Shoot out the Street Light

[Richard Hamilton]

Jeffrey wrote:

Not to sound like a worrywart or anything but I'd be a bit leary disabling a safety device that your city/town/municipality has placed for public safety. I could not even imagine what would happen if there were an accident, robbery, or whatever and it came to light that you somehow disabled the light right where the incident occurred. If I were doing something like that, I definitely would not let it be known to my neighbors(or anyone else for that matter). Just be careful.

Yes, yes, I know what you mean. I think in most circumstances there could be a problem. Our case is unique. We are at the end of a cul-de-sac (closed area) with only 3 houses. We all 3 do the syncronized lights and hate the street light being on during the presentation. We are talking about turning it off during the presentation. We have already talked to the city about it. They don't raise any concern in this case. If I lived in another area in different circumstances, I'd be very concerned, but not here.

[Richard Hamilton]

Denny wrote:

A quick and dirty Google search, brought this up regarding lasers: http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/AIR/air2901.html

http://www.hf.faa.gov/docs/508/docs/cami/0107.pdf

http://www.pangolin.com/resguide09c.htm#can_laser_pointer_harm_or_distract

Don't know if there are any other regulations about it. I know Arizona state law has a lot of restrictions in addition to the Federal Regulations.

Yup, I've seen all that. It doesn't apply to the type of things I'm talking about here.

[Richard Hamilton]

Great Post Steven, (as usual).

That's a really funny posting. I can just visualize you guys out there now.

The level laser was what I first thought of and I experimented last night. It worked well on the light. One of my neighbors (a former VP of PG&E) thought it was a cute solution. By the way, he also participates in our display.

I've been looking for a solution that is under 5 mW just to be on the safe side of things. Actually, a 3 mW handheld pointer seems to do the trick. The only reason I was not leaning toward hadheld pointer is because of the batteries and not being able to turn it on/off easily. I would probably have to wire it up to a 6-volt dc supply that I plug into an LOR channel to control it.

Glad to know you are still able to do this. Some people get too carried away with fear that the world might end if one street light goes out. I figure that if it is ok with my city inspector, then I'm ok with it.

[Brian Mitchell]

Who was it that made a short film about just this subject? Was it Logan?

[Tim Fischer]

Brian Mitchell wrote:

Who was it that made a short film about just this subject? Was it Logan?

I just HAD to go searching for it since I remembered it too. Yep, it was Logan. Here's a link:

http://www.christmasdisplays.net/videos/streetlightsniper.wmv

And here's the thread discussing it: http://forums.planetchristmas.com/archive/index.php?t-3694.html

-Tim

[Richard Hamilton]

Tim Fischer wrote:

Brian Mitchell wrote:

Who was it that made a short film about just this subject? Was it Logan?

I just HAD to go searching for it since I remembered it too. Yep, it was Logan. Here's a link:

http://www.christmasdisplays.net/videos/streetlightsniper.wmv

And here's the thread discussing it: http://forums.planetchristmas.com/archive/index.php?t-3694.html

-Tim

Well that was hilarious, but gee, I am glad this guy is not my neighbor :-)

[logan_moore]

Oh but Richard why don't you want to be my neighbor?

[Richard Hamilton]

logan_moore wrote:

Oh but Richard why don't you want to be my neighbor?

Ha! Your house display would make my house look like a candle!

[logan_moore]

Well that was actually about 3 years ago, It has grown since then but don't be jealous. I am actually jealous of smaller displays now because It grew so much that traffic became a really big problem and resulted in me moving it last year and I'm not planning on doing one this year unless something crazy happens.

[garyfunk]

Paul Mesaros wrote:

Here is somethig to consider. My streetlight is about 22ft. high. We started with 1/2" pvc coupled together, at the top end using a couple of 45's and short pieces of pvc to form a C type top to go around the light flange. We then made up 1 C-7 clear bulb in the end with cord runing through the pvc (make it long enough to reach a outlet NOT being used for your show). We then used 3ft. wire ties to strap this to the lightpole.Use a cheap timer at your outlet . My show starts at 6:00 (C-7 comes on and turns off streetlight. ends at 10:00 , (C-7goes off turns on streetlight.) It works great, I know of a few displays that use this set-up. I'm not to good at explaining but I hope you get the idea, hope this helps. Paul

Now that's a great idea.

[Richard Hamilton]

garyfunk wrote:

Paul Mesaros wrote:

Here is somethig to consider. My streetlight is about 22ft. high. We started with 1/2" pvc coupled together, at the top end using a couple of 45's and short pieces of pvc to form a C type top to go around the light flange. We then made up 1 C-7 clear bulb in the end with cord runing through the pvc (make it long enough to reach a outlet NOT being used for your show). We then used 3ft. wire ties to strap this to the lightpole.Use a cheap timer at your outlet . My show starts at 6:00 (C-7 comes on and turns off streetlight. ends at 10:00 , (C-7goes off turns on streetlight.) It works great, I know of a few displays that use this set-up. I'm not to good at explaining but I hope you get the idea, hope this helps. Paul

Now that's a great idea.

Interesting! I don't know how I missed this posting. My laser idea is not working so well because the laser is too weak (don't want to use stronger one), and I don't have a good enough angle to shine down into the light sensor. Your idea sounds inexpensive and possible to put in place without using a cherrypicker. I think I will give this a try if I have some time, and if it works, I will probably paint the pipe black so it won't be such an eye sore.