Seek mains strobe to give warning flashes [ot]

In message , Homer J Simpson writes

Radio shack ?

We have cheap tat in the UK, but not that bad

Septic -> Brit translation - Maplins

ISTR Tandy being easier to find.

In message , Homer J Simpson writes

I thought that Tandy (being radioshack UK ) ceased to exist years ago

if not, why not and ... where are they ?

Bought out by Carphone Warehouse AFAIK. One of our local branches is still in the old Tandy premises. According to the manager, CPW did have a plan to use the Tandy brand name and he did tell me what it was but it was so earth-shatteringly exciting that I've completely forgotten what he said! ;-)

David

"David Lee" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@eclipse.net.uk...

In Canada, Intertan became "The Source" by Circuit City. In Australia, Dick Smith bought them out.

Now Radio Shack is trying to move back into Canada and compete with its old self.

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As I am the OP, I would say that you are right: a neon is not likely to be able to cut it. Nor is a flashing LED.

However I have heard of LED strobes with about 20 or so LEDs but I am not sure what their light output is. However I can't easily imagine the LED strobe puts out any more than a small fraction of the xenon strobe.

What about relaxing the startup requirement - plugging it in somewhere else, and using the connection simply for a trigger?

The message from Ian Stirling contains these words:

Or use the mains pulse to ignite a small pyrotechnic device?

A flare should be bright enough ...

I think I would agree with the consensus of the opinions here that the requirement is almost unique and hence is unlikely to be met by something off the shelf.

One thing that has surprised me is that none of the suggestions have looked at powering the strobe from it's own power source and using the mains power pulse as just a trigger. The battery driven remote photographic flashes come to mind - at around =A310 a time these look like a good starting point.

How to trigger - this may well be where the rub comes in because I suspect a bit of electronic modification would be required, either to do some sort of direct coupling or to adjust their sensitivity such that they would fire with the flash from an ordinary bulb. Perhaps someone could explore this idea further.

Rob

Or my old chemistry master ...

One of the rotating lamps (like you get on top of commercial vehicles) might do you.

Or have a word with the RNID