creative ideas besides holiday or landscaping lighting?

[scubado]

I'm curious if anyone has used their controllers besides holidays and lanscaping? I just bought a 2004 white Dodge Grand Caravan and starting to deck it out with LED's for a stand alone system or tie into my main system. Stand alone mode won't be while driving.

I've thought about getting a large kite and decking it out for night flying, but haven't gotten around to getting the kite. Not very many nights in a year that are favorable to flying. I've done smaller static kites and found that kites won't fly in high humidity, so that eliminates flying in summer.

[Greg Young]

scubado wrote:

Not very many nights in a year that are favorable to flying. I've done smaller static kites and found that kites won't fly in high humidity, so that eliminates flying in summer.

I've done some night flying. I don't find the humidity to be much of an issue, compared to the usually diminished winds after dark....

Greg

[DownTown]

scubado wrote:

I've thought about getting a large kite and decking it out for night flying, but haven't gotten around to getting the kite. Not very many nights in a year that are favorable to flying. I've done smaller static kites and found that kites won't fly in high humidity, so that eliminates flying in summer.

Hey Scub -

I have done a lot of night flying, and a lot of lighted night flying. We usually stick with chemical lights (like Cyalume), or battery operated lights (strobes, leds etc). Running a piece of copper wire up into the sky is really not a good idea. Even on a piece of string in a clear sky, you can build up a static charge of tens of thousands of volts. Copper wire on a kite string is just a plain bad idea.


Check the American Kitefliers Association site (www.aka.kite.org). They may have more information/recommendations on this.

D.T.

[MikeH]

DownTown wrote:

scubado wrote:

I've thought about getting a large kite and decking it out for night flying, but haven't gotten around to getting the kite. Not very many nights in a year that are favorable to flying. I've done smaller static kites and found that kites won't fly in high humidity, so that eliminates flying in summer.

Hey Scub -

I have done a lot of night flying, and a lot of lighted night flying. We usually stick with chemical lights (like Cyalume), or battery operated lights (strobes, leds etc). Running a piece of copper wire up into the sky is really not a good idea. Even on a piece of string in a clear sky, you can build up a static charge of tens of thousands of volts. Copper wire on a kite string is just a plain bad idea.


Check the American Kitefliers Association site (http://www.aka.kite.org). They may have more information/recommendations on this.

D.T.

I bet Thomas Edison would've loved this site. :shock:

MikeH

[Surfing4Dough]

MikeH wrote:

DownTown wrote:

scubado wrote:

I've thought about getting a large kite and decking it out for night flying, but haven't gotten around to getting the kite. Not very many nights in a year that are favorable to flying. I've done smaller static kites and found that kites won't fly in high humidity, so that eliminates flying in summer.

Hey Scub -

I have done a lot of night flying, and a lot of lighted night flying. We usually stick with chemical lights (like Cyalume), or battery operated lights (strobes, leds etc). Running a piece of copper wire up into the sky is really not a good idea. Even on a piece of string in a clear sky, you can build up a static charge of tens of thousands of volts. Copper wire on a kite string is just a plain bad idea.


Check the American Kitefliers Association site (http://www.aka.kite.org). They may have more information/recommendations on this.

D.T.

I bet Thomas Edison would've loved this site. :shock:

MikeH

Bet Ben Franklin would have too! (However, Tom probably would have liked the lights on the kites).

[LightORama Mary]

People have called with many different uses for our products. Here are some of them:

Wedding proposals, Weddings, birthday parties, magic shows, dance competition, and trade shows.

I had a friend go to China last year and she saw kites that light up,

http://www.glow.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=kite&x=16&y=12

Unfortunately they are out of stock and only ship to the UK.

[scubado]

DownTown wrote:

scubado wrote:

I've thought about getting a large kite and decking it out for night flying, but haven't gotten around to getting the kite. Not very many nights in a year that are favorable to flying. I've done smaller static kites and found that kites won't fly in high humidity, so that eliminates flying in summer.

Hey Scub -

I have done a lot of night flying, and a lot of lighted night flying. We usually stick with chemical lights (like Cyalume), or battery operated lights (strobes, leds etc). Running a piece of copper wire up into the sky is really not a good idea. Even on a piece of string in a clear sky, you can build up a static charge of tens of thousands of volts. Copper wire on a kite string is just a plain bad idea.


Check the American Kitefliers Association site (http://www.aka.kite.org). They may have more information/recommendations on this.

D.T.

I don't run a wire up the string, my kites are strong enough to lift batery packs to run the led's. I'd like to get an even bigger kite that can lift a 12v pack and a dc card and really put on a show. :cool:

[DownTown]

scubado wrote:

I don't run a wire up the string, my kites are strong enough to lift batery packs to run the led's. I'd like to get an even bigger kite that can lift a 12v pack and a dc card and really put on a show. :cool:

If you are really interested in upgrading to a larger kite, I have a 200 square foot parafoil kite that I fly on 1/2" rope. Let me know if you're serious.

D.T.

[scubado]

DownTown wrote:

scubado wrote:

I don't run a wire up the string, my kites are strong enough to lift batery packs to run the led's. I'd like to get an even bigger kite that can lift a 12v pack and a dc card and really put on a show. :cool:

If you are really interested in upgrading to a larger kite, I have a 200 square foot parafoil kite that I fly on 1/2" rope. Let me know if you're serious.

D.T.

Jeez, I'm getting to old fly! Parafoils have a lot of lift, but to light one up has a lot of challenges because there's no frame.

This is the kite to get for lighting up: http://www.pictureprettykites.com/single-line-kites/delta/conyne-kites/new-tech-9-39-spectrum-delta-conyne/prod_697.html I've got 5' versions of these and have plenty of lift and a wide variety of lighting options. This 9'+ should have no problem carrying 12v, a dc card and 300 leds.

One of my attention getter kites had no lights on the kite. I had high powered 10mm leds on the end of flex rods sticking out in all directions, each light bounced around independently making it very difficult to figure out what was up there. It stopped a lot of traffic.

Once I pulled off flying 5 kites at the same time, each one had a different color or pattern. I had them tethered around a large school yard. That drew a lot of attention. I'd rather have one large kite and load it with leds and a controller. Putting up 5 kites is a lot of work.

[Dale J]

i think this has morphed into the kite post , any how i always wanted to get one of the winged kites like a parachute airfoil but no one around here has any, DT any videos of the night kite flying?

[Surfing4Dough]

I will try to re-ground this discussion...

One of the favorite non-holiday displays I saw a video of within the past year or 2 (by a member either here on LOR or on PC) was when somebody did an entrance "tunnel" for a high school after-prom party that the kids would walk through as they entered the event hall. It was sequenced to Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling." I tried searching for the video, but can't seem to find it. It was well done.

[doug petschke]

LightORama Mary wrote:

People have called with many different uses for our products. Here are some of them:

Wedding proposals, Weddings, birthday parties, magic shows, dance competition, and trade shows.

I had a friend go to China last year and she saw kites that light up,

http://www.glow.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=kite&x=16&y=12

Unfortunately they are out of stock and only ship to the UK.

cool stuff there wonder how to do the money conversion?

[Dale J]

LightORama Mary wrote:

People have called with many different uses for our products. Here are some of them:

Wedding proposals, Weddings, birthday parties, magic shows, dance competition, and trade shows.

I had a friend go to China last year and she saw kites that light up,

http://www.glow.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=kite&x=16&y=12

Unfortunately they are out of stock and only ship to the UK.

Ya i was on the site also lots of cool stuff, but it sounds like they only ship to the UK

[Greg Young]

Go with a small (8 or 10 foot) helium balloon. It can hoist up quite a package, and it stays up, regardless of the wind. They are not very expensive (the helium is the biggest operational cost).

I did that for a ATV transmitter, that broadcast live audio/visual feeds from a county fair. It was tethered about 100 ft up.

It only is an issue when it gets too windy. That's when you could switch to a parafoil/similar!

Greg

[DownTown]

Dale J wrote:

i think this has morphed into the kite post , any how i always wanted to get one of the winged kites like a parachute airfoil but no one around here has any, DT any videos of the night kite flying?

Sorry Dale - Haven't been night flying in a lot of years, and don't have any video of it. But another really cool effect that I created was to attach different colored cyalume light sticks down the lenght of a huge5' diameter, 45' long spinsock. You should have seen that thing spinning up in the night sky! :shock: Unfortunately the kite that lifts it is a Flowform 252, that is bright yellow and orange...clearly visible in the dark sky If it had been a dark blue kite you'd have never seen it, and only the spinning lights would have been visable...

D.T.

[scubado]

DownTown wrote:

Dale J wrote:

i think this has morphed into the kite post , any how i always wanted to get one of the winged kites like a parachute airfoil but no one around here has any, DT any videos of the night kite flying?

Sorry Dale - Haven't been night flying in a lot of years, and don't have any video of it. But another really cool effect that I created was to attach different colored cyalume light sticks down the lenght of a huge5' diameter, 45' long spinsock. You should have seen that thing spinning up in the night sky! :shock: Unfortunately the kite that lifts it is a Flowform 252, that is bright yellow and orange...clearly visible in the dark sky If it had been a dark blue kite you'd have never seen it, and only the spinning lights would have been visable...

D.T.

I would have loved to have seen that spinner

I'd love to do more flying, but windy nights are rare around here and more favorable in winter. But then it's cold and if there's several inches of snow on the ground, it really wears you out running around getting the kites up.

I have my heads lights on my van modified now. Tonight I have to do some testing with my high powered led rgb flood lights on the house and tomorrow try them out on the van and hook up to a controller.

[Dale J]

Thanks for the info DT and yes i bet that spinner look great, Jim you will have to give us a look at your rgb's when you get them going

[scubado]

I have some of the new lights installed, but want to put the project on hold. It's convenient to work indoors at my friends garage, but I'd rather wait for some slightly warmer weather and work outside. It's more fun watching the scenery go by

[testraub]

Please see my Vehicle here http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/view_topic.php?id=22952&forum_id=80&highlight=testraub It's STATIC going down the road, but plugged into the home display when parked.

Attached files