-110 ... g-325.html

http://www.nebotools.com/prod_details.php?id=93

your post yesterday and this post today only takes google less than 0.5 seconds to show you an answer, if finding simple accessories is giving you a hard time you might want to go easy on yourself and find another hobby that isn't too head scratching for common tasks

[Jewish Ninja]

Putting a strobe light on a weapon is the fastest way to gain hate and BBs flying in your direction. Nothing says "SHOOT ME IN THE FACENOODLE" like a light having a seizure.

[DEagle]

Putting a strobe light on a weapon is the fastest way to gain hate and BBs flying in your direction. Nothing says "SHOOT ME IN THE FACENOODLE" like a light having a seizure.

Or everyone will love it and start having a rave in the middle of the game. Nch nch nch nch ITS A RAVE

[Orwell]

The only reason on God's green Earth to mount a strobe on a weapon is for breach and clear situations. Even then, at 14 and with no training, there are much better ways to increase your chances of success. I'd get a normal weapon mounted flashlight.

[Orwell]

The only reason on God's green Earth to mount a strobe on a weapon is for breach and clear situations. Even then, at 14 and with no training, there are much better ways to increase your chances of success. I'd get a normal weapon mounted flashlight.

[Cyclops]

A strobe would be cool to have a long wire (20') hooked to an on/off switch and throw itto any direction and flip the switch on. Sit back and start shooting everyone thats trying to hit that light....

[Steve]

Does anyone know of a good Strobe Light with a pressure switch and an attachment ring for under $60? I can't find one anywhere. Thanks

Not really, and this is why:

You are basically paying for some or all of the following three attributes: Cost, Reliability, and Effectiveness. You pick one, the manufacturer picks one, and the two of you compromise on the third. You've picked cost. That means that either it will be blinkenlighty or it will keep working, but probably not both at your price point.

There are a couple of areas that are failure-prone. From front to back, you have the lens, the bulb / led & ancillary circuitry, the mount, and the switch.

As I'm sure we all know, airsoft is all about folks flinging pellets at each other. Not gonna lie, stroby light things do a whole lot more to tell other people where you are than tell you where they are. They draw fire, which is probably awesome and appreciated by everyone on your team, since you turn into the pellet magnet and they get to skate. However, with the attention comes a lot of fire. And cheap clear lenses tend to violently quit when hit by airsoft pellets. Happens on cheap lights, happens on cheap optics. Heck, I've even had it happen on a laser, and that was a pretty freaking tiny aperture. Had one blow up an IR cover on a very much not cheap light, too. Anything that emits light draws fire, and you get what you pay for in terms of surviving the violence.

There are two types of bulb systems, LED and incandescent. LED is by far the more common, but you really want to make sure of what you are getting, since some of the really high end lights use incandescent (white light LED doesn't emit enough IR light to be useful with a filter and NODs, whereas incandescent lights do). Some of the cheaper ones still use incandescent too (replicas of some of the high-end ones). Incandescent ones really, really, really do not like rechargeable CR123A batteries. CR123As are generally 3v, maxing at about 3.3v. Most of the "rechargeable 3V" batteries are 3.7v. 7.2v through a 6v incandescent bulb makes it say "screw it, I quit". And now you are looking for replacement 6v bulbs. Which may or may not be a cast-iron b****, depending on how available parts are.

The circuitry is a tiny chunk of IC that flips between on, off, and strobe. Cheap lights just dump current through a timer circuit to do the stroby thing, which can cause all sorts of issues (like heat management!) with the light. Imagine, if you will, dumping a ton of heat into an enclosed metal cylinder with fiddly bits of stuff soldered to other stuff. When the light is in your hand, and it is on too long, it gets hot, and you either burn the shit out of yourself, or you turn the light off. When it is bolted to the side of your rifle, suddenly the solder holding components on heats up and bits quit doing bitlike things. Or the seals overheat and fail. Or it just goes wonky. Etc. Better lights regulate the current and voltage through them. They may not be as bright as the cheap lights, but they stay the same brightness for more of the length of the battery life, they are properly heatsunk, and use component paths that are big enough to handle the heat loads.

Almost everybody that is using a rail system uses MIL-STD 1913 'Picatinny' rails. Note I say "almost". There are competing standards. Some of them, like the 20mm "Weaver" rails, are sometimes close enough to spec to mostly work. Cheap lights are more likely to come with out of spec mounts. And pot-metal mounting hardware. So, your screws may strip out, work loose and fall out, or your mount may soften up when the light gets too hot, and go all sorts of jacked up. Or the light might ground out through the rails. Or be too small to actually properly grab the rail in one or more directions. This gets even worse if the rail you are trying to grab is also out of spec (too big / small, wrong spacing, wrong cut depth).

And, finally, the tape switch. The gods-be-d***ed tape switch. The piec-of-s***, guaranteed to fail at the most inopportune moment, bane of my existance tape switch. There are a couple of styles of tape switches that I've seen. Nice ones are sealed units that plug into a recepticle on the light. And the light has a little rubber doodad that plugs into the tape switch port when you aren't using it. And when it fails, and it will, you unplug it from the light, pull it off the velcro from the side of your platform, and plug a new one in. They still fail, it just takes longer. Hell, even SureFire doesn't warranty their tape switches, and they will replace a light that gets jacked up when it stops a bullet. Tape switches fail. It's just the nature of the beast. Cheaper tape switches are units that get screwed onto the back of the light in place of the pressure switch. Which is nice, because you can still use the light without the tape switch if you save the button bit that comes in the box with the light. But still irritating, because it fails. The absolute worst are the ones that are permanently affixed to the a$$ end of the light. These tend to use thin cable, no strain relief, and heat shrink as the tape switch body. Know what you are buying, before you buy it.

Now, after reading this wall of words, if you still desperately want a stroby "shoot me first" glowy thing on the side of your platform, and can't get a decent one, here's my advice.

1: Get a surefire 6P. Or some other quality light.
2: Get a 1" scope ring set up to grab picatinny rails.
3: Go on ebay or wherever and pick up a replacement tailcap with tape switch and strobe. Preferably, get about 6 of the stupid things. When one goes tips-up, throw it away and put the next one on.

A strobe would be cool to have a long wire (20') hooked to an on/off switch and throw itto any direction and flip the switch on. Sit back and start shooting everyone thats trying to hit that light....

I'd want it on a timer, or better yet, wireless remote. Strobe light, xbee wireless unit, and a relay on the module that gets thrown, and a pressure switch and xbee on the weapon. Toss it, hit the strobe pressure switch, shoot at people shooting at the strobe. Putting it on a 20' leash just means that I have something else to get hung up on or worry about when it's time to move.

I may make a couple of these up. Thanks for the idea! Actually, on second thought, I need to see if I can build one that can be lobbed from a M-203. And then figure out how to do it without concussing anybody downrange. On second thought, maybe hand-tossed is a better idea than deep dish.

[Larrybrown]

Does anyone know of a good Strobe peimar led lights with a pressure switch and an attachment ring for under $60? I can't find one anywhere. Thanks

Not really, and this is why:

You are basically paying for some or all of the following three attributes: Cost, Reliability, and Effectiveness. You pick one, the manufacturer picks one, and the two of you compromise on the third. You've picked cost. That means that either it will be blinkenlighty or it will keep working, but probably not both at your price point.

There are a couple of areas that are failure-prone. From front to back, you have the lens, the bulb / led & ancillary circuitry, the mount, and the switch.

As I'm sure we all know, airsoft is all about folks flinging pellets at each other. Not gonna lie, stroby light things do a whole lot more to tell other people where you are than tell you where they are. They draw fire, which is probably awesome and appreciated by everyone on your team, since you turn into the pellet magnet and they get to skate. However, with the attention comes a lot of fire. And cheap clear lenses tend to violently quit when hit by airsoft pellets. Happens on cheap lights, happens on cheap optics. Heck, I've even had it happen on a laser, and that was a pretty freaking tiny aperture. Had one blow up an IR cover on a very much not cheap light, too. Anything that emits light draws fire, and you get what you pay for in terms of surviving the violence.

There are two types of bulb systems, LED and incandescent. LED is by far the more common, but you really want to make sure of what you are getting, since some of the really high end lights use incandescent (white light LED doesn't emit enough IR light to be useful with a filter and NODs, whereas incandescent lights do). Some of the cheaper ones still use incandescent too (replicas of some of the high-end ones). Incandescent ones really, really, really do not like rechargeable CR123A batteries. CR123As are generally 3v, maxing at about 3.3v. Most of the "rechargeable 3V" batteries are 3.7v. 7.2v through a 6v incandescent bulb makes it say "screw it, I quit". And now you are looking for replacement 6v bulbs. Which may or may not be a cast-iron b****, depending on how available parts are.

The circuitry is a tiny chunk of IC that flips between on, off, and strobe. Cheap lights just dump current through a timer circuit to do the stroby thing, which can cause all sorts of issues (like heat management!) with the light. Imagine, if you will, dumping a ton of heat into an enclosed metal cylinder with fiddly bits of stuff soldered to other stuff. When the light is in your hand, and it is on too long, it gets hot, and you either burn the shit out of yourself, or you turn the light off. When it is bolted to the side of your rifle, suddenly the solder holding components on heats up and bits quit doing bitlike things. Or the seals overheat and fail. Or it just goes wonky. Etc. Better lights regulate the current and voltage through them. They may not be as bright as the cheap lights, but they stay the same brightness for more of the length of the battery life, they are properly heatsunk, and use component paths that are big enough to handle the heat loads.

Almost everybody that is using a rail system uses MIL-STD 1913 'Picatinny' rails. Note I say "almost". There are competing standards. Some of them, like the 20mm "Weaver" rails, are sometimes close enough to spec to mostly work. Cheap lights are more likely to come with out of spec mounts. And pot-metal mounting hardware. So, your screws may strip out, work loose and fall out, or your mount may soften up when the light gets too hot, and go all sorts of jacked up. Or the light might ground out through the rails. Or be too small to actually properly grab the rail in one or more directions. This gets even worse if the rail you are trying to grab is also out of spec (too big / small, wrong spacing, wrong cut depth).

And, finally, the tape switch. The gods-be-d***ed tape switch. The piec-of-s***, guaranteed to fail at the most inopportune moment, bane of my existance tape switch. There are a couple of styles of tape switches that I've seen. Nice ones are sealed units that plug into a recepticle on the light. And the light has a little rubber doodad that plugs into the tape switch port when you aren't using it. And when it fails, and it will, you unplug it from the light, pull it off the velcro from the side of your platform, and plug a new one in. They still fail, it just takes longer. Hell, even SureFire doesn't warranty their tape switches, and they will replace a light that gets jacked up when it stops a bullet. Tape switches fail. It's just the nature of the beast. Cheaper tape switches are units that get screwed onto the back of the light in place of the pressure switch. Which is nice, because you can still use the light without the tape switch if you save the button bit that comes in the box with the light. But still irritating, because it fails. The absolute worst are the ones that are permanently affixed to the a$$ end of the light. These tend to use thin cable, no strain relief, and heat shrink as the tape switch body. Know what you are buying, before you buy it.

Now, after reading this wall of words, if you still desperately want a stroby "shoot me first" glowy thing on the side of your platform, and can't get a decent one, here's my advice.

1: Get a surefire 6P. Or some other quality light.
2: Get a 1" scope ring set up to grab picatinny rails.
3: Go on ebay or wherever and pick up a replacement tailcap with tape switch and strobe. Preferably, get about 6 of the stupid things. When one goes tips-up, throw it away and put the next one on.

A strobe would be cool to have a long wire (20') hooked to an on/off switch and throw itto any direction and flip the switch on. Sit back and start shooting everyone thats trying to hit that light....

I'd want it on a timer, or better yet, wireless remote. Strobe light, xbee wireless unit, and a relay on the module that gets thrown, and a pressure switch and xbee on the weapon. Toss it, hit the strobe pressure switch, shoot at people shooting at the strobe. Putting it on a 20' leash just means that I have something else to get hung up on or worry about when it's time to move.

I may make a couple of these up. Thanks for the idea! Actually, on second thought, I need to see if I can build one that can be lobbed from a M-203. And then figure out how to do it without concussing anybody downrange. On second thought, maybe hand-tossed is a better idea than deep dish.

I am thinking of purchasing these lights. Is the shipping facility available?

[Steve]

Uhh, what?

What are you wanting to buy, and where do you want them shipped to? Are you looking for Surefire lights, tape switches, and scope rings, or are you talking about the ones I am fabbing up out of spare bits?

[Steve]

Sadly, not sarcastic. And possibly, after finals, not hypothetical. Not M-203 launched, though. That's painfully stupid for Airsoft. I have a couple of disposable camera husks that I'm thinking about stripping down for the strobe and capacitor. Wire the discharge path to an isolated relay attached to an xbee, set another xbee up on an arduino with a remote line pressure switch, and when you hit the button, the flash goes pop. Maybe have it cycle repeatedly while the button is held down, not sure yet how much effort (if any) will go into building them over the break.

Alternatively, Fry's has some high-intensity LEDs that I keep eye-humping. Since xbees can do PWM, might wire a couple in to the xbee and a battery, and have it go blippy-blippy while the button is pushed. Maybe put a piezo buzzer in there too for asynchronous high-frequency stutter-chirps. Gotta look into Video Game Epilepsy again so I can make sure I am not cycling in the frequency range to leave folks convulsing, 'cause that's significantly uncool.